L.A. Knights

The sound of gunfire, the flash of a muzzle- these things were becoming familiar to Diana, as she sprinted past most of it, deflected some with her blade, and allowing others to simply hit her, the impact terribly painful as glancing blows cut through her. The pain and the wounds went away though, when her katana tasted blood, flesh and bone, as she cleaves a cartel thug in twain, the large sword acting like a portable guillotine, sending bodies and weapons flying.

She’d been fighting since before sundown, and the warehouse had already gone dark. She left a long trail of dead bodies in her wake, painting the warehouse walls, floor and shelves crimson. Flashlights shone on the latest place where the last cartel thug screamed in terror and death, revealing a shadowy demon with glowing red eyes, in the guise of a masked, teenaged school girl with a katana. Assault rifled Bullets ripped through crates, boxes, drums and dead bodies, but none seemed capable of slowing down this girl possessed of a killing determination to cut down every cartel enforcer she could reach. Those outside of it thinking to flee, would find a throwing dagger lodged in their backs.

As bullets Diana looked around and wondered when it would end; it was ending soon, as the entrance to the warehouse opened once more, and four metahuman mercenaries – shark people – came in with heavy machine guns in both arms.

“Get her!” They shouted, heavy rounds flying, but as always, Diana quickly sprints behind cover, and closes the gap, flinging daggers precisely aimed to disable the loading mechanisms on their guns. Landing amidst these metahuman pretenders, Diana becomes a dervish of steel...

Outside, more vehicles were arriving at the scene, disgorging more heavily armed cartel thugs, as well as mercenary metahumans. A hit had been called out for the vigilante responsible for hitting Cartel operations, and throngs of ambitious, greedy criminals as well as more professional mercenaries heed the call, some charging in with guns blazing, while others stay outside and keep watch on the situation.

When Shael was not busy messing around with his school friends, or feeling whimsical, the feral male chose to take a rather young form. While it was both young and diminutive, something about his twelve year old form was comfortable to him, especially when he was prowling around. His twin sister Fera had informed the male that he should not wander too far off from their apartment, and all he could do was nod begrudgingly before wandering off in his usually clothing; which was comprised of simple cam colored pants, a black t-shirt with a skull adorning it and a bandana worn around his head, keeping some of the dark brown hair up. As soon as he stepped outside, his cellphone vibrated and it was a text from Jordan, a friend that he knew from school.

By now he knew that the male was an ethereal, but nothing really changed, and instead he found himself getting along more with the male, as he seemed to be able to speak more openly. Shael could complain about how he wanted his parents to love each other, and Jordan would brag about his mothers. Not that Shael really minded, he kind of liked how the two ethereal women seemed to complement each other, and just wished his parents were the same. Slowly texting the male, something hit the wild child’s senses, causing his head to jerk to where that scent was coming from. It seemed that someone had drawn blood, and a large amount of it. A strange expression stretched across his face as he slowly walked in that direction, something about it just catching his attention.

Maybe it would be one of those metahuman gangs that ran around the city, one that he and Fera occasionally stole money from. Ducking into an alleyway, Shael shifted into the form of a crow, cawing lightly before it took flight towards the strange source of the scents, flying at a speed that most birds of his species could not reach before coming upon the scene. Looking over the warehouse, he took note of the female slicing through people with insane ease, and something about her blade made him feel uneasy. Humans seemed to be attacking this female and he had no real reason to stay out of it nor join, yet Shael was feeling whimsical, so he jumped in. Shifting into what looked like a wolf cub, he swiftly lunged at one of the thugs throats, tearing it out as bullets pelted his tough hide, only aggravating the male.

In his mind he was protecting the girl, which Fera sometimes harped as being a good thing.

Shael would find the flesh of these final mercenaries unusually tough, the wolf pup able to pierce but their throat muscles tensed and took a bit more effort before it gave. There was a foul, acidic and chemical taste in the mercenary’s blood, as his veins glowed with unnatural vitality. The Metadrug coursed through his body, a drug that was endemic among hardcore american gangs and mercenaries who had to deal with metahumans. Strength, speed, durability and reflexes were all enhanced, making each one an actual obstacle to the unprepared.

The drugged up mercenary used his heavy machine gun to shove Shael away, tearing out strips of his throat in the process. The man was still standing despite losing most of his neck and bleeding out. His eyes bulged and he cackled with a blood frenzy as he was going to shoot, but two throwing daggers found their way into his eyesockets, rendering the world forevermore dark. “Aaargh! My eyes!” He fires wildly, the large calibre round going everywhere, exploding into the arm of one of his companions and grazing Diana’s shoulder. Only then did he finally fall, dying where he stood.

Diana was more methodical with these enemies, noting that shallow cuts did not faze them at all; they punched, kicked and rifle butted when she was in range, and she decided to simply remove their weapons first, slicing apart the gun’s at the breech, fingers lobbed off as a bonus. “A doggy is helping me?” She said, noticing the lupine creature aiding her. She was glad; she had been fighting without pause, and her energy levels were fading. The battle was nearly over at least, with her enemies losing limbs without so much a flinch.

The last mercenary, an overly bulky and muscular mexican, swung at Diana, and she ducked and swung low, lobbing off one his thick legs below the knee, but the man fought dirty and grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her down. Diana hit the concrete floor with a loud crunch, but not before driving her katana through his remaining knee. Diana stopped moving right then.

“Fucking kid... think you’re... so tough! Yeah... that’s right... it only took one hit...” The merc said, gasping and sweaty, when he realized that the hostile dog was still there. He quickly crawled after his machine gun in a desperate bid to survive this unwelcome addition to the battle.

Powerful fangs were able to break skin, but unlike what he was expecting, the throat did not end up torn and in his mouth. Instead, he only found himself with the small taste of blood that maddened his animalistic nature, enough to put him into a killing frenzy, or something along those lines. Even with the weapons that the metahumans had, they seemed nowhere effective enough to really stop the male, in fact they only aggravated him further as he slowly back away from the one he had attacked. Even with the bits of flesh torn from his throat, he did not back down but seemed to laugh loudly, aiming his weapon once again at the pup; only to find his eyes damaged by knives that were expertly thrown into them. The taste of his blood was fresh upon his tongue, though the taste itself caused him to cringe, as if something coursing through it was rather…horrid.

Crazily he fired the gun off everywhere, the loss of his sight only seeming to make him manic. Taking down one of his allies, the male then promptly seemed to die, one of his bullets slamming into Shael, and only drawing an annoyed growl from him. The wolf cub trotted backwards, trailing around Diana and catching the scent of her blood fresh within the air. It seemed that the hail of bullets from before had managed to damage her, which meant that she would likely only get in the way the further that this fight went. Then the female fived into combat once again, slicing apart the weapons that the men wielded with her blade, even taking off fingers if they got in the way. Something about easily the woman seemed to be doing these things interested the male, something about the strong woman interesting him.

It reminded him somewhat of his sister, or at least the way that she wasn’t playing around with them. In the end there was only one of them left, which was a Hispanic male that looked rather strong, trying to take the girl down with one swing but in the end he did so after taking some rather nasty damage. Rushing full speed towards him, Shael would slam himself into the males stomach with his full strength, hoping to catch him off guard.

With a loud thud and crunching sound, the man was sent hurtling into a crate, his bones cracking under the overdeveloped muscles of his body. "Stupid dog... This ain't none of your business...AAaahhH!" He said, before the drug's effects combined with the damage he'd taken took a toll on his body. The drugs affected muscles by overcharging them, but the human skeleton could only take so much strain. The sound of many bones snapping like twigs was a macabre sound to hear.

Diana rolled over where she lay, disoriented and injured, but alive. Her blade was already hard at work, drawing all of the blood spilled in the warehouse to itself, enabling it to heal Diana. She slowly tried to get up, but her forehead was still bleeding majorly, as she tried to call out for 'Lassie' in her confusion.

Shael could hear it upon impact, the sound of bones crushing under the force that he had exerted upon the male body that he slammed against. There was not much of a fight after that point, as if the male just spontaneously found himself being broken by his own body. Upon noticing that the male was down for the count, Shael slowly back away, growling at the downed metahumans with narrowed eyes. Then came walking to the injured woman, a rather curious look painted upon its canine face, slowly shifting. His fure would began to change into the clothing that he was wearing before, and the tan skin would form from the light brown fur. From wolf cub he became a young looking human, around twelve in age with bright onyx colored eyes. ”You gonna be okay?” He asked with the usual innocent sounding tone, kneeling down to look at the rather damage female.

Diana helps herself up with her katana, her wounds knitting themselves closed so fast that it was a pain in itself to the swordswoman. Blood Drinker remained rooted in the ground firmly, unwilling to budge as it drank up the spilled blood in the warehouse greedily. The dark crimson fluid was pulled towards the blade, and it all pooled around the sword, a large puddle that flowed around the bodies. It fed with a palpable glee, the very metal seemingly absorbing the blood and going somewhere; a gusto that could only be found in the most gluttonous beings.  

Diana looked at her helper as he turned into a human from a wolf. She was surprised that her rescuer was so young."Thanks alot for the help. Wait... you're just a kid..." Diana said, but realizing what she was saying. "Then again, I'm just a teenager. What's... your name? I'm... Diana... " She offered a hand to shake, even the blood on her clothes disappearing.

The blood from those that he and the female had killed seemed to be pooling, coming towards one place and Shael swore he could hear something slurping it up greedily. The young ethereal looked to the blood rather curiously, wondering how a blade could devour blood but then quickly returned his attention to the seemingly wounded female. ”I am a kid.” Shael said with a toothy smirk, not really seeing the problem with a kid attacking armed thugs, hands burying themselves deeply in his pockets. ’I’m Shael.” He answered the question about his name simply enough, sniffing the air as if catching the scent of something before turning his attention back to Diana. ”So, is your sword some kinda magical sword?”

"Why yes, yes it is a magical weapon. And right now it's...  busy." Diana said, trying to take out the sword from the ground, to no avail. So much blood was littered on the ground, and Blood Drinker wanted nothing more than to fulfill its namesake. Diana was recovered now, only a very few scratches on her.  

"Thanks again for helping me by the way... but I think you shouldn't have. Now the Cartel is going to be looking for you too."She added.


"Indeed they will, children. My, so dark in here. Don't they even bother to turn on the lights?" The warehouse's bright white lights came on, revealing the full extent of the carnage of Diana's hours long rampage. Dozens upon dozens of men were simply dismembered or cut apart, blood painting most of the crates, shelves, drums, barrels and other warehouse items. It was an impressive body count, likely disturbing for the unaccustomed. Diana saw it and was rendered silent for a moment.

The voice, English with a german accent, came from the entrance of the warehouse. The doors were barred, and three figures had come in, and they were most definitely unlike these metadrug gangbangers and mercenaries.

"I must say you put on quite the show. You don't even seem to be tired. But I'm afraid it will end here." The speaker was a tall juggernaut of a man clad in black armor and cream white robes, his hood covering his helmed face. He carrying a massive Axe-halberd; a formidable polearm. His companions were no less medival in their attire, the medium built man at the door wearing chainmail and carrying a high tech scoped crossbow. He made for the warehouse catwalks, climbing up to have the high ground.

Their third companion was a pretty robed nun, her arms exposed, her figure lithe; a head and a half shorter than the sevven foot tall juggernaut. She carried a spear, a sheathed short sword and a round shield, like a Greek Hoplite. She had blonde hair tied into a single braid behind her head. She stood by the big man's side.

Diana looked at the black knights and felt slightly intimidated. She tries to pull out Blood Drinker, but it was too busy gorging on blood to be bothered. She settled for one of her backup weapons, the Mirrror swords. "You wanna try and fight me too? Why don't you just put down your weapons and walk away!" She said, in a most threatening manner.

The Knight raised his face plate to reveal an aging, battle scarred man of European descent. "Let us not be uncivilized child. Such a skilled warrior deserves recognition before honorable battle is engaged." The lead knight said. He courteously bows. "I am Sir Desmond Morgaine Gerevich, Order of the Black Knights of Eastern Europe. This lady is my daughter Sophia Alexandra Gerevich, and the lad is my boy, William. We declare our intent to capture or slay thee, thus  I would ask to know your name, your mentor's..." the lead man's gaze fell upon Shael. "And of your squire."

"Sorry Hitler, but I don't like you. You're just another dirty mercenary after the Cartel's bounty... and soon enough you'll just be another corpse." Diana spat at the knight's feet, who looked at Diana with disappointment.

"Hitler? You would resort to such a cheap racial insult? I would have you know I am Austrian! Ah, children these days, so lacking manners, so full of bluster. What of you, lycan? You come to this young girl's aid, but it does not seem you know her. You may walk away if you wish, you are not our bounty... but if you stay, I understand." Sir Desmond asked Shael directly, the man seeing him eye to eye.

The female saying something about him having not helped her confused the animalistic shape shifter slightly, head cocking to the side as he considered what she said for a second. Then his attention snapped to the blade that was greedily drinking up the blood, as if the very sight of it mesmerized him, onyx eyes widening slightly. Something told him that his daddy would find it interesting, if he were not so busy closing himself away within his room, shutting his family out it would seem. As he watched the blade, his right hands softly massaged his left arm, where some of the bullets had slammed into him and caused a small amount of discomfort. He would have simply left the scene, if someone had not come onto the scene at any rate. Three strange humans that caught the interest of Shael, especially the one that was speaking rather weird. ’Lycan? I dunno what that means, but I don’t like the way you people smell.”

"He's a cute one father. Can we keep him?" Sophia asked, the young lady taking an interest in the shape shifter.

"Hmph. It is clear that these two are in need of a lesson in courtesy. Very well, to battle! Come children, let us see what you are truly capable of!" Sir Desmond lowers his face plate, and Diana foolishly rushes towards them head on. Much to her surprise the Knights proved capable of keeping pace, and Sophia moves in to defend her father with her shield and spear, negating Diana's arrogant attack with a stalwart defense and the reach of a spear. Her shield glowed with energy as Diana's magical blade struck it, leaving hardly a scratch.

Sophia advanced forward and used her shield to further occupy her opponent, the basic defense of a large round shield negating Diana's skill. Desmond moved forward as well and brought down his mighty axe, delivering such force as to shatter the ground; Diana evaded, but soon received a lesson in the versatility of the polearm that she was swept aside by a swift horizontal shaft thrust, sending her sprawling into a pile of crates. Needless to say she was dumbstruck by their efficiency.

"Foolish girl. They are not the same as the cattle you slaughtered! They are trained warriors! use what I taught you." The Ancient Spirit chided Diana's ineptness like a coach his athlete, while goading her to move as Desmond was already closing in. A single swipe of his polearm swept away all the crates, Diana just barely leaping out of the way, put on the defense against a spear and a halberd being thrust like a pike.

"Your mystic blades no longer so useful are they, girl, when you cannot reach your opponents' flesh?!" Desmond taunted Diana, pushing her buttons, making her unable to fight as effectively.

Shael did not go ignored, as the crossbowman above launched an electrified high strength net-bolas at him, hoping to catch him in a single shot.

It seemed that these humans were far superior to the woman that was wielding the blade, though it might have been simply that their weapons offered them an advantage over her. Shael however had his own problems to deal with as one of them launched something his way, though he had little time to react as his body shifted into another form that would prove effective. Within an instant he was a swift hummingbird that flitted out of the way of what was aimed for him, quickly maneuvering towards the one that had launched the net at him in the first place. Within nearly an instant he was next to the target, quickly shifting into his humanoid form, save for an arm that became a large black furred arm and the fast flapping wings on his back. In an instant the powerful arm slammed towards the warrior.

Diana could only remain on the defensive, parrying swift spear and halberd thrusts with her blade. Their tactic frustrated her to no end, as Diana frequently got cornered, the swift spear landing a small cut every few attacks.

"...The Black Knights have over a thousand years of battle wisdom to draw upon. A glory seeking sword wielder is naught but a textbook foe."

"Shut up!" Diana screamed, finding her back to a wall once more. Desmond swung his mighty axe in a power attack, carving through the concrete wall as Diana had evaded and leaps up, then springing off from the wall. She rained daggers on her foes, but Sophia's shield immediately intercepted them.

A spear thrust lashed out where the lady knight expected Diana to be. Instead, Diana lands on the shaft itself. With a swift motion, Diana cuts the spear at mid shaft, the mundane weapon neutralized. Sophia drops it and draws a short sword, facing off against Diana who had escaped her corner.

"Such skill, such determination! You would make a fine Knight." Desmond said, genuine admiration at his quarry's abilities.

"Pay attention, Lancelot." Diana looked at where Desmond buried his weapon.

"What's this...?" Desmond looked at the wall he carved through. A second Diana had appeared, and attacked before the big man could retrieve his axe.

The Diana simulacrum slips a Mirror Sword in the gap of of Desmond's massive pauldrons, pinning him to a large container, then uses his cloak against him, to wrap his vision and hands. "Clever child." He muttered, not even a slight grunt of pain at having a sword inserted into his shoulder. The large knight struggles to escape from his bonds- as Diana surmised, even Desmond's cloak was of high quality, and tearing through it required effort.

"A hoplite is strong from the front... but prey from the rear." Diana said, speaking with the Ancient Warrior's experience. Sophia stood her ground, intimidated; she had been flanked, two Dianas menacingly standing to both sides.

William remained cool as Shael evaded his net, moving at a speed that negated a reload. He stood his ground firmly, sacrificing his crossbow to parry the strong blow. He stood his place because he had an electrified gauntlet plugged into the warehouse's power supply- he had only one chance to incapacitate the shapeshifter with his electro-gauntlet (abi 7), needing only to land a touch to deliver the surge. The power gauntlet caused the lights of the warehouse to blow out, and causing the place's circuit breakers to trip.

Shael had slammed the powerful fist into the male, but something happened that he did not expect. A burst if pain coursed through his body, drawing a pained growl from the shape shifter as his arm instantly reverted to a normal form ad he pushed himself back, body twitching spasmodically. Within that instant the lights would shatter all around, causing the warehouse to become bathed within darkness. Shael slammed into one of the beams hard, his back screaming in protest as he groaned weakly to himself, pulling to his feet, and then balancing precariously upon the now ruined metallic beam. Even within this rather low light situation, his enhanced senses would afford him an advantage that the humans did not have, he would know what they were doing by using his senses. Sharp claws grew from his fingers, ones that could tear through most materials with ease and perhaps ones that could tear through his humans flesh with an equal ease. With a burst of speed he was in motion, aiming to simply tear down his vantage point with superior strength, until he would be sent plummeting to the ground.

The interior of William's helm lit up just as Shael renewed his attack, and he had pulled out a long knife that crackled with energy. He used it intending to parry Shael's claws in the dark, and used the momentum of his own attack to toss him aside; not much more he could do as the claws leave marks on his weapon and armor.

Desmond eventually frees himself of his own reinforced cloak, and grips the scimitar tightly to pull it out. He lets out a sharp grunt of pain as the metal comes free and his shoulder bleeds. He tosses it aside, to see that Diana had subdued Sophia; relieving her of shield and sword, holding her captive with a blade to her throat. His helm lit up as well to allow him to see in the dark.

"Hold! I... I yield. You have bested us both. You are most formidable foe. William! Stand down." Desmond seemed to have lost his will to fight when he saw his daughter struggle, but Diana had her in an effective hold. Diana gasped from her own weariness, gripping her sword very tightly, shaking.

William too, upon hearing his father's order, raised his hands in surrender, dropping the combat knife to his feet. He looked at Shael wordlessly.