The Shadow of the Evening

[Shofet]

The Penitent chuckled darkly, looking at the opponent.

"Oh, me? I'm the Penitent. A thousand damned souls have been bound to me so that I might see them to absolution. To achieve that end, I have been bestowed with the very powers of Hell. But more importantly, I'm a man who is looking for his friends, friends I assume you might have done something terrible to. Which, as you may have guessed, made me a little angry. Extremely angry, in fact. You might even say absolutely furious."

"But I'm a nice guy, honest. To prove it, I'll give you a choice. You become a lot more compliant and help me here, or I teach you what your inner colon tastes like."

He put on a mock saccharine tone. "But please, take your time in deciding."

[Thunder King]

GM

"I am not impressed, mortal." He said, chuckling. "You would waste your advantage offering me such a thing? I have no use for you. If I do not kill you here, I will not survive the night either way. Might as well finish the fight."

He grinned at the Penitent, a grim look in his eyes. It was clear that no matter what happened, going down fighting was preferable to the fate that awaited him if he failed.

[Shofet]

The Penitent paused for only a moment, before giving an annoyed sigh and beaning his opponent in the face with a ball of Brimstone Flames.

"Y'see, that was the wrong answer if you couldn't have guessed."

He folded his arms, and cracked his neck.

"Shame to hear about the whole "you dying" thing. That certainly puts a different light on things. Not that I'm gonna start hesitatin' in poundin' the poop out of yah, but it certainly changes perspective. Wish I could help."

[Thunder King]

GM

He charged in and took another swing, to find the Penitent standing there, unfazed. Then he hung his head

"This is fruitless." He said, sighing. "I do not care enough about their cause to die for it like this." He reached into his pocket and handed the Penitent a business card.

"This is where they are. If you defeat them all, I will survive the night. If not, I regret nothing. I have a better chance against them, then I do against you, it seems." Before the Penitent could stop him, he turned and flew away.

The Penitent could chase after him, or he could look at the card and follow the address on it.

[Shofet]

The Penitent took off into the air, quickly catching up to the man who had just been fighting him. He could easily outdo this guy's speed, but he slowed down so he could let the guy hear him.

"Hey, buddy!" He called out, and waved at the vampire. "It's against my better judgement, but you seem to be genuinely worried you're gonna die. I figure the least I could do is make sure that doesn't happen."

He looked down at the guy, hoping he would hear him out.

[Thunder King]

GM

"None of this matters, you know. They'll win, kill me for my failure, and kill all of your friends, too. They've got things too lined up for it to fail."

The cold, almost wintery wind blew in their faces as they flew along. He did not seem keen on listening, nor did he attempt to evade. It was apparent that he knew the Penitent had him, regardless of what happened to him next. He just hoped he could avoid being killed, naturally.

[Shofet]

"No! I'm not gonna let'em kill ya. That's kind of my job."

He spend up and then stopped in front of the man, folding his arms again. Seeing his own aggressive pose, he sighed, and shrugged his shoulders, spreading his arms out to seem less threatening.

"Look, I'm just trying to help. I'm not asking you to put your life on the line for me -- you're already in danger and I'm trying to alleviate that. I don't want anyone to die, even you."

He looked at his former opponent pleadingly.

"Please, listen."

[Thunder King]

GM

He sighed "I know where your friends are being kept, and I know what they're planning to do. You can't waste time protecting me if you plan on saving them. But, that doesn't mean you have to do this alone." He said, folding his arms.

"I know this sounds weird, but, this is the best chance I have of waking up to see tomorrow night, so I'm going to throw my chips in with you. It's better than getting killed by my supposed bosses. It's all part of some dark ritual, but it happens later tonight. If you go to that address, you should be able to stop it before any of them get killed."

[Shofet]

The Penitent's face changed from a concerned expression to a soft grin. "Alright. Thank you."

He looked at his new ally, and noted how he had been roughed up a bit, and he put his hand on the man's shoulder, invigorating him with healing energy.

"But first, I need to make sure you're in a condition to fight, and I need to make a call to make sure that we have a way to treat the people there."

[Thunder King]

GM

"Well, that, was unusual..." He said as he could feel his body recover. "I thank you for that, and good idea. I'm sure your mortal police will be of great use against vampires." He chuckled. "Ah, well, I'm sure they will be able to help clean up."

"I don't mean to seem ungrateful, but, your healing magic did not...remove quite all the injuries you inflicted on me."

"Understand, working with you means I can lift the yoke of those idiots from my neck and no longer be bound to obey them. That is all this means. I will, out of courtesy, 'keep my nose clean' as it were, to avoid further conflict in the future, but this does not make us friends."

[Shofet]

The Penitent chuckled lightly, but his eyes were dark. "I understand. Keepin' your nose clean is all I ask -- But, on my part, I'm obligated to help, so if you ever end up in over your head in the future, which given how fast you are I kind of doubt will be a common occurance, I'll help. That's a guarantee I'll keep."

Suddenly, he landed in front a phone booth.

"I figure it takes about a minute for my powers to recharge when it comes to healing, so I will do that once this call ends."

Nodding to his temporary ally, he popped a few more quarters into the payphone and dialed the detective's number. "Hey, Detective, the Penitent again. We've got some help this time that's directed me to where the other vampires are and where the victims are. They're apparently pretty powerful, so if you do send in something, make sure they can handle the heavy-hitters. In any case..." He gave the address, looking back at the other guy while he waited for her response.

[Thunder King]

GM

"Kind of you to warn ahead of time." He said, looking towards the sky. "They're doing the sacrifices in less than an hour and a half, we must get going, soon. Believe me, you don't want to fight them after they complete it. Even if your friends weren't in danger."

He hadn't landed, in fact, he stood levitating off the ground, arms folded. He sighed.

"For what it's worth, I didn't attack any of your friends, I was asked to watch the scenes of the kidnappings for any heroes trying to investigate."

[Shofet]

"Well, considering you were under coercion, that clears you in my books."

He lifted off into the air with the guy, and then stopped. "I just realised I have no idea what to call you, which is going to be a pain if we're fighting alongside each other. But in the interests of equal opportunity, I'm Bram."

He extended his hand out, as much to heal his ally as to be polite.

"If you don't wanna use your real name, I understand."

[Thunder King]

GM

He eyed his hand, and then shook it "If I survive the night, I will give you my name." He said solemnly. Whether or not he got the 'Bram' joke was not evident. He was either not a fan of fiction, or not in the mood to deal with humor. Either way, he did not acknowledge it.

"Shall we fly, then?" He asked, looking anxiously up at the sky.

[Shofet]

The Penitent nodded, and took off into the sky, heading towards the address. He tore through the night sky, slowing down only so the other could keep up with him. Since he had no name to go on, he designated the guy "Guy" so he could at least had something to call him.

When they got the address, he landed on the roof, wanting to not to just barge in and potentially speed up the earlier-mentioned ritual, and figured he'd take a stealthy approach to it all.

"Alright, this is it." He said to Guy, looking about. "Anything I should know before we bust some heads?"

[Thunder King]

GM

"Take an early advantage if you can, but hit them quickly. If they have to stop the ritual for any reason, it fails and cannot be repeated for a few days." He said, closing his eyes.

"Other than that, there should be several fledglings, newly created vampires, they are weak and not worth your time. The leader of the ritual is dressed in robes, he will be your main target because he is performing the ritual. I can help take care of the fledglings, you should concentrate on the leader. Hit him, hit him fast, hit him hard."" He offered a grin, flashing his fangs.

[Shofet]

He nodded to Guy, and then headed in through the rooftop door, ducking through the hallways and making sure to the stick to the shadows. It was obvious the Penitent wasn't very used to being stealthy, but he at least knew well enough to float off the ground to remove any chance of someone hearing his footsteps, and he didn't leave himself out in the open.

Alrighty, looks like I'll be communicating to you this way. I can narrow it down to you now that I know what your mind is like, so we can handle this without blabbin' and getting ourselves caught."

He pressed himself against the wall as they neared their destination, and peered into the darkness to see what was going on.

[Thunder King]

GM

The room was rather large, and looked like it had been decorated with a sinister intent. The walls were covered in blood red drapes and tapestries of grisly scenes. In the center of the room was a raised platform, atop which stood a cloaked figure.

The only light in the room were a series of candles along the walls, giving the entire room a shadowy appearance that did nothing to alleviate the sinister appearance. The shadows cast between sets of candles was, at first, impenetrable.

However, after a second of looking into the room, the Penitent's eyes adjusted to the lighting and pierced the shadows. It was evident that there were people standing between the candles, all in black robes with their heads down.

The humans, the captives, did not appear in the room.

"The sacrifice is nigh, my friends!" The man in the center of the room shouted as he raised his hands into the air.

"Bring me the mortal sacrifices."

[Shofet]

The Penitent rolled his eyes.

"How... dramatic. Allow me to show them what-for."

Already being in the air, the Penitent suddenly gained a massive amount of speed, racing from cover to bowl over his opponent, who would only see him as a blur. He body-checked the robed man in the centre, who seemed to be the one giving orders, and knocked him head over heels while the Penitent raced on ahead, slowing down and dropping to the ground on his feet as he turned, creating some drag and brushing up some dust from the ground.

"Consider your little LARP here interrupted."

[Thunder King]

GM

The man hardly had time to react as he flipped onto his back. He growled up at the Penitent and, with a sudden flair, twirled around and jumped backward. He backed away from his foe and adjusted his clothing.

"I was told that a hero was interfering with our little...ritual. No matter, you may have stopped it this time, but we will do it another night. You, however, will be dead."

He crossed his arms and backed away into the shadows.

"Get him." Was all he said as he backed into the shadows.

The air filled with the sound of rushing wind as five vampires leaped into the air all at once.

Guy, with his enhanced vampiric reflexes, leaped into the air with surprising speed. Unfortunately, his target sidestepped his initial strike.

One of the vampires rushed at the Penitent, fist clenched. He brought his hand across the Penitent's face, and then stepped back a moment in horror. As strong as he was, the mighty Penitent was tougher.

[Shofet]

The Penitent glared at the vampire, grinding his teeth.

"You know, all these punches may not hurt too much, but they're sure as heck annoying me like nobody's business." He reared up. "Mine, however, will definitely hurt!"

The Penitent threw his fist upwards, hoping to get the vampire in an uppercut and take him out, but the vampire quickly bent back, the punch just barely missing its intended target as the wind from it fluttered up the vampire's hair a bit with the force.

"You were lucky that time, I'm doubtin' it's gonna happen again."

[Thunder King]

GM

Guy's head darted back and forth, glancing from foe to foe. He chuckled and cracked his knuckles.

"You know you will lose." He said, flatly, to the crowd of vampires. "I am stronger than you, faster than you, and far older and more powerful."

He turned around and delivered a quick and brutal kick to the side of one of them. The vampire flew through the air, skidded along the ground, and collapsed, no longer moving.

"See? It is as I said."

[Shofet]

The Penitent stood up stiff as the creatures attacked in a rush against him. The first launched forward at him, punching for the diaphragm. The Penitent didn't even move as the vampire's knuckles landed squarely on target, only to see the Penitent looking down at him, his yellow eyes dilated into cat-like slits as they sat in the sea of red around them while the Penitent's face wrenched into a dark, condescending grin. The next hurried up to him in a similar beserker charge, throwing himself at the Penitent with a powerful punch, prompting the Penitent to casually swat his attack away with barely so much as a notice.

The leader readied a blast of Hellfire, hitting the Penitent with perfect precision. The ball of flame swept over and engulfed the Penitent just as another vampire managed to ineffectually swing at him. The hellfire glowed white hot, flickering over him for a minute, and the outlined form of the Penitent fell to his knees, arms crossed over his chest, shrieking.

Before anyone could proclaim victory, the hiss of the hellfire died, and it became apparent that the shrieking was in fact hysterical laughter. Slowly, the Penitent rose to his feet, his leather jacket in tatters but his person no worse for wear was he looked about them.

"That's it? Eheheh. That's all? That's your best? Ahahaha!"

His face rapidly hardened into an intense glare as he looked at the minions. He looked from each and every one of them.

"Y'all're pathetic. Seriously." He focused intently on the minions. "I hope you're getting it, though. None of you pose any threat to me at all. Not one. Never have, never will. So I'm going to give you all one last chance. You're all in thick now for the kidnapping, but I'm going to let you go ahead and sit this fight out. If not, I will hit you just as hard as I am about to hit your master, and for what you did to my friends... Well, as the good book says, every little bruise, the slightest scratch will be "paid back sevenfold". So if you have the slightest amount of self-preservation instinct, you will all stand-down and stay out of this fight."

He looked back at the leader. "But you? You organised this. You've bullied most of these poor beggars into this. You don't get a chance."