Born to die. The eye of Odin has been discovered, or has it? (Invite only)

In an undisclosed location where it was really dark and danky and stuff, a small gathering of what could possibly be described as people were kneeling before a throne and the figure that sat upon it while shrouded in darkness. It beckoned forth one of the servants and they spoke to their master.

"Master, it is just as you guessed. We have discovered that the object you seek is on Earth. We have traced its signature to a city located on the planet's northwestern hemisphere."

The figure on the throne contemplated what he was informed of before scoffing and it spoke in a deep, harsh sounding voice. "I should have known. Brutalatops, retrieve the object. Do not fail me." it said and dismissed their servant with an evil grin on their face.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four older teenagers were standing outside of a warehouse that contained a bunch of stuff that was being stored inside of it. Because that's what warehouses are for after all. What else is a warehouse for? A meeting place? Who in their right mind would have a meeting at a warehouse? Well besides the four kids that were currently having one right now. There was supposed to be five of them there, but one of them was running late. In the meantime they talked about what was inside the warehouse.

"I don't know why you're so worried. It's not like anybody's going to try and steal this junk." someone said. Their name was Joshua, and by the looks he was getting by everybody else present, he had just said something really stupid. "What?"

"Do I even need to answer that?" A girl named Alisa said looking exasperated.

"I wouldn't mind an answer, actually." Joshua said scathingly.

"I wasn't talking to you. I was asking the people here with working brains." Alisa responded with a snappy retort.

"Damn gurl. You tell him." The other guy by the name of Kyle said. "Speaking of people who are here, where's the guy who's not here?" he asked them.

"He's running late." Joshua responded fuming a bit by that little snafu.

"He's always either the first to show up or the last. Like, no middle ground at all." The last person there, Patricia said as she was barely even paying attention to the conversation because she was on her phone.

"Don't see how he's late considering he lives closest to this place." Joshua said impatiently.

"No he doesn't, I live closer. My house is like two blocks from here. His is about a quarter mile away. Can't you judge distance?" Alisa asked him looking like she thought he was even more of an idiot that before.

"Oh right, you moved already. I forgot." Joshua replied. "Hey look, he's finally here." he said and the other two turned to see the fifth member of their friendship circle arrive.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late. I lost track of time." John said looking a bit flustered.

"Yep. Lunch is on you today." Kyle said as he patted John on the back to greet him. "Why were you late anyways? Were you too busy texting your supposed girlfriend?" asked him teasingly

"Oh please. John does not have a girlfriend. If he does my gaydar is way off." Alisa said half jokingly.

"Oh, haha. Don't be jealous, Alisa." John said trying to be witty and discreet at the same time.

"I'm kidding Capore. Get a sense of humor will ya? Anyways, now that we're all here, you guys want to hear a little secret?" Alisa said with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Duh. Why wouldn't we?" Patricia said as she finally put her phone away.

"Yeah, what's the big secret?" Kyle asked looking a bit excited at the prospect before them.

"Get this. Apparently years ago, my grandfather got his hands on the eye of Odin." Alisa told them looking elated. "And it's now stored in this warehouse."

"The eye of Odin? So there's an eyeball in there?" Joshua asked.

"That sounds nasty." Patricia said looking disgusted

"Why would anyone want an eyeball anyways?" John asked kind of wanting to see this thing.

"Well supposedly it was turned into metal via magic or something. I don't care how that stuff works. Anyways I couldn't get the key, but I think we should be able to sneak in and look around and see if we can find it. You guys in?" she asked eagerly. It was rare that any of them saw Alisa excited about something. Normally she was sardonic and indifferent towards everything.

"Of course we're in." Kyle said, and with that all five of them walked towards the warehouse to try and find a way in. They searched and searched, but the warehouse wielded no alternative entrance for them to use to get inside the building. They gathered back at the entrance and their collective disappointment could be seen on all of their faces.

"So now what?" Kyle asked nobody in specific.

"I'll try to get the key. If I do, we'll try again." Alisa said sounding more disappointed than anybody. They would depart from the warehouse and the day would pass.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night a strange light could briefly be seen in the sky if anyone was looking. Mere minutes after the light appeared a small procession of individuals were walking down the street trying to figure out exactly where they were going.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" one of them asked as they knocked over a streetlight simply because it was there.

"Of course." Brutalatops responded. "It's in this very city. We've pinpointed it down to a radius of about three miles. It's sure to be around here somewhere." he told him as another streetlight was knocked over. Such senseless destruction this was. It would surely bring attention to them, and attention was not something they desired at this moment

Billy Ray's was a decent place once you got used to its quirks. Clayton sat facing the entrance from his now usual table in the back idly chewing buffalo wings and watching the Chicago Cubs attempt to play baseball on the television set in the corner. He hoped they would be playing a team his ability would allow him to pick up a thing or two from, but he had no such luck; the Twins were just as terrible as the Cubs.

"Shit." Clayton cussed to himself when the large, grey man pushed through the door and took hurried, heavy steps toward him.

The man sat across the table from him, and helped himself to a wing, which he swallowed whole before speaking, "Clay! I knew I would find you here! Something happen to your phone?" He spoke with a voice louder than some car stereos. The lack of volume control wasn't as puzzling to Clayton as his ability to speak properly with rows of pointed teeth. He theorized the two were connected somehow.

"Yeah. Something like that," It was nothing like that; he had simply been ignoring Carl, "What do you have for me, Carl?"

"No way! Not in here. Let's go outside. I don't trust these people." Carl's whisper was the volume regular people spoke with.

Clayton looked at the usual weekday crowd that Carl's black eyes watched so suspiciously. It consisted of exactly seven people; half of which were too busy cursing at the game to care what was going on around them.

He motioned to a man in oil stained overalls who was as flabby as Carl was muscular seated next to a scrawny,  weathered old drunk in sunglasses whose glory days were clearly behind him, "Come on, it's just Jeff and Old Jeff at the bar. Who are they gonna talk to?"

"Promise they're cool."

"Old Jeff, you're cool right?"

"COWABUNGA!" The old man gave an ecstatic thumbs up as small tips of green flame made themselves visible from behind his glasses.

"OK fine."

Carl fished a Polaroid out of his pocket and pushed it over to Clayton.

"What is this?"

"Eh? I thought you knew about all this magic stuff. It's the Eye of Odin, Clay. Sinclair's got some big hard on for it. Says it just showed up here in Chi-town not too long ago. He tracked it to some old dickhead named Monroe. Guy's an archaeology professor or whatever at the new university here. He's some kind of real life Indiana Jones or some shit, buy you know Sinclair. 'I can't allow an object of such power to stay in the unguarded hands of such a simple minded fool!' " His impersonation of his employer was terrible, "So now I gotta go get it for him, right? So I visit the school to muscle it out of him. The bastard didn't even have the courtesy to be there. I waited three hours. Three goddamn hours just to find out he fucked off about a week ago. A first lecture or something like that. I figured maybe you could help me out?"

Clayton held a strong dislike of Sinclair, but the man new powerful objects, and if anyone could be trusted with them, it was him. His vaults around the world kept many terrible things away from the wrong people. These facts lead Clayton to help the man more often than he would've liked.

He answered with a loud sigh.

---------------------------------------------

After another visit to the university and a few hours of digging, Clayton was able to uncover a few details about Malcolm Monroe. The most relevant detail to what Clayton was after was that the man owned a warehouse. Why go to that trouble unless you're either running a business or have a massive amount of shit you've acquired that you need kept somewhere.

Could he really be keeping an artifact of untold power in a simple warehouse? Clayton assumed that the man was like most intellectuals and out right denied the existence of magic despite massive evidence to the contrary making the nightly news with extreme regularity, so why nnot

Dim street lights lit the warehouse district. The criminals were sure they were close enough to their target. They were just around the corner when the street light totaled Carl's car. Carl had been driving just slow enough to prevent their deaths, but the impact was sudden and terrible. It threw them both forward, and shot airbags into their faces. Clayton was sure he would be bruised. Carl was entirely physically unaffected.

Mentally was another story.

Rage boiled the shark man's blood, and it caused him to tear through the wreck he sat in and it into the street.

"Hey! What the hell was that? Do you know who this car belongs to?!"

Clayton wondered who Carl was telling at. He could make out a few characters in front of the car. Whatever they were, he was sure yelling at someone that could topple street lights. He unbuckled his seatbelt and slipped out of the car, ready to either back his friend up, or run away and leave him to die.[/color]

Lucius had been gathering power of many forms quite successfully for the last few months, everything seemed to be falling into place. Though he was always seeking more, after all, a little extra fire power never hurt. This time he was after something he assumed was of 'magical' origin, if only from the name everyone gave it.

The eye of odin it was called, presumably an object of great power. He had made a weapons trade with a rather odd man for the information, and it looked to be well worth his junk. He told him the nut job story of how it was magic and such, but Lucius knew better. It was obviously some kind of alien technology, and evidently it was mostly unguarded in Chicago. Lucius never liked that town, but various matters such as this seemed to be pulling him back.

Of course he would go after the thing, but rather then doing it with guns-a-blazing like before he figured he should probably form a plan of some kind. He got the idea to pose as a hero, it wouldn't be all that hard to do. All he needed was a colorful costume and a cocky demeanor. He swiftly created a red and purple suit, much to his disgust, and put it on instead of his usual attire. With that done he used one of many methods of travel to get to Chicago from good old New york.

The exact location of the artifact was not known to Lucius, but he had been given a rough estimate as to where it was. The man said he worked with the people that originally uncovered the 'eye', weather that was true or not was as of yet unknown however. One thing was for certain though, if this ended up being a waste of time Lucius would kill him. He used his stealth generator to keep hidden as he searched the area, all night he did this until something peaked his interest.

A light in the sky, merely a flash but he knew it was not simple lightning. Lucius ignored the thought of it for a while, but knew something was up once he heard a crash not to far from where he was. He naturally approached the source of it, finding a group of very odd looking creatures. Now could this and the eye be linked? It was his only lead all night, so he decided to follow them while still hiding in plane sight with his stealth generator.

The group continued traversing through the street while one of them kept causing property damage.

"Xurd, stop that. We're trying to avoid being seen, remember?" Brutalatops told his fellow servant of their master.

"Oh whatever. Like it even matters if anyone notices. We'll be out of here in no time. Besides, we can deal with anybody that tries to stop us." Xurd said with a sadistic smile on his face.

"That's not the point, Xurd. We're in a hurry, and knocking over these crooked poles that hold light is a waste of time. Wait, don't." he shouted at the end as Xurd knocked over another streetlight and this one hit an incoming car that had just came around the corner. "Curses Xurd. Look what you've done." Brutalatops paused before telling everybody. "Let's get away from here. The location of the object should be close. The five strange beings turned away from the car and started walking away. A crashing sound, followed up by a voice then caught their attention. They all turned back around to see two humans standing next to that car.

"Be gone, humans. We have no business with you. You should be glad it was only your vehicle that was harmed." one of them said. This one was named 'Gorozum' he was the second largest besides Xurd, but just as muscular.

"You do not wish to fight us." the smallest one known as 'Audir' said as his nostrils flared. He then started sniffing the air most peculiarly.

"Let us not waste another moment. Come." Brutalatops said to the others and turned around again to depart. Audir and the one that had remained silent so far turned around as well to follow him. Xurd and Gorozum continued to look at the two people that were in the car looking like they were itching to fight. "You two. What did I say? We have no time to waste on two mere humans."

"Hey Brutalatops, I smell the presence of more nearby." Audir quietly said to Brutalatops as he continued to sniff the air.

"What? Very well." Brutalatops responded quietly and thought about what to do for a moment. "Now, time to go." he said again and all five of them started walking away from Clayton and Carl as if they were completely irrelevant.

"Oh yeah, tough guy? What if I do wish to fight you?"

Carl puffed out his chest, and his nostrils flared. Every immense muscle in his immense body tightened. Clayton reached an arm out to prevent his angry acquaintance from stepping after the bizarre beings.

"Cool it, Carl." His voice was a harsh whisper, "Take a look at those guys. They clearly aren't from around here. Probably not even from this plane."

"So? I don't care if they're from mars. They wrecked our ride, Clay. I can take 'em all if you're scared."

"So? So think about it. Why would they be here? They've gotta be after the eye too. I'd say it'll probably be much easier to take it from a warehouse than from..." Clayton noticed Carl sniffing the air in the same way a dog would, " Carl, are you OK?"

"Yeah yeah it's just I could swear I smelt another person here. But I don't see anyone around. "  the human shark shuddered, " Spooky.''

Clayton raised assn eyebrow at Carl, "Right. Well let's try and beat those guys to the prize, huh?"

And off they went.

Lucius watched the exchange between the creatures and.....some others in complete silence. It was obvious what these strange beings were here for, and there was a good chance the others were there for the eye as well. Now he had to decide what to do, this night would most definitely contain some kind of fight, the only question was when. The aliens or whatever they were seemed like they probably knew more about the eye then the pair that got their car smashed up, so he would continue to follow them while hidden.

He was well aware aliens could have some kind of enhanced sense humans didn't, so there was a degree of risk in trailing to close to them. Regardless, he kept following them, listening and watching. He hoped he could get some information on where it was then simply try to beat them there, but that was a bit of a long shot. He knew he would probably have to keep doing this until the artifact was in sight, then make his move.

He had to proceed with caution however, they seemed rather confident and he knew they quite effortlessly toppled over lamp posts. Lucius had a feeling they could do much more then that as well. He was happy to have wore the hero costume, if the men in the car were of that nature he could potentially use them to his advantage. Of course, once the time came he would need to deal with them as well.

The group of strange ones kept on walking away rather slowly. Mainly because the leader of this entourage, Brutalatops wanted to know what those two were going to do. Despite his desire to avoid trouble as best he could since they were on an important mission, he still loved a good fight. It was in his blood after all. It's how he understood why some of his companions were so full of bloodlust right now. It's also why when he saw those two humans start running off in a direction that arose suspicion in him, that he let his companions finally attack.

"Where are they going?" Brutalatops asked when he saw that heading somewhere.

"I don't know, but that one extra I smell is heading in the same direction." Audir told him.

"I see. The object we're after is nearby, but we don't know the exact location, and these people just happen to be here. No, I don't believe in coincidences like this. They're after the same thing we are. That must be it. Kill them before they have a chance to get it."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Xurd said gleefully, and then started charging directly at Clayton and Carl ready to tear them limb from limb. Gorozum joined him as he leapt high up into the air and would come crashing down where Clayton and Carl were located.

"Audir." Brutalatops said to address him as he watched the fighting begin. "Locate that additional one immediately. Before they have a chance to do anything."

Audir whispered what he knew to Brutalatops in case the one they couldn't see was attempting to listen in on them. "I can't pinpoint his exact location, but he's close. Very close actually. I think it might be a specter of sorts." Audir concluded with a hint of suggestion behind his voice.

"Go help Xurd and Gorozum. I don't want them taking too long." Brutalatops ordered and Audir would head off to go assist them. Almost immediately after Audir departed, the last one dove to the ground as Brutalatops raised his left hand to the skies. A strange pulsing energy shot from it in all directions in order to draw out the one they couldn't see. Once they had an idea as to exactly where this individual was, they would attack.

Carl could smell whatever it was coming after them before they could see it, “Clay! Lookout!” he cried out, no more than a split second too late.

Clayton spun around just as the nightmare creature pounced and found himself pinned to the asphalt. Whatever the monster was, it had his arms pinned to the ground with both hands while its scorpion-like tail rose behind it. His eye’s widened, he never thought he would be surprised to die, but that’s life for you: full of surprises. Surprises like Carl, his large, strong, friend gripping the tail of his assailant. Carl yanked the thing back by its tail which caused it yelp in pain. After the initial yank Carl tossed the thing into the wall of the closest warehouse, “So I’m gonna get to bust you up after all, huh?”  Carl’s rows of teeth twisted in a wide grin. He cracked his knuckles and took steps toward the enemy, “Where are the rest of you, huh?”

It was a question answered almost before it was asked. The next of the group descended from the sky with a landing that shattered asphalt between its enemy and its ally. Carl snarled and threw a punch hard enough to shatter most men, but this was no man. The thing caught his fist with ease and twisted his arm. Gorzum grinned similarly to the way Carl had just a second earlier.

Clayton cursed a million different times as he pushed himself to his feet. Of course this was happening to him he thought, no goddamn way it wouldn’t be. He whistled for the bigger one’s attention in hopes of returning the favor his friend provided him with before. As soon as the creature turned its attention to Clay it would hopefully drop dead. He fired a shot from his pistol directly at Gorzum’s face.

This was turning out to be a strange night, even with Lucius only spectating. The two parties would clash, though two stuck around, standing in the same area as Lucius. He watched as the exchange happened between the dudes that got their car smashed and these things, so far neither showed anything special. Just as the thought of just overpowering everyone entered his head though, the big one stuck his arm in the air and produced some form of energy that pulsed outward. This was an obvious attempt to draw Lucius from his stealth state, and it worked. Lucius got hit, but not harmed very much. The only major effect the pulse had was causing his stealth generator to malfunction and shut down, so he was now fully visible. Too bad, but he was planning on revealing himself soon anyway.

"Congrats, you found me." Lucius said with a smirk. He didn't know much about his opponents, but he had handled plenty of things in his time spent moving toward his cause, what could they throw at him he hadn't already seen?

"You probably should have just let me continue to spy, now i have to beat the hell out of you." Lucius said as he advanced a few steps. He would have said kill, but he had to keep his impressions goodish, otherwise he had put this ridiculous suit on for nothing. He would focus on the aliens for now, if he was correct in his assumption that the men next to the smashed car were of the heroic morality they could prove to be an asset.

Mustering up a bit of power Lucius unleashed a wave of energy that rose up from the ground, tearing it to shreds as it did. The sheer destructive power of his energy was insane, if the matter it touched wasn't completely incinerated it was flung and ripped apart. This wide attack was headed right for the assumed leader of the group, but its effect on him wasn't currently predictable. Hopefully this could end quickly.

With permission to fight now granted just as he had hoped, Xurd, the most aggressive of the bunch, was charging directly at these two humans they had ran into with the intent to kill. Xurd got hold of one of them and pinned them to the ground. He then extended his stinger tail outwards and prepared to stab this human with it. Xurd started to bring it down when he felt something grab it. He turned around to see the other human was holding it to save his friend. "Hey, let go of my tail dammit." he said as he tried to get it free, but the human would pull on it and cause him pain before getting wrenched off of the ground and away from the person he was close to killing, only to be thrown into the side of a warehouse. Xurd hit the wall hard and would take a moment or two to get back into the fight. For now, he was out of it.

Gorozum saw his ally get taken out as he was coming down. Rage filled him as he landed and tore up the ground before beginning to advance forward to attack. He saw the sharkman swing at him and blocked it and began to twist his arm. Now this human would pay dearly for his actions. Gorozum smiled in sick delight as he went about trying to make this person suffer. They would feel pain and scream until their ears start to bleed and their lungs burst. They would suffer until they die. They would.......Something caught his attention and he turned just in time to see the human that Xurd had knocked to the ground was now up and pointing a gun at his face. Gorozum tried to get away before he fired it, but failed to do so and took a bullet to his face. Gorozum screamed in agony as he fell to the ground, but he was still alive, and looking directly at the person that had shot him, then gave a slight grin as Audir drew closer and grew out an extra pair of arms and attacked at both of the humans with sharp claws.

Knowing that someone else was here in hiding, Brutalatops decided to try and flush them out of hiding using a powerful energy pulse. It shot out and someone appeared out of nowhere. Brutalatops looked at them and said menacingly "There's the little worm that was crawling around." The other alien took a couple steps towards this newfound intruder before Brutalatops waved it off. "No, I'll handle this. You find where our objective is located."

Brutalatops left hand was surrounded with more of the pulsing energy as he saw this newcomer unleash some kind of energy attack. A wave of something or another tore up the street as it approached the alien. Brutalatops unleashed the pulsing energy and it hit the attack coming his way dead on and the collision resulted in further damage to the area. Brutalatops then immediately launched another pulsing energy blast at the newcomer to try and catch him off guard.

------------------------------------------------------------------
It was late at night yet not everybody was asleep as evidenced by the fighting going on by the warehouses. The group of teenagers from earlier were also all still awake and talking to each other over the internet. During this little friendly chat, one of them noticed some of the sounds from the heated battle going on. The conversation quickly turned to being about these sounds.