A/N; Major warning though, this chapter will feature a bit of gore and an orphanage on fire and there will be a death in both cases, so please be aware of that if that kind of thing bothers you. Heck, a lot of this story will be dark but truthfully the show itself is a bit dark anyway.

You've been warned.

Update 23/01/2014; Moved first three chapters that were backstories of my OCs to their own story. If you still want to read them, find them as Bonds: The Backstories.

That is all. Onto the story~

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Fate Or Coincidence?

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DAKOTA CITY: May 21, 22:28 CDT

A shadow flew silently, high over the streets of Dakota City, glowing red eyes watching unblinking. In the distance he could hear sirens, heading to a scene he had just recently left behind in chaos. He'd let those two new heroes deal with the ruckus. He couldn't help but let a snarl leave him as he thought of them. Rocket and Icon he believed their names were, he never really stuck around to properly see them.

Three years he'd been taking out the worst of the worst, cleaning up the grunts of the back alleys whenever he chanced upon them. Damnit, this was his city now. He didn't need or want any more heroes sticking their noses in his business. Heck, the city was in better shape now than it had been three years ago, even if the authorities had been chomping at the bit since day one to take him down. They quite possibly wanted to take him down worse than some of Gotham City's authorities wanted Batman; purely for the fact that he actually killed the people he was contracted to take down. But such was the life of an assassin. They weren't known for sparing their targets. And really, he didn't kill everyone. The grunts he left alive for the police, or now the new heroes, to deal with. Still, they wanted him and wanted him bad, even had a cell all lined up and ready for when they got him. Hah, 'when'.

Beginning a slow decent, the demigod dropped down onto a rooftop and walked up one of the corners of the building, bones clicking and clacking against each other as he perched there like a gargoyle. He could still hear sirens, albeit faintly, on the other side of the city from where he had come from. A few different people had contacted him about the mob boss he had killed tonight. He had been doing his procedure of doing research and collecting evidence on the guy after the first person contacted him, just to make sure he was right to take the contract. But then two other people contacted him about the same guy and knew even without the evidence he'd collected that this guy was bad news. He had split the payment of one contract between the three of them, make it cheaper for them, and once they put in their deposits he'd set out immediately to complete the contract.

'Course, it hadn't been easy. The guy had collected his entire gang together, a collective meeting no doubt, and he'd been giving a speech to the lot of them when Jericho eventually made his way into the place. The meeting complicated things since now he'd have to kill the guy in the open in front of his own flunkies, but he thrived on situations like these where there was practically a 100% chance of chaos breaking out almost immediately. He loved it.

Obviously, chaos did indeed break out when he had shot an arrow straight into the guy's head then everyone there watched in horror as his head exploded. He had to aim perfectly to make sure everything went without a hitch, but he'd been doing this too long to not aim well. Oh, the laugh that left him as he watched the room dissolve into disorder. It was a laugh most in Dakota City's crime world had developed a deep fear for due to just how disturbing it was. If Jericho had been normal, it was a normal laugh out loud sort of laugh but because of the demonic-like form he took it distorted this laugh to the point it was downright frightening to hear.

That only proved to send everyone into a mad scramble to either get the hell out or regain control so they could search the building for the assassin. Taking out the Dakota City's most wanted Assassin could easily raise a grunt up the ranks faster than anything if they could accomplish it, but only a small minority could suck up the guts to try. Just to shake up them even worse, Jericho dropped down a few small glowing red and black balls of chaos energy into the scrambling crowd. The moment one was touched, it went off with the sound of a huge explosion and once one went off so did the rest. Any attempt at regaining control was completely lost at that point and Jericho left it at that. His contract had been fulfilled so he left without a second thought as the sound of the explosions attracted the attention of the police.

Jericho inwardly chuckled to himself on his perch as he remembered the night's events. He felt immensely better doing what he did, even if it was grisly business nor did it put him in a good light with the heroes spread throughout America. Especially the Justice League. He doubted even Batman approved of what he did. But he wasn't Batman and he could go to hell for all he cared. Some people were just too dangerous to be left alive, gift wrapped for the cops to find and take care of just to get out of prison later to start the cycle again. At least, that was Jericho's opinion.

The demigod shook his head as he heard sirens nearby, almost unsure for a moment what sirens those were until he heard the loud horns blaring; Fire engines. Sure enough, when he scanned the city he spotted the tell-tail orange glow of fire several blocks away. Unfolding his wings, he dropped off the roof and headed off in the direction of the fire. With all the flunkies gathered at that meeting, those new heroes were probably still busy rounding them up. They'd be too late to the fire to do anything to help. He might be an assassin, but he was no villain and took innocent lives in danger seriously no matter what the danger was.

The moment he dropped onto a rooftop opposite of the fire and took stock of the situation, his heart dropped. It was an orphanage/shelter that was on fire, one he knew. He had taken a few kids there after meeting them on the street when he was normal, convincing them that there was a better future for them than living a life on the worthless streets. Looking down at the crowd below, he could hear members of staff arguing with a few of the firefighters, screaming there were still a few kids unaccounted for; one being disabled.

Hissing softly under his breath, he looked back up at the burning building and tried to think of all the kids he's met there. Most of the disabled kids were on the ground floor, but there was only so many disabled rooms and one had to be put in a freed up upper floor room. But he couldn't just think of that kid, there were others too, no doubt trapped on the floors above where the fire raged or worse, actually trapped on those floors on fire. Most likely kids that had been too groggy to wake up fast enough and keep up with the others.

Quickly counting the windows, he figured out which floor in general to aim for and ran to the other side of the roof to give him a head start. Then running for the edge, he dived off and before the crowd knew what was happening above them, he'd pulled up and flew up above the burning building. Then tipping himself backwards, he started plummeting back down but quickly pulled up again and using the gathered speed shot straight through one of the windows of the floor he'd been aiming for, the topmost one on fire. Crashing into the wall opposite the window, he gathered his wits in the stifling heat and scanned the room for occupants just in case. The room was empty though and he immediately headed out into the burning hallway.

He could hear firemen shouting a couple floors below, struggling to fight the blaze slowly eating away at the building. From here there was little he could do to help them except quickly go from room to room, carefully checking before opening any of the doors in case of a backdraft. Every room he felt doubt slowly trickling in that even if there were any kids on this floor, the heat would kill them before the fire could. And as he turned a corner to check the last of the rooms, his doubt was confirmed but not in the way he feared. In the middle of the hallway was a little boy, trapped under some fallen debris. He could only guess how the poor kid ended up like this but now wasn't the time. He moved quickly to lift the now burning debris off then checked the boy for vital signs. An inhuman noise escaped him, like an animal whining softly, as he noticed the way the body lifelessly shifted as he moved him and knew before he even dropped his head to try and find a heartbeat that he was gone.

Not hearing a heartbeat, Jericho immediately moved the body to carry it over his shoulder and moved on. There was no time to grieve now but neither was he going to leave the body for the fire to eat up. He'd bring it with him; allow the staff to give him a proper burial. Briefly looking to see how fast the fire was spreading, he ran down the hallways towards the nearest staircase and headed up a floor.

Even with how quickly the fire was spreading, most of this floor was only just starting to burn and Jericho wasted no time in searching the rooms for any of the other trapped kids. This floor was empty though and as the fire was getting a foothold on it, Jericho moved up to the next floor. This was the floor he'd been anxious to get to. The disabled kid was on this floor somewhere though he couldn't exactly remember which room. But even as he moved to search every room like before, he noticed marks on the hallway walls. Dents and scratches where something had either banged into or been dragged across them. Something had already been here. Between the roaring and crackling of the fire and the shouts of the firemen below, he hadn't heard anything get past him. So either something had entered the building before him or snuck past him without him noticing.

Still, he checked every room and just as he was about to turn a corner in the hallway, he was startled backwards with a squawk when something almost crashed into him. Whatever had almost crashed into him also yelped and the child in its arms gave a shriek. Flaring his wings out behind him, he eyed the being that now stared at him in shock. The first things he immediately noticed were the robotic arms and legs, and once he looked closer, his eyes weren't normal either. And something moved behind him, a tail perhaps, as his own bony tail twitched anxiously. Obviously whoever this was, was human, otherwise had it been a robot it wouldn't look like a human with robot limbs pasted on. But he had never met a cyborg before.

The kid in his arms was the disabled kid, a little girl who'd been left paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash that had claimed the rest of her family. He personally felt relieved to see at least one kid was still alive and, apparently, being rescued by this unknown cyborg that he now noticed was wearing a rather large and tattered cloak. He could only guess he used it to hide his robotic limbs.

"Is he…?" The voice shook Jericho out of his wanderings and his glowing eyes blinked at the cyborg until he noticed he was glancing at the body he was carrying. Subtly shaking his head, he saw a pained look cross the guy's face before the guy looked down at the girl and held her closer to him. Then he looked back up, obviously not caring who the skeletal guy with the bow and arrows was before him just that he was clearly here to help.

"Is he the only one you've found so far?" Jericho nodded in response. "Have you searched the floors above?" A shaking head was his answer. He was quickly realising the skeletal guy couldn't speak and this thought was confirmed when the guy tried making signs with the hand not holding the body securely over his shoulder, eventually figuring out he was asking if he'd searched the whole floor. "N-no, I haven't. As soon as I found her, I've been spending the whole time convincing her to leave with me. Eventually I had to agree to bring her wheelchair with us before she let me get her out."

Jericho growled softly in exasperation. How could he waste time like that when the fire was spreading? Who knew how much it had spread even in the time it'd taken him to search the floors then stand here talking to this guy. Ignoring the cyborg, he abruptly let out a double caw. It was a sound he used when he was normal, one the kids he'd helped knew and would know he was close by if they heard it. They'd caw back and he'd be able to find them. The cyborg was staring at him like he'd done the most bizarre thing ever, but then there was a faint caw from down the hallway he'd come from.

The cyborg had only just gotten a 'whoa' out when Jericho was moving past him, careful of the girl in his arms, and ran full-pelt down the hallway in the direction the caw came from. For a moment he had to stop and caw again to figure out which room the answer originated, and when he got his answer he was at the door and slowly opened it so not to completely terrify the kid inside. Still, the kid was scared when he saw his rescuer but it had been better than just throwing the door open. He recognised the boy as one he had found and brought to the orphanage a few months ago and once he cawed at the kid, he could see the boy realise who he was. Kneeling down, he let the kid run to him and wrap his thin arms around his neck and as soon as he did, he wrapped his free arm around the boy and stood up.

"Hey, skelly guy, we got company." Jericho made a small noise of annoyance at the nickname as the cyborg's voice drifted down the hallway and he jogged back down to find that, indeed, the cyborg wasn't alone. A guy that was almost the same height as him, with rainbow dreadlocks and wearing a mask and goggles now stood with him with a kid in each arm; Twins by the look of them. "He's just come down from the upper floors. These are the only kids he found."

Jericho couldn't help but eye the dreadlocked guy, wondering how the hell he came down from the upper floors and whether they should go check just in case the guy had missed anyone. But before he'd even thought to ask the floor suddenly began to shudder and the kids all squealed or cried out in fear.

"The fire has weakened the structure of the floors below. They can't support the floors above anymore. The firemen are evacuating." The dreadlocked guy stated in a formal tone with a German accent. What he meant though was clear to them all. Time for searching over and it was now time to get the hell out.

Shifting the live kid so he had a better hold of him, he carefully pushed his way past the cyborg and masked guy, heading for one of the rooms he had earlier searched and kicking the door open so they had a clear way to the window opposite. Briefly side-glancing at the boy the kid held on tighter and knowing the kid was ready, he ran at the window and just as he jumped, he turned so he went out backwards. Using his wings to shield them as the window smashed into pieces at the force, they then quickly unfolded and started beating to keep them airborne as Jericho turned to make sure the others got out.

He watched as the dreadlocked guy chose to go next, quickly moving to the window to figure out what he'd do before looking at Jericho and glancing at his tail. Eyeing the flames licking at the air below, he could only guess the guy wanted him to try and make a grab for him with his tail when he jumped out. It was risky but for the sake of the twins in his arms it was the safest way. Growling, he nodded at him and as the guy moved back to get a running start, he moved closer to get into position. Hearing the twins squeal, he knew at that moment the guy had started running and as soon as he caught a glimpse of those rainbow dreadlocks his tail snatched around and caught them all. He couldn't help but squawk though as the added weight brought him down a little and his wings had to beat hard to get them all away from the hungry flames.

That only left the cyborg. He knew even if he could, trying to catch the cyborg as well was not only too dangerous but too much for him to take. Watching the guy come up to the window to access the situation, he seemed to make his mind up there and then and moved back into the room. He couldn't help but look down at the masked guy with a wondering look, but the guy could only shrug and just as they both looked back at the window the cyborg jumped out. His robotic arms were wrapped protectively around the girl and his legs were carefully positioned under him as he rapidly fell towards the ground. With a ground shaking thud, the cyborg made small craters under his robotic feet when he landed and the guy semi-collapsed from the force of the fall, Jericho startled as he saw visible electrical energy sparking up and down the guy's spine.

All he could really do was watch as he slowly descended, as the cyborg took a few seconds to recover before he very shakily stood and moved towards the crowd. As he got close enough to let the masked man down onto the ground, the cyborg had moved his tail around which had been holding the wheelchair the entire time and unfolded it so he could gently place the little girl in it. Orphanage staff quickly pushed through the crowd to get to them so they could check on the girl as well as the twins the masked guy had brought over. At this point Jericho finally landed and let the boy down before making his way over with him. Seeing that all the kids seemed to be alright, the staff were thanking the other two profusely until a couple noticed the body he was carrying and he sighed, steeling himself for their reaction as he carefully shifted the boy from over his shoulder into his arms so he carried him sort of bridal-style.

Kneeling down in front of them, he gently lowered the body onto the ground and his wings visibly drooped as he started hearing sobbing above him. He had experienced death before, but it never made it any easier. He shifted when a female staff member knelt down, looking over the dead boy before lifting her tear-stained face up to him. He could see in her eyes a silent thank you for bringing him out with him and he subtly nodded his head in response.

"Oiy, El Segador!" Jericho looked up and eyed the fireman that had spoken to him, slowly standing to face him. "You better get out of here. Police are making their way here."

Now that he turned his attention from the scene, he could hear police sirens getting closer and he huffed as he looked at the fireman and nodded his thanks. He understood why they were warning him, letting him go before the police got there. He'd helped get the kids out when they couldn't, now they were returning the favor. So he quickly unfolded his wings and took off into the smoke-filled sky. From below, he heard a double caw from the boy he saved and those that knew it joined in and despite the heavy weight of the boy's death, he felt his spirits lift a bit at knowing some were grateful for the help he gave tonight.

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DAKOTA CITY: May 22, 03:12 CDT

After flying off away from the scene of the fire, Jericho had flown to a dingier part of the city where many buildings had been abandoned, including an old church with a large hole in the roof which he dropped through into the darkness inside. Despite the abandoned quality of it, most of the windows had been spared being smashed and a lot of the furniture remained intact. An old motorcycle had been parked in the entrance-way, kept safe and hidden from anyone who might think it was an easy grab if left outside.

Here was where Jericho started his nights, away from the safety of his home so no enemies found out where exactly he lived. And it was where he ended his nights, in quiet solitude where no one could see or hear him as he changed back to normal. But tonight he stood silently where he landed, in the light that trickled in from the gaping hole in the roof, letting his thoughts wander away with him for a little while. Mostly he was just putting off changing back. Even after three years, he still hadn't gotten used to how painful it was.

After a while though, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer. He had companions waiting for his safe return and he knew how angst-y Ruben got if he didn't return before dawn. But as he turned and walked into the darkness of the church, he heard what sounded like whispered voices outside. With a loud snarling hiss, he turned to face the hole in the roof, bow drawn from behind him and arrow locked into position ready to fire least whoever was there was a threat. Glaring at the hole for several seconds, he had been about to snarl again as a warning when someone dropped in through the hole and landed effortlessly on the stone floor.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing as he lowered his bow, as standing up off the floor with ease was the masked guy from the fire, rainbow dreadlocks and all. And that could only mean…

"There's no way I'm jumping twice in the same night. I'm…going to find a safer entrance." Jericho inwardly groaned. The cyborg had followed him too? Why the hell did these two follow him in the first place? He hadn't seen nor heard these two in Dakota City before, but neither did he think they were heroes otherwise they would've made a grander début.

The masked guy hadn't moved from the circle of light, watching him silently which was making him uneasy. Then after a while both of them looked over at the entrance doors at hearing movement and after opening one the door carefully, the cyborg slipped in and quickly closed it behind him. It didn't look like he had recovered well from the fall earlier, since the guy was sweating quite badly and even in the burning building he hadn't been sweating as much as now. Not quite ready to put away his bow, Jericho looked between the two of them and growled, eyes narrowing.

"We know you probably didn't want to be followed," The cyborg started, quickly moving past him to stand closer to the masked guy, "But we both agreed that it's the first time we've met someone who was…different like us."

Jericho couldn't help but eye the pair of them, not sure whether to take them seriously or not but the way the cyborg was looking at him he doubted he was joking. Looking at the masked guy, well he couldn't get anything from him. But then the guy took a step forward, out of the light and into the darkness with them, lifting his goggles up onto his forehead so he could finally see the guy's eyes. He straightened when he saw them, they were unlike anything he had seen before on a person, reflecting brightly like a cat's when light hits them just right.

"What…Vervoid…" The masked guy began, pausing to glance at the cyborg as if making sure he had gotten the name right, "…is trying to say is we have been alone for so long, it is welcome relief to find someone who is like us. But we do not want opportunity like this to slip us by." At this the cyborg, Vervoid, quickly nodded his head but this seemed to set something off as suddenly he had collapsed to one knee, the electrical sparks from earlier going up and down his spine again, the cyborg's face scrunched up in pain. He was startled to watch the guy's tail suddenly move and the end opened up to reveal a lens-like eye in the center which seemed to be trying the analyze whatever was causing Vervoid problems, worried-sounding gear-grinding machine noises emanating from it. The fall earlier had definitely done something to the cyborg.

As he watched the masked guy kneel down to make sure Vervoid was going to be alright, Jericho softly growled to himself. He was starting to understand what they were getting at. They didn't want to go around on their own anymore, they wanted, no, maybe needed, others around them that could understand them and help them. Perhaps they'd been shunned in the past; the cyborg more likely than the masked guy. As far as he knew, cyborgs were rather uncommon; Androids and robots were more heard of than cyborgs. But how could they think he'd help them with that from just one chance meeting in a burning building? They knew nothing about what he really did.

Huffing softly, he turned and headed towards his motorcycle, carefully removing his quiver and stowing the arrow back in. He could tell the other two were probably watching him, wondering why he was moving away from them. Setting his quiver and bow down against his bike, he took a few steps back from it and began the painful process of changing back to normal. This meant retracting all the protruding bone-encasing, wings and tail. He had developed a system for it. Wings and tail were retracted first as they were the bigger parts and thus more painful. But they weren't the worse, since it was a broader pain. Once they were retracted, he took a couple of seconds to catch his breath before he started on the worse part, the bones encasing his body and skull. One on its own wasn't bad, but retracting them together at the same time was excruciating, so he did his head first, then his arms, legs and finally torso until he was left without a single bone showing.

Panting, Jericho quickly side-stepped to lean against a pillar while he recovered from the effort, least he collapse like Vervoid did a few minutes ago. After several minutes, Jericho straightened with a grunt and walked back over towards Vervoid and the masked guy, an arm wrapped around his chest and his eyes closed before he dropped against the back of a pew, lifting a leg up onto the seat so he could support himself on it.

To his company, he looked like a young Puerto Rican who looked like he could be part of a motorcycle gang or a punk rock band, with a white streak going down the center of his brown hair and a skull tattoo on his face which looked a little uncanny since the eye lids had been tattooed with the rest so it looked like a skull with empty eye sockets. Then his eyes opened and they were given a level glare by a pair of red eyes that stood out against the skull tattoo. Altogether, if they hadn't known better they never would've thought him to be the guy that just helped rescue kids from a burning orphanage.

"You boys are asking help from the wrong guy." Jericho spoke clearly with a slight accent once he had gotten his breath back enough to speak. This was obviously not the answer they were hoping for, but Vervoid seemed to not care about that for a moment as he blinked at him.

"You can talk now?" The cyborg asked, even making the masked guy mentally face palm while Jericho just stared then sneered and rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Vervoid flushed out of embarrassment and looked away, feeling stupid for being so obvious. The masked guy though quickly recovered from the moment and stood up straighter to eye Jericho seriously. "Why not? There is no one else in city that could possibly accept us and help us, and we have been on our own long enough."

Jericho frowned deeply, meeting the guy's eyes with his own serious look. "I am not a babysitter. Neither am I going to hold anyone's hand. I'm an assassin. I kill people for a living." He paused just to see the look of shock on Vervoid's face while Erix face's remained serious, "I am no hero, nor should I be looked up to as a role model. I'm just not the person you're looking for." He then turned and started back towards his bike, figuring that was the end of that.

But Vervoid seemed set on proving him wrong, "But you are a hero! To those kids! To the orphanage staff you just helped say a proper goodbye to someone they held dear. You might not think you're a hero but you're a hero to someone out there, and that's enough for me."

That stopped Jericho in his tracks and he found himself looking back on a bittersweet memory, when he stood at his father's grave the day of the funeral, soaked through as he stared at the message he had asked for the tombstone. It hadn't been the typical 'loving father' sort of message, it had been only two words; 'A Hero.'

After all the hardship he put his father through and him always saying he hadn't been the best father to him, it took his death for Jericho to realise just how wrong both of them had been. And it took him dying for Jericho to finally admit his father was his hero, and instantly regretted not being able to tell him in person.

Sighing heavily, he brought himself back to reality and half-turned to side glance at the two guys, one looking hopefully at him, the other stoic as ever. They were completely new to the world of heroes and villains. If they didn't get help now, they could end up getting themselves in trouble trying to do things on their own. Sneering at himself, he folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes in thought, mulling the choice over in his head before he sighed again and turned to face them.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret this?" Jericho said quietly, yet clearly enough for them to hear. A grin lit up Vervoid's face and the masked guy visibly relaxed, releasing all the tension he had held in the whole time.

Walking up to them, Jericho unfolded his arms. "My name is Jericho. Do not call me Jerry, or I'll punch you."

"Nice to meet you, Jericho. I'm Vervoid and this," Vervoid's tail moved around to be level with Jericho's head, the lens-eye staring at him, "is CAPT. He's an AI program I created, so he can do things on his own without me needing to control him unless I have to. Don't worry if I talk out loud to him, we can communicate between each other."

Jericho raised an uneasy brow at the tail. "CAPT?"

"Oh, it's an acronym for 'Creepy Alien-like Probe Tail'. Eheh…I tried coming up with one for 'CAPTAIN' but I couldn't think of a good one for that, so I shortened it and made-up a silly acronym instead." Vervoid sheepishly grinned, gently patting the top of CAPT who made a purr-like machine noise.

Then they both turned to the masked guy, who had moved his goggles back down over his eyes. "Erix. Just Erix."

'Well, that was simple.' Jericho thought underwhelmingly. Lightly shaking his head, he asked them if either had a map and, though he shouldn't have been surprised, Vervoid said CAPT had one and sure enough as the lens turned to look upwards, a holographic map of Dakota City popped up above it. After telling them his address, Vervoid locked it in and the both of them promised they'd get there as quickly as possible.

They immediately left as Jericho set up his motorcycle, strapping his quiver and bow back on before putting on his helmet and rolling his bike out the doors of the church. Once he had closed them and made sure no one was around to see, he turned the engine on and rolled out onto the quiet, early morning streets. Towards the east, the sky was starting to lighten. If he was quick, he'd get back home just before dawn, just in time to stop Ruben from trying to become a one-dog search and rescue team.

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A/N; Woohoo! That's the first chapter of the story finished and it's a big one to start off with! I am so happy to get this finished. I'm not sure how big the chapters will be from here on out. It'll really depend on how much I feel like writing and whether it's a good place to stop or to keep going.

Now hopefully by the time the next chapter is posted, I should have some (sketch-y) pics done of my OCs as well so people can better visualize them (yes, I'm an artist too).

Hope you've enjoyed reading and leave a review if you want. Feedback is always appreciated~