Amongst The Forgotten

New York City, present day...

The grimy alleyways of New York City are just about as disgusting as the filthy souls that inhabit them. The homeless, lepers, rejects, and outcasts all fill the empty void of the forgotten nooks and crannies of the metropolis. But tonight a new kind of stereotype joins them, a mold that most of them are unfamiliar with in the flesh: the untouchable. We all hear about the beings that go above and beyond humanity and New York City is definitely no stranger to their escapades. The conservatives paint them as impending threats to mankind now more than ever, thanks to a few bad seeds that brought the “entertainment capital of the world” to rubble. On the other hand, the liberals argue for their equal rights and make a fuss even out of the smallest civil rights infringement.

No matter where you go though, the eyes of judgment are forever gazing upon you. And sometimes all you want is to be alone and in peace, but few places offer such refuge. Even in the aftermath and restructuring of this once-great city, it’s a rare sight to see one of the “metahumans” lurk and live in the shadows of the bum-filled alleys. But for a wayward nomad, it makes the perfect place to call home for the night. The scroungers don’t ask who you are. The panhandlers don’t have a political morality to succumb to in your presence. No, you are met with the tranquility of diseased and dying spirits, who care about their next meal or next fix more than your backstory.

The embers of fire spewing forth from makeshift garbage can heaters flicker along the graffiti-ridden brick walls. To the parasites of this “society”, those flames represent warmth and comfort. But to the wanderer amongst their ranks tonight, they are a reminder of his past and the mistakes that he made. They are a reminder of the damnation of his soul and the eternal hellfire that awaits him in death. He perches himself against the cold walls and slides down to the ground below him. With his head tilted downward staring blankly to the littered floors underneath him, he slowly begins to take his helmet off. The fresh air hits his pale skin and sends a refreshing sensation throughout his body as he places the red mask down beside him.

That mask has become more of an identity to him in the past few years than his own face has. That’s what happens when you are on the run with no former life to turn back to. Travelling from city to city, some have gotten to witness his acts of heroism. Others have witnessed the exact opposite. Although a lower name on the totem pole, his reputation has spread nonetheless, and he has been dubbed by the media as “Nightslaughter”. But a new city means another new start, so unless he runs into one of those basement dwelling metahuman fan freaks, he should maintain harmony just a little longer before his reputation catches up to him.

And he knows it’s bound to. Because even if serenity is all he can ask for, the fate he carved for himself has other plans. He’s reminded of them every time he closes his eyes for slumber; he’s reminded of the souls that he must obtain for the devil’s collection.  Making a deal with the unholiest of all entities is never really the smartest of moves, though the desperation of doing something like that typically oversees that detail. But the deal was signed before the fine print was read, and the gift becomes a curse in the process.

His eyelids close gently as his head nods slowly in and out of consciousness, exhausted from toe to scalp from his aimless adventures. The dark nullness of sleep begin to welcome him with arms wide open, just what he had hoped to find in these slums. He slept amongst every other vagabond in this oblivion, because tonight; he was one of them…

The beautiful star creature, Stargirl, happily flies around the busy city of New York in the night.  She always loved this city at night, no matter how dark it gets the city is always bright.  Her favorite place had to be Time Square, with all the big TV screens.  She liked the colors, and the videos that were sometimes shown.  Her feet never really touch down on the street though, people tend to act strangely around her and make fun of her outfit.  Which was basically a simple black tribal bikini that after a few encounters with meta-humans, is now burnt halfway to hell.  Her blue eyes sparkle with the reflections of all the flashing lights, making her let out a childish giggle.  She runs her soft hand through the radiant blonde strands of her hair, getting it out of her eyes before she flies off again.

The curious creature makes her way into Queens, flying through the park.  Her eyes catch sight of these two flying saucer looking structures on long poles.  Stargirl has seen many space ships in her travels through space, and these things look exactly like some of them!  She giggles and quickly flies up to one of them, “Hello!” She says loudly to greet the pilots of this spacecraft, who were obviously not there to respond.  Stargirl frowns and floats around the saucers, looking for someone. “Hello…?  Anyone here?” After a few moments she sighs and flies off once more, “They must be busy..”

Stargirl finally makes her way down to an alleyway, bums and vagrants cluttering all over.  Some sleeping on old couches, some in boxes.  Some grouping around trashcan fires for warmth, others enjoying a nice tall bottle of liquor.  Stargirl curiously lands in the alley, and many bum just took off at the sight of a flying lady.  She began to wander around the alley, smiling and greeting some of the bums.  Some of them were nice enough to greet her in return, others responded either asking for money or speaking of lewd things they’d do to her because of what she was wearing.

Star finally stops in front of a man who was just propped up against the wall, sleeping.  She blinks her eyes and slowly crouches down, looking at him.  He looked cleaner than the other people sleeping here, and he had a funny mask!  She giggles and slowly reaches to take his mask for a closer look at it.

Eris appears on a building in Times Square, Stargirl finally hanging around a city longer then a few days allowing her to pop over. Though it had been four hours since the last check, Eris was hopeful, if nothing else. Taking a few steps forward, she peers over the edge, looking down at the busy street. All the people rushing about. She mutters to herself as she takes a step back, starting to weave a spell. "What was wrong with the last planet?" With the spell done, Eris zones out, seeing Stargirl. A few shifts in perspective later, she has a good idea where Star was and which way she was heading.

Another two spells and Eris was in the sky, floating around as she got her bearings. "Geez, always giving me so much trouble..." With that, she zooms away, only stopping every so often to check where Star was, correcting her path whenever she gets too far off base. Though she was moving quickly, Star was rather random in her travels, so it did take a little while to finally find her. When she did, Star was just about to reach over and pull off someone's mask. Eris lands beside her easily, grabbing Star's hand, more as a way to get her attention then to actually stop her. Eris knows she isn't even close to being strong enough to do that.

"Star! What are you doing? Leave the poor man's mask alone." With that, she pulls Star into a hug, giving her a once over when she pulls away. "What did you do to your clothes? Geez, they are ruined, poor things." With that being said, she focuses for a second, mana weaving itself around Stargirl, fixing her clothes and making them good as new. "What would you do without me? We really should get you some new clothes." Eris gives a small smile, happy again. She found her star after all.

“Yeah, you could do that, browny-locks."

He peered at them with one eye sleepily opened, observing the situation going on around him. It was Nightslaughter’s luck that he chose one of the more secluded areas in the city and still managed  to come across bothersome characters. But the truth was, even in his dreams he wasn't alone. His demons were constantly present and keeping an ever-watchful eye on him, even in the dreamscape. In fact, they seemed more at home in the lucid astral planes of consciousness than they did in reality. They  preferred working where they couldn't be easily observed. Nonetheless, the present situation in front of 'Slaughter was at hand and it still needed to be taken care of.

"Or you could have her give me MY clothing back.”

He nodded his head toward the sanguine-colored helmet, making sure they knew what he spoke of. His arms would rest against the wall in a crucifix pose, before lifting himself up in one fluid motion.

So much for my nap…

His eyes glanced back and forth between the strangers, studying the beings that are in possession of his mask. He could tell that there was something different about the two of them, but to what extent was only left to his imagination. One thing was clear though; they were more than your typical human. His eyes would meet with the eyes of the woman holding his property. He would give her a look-over for a minute, before smirking at her attire.

“And what’s your alias... Stripper Girl?”

His deep voice would let out a raspy laugh at his own joke. But the chuckle would be ill-fated. He cracked his neck and shook off the cobwebs of slumber, and the expression on his face would quickly change to that of a serious demeanor.

“Now I’m not gonna ask twice. Hand over what's mine, ladies.”

Stargirl pouts as Eris tries to prevent her from taking the mask, unfortunately for Eris, Stargirl is thousands of times stronger than she is and succeeded in holding the mask. “B-but Eris… I want to see it..” She frowns at her before being pulled into a hug.  Stargirl lets out a happy giggle and wraps her arms around her friend and hugs her back, letting her warmth touch Eris.  Her eyes slowly look down at her clothes when asked about them and she frowns. “They got burned by a bad person..” she giggles as her small outfit is fixed, “New clothes!” She hugs Eris happily.

Her eyes move to the man and blinks, tilting her head. “Hello!” She giggles and holds up his mask, looking at it closer. “I like your hat!” She giggles again and slowly tries to put it on.  She heard him call her names, and obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about at all.

Eris just shakes her head, not that surprised that Star ignored her. She does that a lot anyway. "Of course you do." Eris just accepted the second hug, before turning towards the voice. It was the man who owned the mask, the one he wants back. Eris narrows her eyes at him as he continues to speak, not liking him at all.

Though she didn't like him, the item in question did belong to him. "Star, maybe you should..." Just as Eris was about to try to convince Star to give it back, he went and called Star a stripper. Eris' eyes widen for a moment, then she takes a step forward and tries to give the man a slap. "How dare you! You don't know Star at all!"

Of course, in her rage, Eris had forgotten that she couldn't hurt a puppy with her arm strength, making a person far out of her league. That doesn't stop her from trying though.

Nightslaughter’s expression went from seriousness to astonishment in a second flat. Not so much at the fact that he'd been slapped, but the fact that the force behind it was almost non-existent. His mouth dropped a little and his eyebrow would cock up.

Kid got spunk.

He couldn't blame her for the slap though. He was aware he wasn't the easiest person to get along with. His abrasive personality and sense of humor never got over well with the sensitive types. He was politically incorrect and damn proud of it. Besides, the feeble attempt at slapping him only opened another door for him to make a quip. And although morally grey, he secretly enjoyed playing the antagonist from time to time:

“Someone didn’t get a toy with her happy meal today, eh?”

He’d turn his attention to the poorly-dressed female next to her, clearly still wanting his possession back. He forcefully placed his hands on the helmet and gripped it tightly, but didn't attempt to pull it away from her. Instead, he gave her a stern look and pulled his body closer to her, his hands not once letting go of nor pulling on his mask. His sights aimed directly toward her eyes with a slightly irritated look behind them.

“I believe this still belongs to me.”

Gritting his teeth together, he hoped to have her back off without incident. Although he normally wouldn't complain about two strange women waking him up from his sleep, he was not a big fan of people taking one of the few possessions he had to his name away from him. Although the scene wasn't as impressive as the two women flying into the alleyway, the boiling tension between the parties had caught eye of the nearby bums. Chatter amongst them picked up and  before long a few of them began packing their belongings and head to a safer distance. After the city's destruction, it was better safe than sorry around beings with uncanny powers.

Stargirl meeps at the slap, looking at Eris with a disappointed frown, “Don’t hurt people, Eris.. that’s bad..” She pouts at her before turning to look at the man, who was now holding onto the mask as well as her.  She tilts her head as he begins to move closer to her, not understanding why he would do that.  Normally people only get this close to do two things, fight or hug.. and he didn’t seem to want to fight.  

“Hi!” She giggles happily and lets go of the mask before pulling the poor man into a close hug. He’d notice that her body was very warm and comforting as he was hugged.  “I’m sorry my friend hit you, she’s really nice most of the time.”  Her eyes look over to Eris and smiles at her forgivingly.

Eris gets snapped out of her anger quickly, all it took was Star giving her a disappointed look. She takes a step back, tears gathering on at edge of her eyes, "But Star, he insulted you!" Eris tries to defend herself to Star, but the words seem flat even to her own ears. She leans up against one of the walls, trying to become even smaller then she already is.

She doesn't even react when Star gives the man a hug, just staring out into nothing, the shame of disappointing her star being too much for her. Eris keeps muttering to herself, only half seeing what was going on in front of her.

The man only known as Nightslaughter didn't really trust humans, especially strangers. He was a self-proclaimed 'cynical and jaded pessimist' and his skepticism knew no bounds, he was a Pyrrhonist after all. The stranger wrapped her arms around him, completely catching him off guard. The helmet escaped his hands due to  the surprisingly strong hug, falling to the ground with a metallic crash.

CLANK!

It rolled towards the wall where the other girl was positioning herself. It stopped at such an angle that it almost looked like it was staring at the depressed girl as she looked onward into nothingness...

'Slaughter was uncomfortable. The warmth of her touch almost felt sickening to his stomach. She made his pale skin grow even paler, something he wasn't sure was possible without being under the weather.

"Uhh?! What do you think you're-"

He didn't have time to express himself about the awkward situation. The dark of night beckoned to his silent calling. They crept out from every visible shadow around them and formed into a whispy mist-like form, wrapping themselves around his legs like living vines. They slithered up his body, becoming more and more solid. Contorting around his abdomen, the shadows would soon become creatures of their own. Two long human-like arms made from the black mass of shadows stretched out from his torso. One reached outwards toward the helmet, grabbing it with a violent twitchiness off the ground. The other arm would simply wrap itself around the girl whom was hugging its master. It wanted her to embrace the darkness.

ʇHƃI˥ ɹǝɥ WIp ʇSnW

Something was wrong, and Stargirl could feel it.  Her warm embrace of the man was suddenly not so comforting.  She felt herself feeling almost at a sick-like state, and she didn’t understand why.  This ancient being of pure starlight has been through many things; exploding planets, cosmic storms, wormholes, but never had she ever felt this feeling before.  Stargirl frowned, and let out a worried whimper as she slowly looks at the man in her arms.  She sees the shadows around him starting to envelope his body, taking over his form.

“W-what’s happening to me…?” Her body shivers under the effect of the dark energy being concentrated right in front of her.  “I…. I don’t feel very goo~ Kyaaa!” Her statement was interrupted by a deep burning pain on her back as the shadowy arm wrapped itself around her.  Stargirl screams out in pain, a pain she has never experienced before. “N-noo!  S-stop it!”

At the same time of Stargirl’s pain, the shadows themselves would start to experience a difficult time remaining in this state because of the pure starlight energy Stargirl is beginning to release in her moment of panic.  “Let go of me!” She cried out in a burst of anger, her eyes going from a bright blue to glowing with a fiery yellow energy.  In the next moment, Stargirl leaned back to unwrap her arms from the man and jerk forward while planting her hands on his chest, attempting to push him back with a huge amount of force.  If successful, this could cause the man’s body to fly backward and possibly burst through the brick wall at his back.

Eris holds her hand against her face as she starts to giggle, her visible eye darting around weirdly. Everything just seemed so pointless to her now. She almost flew off, ready to just wander around when Star's scream, forcing her to focus. No matter what, Eris was Star's planet, even if she was nothing but a giant disappointment to her star. Dropping her hand back down, she looks on the man, a huge smile on her face.

"Die." A single word, coupled with a quick hand gesture caused a spear of ice to form and fly at the man who hurt her star. Her aim was perfect, assisted by her telekinesis, artfully avoiding Stargirl and only striking at her intended target. That being done, Eris starts to look around for more threats, ignoring the other homeless people, luckily for them.

The girl let out an ear-shattering scream right in front of him. He didn’t want to be in the hug, and despite not summoning it intentionally, the darkness around him aided him in escaping. The starlight that irradiated from the girl began to sizzle Nightslaughter’s minion: the Reacher, causing the dark form to bubble and ripple in pain. The arm of the Reacher which held the helmet would slam it down upon its masters head recklessly, before hissing and contorting like shadowy serpents from all directions.

What the hell?!

The girl screamed to be let go of before lunging her arms at Nightslaughter in a push. And for a split second it looked like the push connected. But the serpentine shadows compressed into the area of her strike, fusing with her illuminating essence with a deadly reaction. The force of impact caused the fusing shadows to explode into a cloud of black vapor. The source of the combustion was struck with a spear of ice, just barely missing Nightslaughter as he was hurled backwards into the brick wall from the explosive blast.

Oof!

Rubble and debris fall on top of ‘Slaughter from the damage he did to the wall. Shards of ice splintered everywhere as it hit the unstable mixture of yin and yang, giving the area a sparkling glow. The shadowy vapor wisps away into the night sky as Nightslaughter pulls himself out of the dent in the wall. The minions he didn't ask for were gone. Dazed and confused from what just happened, he stumbles forward, trying to gain composure of his footing.

"I..."

‘Slaughter shook his head, trying to maintain focus. He was lucky the Reacher slammed the helmet on his head, however much it may have hurt. If it hadn’t put it back on for him, his headache from crashing into the wall would be much worse. But something tells him it was that very darkness that protected him which caused this scenario to happen.

"...I have no idea what just happened…"

He falls down to one knee, crouched over. In disbelief of what just happened, he holds his palms in front of his face as if he were questioning what truly lurked within him.  He didn’t conjure the shadows, they just reacted to that... girl. And that had never happened to him before. Who was this Amazonian-esque woman? And what about the ice caster who accompanied her? Nightslaughter's head swirled with questions.

The explosive discharge of two intensely polarized energies coming into contact rippled across the alley, blowing over trashcan fires, shattering windows, starting up a few car alarms in the distance.  As for Stargirl, her body was thrown back by the blast and smashed into a massive industrial dumpster, bending it inward from the middle and sliding the half-ton metal box backward into the wall like it was made of cardboard.

The scantily dressed girl quickly climb out of the dumpster she absolutely ruined like the impact, that would definitely shatter every bone in a normal human’s body, didn’t even tickle her.  She frowns and looks down at herself, covered in grime. “..Yuck..” She tries to pat herself down when she looked up and saw Eris, looking like she wishes to go on a rampage. “Eris..?” Her body slowly floats up to her and her arms comes closer to wrap around the angry woman in a hug. “Shhh… It’s okay.. I’m safe..” She holds her close, trying to comfort and calm her down.

Her eyes, which have returned to their passive blue color, moves to look at the man, who was now on his knee, looking at himself in shock.  Stargirl tilts her head slowly and watches him, wondering why he’s not attacking.  He said he had no idea what just happened, so that means he didn’t mean to hurt her?  Stargirl frowns and whines a bit, realising she used a great amount of her own strength on an innocent human, and could of hurt him.  “A-are you okay..?” She asks him worriedly, not wanting to cause more deaths. “I… I’m so sorry I hit you… I wasn’t thinking…” Her face forms a pout, and her eyes look at him with a very apologetic look.

Eris is tossed back from the shock wave, getting slammed into a wall and falling down to her hands and knees. Looking up, she sees that the man is still alive, the blast knocking him out of the way of her attack. She stands and begins to prepare another attack when Star appears in her vision, close and getting closer. Cancelling her spell, Eris tries to will herself upwards to get away farther away from Star, only to find that her concentration was broken in the shock wave, canceling her spells.

A quick shield placed between them to buy herself some time, Eris tries to back up, only to find that the wall behind her isn't going to budge. "No! Stay away!" Flailing at Star, Eris tries to keep here away, though that doesn't last long once Star catches her arms and pulls her in for a hug. Eris gives a halfhearted push to try to get away from Star, already knowing that there was nothing she could do to get away. She calms down quickly, hugging Star back as she begins to cry. "I'm sorry."