“You know Arthur, I really expected better from you.” Zephyr tone was a mixture of boredom and annoyance as he tilted his head down to keep the rain out of his hood. New York generally didn’t get the near monsoon weather Chicago tended to attract but the thunder storm above was hardly child’s play, He needed to hurry and finish up, back alley loading docks were rarely empty for long, even in this kind of weather.

Struggling to get to his knees ‘Arthur’ gasped as he clutched his ribs with one arm and tried to brace himself with the other as he tried to pull himself out of the stream of blood flowing from the fresh corpses behind him.

“For the last time it’s Artur you sanctimonious bastard! Artu- Ahhhhhh!”[/color]

“I don’t think you realize the gravity of your situation Arthur.” The elemental replied with just a touch of malice as he ground the mans hand into the asphalt with his foot. “You’re thugs are dead, the team on the roof is dead and the group you left in the van has been gutted. The only reason you’re still breathing is because I want answers.”

“Who told you to try this tonight? Whose pulling you’re blood strings?”

Forecasters said it was going to be a downpour and stay indoors. The moon was hidden by the rumbling clouds, but the lighting kept this area lit up like Times Square. Emily wondered what would happen if she got struck by lightning. The thought of the shock getting her heart to start beating again gave her a smile. She knew it was impossible.

Emily enjoyed the torrent of raindrops. Why, she wasn’t sure. The dead girl could not feel the cool water or the wind that went with it. She could not smell the city streets as the grime washed away and was replaced. Well, actually the grime wasn’t being washed away. Stepping off the sidewalk, one would be ankle deep in dirty water. Apparently, this area didn’t drain well.

Maybe it was the quiet and the sound of water hitting her umbrella that she loved so much. And this part of the city was deserted at this time of night. The vagrants had found dryer places to stay.

Emily noticed a van slightly sticking out of an alley up ahead. She thought of crossing the street, just in case someone was inside that wanted to kidnap an eighteen-year-old-looking girl. But as she got closer, she noticed the windows had been broken in. And there was blood. A lot of blood.

What in tarnation?

The mutant’s rain boots squeaked as she looked behind the van to see if anyone was around. This would be the second time in her two and a half weeks of being back in New York to call the police for a murder.

But her phone was dead.

Fiddlesticks.

Lighting lit up the alleyway behind the van. There was a loading dock far in the back alley and it looked like some people were back there. Emily thought of running, but one of the figures cried out in pain. She could hear it from where she stood, even with the downpour. She had to try to help him. Emily closed her umbrella and began to try to sneak toward the loading dock, using the huge dumpster several yards in front of her for cover.

Rain water flooded the streets, filling empty spaces with it's liquid. Alex sighed, tucking away his water bottle after having filled it with the droplets. He had never been so grateful for his winter coat as he was now. With this downpour he would have been soaked through otherwise. Though he was feeling sorry for his feathered companion. Ace, a construct he had made into a red-tailed hawk, sat grumpily on his shoulder. He was too big to fit in the coat comfortably, unlike the two rat constructs, Pick and Pocket, who were curled up cozily in his pockets.

"You know, I could just rebuild your body later and you wouldn't have to suffer like this." mentally he told the hawk and if birds could give killer looks he would have been a dead man a long time ago. Instead Ace pecked at his coat hood in agitation. "Alright, alright, I get it! We'll find shelter soon. One of these warehouses has to be unlocked. We'll just stay in one of those for the night..."

His thought trailed off when he spotted a white van parked near an alley way. He jumped when he heard a cry of pain. He glanced at Ace, "I know you don't like flying in the rain but go over the building and take a look would you?"

The hawk complied and Alex snuck forward, staying low. Peeking into the alley he saw that someone else was also spying on this scene. A girl from the looks of it. Well maybe he'd have an ally in this. Hopefully. He leaned back and moved away from the alley's opening before closing his eyes and focusing on his companion vision. What he saw made his breath catch in his throat.

Bodies...tons of them. In the light of lightning he could see the bodies strewn on the roof top. Ace landed on the edge of the opposite roof, watching a man called Artur and his attacker, probably the same guy who killed all these people.

>>“Who told you to try this tonight? Whose pulling you’re blood strings?”

Was this some sort of mafia thing? What exactly had he stumbled on.

Staring down at the kneeling Russian with a building sense of irritation Zephyr considered his options. Artur couldn't possibly believe he'd leave alive, not when he was surrounded by the still cooling corpses of his former henchmen; the man was arrogant not delusional.

Annoyingly that same arrogance leant Artur an unfounded sense of pride and so the Mafiaso was determine to spite his killer in whatever way he could, even if it meant keeping his mouth shut for a change.

Quietly weighing his options Zephyr let the hood of his raincoat shadow his features as he crouched and met the Russians green eyed glare without flinching. The elemental wanted answers yes, but he didn’t need them.

“You know how I work Arthur.” The words were unhurried, crisp and clear despite the downpour and they betrayed none of the unease the hessian felt with the weather. “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way…” deliberately trailing off to let his words sink in, Zephyr calmly reached into his coat and withdrew a slim black pistol, leveling the barrel an inch from the mobsters shaved skull.

“Tell me what caused this sudden insanity and you won’t feel a thing. I’ll consider this the end of the matter and I’ll leave the rest of your faction alone.” Not entirely true but close enough; there wasn’t enough left of NYC mafia these days for it to be worth his time to hunt them all down.

“If you don’t talk I’ll leave you on a roof somewhere with a gut wound; it will take you hours to die and I’ll make sure you can’t call for help."

So what will it be?

Emily had to do something. It was times like this she wished she had a useful mutation. There were bodies everywhere and it looked like just one assailant. He had to be super-human somehow. But Emily didn’t know what his power was, so she wasn’t sure how she should intervene, or if she could.

By the way the younger man spoke, the silent man was involved in maybe the mafia or some other nefarious organization. So maybe the brown-haired man wasn’t the bad guy? Maybe he was just another mutant vigilante, ridding the streets of organized crime. But if he was, killing all these people was wrong.

Yes, they were diabolical people that destroyed families, killed innocence, and distributed sin onto the streets. But murder wasn’t the answer. That was what the law was for. But then bosses would probably get off because of a “technicality” or the help of a crooked cop. What was right? Surely all this wasn’t.

All these bodies.

All this blood.

“This isn’t right!” What was she doing? “Stop this…stop this madness!” Emily stood up from behind the trash bin and moved a little closer. She was crazy. Emily was crazy.

You gotta be freakin' kidding me! Alex looked around the corner again, spying the girl who had now left the safety of shadows, making her one big walking, talking target. There was no way that guy was not going to shoot her. What to do, what to do?! There was no time to think! Leaving his own safe spot, he raced toward the girl all the while commanding Ace to attack the man's gun hand.

He grabbed her arm, to drag her back to the safety behind the dumpster. "Are you crazy?!"he shouted, eyes wide, heart pounding. There was a guy with a gun over there and if he shot down Ace he wasn't sure what he was going to do. Water tended to make material soggy and hard to use. But it looked like he was going to have to.

The dumpster had plenty and it was relatively dry with the lid over top it. He started working on a swarm, lice and wasps and other biting, stinging bugs. He would just need to stand to open the lid, which meant potentially being in the line of fire.

"This isn't right!"

The sudden, frightened female scream cut through the rain soaked air like sheared metal and only the hessians presence of mind kept his eyes fixed on the fallen mobster, his body merely tensing as he ignored the urge to snap his head towards his new audience.

Beaten or not, taking you eyes off any opponent in with a lethal weapon in play wasn't just asking for trouble, it was inviting it inviting it in for tea.

And Artur knew it, the elemental could see it in the mocking lilt that tugged at the mans newly found grin at the unexpected hope this new distraction posed.

"You get lazy my transparent friend." The Russians words were spoken with only a faint growl of an accent, even if his use of the language was far from perfect.

"You come alone, lazy and arrogant." Slowly shaking his head even as his brown eyes kept watch on the two new comers just past the elemental shoulder, subtly reminding the hessian of the potential threats at his back.

"They have phones, funny how they can be more dangerous than guns no? Recording every-"

Cl-ick

With an unamused frown Zephyr's only response was to pull back the trigger to it's penultimate position as he lowered his arm a fraction, letting Artur clearly see the hammer arch back millimeter by millimeter.

This was why he hated thunderstorms, the air was so full of water making out more than vague shapes with his senses was almost impossible if he didn't already know something was there. He should have caught these two over a block away but instead they'd made it into the alley itself and now they needed to be handled.

It was time to cut his losses; Artur wasn't going to say anything, not useful anyway, best to kill him and move on. The new comers could simply be ignored, they hadn't seen his face and he could lose them easily enough in this weather and there was little point in adding bodies the NYPD might actually raise a fuss over.

"You should have brought your bone b*tch, she would have made excellent guard dog."

...and if that wasn't an inconvenient game changer Zephyr didn't know what was. "Congratulations Arthur, you just made yourself-"

Leaving a trail of empty air in its wake, something the size of a trash can lid streaked through the rain straight towards his outstretched arm.

Not recognizing exactly what was coming but trusting his senses nonetheless the hessian braced his legs and sprung from his kneeling position into a short jump that moved him back no more than foot but was enough to dodge the damp feathery missle that surged between Artur and himself, wings flared and talons outstrecthed to strike right where his arm had been and instead plowing into the thin pool of water that covered the street.

As distractions went the avian assault had only lasted a handful of seconds but they'd been seconds where Artur hadn't had a gun pointed at his bald head, a fact the Russian somehow felt indicated a new lease on life as he leapt to his feet and sprinted in a zig zag motion towards the open loading bay door.

In most circumstances the retreating mob boss would have been lucky to make it more than five feet before he got a bullet in the back. As it was Zephyr found himself preoccupied for another handful of precious seconds as he deliberately brought his foot down on the waterlogged bird that had just screeched past him and was rewarded with the faint snap of a broken wing.

Annoyingly by the time he'd finished dealing with the avian annoyance Artur had already made it to shelter and was struggling to close the loading bay doors-

CRACK

Only to fall backwards with a bullet to the knee for his trouble that swiftly dissuaded him from his efforts as he promptly vanished inside... where it was nice and dry.

Smiling grimly under his hood Zephyr lowered his pistol and began to stalk after his retreating target, deliberately keeping his back to the pair of unwanted new comers even as he spoke to them on a thin slipstream of wind.


"I don't know who you are but this doesn't concern you. If you leave now we can all get on with our lives, if you persist than, well..."

With the unspoken threat hanging in the air the hessian stalked after his target, fully intent on wringing answers from the crippled Russian.

Before Emily could do anything useful to help the battered man, someone grabbed her and forced her behind the dumpster again. “Let me go!” She said in a high whisper. “I know what I’m doing.” Truthfully, she had no idea what she was doing. But she had to do something. There was no way she could let the hooded man get away with all this bloodshed.

She heard a crack and looked out from behind the dumpster. A bird lay on the ground. Oh no. No no no. What is dead? A slight flutter showed there was still life within the feathers. Thank the Lord.

Gun shot.

From her position, Emily couldn’t tell if the large man was fatally wounded. She lost the shooter when he entered after him.

A voice traveled on the wind. A warning. Was it a ghost? What did it know? Best ignore it.

She turned to the boy who had pulled her to safety. “Do you have a cell phone to call the police?” Her eyes averted back to the bay doors. “Look, I’m going in there if you like it or not. Look at all the bodies. Look at what he did to your bird. There’s no way I’m letting this man get away with this. I’m gonna look in this trashcan for a weapon of some sort.” Emily opened the top of the bin. A swarm of insects met her gaze.

Yeah, Emily isn’t a fan of insects. She let out a piercing scream and fell back down behind the trashcan. “Don’t let ‘em eat me!”

>>"Let me go! I know what I'm doing!"

Alex glared at her, that was the dumbest thing he had ever heard. "No lady, I really don't think you do!"he whispered back just as aggressively. There was no way this woman could do anything to stop the mad man with a gun. It was a gun, what was a normal human going to do against a gun and weaponless. However this train of thought was distracted by the sensation of his arm snapping and he knew without looking that Ace's wing had just been broken.

He bit down on a scream that threatened to spill from his lips as the pain reverberated through his arm. He was just grateful that the damage hadn't been any greater than that. The man could have easily crushed more, as fragile as birds are bone-wise. Still that and the wind warning was enough for him. He did his part, he'd leave right now but then the woman spoke again and...good lord.

>>“Look, I’m going in there if you like it or not. Look at all the bodies. Look at what he did to your bird. There’s no way I’m letting this man get away with this. I’m gonna look in this trashcan for a weapon of some sort.”

And of course she had to open the dumpster and scream when she found bugs inside. What was she expecting to find? An arsenal? Still the scream was not going to help.

>>“Don’t let ‘em eat me!”

"Sheesh, they won't eat you, those are mine and I guess I'll have to use them if your going in there, regardless."he sighed, sending the swarm in quickly after the man with the gun and cutting his connection with Ace. With the connection cut the bird turned to dust. He hated to do so but it was only causing him more pain to keep him around.

With the pain gone he concentrated the swarm around the gunmen's head, blind, irritate, potentially frighten away. Though he couldn't be certain, this guy did kill a lot of people without seemingly getting a scratch on him.

Leaving the pair of nuisances to ponder their options Zephyr turned his attention back to the matter at hand as he ducked under the loading bay door and proceeded inside, more than slightly grateful to be out of the rain and the growing flood it was creating.

The loading area was, unsurprisingly, dark, what little light made its way through the high placed windows only served to cast shadows on the unorganized stacks of crates scattered across the floor. Under normal circumstances it would have been an ideal hiding place for a fleeing fugitive with a bullet to the knee, unfortunately for Artur, the hessian had given up on normality some time ago.

Taking a slow breath Zephyr ignored what his eyes were telling him and instead focused his senses on his element-

The air here was stale, unmoving, whatever ventilation the building might have had was either unused or broken and providing the perfect layout for the building. The sole sources of motion came from the faint breeze wafting under the open loading bay door and…

There. A lone hunched figure trying to limp as quietly as possible as it shambled from one pile of cover to the next, it’s questing hands giving it the silhouette of a blind man while the faintly disturbed air it left a perfect trail in its wake.

With this soon to be victim acquired the elemental brought his pistol to rest idly against his shoulder as he stalked forward, or would have if a cloud of insects hadn’t inexplicably swarmed under the door behind him before descending on his head like obsessed mayflies.

It was but the work of a moment to swiftly grab the end of his hood and twist the entire covering sideways with his gun hand to provide a makeshift facemask which, while by no means perfect, served to delay the deranged insects for a handful of seconds which was more than enough to deal with them as his free hand drew a lighter from his back pocket and-

Casting out a mental net to the air above, trapping and collecting whatever oxygen it finds while letting all else slip from its grasp as it drags it’s gains back down, shaping it into a half sphere with nearly perfect timing.

-raised it to his covered face and deftly flicked a sullen orange spark into existence before it flared into an eye searing dome of purple flame that lasted barely an instant but left a cascade of shelled corpses in its wake as nearly all the swarm was baked alive.

Mutant. One of the meddlers outside had to be a mutant, though with his luck both of them were. Nothing else explained the bird and now the insects trying to distract him. They’d need to be dealt with, that type of control was too dangerous to simply ignore in this situation, especially if he wanted to stay anonymous, but first…

Five quick strides taking him around the nearest pile of crates, a half second to lower his arm, another to aim and then-

CRACK

Artur’s remaining knee erupted in another spurt of blood and bone as a strangled scream of pain shook the air. “Can’t have you running Arthur, now stay there while I deal with our unwanted guests.”

So saying the hessian stepped back among the crates and vanished amongst the darkness as he waited for those ‘meddlesome kids’.

Plan. They needed a plan. But what could two people do against someone who could kill all these full grown men? Emily didn’t want to share her unease. I mean, she just told the guy she knew what she was doing. Now, she would have to pretend that she did. “Fake it till you feel it,” mamma always said.

“All right, so you can control animals or something? I’m dead, so I feel no pain and can’t die. Can you call some animals? I think we may need a little back-up.” Back-up. That sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

Another gunshot wound came from the building the two men had entered. “Hurry we don’t have much time. I’ll distract him.” And she was off toward the building.

Was she stupid enough to go through the front door, where a man with a gun was probably standing behind cover, ready to shoot? Not quite. She stood on the edge of the doorway, back to the wall, and tried the door. It swung open when she pushed it. “The police have been called,” she yelled into the building, “I would leave, if I were you.”

Fire, why in the world did the bastard have to use fire?! He had been able to cut the connection quickly but not quick enough to not feel the sensation of being barbequed alive. The pain alone was nearly enough to knock him out and somehow he was still standing, still breathing through the pain. The cool of the rain was feeling so good right now, he wanted nothing more than to remove his jacket and let himself get soaked. Anything to fight back to painful information feed back.

The girl's words felt distant, muffled, while his body locked up in pain. “All right, so you can control animals or something? I’m dead, so I feel no pain and can’t die. Can you call some animals? I think we may need a little back-up.”

"That's not how it works..."he grumbled lowly. He was running out of power to pull that kind of stuff off. He had barely eaten enough to make the constructs he had made already, let alone new ones that could do damage to this guy. Not to mention material. Sure he could use some of the bodies but would it be right? These guys probably had families and homes and all sorts of other possibilities. If he used the bodies he'd be erasing their deaths, no one would know.

“Hurry we don’t have much time. I’ll distract him.”

Too late, she was already on the move, he had to do something. Dead girl or not, he doubted she'd live if she was set on fire. He had just enough power left for something that could be used offensively. He wondered over to the nearest dead body, raising his hand in an attempt to concentrate his power. Two dogs, poorly constructed and missing skin and fur and organs. They were all teeth, unblinking eyes, and muscle where it was important.

He sunk to his knees as dizziness settled in and forced himself not to pass out. He hated this feeling, his limit. He could only make so much, divide his mind so many times, before the strain got to him. This was all he had left in him. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to depend on his powers from her on out he reached into his bag and dragged out the only weapon he had, an old hunting knife that had pierced more dead carcasses than live ones. He knew it wouldn't do much against this enemy.

The two dogs joined Emily's, snarling and baring fang, readying themselves for a fight.

Leaning against one of the many slipshod stacks of crates within the decrepit warehouse Zephyr pondered his current situation. What had started as a relatively simple search and destroy objective for a double crossing contact had, as usual, become decidedly less simply the moment life, the universe and everything chose to intervene.

Now he had to deal with two irrelevant and frankly idiotic individuals who’d stumbled across his handiwork and, like suicidal lemmings, had decided to investigate rather than taking the smart option of retreating. To make it even better one, if not both them, were mutants showcasing something that wasn’t quite mind control over animals since the warehouse hadn’t yet been flooded with rats.

And to top it all off, someone was apparently spreading annoyingly accurate rumours about his latest protégé which meant he now had to contend with a security leak and that meant an interrogation at the very least.

Maybe he should have brought Duskmoor after all, if nothing else all the rain would have made her a wonderful distraction.

Still those were thoughts for another time, for now he needed to drag Artur crippled frame somewhere more secure for questioning, a roof would be perfect, even in this weather but right now the hessian would settle for a storage closet if it meant a lack of interruptions.

Almost on cue a new shaft of dim light cut through the shadows as the personnel door to the side of the loading bay slowly swung inwards letting in rain and a less than calm and oddly hollow female voice. The police have been called. I would leave, if I were you.”

Raising his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose Zephyr let out an irritated sigh as he bit down the urge to respond and point out the fact that leaving, while an absolutely capital idea, was somewhat hindered when certain suicidal individuals insisted on following you. No, even with his… unconventional brand of ventriloquism, keeping silent was the better option. Instead, the elemental took a slow breath and again relied on his sense to paint the scene for him

‘Less than a foot beyond the open door, partially sheltered from the disturbance of the downpour by a slight overhang, the wind flowed across a female outline, back resting against the outer wall.’

Well the woman had at least half a brain if she wasn’t poking her head inside and giving him an excuse to shoot her. If she was going to wait and be suitably cautious he might actually have enough time to drag Artur-

‘Two canine forms sprinted in from beyond the alley, their racing limbs tossing spray into the air to mark their passage, stopping only when they reached the female figure standing just beside the open door, strangely hollow snarls emanating from their maws and echoing-‘

Frowning Zephyr, lifted his pistol into a ready position, subtlety was apparently not on the menu today. Still, something nagged at him, the way these things were growling wasn’t natural, something their size should have had a deeper timbre yet the noise they made was oddly empty, like one of those toy whistles a child used to do a poor imitation of a bear or a lion, almost as if…

‘Seeking out the source of the unnatural snarling, filtering out the effects of the wind and tracing them from the jaws down into the-‘

Well, well, well… that was quite a trick; it wasn’t everyday you found a creature that could growl without breathing, though the fact that they were lacking anything resembling lungs likely helped a good deal. Whatever these things were, ‘alive’ wasn’t one of them which, in retrospect, made the elementals next course of action all too easy.

The moment one of the Frankenstein creation stuck a misshapen head round the corner, he fired.

When Emily warned the guy, he half expected another wind message, hopefully telling them to go away and then he'd comply. Which he'd happily agree to and would hope that the dead girl would do the same. Because he didn't want to be here any more. Honestly he just wanted to find some place to sleep. Anything to be rid of this new dizziness that had settled on his head. God he was so tired.

But instead they were met with complete silence. It was a bit nerve wracking so, just in case, he sent one construct ahead. Just to see what was going on inside the building. It was just a bad idea over all.

The first shot rang out, striking the dog's shoulder, sending vibrations of pain through his own. He didn't stop himself from crying out this time. Freakin' hurt getting shot like that. The second struck the neck and for a moment Alex couldn't breath. He fought to stay awake as the first dog construct collapsed into dust the moment it hit the ground. It was getting harder to fight down the pain. He didn't even notice the knife slipping from his hand.

The second dog, reacting defensively, charged in. It was all instinct, no plan, just a want to remove the source of pain. That didn't go well either. This time it was a bullet between the eyes, instantly obliterating the construct. For two seconds everything in his head turned off, dead in a technical sense, and then he was simply knocked out. Alive but no longer able to help the dead girl who so wanted to play hero.

Guns had evolved so much in the past decades. Emily remembered when melee weapons were more affective. Now they were more decoration than weapon. This man seemed to be pretty skilled with firearms. Had he shot all these people? The blood would say yes. But why hadn’t anyone heard all the noise? And how did this man have so much ammo?

Emily gathered a little courage when she was joined by zombie dogs. So the boy she met could make zombie animals. That was pretty awesome. But they didn’t last very long against bullets.

Emily cringed each time a dog was struck. He could hear the boy cry out in pain. They must be connected somehow. What had Emily done?

“Why are you doing this?!” She yelled into the building. The situation had spiraled out of control. “You’re hurting the boy!” Not that the man would care. He had taken all these lives already. Should Emily take the boy and just run away? But then the man would get away with all this carnage. And there was still the injured man inside the building. Emily couldn’t just leave him in there to die.

“Don’t hurt that man anymore. I don’t know what you want from him. But please, let me take his place.” Emily didn’t know what else to do.