The Grey Assassin

An explosion ripped through central park, tearing up clumps of filthy mud, which, several years ago, were immaculately mown turf. Doctor Necrodium's ship had crashed from it's position like a dark halo above new york city. Upon impact, the rift generator which powered the immense ship had exploded, tearing through the mud, and creating a giant crater. Dust filled the air, creating a mist storm. In the center of it, there was a small blue flash. Around the rim of the crater, five armoured masked figures raised their rifles, each one loaded with depleted rounds.
A figure dressed in burned grey torn, blood-smeared rags stumbled through the dust, and he fell to the floor gasping for breath. Beside him a large scythe clattered to the ground.
"What are you?" asked one of the soldiers.
The figure rolled over onto its back, revealing its face. Beneath a grey hood, a face, there a lighter shade of grey and the eyes. The eyes were as black as the void, but within within them, a blood red pupil within them, a blood red pupil. "where the fuck am I?"
"Hit the deck" yelled the soldier
"now you, you're ladyship, should not call me a dick" he said, pointing one finger drunkardly, as he picked up his scythe with the other hand.
"I said HIT THE DECK or I will shoot you"
"well this is certainly one of my more interesting hallucinations." said the figure, kicking a clump of dirt towards one of the soldiers, who followed it's arc with his rifle "Nice post apocalyptic wasteland though. Someone obviously put a lot of effort into sculpting those craters. But usually my hallucinations do a lot more singing and dancing, so either get to jigging, or fuck off"
"you're coming with us" said another soldier, a female this time.
"no i bloody well am not" said the figure as he blinked to the other side of the park, and then to a rooftop, and into the dead city of new york. He climbed through a window to find the corpse of a teenager, hooded, sloped up against the wall, his throat cut. In each ear was an earbud, linked up to a small mp3 player, still playing the playlist he had in when his throat had been cut in the battle of new york. The grey man picked up the device by the earbuds, ripping a small section of the man's ears along with it. He pressed a button on the side, and music began to blare out. "what is this magic orchestra box?" said the grey man, pocketing the device, and went into the ruins of one of the greatest cities the world had ever seen...
In the weeks after the battle, clean up crews of Dominus soldiers told stories of a grey monster, swinging a side and cleaving it through bodies like a hot knife through butter. Most people assumed this to be tall tales, or the monster to be one of the remnants of Necrodium's army. When the cleanly decapitated heads of soldiers and members of Necrodium's legion began turning up on the steps of the buildings Dominus were using as temporary bases in the cleanup of the city, not many people thought anything of it. New york was a violent place, and death covered the place like a blanket.
However things got weird when on a drizzly thursday morning, someone arranged forty-two severed heads into the shape of a giant smiley face on the lawns of northern central park. Security camera footage showed a figure in grey wielding an immense scythe placing the heads there, and occasionally, kicking one into position and celebrating. After this incident, a small task force was designated to combat this grey man. This taskforce, with the catchy codename 'X-L45' was equipped with tranquilisers to capture the 'grey man'.
Things came to a head however, on a dark night, in a street just off battery park, about five months after the battle. The Grey Assassin was picking his way through the rubble, trying to find more information as to this world. He had found a book several days earlier, and discovered quite a bit about this world's history. But he still felt like a tourist. He hefted a large concrete slab off of a path way and...
"Good evening Grey" said a voice from behind him. Grey whipped his head around, and said "do i know you?"
The man was dressed in impeccable black funeral attire, and has a sunkern, pale face.
"well I seem to know you" replied the man, sitting down on a bollard.
"where do i know you from?" demanded Grey
"You're famous my friend. You're the man who decided between right and wrong. You walk through the valley of death, and you think that fear no evil." replied the man, leaning on a thin ebony cane with a white top.
"and who are you?" asked Grey, bile in his voice.
"I'm a businessman of sorts. A very particular business indeed."
"what is your name!" demanded Grey
"its the darndest thing, i can't seem to remember" said the man, rubbing the top of his cane, which now Grey looked, was a bleached bone skull
"tell me your fucking name and where you know me from!"
"well, well now, no need for that kind of language. i know you from where you came from, i know you from Manhattan. I know you from Osai. I know you from all over. Everywhere you've spilled blood, i've been there, watching"
"tell me your name or i won't be held responsible for what i do next." replied Grey, stamping his foot like an angry child.
"oh but you will. You will my friend. Everyone is responsible in the end. See you around, Assassin" and he began to wander away, down the street into the rubble of new york city.
"damn you!" shouted the assassin, unsheathing his scythe
"Indeed. Many have" he said, as he swung the cane under his arm.
"Tell me who you are" said Grey, Teeth gritten.
"I don't seem to recall. But i can tell you what you must do." the man's voice echoed around the deserted ruins "you are in this world now. You have been sleeping for far too long. You must wake up, Mr Grey, Wake up and smell the ashes." replied the man, and disappeared from sight...
Grey ran after him, but behind him, a squadron of seven soldiers rounded a corner, and took aim at him.
"L45 is in sight" barked one of the soldiers. Grey recognised the voice from when he first came to this world, from the crater "Permission to engage?"
"oh of course, engage away, my dear" said Grey in a high falsetto voice, before dropping to his normal voice "what is it they say? Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough?"
There was the sound of seven rifles being cocked.
"well lets get this show on the road" said Grey, and he was gone with a fizzle of blue. The soldiers quickly scrambled into a defensive position, covering all areas, but they were too late, Grey was already behind one of them, pulling the blade of his scythe through the gap between the man's carbon fibre Gorget and his helmet. Before the other soldiers had turned, Grey had blinked to the other side of the circle, and as the man's head fell to the floor with a metallic thud, spraying blood as his pressurised veins burst, spraying the backs of the soldiers with thick red blood, and Grey punched another figure, shattering the figure's visor, sending shards of glass into the soldier's eyes. By the time the soldiers had gathered their senses, Grey was sat on a wall, flicking stones at them. They all trained their shaking guns on him.
"you wouldn't dare shoot me" said Grey, as they sighted their rifles on him, and pulled the trigger
"Oww you fuckwits, you shot me" said Grey, as he fell to the ground, and his eyesight went black.
WHAM! Grey's head jerked back with a powerful punch to the forehead. He had a coppery taste in his mouth, his lip must be breathing. Through a swollen eye he stared at the metahuman sitting opposite him. The man, who he believed was named Chromosome, motioned for the heavy Dominus soldier to stop beating him. He had been interrogated since he had arrived at the prison about four months ago. The lighting above him was so intentionally bright so it was impossible to tell where the floor met the walls, and it hurt Grey's eyes, and made his photosensitive skin tingle unpleasantly, hot needles.
"where did you come from?" asked Chromosome, who was dressed in immaculate black and had long black hair.
"well, its the funniest thing. I don't know" said Grey through swollen lips. He tried to lunge forward, but the cuffs around his wrists prevented him.
"you could help us. Help eradicate the meta-human threat. Together we can stop evil and make the world a better place."
Grey took a moment to contemplate the offer, but it was a simple decision - there was only one important person. Himself. With the limited movement available, Grey twisted his hand and threw an obscene gesture and a charming smile.
The look of fury on the man's face was worth the punch across the face from the soldier. Chromosome dismissed the soldier. Now the hurt was coming.
"you'd like to kill me right now wouldn't you?"
"yeah, and when i get out of here, i will"
"you can't escape. Because of that" the man tapped the light on Grey's wrist bindings. It contained a bacterial culture which created raw power nullifying power, but Grey didn't know this " Because of that you are just a feeble weakling."
The intercom system crackled, and a guitar riff spluttered through the speaker mounted behind a perforated glass sheet mounted in the interview room. The man sitting opposite Grey pulled a coms device from his belt, and yelled into it "what the hell is that?", and as a drum beat started, a shaking techie spluttered "i don't know. Its on every coms frequency we have."
The creature sat across from him began tapping out the rhythm with his grey fingers, as the lyrics began "....hey, hey, i'm your life, i'm the one who takes you there"
"maybe someone got into your coms system" said Grey.
The man opened his mouth to respond - then realised it wasn't a question. He looked at Grey with suspicion.
"what have you done?" the man composed himself "you couldn't have done anything, because of the belt."
Grey flickered, and suddenly his hands were free. The belt clattered to table. He had shunted out of this dimension, moving his hands before phasing back into reality. From inside his robes, he pulled a battered coms unit, and attached to it, an mp3 player, and slapped it on the table. It was playing "Sad But True".
"thats impossible." gasped the man "that thing nullifies all known powers"
"so you restrain a creature from another universe, and assume this works?"
"I.."
Grey moved incredibly fast and smacked the man's head into the table, so hard it dented the metal. He groaned, and lightning crackled in his hands
"i don't think so"snarled Grey, and looped the nullifying belt around the man's neck. He pulled the belt up until it choked the small man. The lightning stopped immediately as the power was neutralised. The man had to stand on his tip toes to prevent being hung
"where is my scythe?" Demanded Grey.
"in... The storage unit round the corner... Third door on the left" choked the man, clawing at his neck.
"thank you" said Grey, as he snapped the mans neck with a sickening crunch.
Then, when he dropped the man to the floor, the corpses neck lolling about on his shoulders, he placed his shoulder against the metal door, and pushed, until the axle of the hinges snapped, causing the door to fall to the floor. The guard who had previously been in the room quickly pulled out his coms device and shouted into it "L45 Escaping, L45..." but by this time, the Grey Assassin grabbed the man's neck, and his torso and... Ripped him apart. Shards of skin and bone sprayed across the walls, leaving grey with a severed head in one hand, and a torn body in the other. He threw the body to the ground, but it was too late. The guards had already been alerted by the music. It might be covering every frequency, but the guards had already begun sweeping the corridors.
A squadron of heavily armoured soldiers were alerted from their posts by the blaring of klaxons, but, louder than the klaxons, was metallica's "Sad but true" blaring through the coms system. Each one was wielding a pulse rifle, with the settings set to stun. The signal had originated from an interrogation room in the eastern wing of the base. They sighted along their rifles, and were surprised when an armoured guard head popped around the corner, and in an extremely low voice, said "there is noooo longer any troububble. Go back to kissing or whatever you do". This was odd as, whilst the head's mouth flapped up and down, the lips didn't move. The illusion was shattered when a man stepped around the corner, his hand inside the dripping bloody head, operating the mouth like a puppet. He held the head up to his face and said "well what do you think about these people, mr head?" and then in a falsetto voice, whilst operating the bloody head's mouth with his other hand "well Mr Grey, i think they are meanies, but then again, you do have your hand up my arse"
"well" said Grey, in his normal voice "you are a severed head," and he removed the head from his hand, with a disgusting sucking sound, and drop kicked it into the squad of soldiers, where it bounced over their heads, and he blinked and appeared on the other side of the squad kicking the head into the back of one of the soldiers, and ran off down the corridor yelling 'goal'.
Grey ran down the corridor as the soldiers scrambled to turn around, getting caught in a tangle of rifles and armour, and into the third door on the left. he opened up the door and slipped inside, and pressed his ear to the door and heard the thunder of the squad running passed.
Suddenly he heard a click behind his head. he turned to see a pistol wielded by the shaking hands of an unarmed soldier who had snuck into the evidence room for a cigarette break.
“y-y-you’re the one their after” he said, cocking the pistol
“yup. and that, on the desk there is my scythe. have you ever seen a scythe going through someone's skull. it looks like a balloon. a delicious, blood filled balloon.” said Grey Assassin, slavering.
“i’ll kill you before you get there” said the man, who barely looked liked he could pull the trigger.
“fuck off” said Grey, before batting the man’s pistol away, as he pulled the trigger, firing into the corner of the room. Grey grabbed the man’s head and slammed it onto the corner of a metal desk, cracking his skull. the man fell to the floor dead or unconscious. Grey didn’t care. he picked up the man’s pistol and pulled the trigger. it jerked out of Grey’s hands and embedded a round in the wall.
“never understood the appeal of these things” said Grey as he picked up his scythe “this thing is much, much better. slices through bones beautifully.” and with his scythe, he sliced through the soldiers, leaving a trail of blood and broken bodies behind him.
Grey left the facility by smashing through a large window overviewing the mojave desert. Behind him was the blaring alarms of an airbase called Groom Lake Air Base, but more colloquially known as Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, but more commonly known as Area 51, and, ahead, to the north, the lights of a small town flickered in the night. Four and a half hours later, travelling through the desert, he arrived at the small town. The town was mainly shut up for the night, but caravans were parked outside the town, each with it’s own satellite dish. A small sand beaten sign informing him that he was in Rachel, Nevada. On the corner of the street, was what was once a bright blue travel agents, but sand had chipped the plasterwork off of the building, leaving an almost mosaic like appearance. in the window of the building was several posters advertising different trips. Along with a poster stating “Visit New York! The most beautiful city in America” (Grey doubted this still applied) was two posters, of a pillar with a statue at the top, people milling about in the square beneath, with "London, the city of history" and another of several bright lights and buildings, each plastered with the neon words “What happens in Vegas, stays in Las Vegas”. Grey concentrated… and was nearly hit by a car.
“this place amazes me” though Grey, as he stepped out of the road, to the honks of several speeding cars “somone can appear in the middle of a busy street, but they still go around with their busy lives, like ants, not realising that acid has been poured into their nest”. the only person who noticed Grey was a bearded homeless person holding up a sign stating “THE END IS NIGH” with one hand, and an empty bottle of cheap alcohol in the other, who dropped his sign, and ran into the alley next to a laundromat.
Grey placed his hand on the wing mirror with a firm grip and slingshotted himself onto the top of a taxi. The driver of the car banged on the roof from inside as the aluminium roof began to buckle under his weight. Grey leant over the edge of the roof, so the driver of the taxi could just about see his torso. He gave the man a charming smile and stuck up his middle finger at the man, before launching himself off the roof, causing a resounding crunch, and landing deftly on the roof of another car. A tourist had pulled out his camera, and had begun taking pictures, assuming that Grey was a publicity stunt for the new Cirque du Soleil opening up, which starred several meta-human performers, and it wasn't until he used his Scythe as a polevault, digging the blade into the roof of a nearby taxi and smashing the camera into the floor with his shoulder, and kicking the tourist to the ground with a resounding snap of breaking bones. It was at this point that the tourists began to panic and run.
It was at this point that Grey thought it was a good to try and attack the heavily guarded casino called the MGM grand. And he would have succeeded, if Dominus had not stationed themselves under the casino, and that they had been on high alert, and several of their best containment agents were rapidly encroaching on the casino.
They reached the door as Grey, jumped on a table, drew up a handful of pale white casino chips, and jammed them down the throat of a croupier, before decapitating the gamblers sat around the table, whilst yelling "Place your bets! Four on red!"
"Surrender and lay down your weapon and we will not kill you" boomed a large man in a large powered suit.
"you can try, i pulled your friends apart" said Grey, kicking a gamblers head off into the crowd of screaming casino patrons
"well, we know the trouble you can cause. We found Chromosome's remains. Its now in several jars. We aren't going to take any chances this time. please, surrender. you could help us. for a better world."
Grey appeared to consider this for a moment, causing the soldiers to momentarily relax, before spitting at the nearest soldiers and saying “Nah. when i came to this world I wanted to rend, destroy, kill, eviscerate, explode, annihilate, exterminate, defoliate and defenestrate all lifeforms i could possibly find. Still do. But unfortunately, working with you fuck-wits is my idea of hell” And from behind him, several armoured troopers brought forth a someone dressed in an orange straight jacket, with metal straps securing the arms. The man had a metal helmet on, blocking his eyes, ears and nose, leaving only his mouth free. In Front of him a small blue crack began to form.
Grey leveled his scythe, and swung it at a trooper who was encroaching on him with some sort of rifle linked to a pack on his back. The scythe Sliced through a joint in the man's armour, causing a spurt of blood. Behind his metal suit the man fell to the ground and began to scream as blood flowed from his arm. Grey picked up the severed arm, and swung it at another trooper behind him, the heavy metal gauntlet cracking the man's visor and splintering plasti-glass into his eyes. The man dropped his rifle and began to claw at the helm release button, and when he did, Grey took his head. Still the man was making the crack larger and larger.
'What was he doing?' Thought Grey, as he elbowed another soldier before smacking the man in the groin, causing him to fall to the floor.
Grey never saw the soldier behind him. The man had prototype armour, with raw invisibility power inside. He was directly behind Grey as he took down a fellow soldier. He took aim with his tesla rifle, and fired.
A heavy metal wire shot out of the rifle, and hit grey with enough force to drive him into the crack. He realised. It was a dimensional portal.
A current ran down the wire, causing Grey to arch his spine in pain.  "No." screamed Grey, as the window began to close around him, the electric line sparking against his skin "NO!"
The small window to the world had closed, and he clawed at the place where it had been, trying to find some seam in reality, some crack or crevice he could slip through, but no avail. The place where the portal had been was like glass.
From behind him came a wavering, child-like voice, almost harmonious, but spoken like it was being said on a scratched record "We've missed you Grey. We're going to have a lot of fun..."
Two years later -
At the Kaliningrad nuclear power plant in Russia, alarm bells were ringing, waking Michael Svenshall from his stupor at the security desk. He fumbled with his walkie talkie, and burbled "what's happening down there?"
"well... Its hard to explain" shouted a scientist through a crackling speaker
The security officer rolled his eyes. If those techies on the floor below him begun talking about isotopic H-two-O again, he would burst a blood vessel.
"theres... Kinda someone in the reactor core." said the crackling coms unit
Michael sat bolt upright in his chair.
"please repeat that" he said, quickly minimising the video he had been previously watching, and loading up the cctv footage of the reactor. It wasn't normally on his bank of monitors, because nothing happened in the reactor.
"i said 'theres someone in the reactor' hes got a bloody big scythe, and he's tearing into a fuel rod container."
The window loaded up, showing a grey figure tearing into a submerged metal container with his bare hands. The man was most obviously not human, especially when he saw his bright blue eyes glowing in the darkness. Bloody metas, thought Michael, removing a pistol from a drawer, you need a battalion to take the bastards down.
He pulled up a phone and dialed to the Dominium Metahuman taskforce. According to the woman on the phone, they would be at the station in a matter of moments.
Maybe he could hold the bastard long enough for them to arrive, and put a bullet through his brain. Or seven. He took the stairs to the left of his office, the stairs to the reactor, as the lift had shut down when the alarm went off. He could hear the screams of its occupants, but ignored them as he loaded hollow point rounds into his pistol, and as he burst into the chamber where the reactor was housed. The creature had burst out of the chamber, and was cradling a uranium fuel rod in his arms like a child, and it slowly turned into lead as he absorbed the radioactive energy released by the rod. When Michael looked closely at the creature, he realised it was crying.
"thank the god" bawled the creature, as behind him there was a hiss as several hundred control rods lowered into the reactor.
"where am I?" asked the creature, wiping tears from its scarred eyes. It had a burn covering the right side of its face and neck, and numerous cuts on the man's face. But as he watched, the cuts began seal, and fresh tears flowed over them.
"You're in Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Station. In Russia. And in a few minutes, you'll be in a Dominius cell. Or dead."
"that was mean" said the figure, wiping tears from his eyes as he stood "i should kill you all, but because you helped me get back here with your beautiful, beautiful reactor i'll let you live. Chao" and Michael pulled the trigger, but the pulled hit a steam vent behind Grey, because he wasn't there any more. He had gone.
Grey remembered the travel agents in Racheal. Vegas was off limits. They knew he was there, and the man in orange would be there, waiting (Grey wasn't aware that the man had been utterly destroyed by a metahuman named Red tide). But the other place. They didn't know about him there. So thats where he went. That beautiful "London".  Well, thought Grey, i've got nowhere better to go...