Aedus was still getting used to looks that he would get, his skin was sleek, black and shined with a reminiscent danger of what once was. But it was those same looks that took him to the warehouse district to go jogging, he wasn’t a park jogger normally anyhow, but he wasn’t even sticking to his neighborhood at the moment. He had found that his body temperature was up quite a bit in the obsidian state, he preferred cool showers where he typically liked them hot, and He didn’t bother with coats or hoodies or shirts sometimes. Tonight he threw on a pair of white windbreakers and some tennis shows other than that He was exposed to the chill night.

It was clear night and the air was crisp, but Aedus couldn't help but feel like the tension in the air was leading up to a crescendo. It was then that he spotted a a group of men getting oout of a pair of SUV's these were not cover all, warehouse workers.

He kept a fast pace, his body was used to pedaling across the city at top speeds and with his hours cut as his old job and the majority of them being replaced at Faust Pharm, he found himself sitting still a lot more than he was used to, and so he made up with it by jogging. His lava pool eyes caught a group of men shouting and running to an alley way, they definitely looked like they were chasing and not running from, like hounds they were all focused on one direction, one query, they didn’t scatter like prey typically did.

He picked up his pace, someone was in danger. Not on his watch.

It was a scam! He should have recognized that it was from the beginning but that’s what he gets for trusting a man’s word. Falcone never set up meetings like this, he never met him in person to give him his money, especially not directly after one of his spiritual cleansing rituals. After those, Vicente was usually extremely weak from lack of food and water, but “Falcone” insisted that they meet tonight. Get paid tonight or don’t get paid at all. Vicente should have known right there that something fishy was going on but he was still coming off of his ritual and wasn’t thinking straight.

Therefore he agreed…

…and that was why right now, in the crisp air of the night, Vicente de la Sangre was being chased down by the contents of two SUVs.

“There he is! Down the alley!”

“Don’t lose the old bastard!”

“Get the flamethrower!!”

Flamethrower?!

It didn’t take a genius for Vicente to recognize who these people were. They were enforcers once loyal to a mob boss by the name of Wayne. He and Vicente had a run in nearly six months prior. During that altercation Vicente had run the man’s hand through with a knife, severing all the nerves. A week later, the mob boss was found dead, a bullet between his eyes. But Vicente was not the trigger man for that. Apparently that didn’t matter to Wayne’s boys…someone needed to die for it.

Unfortunately Vicente fit the bill.

Weariness tried to take over him but the assassin pushed through as he rounded a corner in the labyrinth of alleyways. Wayne’s boys were screaming, trying to fish the assassin out. He was tired but he wasn’t stupid.

He crammed his massive physique into the shadows and waited. His dark eyes scanned the dimly lit alley as his free hand pulled a knife free from his belt while the other arm began to crack and shift. Nearly a minute passed as he felt the gorilla arm painfully shift into place. It barely finished shifting when he looked up to see one of the enforcers creeping through the alley, a handgun poised to fire.

Waiting until he was turned…Vicente growled before he suddenly dashed out and drove the blade straight into the man’s spine. Despite his effort to silence the man with a firm hand over his mouth, he still accidentally fired the gun.

KA-BLAM!![/b]

He cursed. They would be on him any second…

Aedus was surprised at how serious these guys were , this was not a pack of gang bangers with crow bars, chains and bats, they had artillery, he wasn’t the slightest bit worried about a flamethrower, his fire tolerance went up to eleven, particularly where fire was concerned. He wasn’t sure how his stone skin would hold up to bullets, but he wasn’t planning on getting shot either. He wondered momentarily what one had to do to get people after you that thought you were best dealt with by flamethrower. Regardless, it was apparently an old man they were after too.

He closed in a pair of man that were sweeping the alley way. The pair turned and looked shocked to see the golem closing in on them. He tackled the man that after a moment was raising his gun towards him. He went to punch the guy a second time but the other guy, the one with the flamethrower let loose on them, the man below him screamed and sizzled and for the first time he was thankful for his muted senses. He didn’t want to be able to recognize the smell of cooked human flesh. His wind breakers were ablaze but it wasn’t anything new to him.

The outrage of hunting an old man was one thing, but the level of cut throat that it took to Toast your right hand man. These were bad men. Aedus wouldn’t sink to their level though. The flames finally ceased. And Aedus rose from a crouch landing a solid upper cut to the flame wielders jaw. Aedus was pleased to feel the moment the man’s jaw pop coincide with his feet leaving the ground.

The thug hit the ground about the same time he heard a gunshot further down one of the alleyways. Just one. Was that the end of the ‘old bastard’? He hoped not. Aedus sprinted down the alley way leaving the corpse and unconscious body behind.

Vicente actually snarled as he released the man that he had just killed to the ground below. The thug fell into a heap. Normally he would have taken the time to hide the body but that was now that was obviously not going to help him. The gun went off so it was obvious that anyone around would have clearly heard it and it would draw their attention. No, the assassin needed to make tracks and get out of here. As much as he hated to run away from a fight his sense of survival meant that he needed to think about living another day.

He stepped over the body and made the leave down the nearest alley when he skidded to a halt.

“That gunshot came from down here!” one of the screamed.

“Who went down there?”

“Was Tony! Tony! Did you get him?”

Twirling the crimson stained blade in his hand, Vicente cursed as he turned and tried to head down another alley but he stopped again. He could hear more voices, and the sound of running, hard running. He snarled as he decided that he was going to have to fight his way out of this situation. Definitely not something that he was looking forward to, but it needed to be done.

A growl escaped his lips as he suddenly charged down one of the alleys that he heard the voices coming from. As he ran he peered through the dark and watched as there were at least four men advancing on his position. Though he was tired and weary, he knew was needed to be done. They wouldn’t expect a head on attack, which was why he roared in his human voice...

“What’s that?” One thug asked..

“There! Old man’s insane!!”

Swipe! Swipe!! Crunch!!![/b]

Vicente charged through and slashed, crushed and punched with the best of his ability. Caught in the darkness of the alley, the foursome screamed and shouted out as one of their own had his neck crushed in to the point that it looked like a used up tube of toothpaste. But these thugs were not scared so easily. The second one of them caught sight of the assassin he lashed out with a crowbar he was carrying and struck the old man hard across his shoulders.

A grunt of pain flew from his lips as Vicente stumbled down onto his knees and tried to clear his vision as quickly as possible.

One man tried to kick him while he was down. The assassin was quick enough to stab his foot through with his knife, but this only gave opportunity for another man to kick out and drive his boot into Vicente’s back.

He hissed as he stumbled forward. Any day…any other damn day and he would have made short work out of all of them…

Aedus heard a roar, a wild roar He hurried faster almost comically He turned a corner as a suited thug did as well the hatchet in his hand said that he was with the senicide team. The surprise on his face said he wasn't expecting what was in front of him, The fist that smashed the surprise off of his face, said good night.Aedus barely paused. He turned down the alley way that the roar had come from and kept up his adrenaline fueled pace. the 'old man' was not what he expected. for one thing he had a massive arm that looked like it would be better suited to a gorilla, his keen eyes confirmed that was all too accurate.

He propelled him self forward leaping into a wrestling move he had seen a hundred times and perfected on his siblings growing up. He looped his arm around the head of the man that was pressing the mutant to the ground and drop kicked the one in the gut. the man in the head lock offered a momentary moment of balance that allowed him to plant the full force of the kick in the second man and drop his feet to the ground before he fell. The guy was strong, but the change it balance allowed Aedus to fling him forward in a brutally violent motion that caused the mobster go air born and then to skip on the grimy alley way pavement.he marveled at the exchange of momentum and his new found weight did to a simple judo move.

He looked down to the mutant on his knees and for the first time realized his pants and shoes were on fire.

Aedus mentally counted off the men that had been taken out.eight, yeah he noticed the body he passed in the alley way apparently the man before couldn't afford to be merciful. Had he just saved someone that deserved to be chased by a flamethrower and a hatchet? Aedus landed a harsh kick to the man's head with the blade in his foot... he was still reaching for a gun, ridiculous.

"Hey, there was one more guy, lets get you out of here."The sound of a bullet ricocheting off the brick wall punctuated his sentence.

Vicente gasped as he felt the pain spider-web throughout his body. He was getting far too tired to fight back. He didn’t appreciate having to admit that, but it was the truth. He came out here too late and far too quickly than he should have. He should have waited, he should have contacted Falcone to make sure, he should have known better! There were so many of those fluttering about in his head but each mocking tone he simply had to ignore. He couldn’t do it anymore. He felt weariness set in and he just wanted them done with it.

Thank the gods that they had attacked him only after he did his cleansing ritual. At least he could die with his soul free of blood.

But just as he was about to accept his fate, he heard the sounds of screaming pain. Weakly he looked up to see one of the men being kicked away while the other one was suddenly lurching down by some dark mass that held him in a headlock. At first Vicente really could not make out what was going on because of a combination of his tiredness and because it was so dark inside of the alley.

All he caught was the gleam of some black, smooth, and shiny. What it was, he couldn’t comprehend…until he spied the fiery red, lava pools of eyes.

In shock he backed away until he watched as the strange apparition had suddenly taken down another of his attackers and turned to face him.

“ Itztlacoliuhqui-Ixquimilli? Is that...you?" Had the god truly appeared to save him?

>> "Hey, there was one more guy, lets get you out of here."

Vicente slowly began to stand until there was the sound of a gunshot. He blinked as he turned his head. Yet another of his assailants that were after him. This was getting ridiculous.

Finding strength, he moved on his feet and in a smooth motion he pulled a knife free of his belt and hurled it with all of his might into the shadows where the gunshot came from.

A cry of pain followed, but it was not a kill shot. At most he nicked him. He snarled as he moved to his feet.

“Thank you,” was all he muttered as he stood. After all, one must thank a god…

He stepped between the older male and the gunfire…was he too confident of his obsidian skin? He would have to take some to the firing range and see what happened. “No problem, I’m not..Itzlacol…I’m not who you think I am. One sec, I’ll be right back.”

Aedus wasn’t going to get shot in the back. He was high on adrenalin and he didn’t fight that hard just to let the save go sour.

His eyes locked on the glint of the knife the other man had thrown, that blade was clean and sharp. He followed the knife up to the man above it and knew why he hadn’t heard his thunderous footsteps baring down on him, didn’t hear or was maybe too distracted to care. The man with the gun was distracted by his ear that was only still slightly attached to his head.

He was clutching it to the side of his head with the hand that held the gun. This man was a killer, he ran with people that carried around hatchets and flamethrowers and hunted people in allies, the thought barely crossed his mind before he was throwing the punch.

His stonefist landed squarely on the gun, the gun collided with his bleeding ear stump wound and he yelped again, it was odd to see the man stand the blow and faint from the pain. Aedus, knelt and grabbed up the knife wiping the blade on the man’s shirt. And his keys fell out of his pocket, for a moment he was tempted to grab the keys to get them both out of there quicker, but he settled for throwing them on top of a building, good luck finding that fellas.

He jogged back to the dazed guy; he could afford to jog now that they were all downed. “Do we need to get you to a hospital?” It finally dawned on him that he might have just helped someone worse than the SUV thugs…this guy carried knives as sharp as death and threw them like he meant it. He hand the man the blade hilt first.

>> “No problem, I’m not..Itzlacol…I’m not who you think I am. One sec, I’ll be right back.”

Vicente paused as he knelt there, watching as Itztlacoliuhqui-Ixquimilli walked away from him and into the shadows where he had thrown his knife. He knew that there was still an attacker out there. His knife throw had not been the best and unfortunately it was not a deathblow. It seemed as if, though, that that didn’t matter.

The obsidian god had walked away and into the shadows. From his vantage point, Vicente could see absolutely nothing but he could hear extremely well. There was a sound of whimpering and then of something hard striking against metal and into bone. That was followed by a loud thud. The assassin smirked to himself as he sat there, trying to catch his breath. He was injured but it was nothing that would be fatal. He simply needed rest…and food.

He slowly began to recover as he looked up to see the Stone God return and stand before him.

>> “Do we need to get you to a hospital?”

“Nooo,” Vicente grunted he grabbed onto the man’s smooth, hard hand. Gently he eased himself up onto his feet and sighed as he rubbed his ribs. One of those thugs had gotten in a cheap shot and he was going to be paying for it. “No hospitals,” he said sternly. “I’ll…I’ll be fine,” he winced as he grabbed his side again. But he grunted as he nodded to the man. “Thank you, for your assistance. I…I don’t know what they wanted…”

He wasn’t a God, therefore it was no problem lying to him.

Aedus nodded expecting the answer, Hospitals meant paper work, And explaining how to best treat your Gorilla arm.

“My pleasure. And I do, they wanted you, extra crispy apparently. As far as why, well. That’s not my business.”The man was dangerous with a knife and he wondered at if he became dangerous because he was in danger, or if he was in danger because he was dangerous. HE guessed it didn’t matter. He was both either way.

He walked alongside the man, he wasn’t sure if it was the beating or his age or both that made him seem like he might need an escort a bit longer, but he wasn’t willing to guarantee, that there wasn’t more thugs around.
“I’m Eruption.” It was just as obvious as the men he made fun of on the subway, but it was also misleading, it gave the idea he could erupt whenever he felt like it. it might be a good thing.

He figured he might not want to tell a man that had hit teams after him his real name. Aedus kicked off his ruined shoes as they walked, they were still smoldering from the flame thrower. He shed the leftovers of his burnt pants as well. It was the first time he was thankful he could be nude without consequence. He wasn’t sure what he expected, if the man would tell him his name. or give him a code name, or a name he wouldn’t be able to pronounce. Like itzopopluplala…

>> “My pleasure. And I do, they wanted you, extra crispy apparently. As far as why, well. That’s not my business.”[/color]

Good man, Vicente thought to himself.

In his weakened state he was more than happy to think that this man was a god, but the man’s assertion that he was not started to sink in. Maybe it was a foolish thought for him to have, after all, the god’s had not really proved themselves to be all that reliable these days. His prayers and cries seemed to be falling on deaf ears more and more and his cleansing rituals were not producing the same effects that they normally used to.

For whatever reason, the gods were closing their ears to him and it was something that Vicente certainly did not appreciate. He much in their name and he always followed their rules closely, but for whatever reason they simply did not want anything to do with him at the moment.

He did not appreciate the silence, but he would have to think about that later. At the moment he needed to get out of this alley with this man who was out to aide him.

Though Vicente did not like to accept help when he could help it, the fact that he was that he was in desperate need of it right now. He would accept it, though a little begrudgingly.

>> “I’m Eruption.”

He arched a brow. Another one of those mutants running around thinking he was a hero? Greeeeat…

Vicente slowly began to walk on his own accord, the weakness beginning to evaporate from his sore limbs. His ribs hurt. He was going to have to make sure he bound that before it got worse. But he was not going to any hospital. He needed to get home, but he was not going to have this man follow him all the way there. Dr. Adonis? No…that was only going to cause more problems. He would have to bind it himself.

He finally turned to his savior and nodded to him.

“Blood,” was all he said in reference to his own name. As they walked he began to shift his arm. It painfully cracked and snapped into place, reshaping it so that the gorilla arm began to shrink down and lose all of its fur. Before long it was simply another muscular, human arm lacking the coarse black fur. “Nice to meet you…Eruption. You definitely saved this old man’s life…”

But if there was one thing that Vicente did not like…it was a debt…

“Oh! Nice.” Aedus comment on his arm shifting back to human, He had hoped that he had the shape shifting ability, it would be inconvenient to shop for shirts with only one arm in the big and tall section. As if that would be his biggest concern.

“Don’t mention it Blood,” yeah this guy was dangerous, but then he was feeling damn dangerous himself at the moment. If there was a debt to be repaid Aedus surely didn’t know it.

“ I was happy to. I was out exercising and to be honest that was fun. Crazy, but fun. Surviving helps.” He paused by the guy that he threw over his shoulder. And spotted the other pair of keys. Bending down to grab the key ring he laughed at the girly set of charms that dangled from the man’s keys. “I wouldn’t typically steal, but it would help you get out of here quicker, not to mention, I don’t think they deserve their cars. I threw the other set on the roof so they won’t be following.” for some reason this set of keys appealed to him a lot more than the first.

He looked to get blood’s opinion on car theft, would it be odd to find an extremely moral man in this situation?

>> “Oh! Nice.”

Vicente arched a brow but he didn’t say nothing in return. He was not sure what the man was commenting on. All Vicente knew was that the numbness from the transformation was lingering. He would rather all his limbs were working at the same time. He couldn’t risk any one of them being out of commission at all.

>> “Don’t mention it Blood… I was happy to. I was out exercising and to be honest that was fun. Crazy, but fun. Surviving helps.”

“It does,” Vicente responded with a tired smirk. He hated feeling this weak but he knew that he didn’t have any option. He needed to press on though, get to some sort of transportation since he didn’t bring his own for the first time. That and he feared that more of those thugs may show up the second it’s released that this first wave failed.

He was going to have to have a long talk with Falcone…

He grunted as he was led out of the alley and spied the cars that were left behind. Those were definitely the types of vehicles that Wayne’s men drove.

>> “I wouldn’t typically steal, but it would help you get out of here quicker, not to mention, I don’t think they deserve their cars. I threw the other set on the roof so they won’t be following.” [/color]

He had to laugh at that comment, though it made his ribs hurt all the more. The man was sincerely trying to help him, but he didn’t even know what he was getting into. Or, if he did, he was just too stupid to realize the type of trouble he was getting in and helping him. Sometimes helping strangers did not pane out to be helpful at all!

But he nodded to the nearest vehicle that the obsidian god had snatched up the keys for.

“That one,” he said firmly…

Well that answered that question. Grand theft auto, was a go.

Aedus Walked toward the Suv, Pushing the unlock button on the car and was delighted to find that no one had been waiting in the car, apparently they weren’t too worried about the old man, they didn’t even leave anyone to guard the vehicles. Aedus popped open the drives door and slid into the driver’s seat, he had driven before, he wasn’t one of these new Yorkers that never need a license, and he wanted a car someday, when it was practical. Aedus was adjusting the mirror when he spotted a pair of headlights flick on the same time he started the engine.

“You must have pissed someone off pretty bad, they have another car waiting.” He slammed his seat belt into place. And put the large suv in drive Aedus was going to take off as soon as Blood got in the car.

Vicente staggered forward. He was at least moving on his own accord now but he needed to get to some medical supplies of some kind. Thankfully this man here seemed to take his comment about not wanting to go to a hospital serious. If he hadn’t, they wouldn’t be breaking into a car and stealing it from the scene of a crime. At most he would have just dialed 9-1-1 and left him in that alley in pain. But this man was sincerely trying to help him…

…

…

…the fool.

The assassin did not always care for those kind-hearted individuals who took it upon themselves to help others. The unfortunate truth was that if you had to stop to help someone else, then who was going to be there to rescue you? It was just a silly dynamic that he despised. But the assassin would let it got for now. He needed this man to at least get him out of here. Then he could decide what he needed to do with him.

He growled slightly as the car door was unlocked for him. Gently began to urge himself within.

>> “You must have pissed someone off pretty bad, they have another car waiting.”

He smirked slightly.

“It’s New York. You think it’s really that hard to piss off a posse these days?” he said with a light chuckle.

“Actually, I grew up here and I haven’t quite gotten anyone flamethrower mad at me, but hey I think I might be working on it. Buckle up.” Aedus pulled out of the space, he didn’t want to take off just yet, maybe, and just maybe it was a coincidence. The car behind them gunned it, And so the gas pedal met the floorboard, he had always wanted to drive a car threw the city like he rode his bike, You see a bike currier is a dare devil that makes deliveries, they ride a bike in traffic most people aren’t comfortable driving in, no safety belts, no airbags, no metal in between them and the other cars, they went where they wanted to when they wanted to, to get to where they were going as fast as they could. They didn’t stop for stop lights stop signs, police, pedestrians or any other traffic. It also helped to know every bike path, sidewalk, and street and alley way in the city. Aedus was considered by his peers to be one of the best.

Aedus tore through three stop signs and turned his signal on his left and went right down the wrong way on a one way. The car behind them followed at an erratic pace. The follow car was at a disadvantage they had to follow the leader, the leader however got to do what they wanted. Aedus hung a hard left at the first intersection towards his favorite part of town. He was waiting for the gun fire to begin but it didn’t and that puzzled him. He was starting to gain some distance on them and realized they weren’t trying to keep up, but keep a location on them. He turned right down an alley way, it had plenty of space for one and a half cars. The SUV sped down the alleyway; he picked this particular path because if one didn’t know it then they wouldn’t realize that about half way through it cut off to barely enough space for one car. Aedus edged to the left until the driver’s side mirror went flying off behind them, the right tires were hugging a ledge and he continued on at high speed pace.

The Car behind them didn’t see the drop until it was too late, one minute there was a road, the next minute there was not. The car spiraled like a perfect thrown pass until it didn’t have any one to catch it and bounced of the pavement skipping and twirling in a destructive display.

Aedus exited the alley way and checked on his passenger, it couldn’t have been fun for someone wounded, but he was now clear of any assailants. Aedus drove calmly down the roads of new york, casually checking his rear view for any would be assailants. “So, where too?”