A TALE OF BLOOD: THE FIRST NIGHT

-X-

The screaming was music to his ears. The absolute terror harmonized with the scraping of steel on concrete for a delightful symphony of panic and suffering. And he loved every minute of it.

His victim tonight was human, of course. No self-respecting serial killer would go after a monster unless they were certain they could handle taking them down. Tim "Steelfinger" Edwards had made that mistake with a sphinx girl he'd found on the street a few weeks before coming to Darkwing City. Luckily he'd been able to back her into a corner before things got too dangerous for him. After that it had been only too easy to dispatch her.

But humans were much more entertaining prey. They were usually quite inept at defending themselves, and the pleading for mercy always sent shivers of joy down his spine.

"Please," The whimpering girl before him pleaded. "Please don't kill me. What did I ever do to you?"

Steelfinger simply laughed. "Absolutely nothing, kid. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

This actually wasn't strictly true, he tried to make a point of scouting out his victims for a day or two before moving in on them.

The girl curled into a ball, cradling her left arm against her chest despite blood from the deep cut which ran from wrist to elbow soaking into her white blouse. "You can't...I don't want to die..."

Steelfinger laughed as he kneeled before her. "Aww, look how pitiful you are. I almost feel bad about killing you, but then, now that you've seen my face I can't very well let you live." He accented this point by pressing a long metal finger against her knee. Even though he drew no blood, his victim screamed again.

"I'm getting tired of this," Edwards shrugged. "It was fun playing with you for a while, but you're getting a bit too noisy for such a public area. We don't want anyone walking down the alleyway wondering where the screaming is coming from." His hand rose into the air again, a single rail spike of a finger pointed straight toward her heart. "This would have been so much easier if you hadn't run, I could have knocked you out and had fun for a while longer. Shame you have to die now."

"No..." The girl was hysterical now. "No, stop! I won't tell anyone! I'll give you money, I'll give you anything you want, just don't kill me!"

Steelfinger sighed. That was one downside to most of his victims-the defiant ones were few and far between.

"Unfortunately, the only thing I want is your death," The killer grinned.

Then his finger thrust forward. There was a sickening crunch as he drove through a rib into her heart and the girl's expression froze into a mask of disbelief. Slowly, her face drained of color and her body slumped forward. For the last few seconds of her life, she watched the blood spill from her body before her eyes became glassy and lifeless.

Well that was anticlimactic, Steelfinger thought. But it really was time for him to be leaving. He kicked the corpse backward, cleaning his bloody fingers on the deceased girl's jeans. Then he turned without a word and walked away.

"There is no music quite so beautiful," He noted as he headed down the empty sidewalk, "As the song of a dying soul."

-X-

"Get up Yellow, don't you want to make it for your first day of school?" A voice called from behind a closed door.

The room into which the voice was calling was a simple one, rectangular in shape with the only furniture being a dresser, writing desk, and small bed with yellow covers.

Beneath said covers lay a fourteen year-old girl whose long blond hair was covered by a pillow which she had pressed over her ears.

"Come on now," Her uncle called again. "You're going to miss your first day of high school. You don't want that now do you?"

Yellow yawned sleepily, sitting up in bed. She shook her head in an attempt to clear the fog from her head. Unfortunately, this only resulted in her hair whipping around wildly, becoming even more tangled.

"Great..." She muttered. "Just a minute, Uncle Wilton."

Her uncle muttered something about lazy teenagers before walking away. Yellow slowly crawled out of bed, determined not to fall asleep again.

She made her way to the dresser and pulled on her new school uniform-a black skirt and yellow button-up top, the latter of which was accented with the school logo of two black wings curving upward. With these, she pulled on her favorite pair of tall purple boots, glad that the school's dress code did not specify types of shoes. After a quick trip to the bathroom to brush her hair out, she pulled it back into a ponytail, then proceeded to place a straw hat on her head.

"Perfect," She grinned just as a single strand of hair popped out of place to stick straight out. "Sort-of..."

Soon enough she made her way downstairs, carrying her shoulder bag as she went. She reached the kitchen where a plate with a poached egg sat beside a piece of toast coated with jam. It wasn't much, but it was a nice gesture for her uncle to make it.

She ate quickly, then ran to brush her teeth. Finally, with everything ready, she took her first steps outside to greet the morning.

"I'm heading out!" She called back into the house. There was a grunt of acknowledgement from inside as she continued on.

The bus stop was at the end of the street, though Yellow wouldn't have minded walking to school if she would have been able to get there before it started. She started toward it, taking a moment to take in the fall air. In her distraction she nearly bumped into someone in front of her.

"Oops, sorry," She apologized, stepping to the side. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's fine," Responded the person-a boy who looked a bit older than her. "I shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the road," He shrugged. "Not even sure why I stopped to be honest."

Yellow nodded as she continued to walk, the boy beside her. He was wearing a variation of the boy's version of the uniform, a red long-sleeved button-up shirt and black slacks. "Did you move in recently by any chance? I don't recognize you."

The boy cocked his head and smiled, his red cap tilting slightly. "Yeah, actually. My name's Red and my mom and I moved in a few weeks ago. I'm kinda new here."

Yellow nodded. Come to think of it she did remember a moving van showing up about that time, though she and her father had left on a fishing trip that same day so she hadn't been able to go help out.

"Well I'm Yellow, pleased to meet you," She smiled. "I'm guessing you're going to Darkwing Academy as well?"

Red nodded as they approached the stop. "Yep, I'm going to be a Junior. What about you?"

"Freshman," Yellow responded, a bit disappointed that this new boy was two grades higher. "So I guess that means you're sixteen?"

"Right, and you're fourteen," Red guessed. "Well maybe we'll still have some classes together? Mine were mostly chosen for me, so I don't really know my schedule yet."

"We'll see," Yellow replied as they waited for the bus, a few other students joining them. "So, uh, I was just wondering, are you...different?"

Red looked at her blankly. "Different? What do you mean?"

Yellow looked down. "Never mind, I guess it's kind of rude to ask anyway."

"Are you asking if I'm human?" Red assumed. "I don't mind."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to; I know people aren't really supposed to talk about what they are."

Before Red could reply, a girl poked her head between the two of them. She wore a blue skirt along with a red long-sleeved school blouse, knee-high white socks, red trainers and a white hat accented by a bow.

"Morning Yellow!" The new girl grinned. "Nice day, isn't it?"

Yellow sighed. "Good morning, Crystal. How are you?"

"I'm totally excited!" The taller girl replied, her sapphire hair swinging in the breeze, seeming to defy gravity as it curved straight up. "I've been studying all month to get ready."

Yellow sweatdropped. "You realize school hasn't started yet, right?"

"So? You can never be too prepared!" The girl, Crystal declared. She turned to Red. "And who is this?"

"I'm a new student," Red replied, a bit taken aback by her sudden appearance. "M-my name is Red."

"Pleasure to meet you," Crystal replied, putting forth a hand to shake his. "As you probably heard Yellow say, my name is Crystal, and I'm starting Junior year, what about you?"

"The same, actually," The boy replied as he took the outstretched hand, which Crystal proceeded to shake vigorously.

"Awesome!" Crystal cheered. "The three of us are going to have so much fun this year!" With no warning, she swung her arms around both of their shoulders just as the bus arrived. "Come on now, let's get going!"

Red, who was looking incredibly uncomfortable, looked over at Yellow for help, but the younger girl simply shrugged and giggled.

The three of them entered the bus, which was surprisingly empty. Crystal sat on one bench before gesturing to the one adjacent her.

"This is the first stop of the day, so we can pretty much sit anywhere we want," Yellow explained. Red nodded and sat down, joined by the blond girl a moment later.

"So do you guys have all of your textbooks?" Crystal asked, leaning over. "I've got mine, but there are so many that my bag is killing my shoulder."

"How many subjects do you have them for?" Red asked.

"Seven," Crystal shrugged. "There's even one for the Choir class if you can believe that. What about you?"

Red grinned sheepishly and pulled a single math book from his bag. "Just this one."

Crystal gawked in surprise for a second, to which Red and Yellow laughed. "Well fine, but Yellow has to have nearly as many as I do, right?"

Her friend lifted the brim of her straw hat, which had sunk over her eyes, and opened her bag. "I have three."

Crystal's look of shock was priceless. She seemed about to speak when the bus stopped once again. The doors opened and several more students filed on. Soon the bus was nearly half-full.

"Morning, you two," A black-haired boy sighed, falling into the bench in front of Crystal with a huff. "Man, the bus stop is two blocks away from my house this year. Wasn't it closer last time?"

"Yeah, it was at the end of your street, but yet you still complained about it then too," Crystal noted. The boy groaned and leaned against the seat in front of him, his hat and goggles pressing into the fabric.

"Cheer up, Gold," A second boy spoke up, sitting beside him. "You could use the exercise."

"Shut up, Silver," Gold muttered.

Yellow leaned over to Red. "Those two are Gold and Silver; they're Juniors like you and good friends of Crystal. I'm sure you'll get to know them," She glanced over and noticed his expression. "Hey, are you alright?"

Red nodded. "This is all just...very sudden. People aren't usually this nice to me, and yet we've been talking and laughing since I got outside."

Yellow raised an eyebrow. "It's called making friends, you're new, which means you probably don't know anyone here yet, so I figured I'd help you out. I mean you seem like a nice guy and all, so why wouldn't I want to be your friend?"

Red thought about it. "Well it's different for sure, but in a good way. Thank you."

Yellow nodded and the bus continued through the city. they made two more stops before reaching the school complex.

Darkwing Academy was a unique place in that the school ranged from grades six through twelve, though before ninth grade the Junior High-age children were in a separate part of the school. The whole campus was enormous-appropriate for the high number of students who attended-with entire buildings dedicated to various specialties. Language, history, arts, English, science, math and so on.

"There's an entire building of rooms filled just with computers," Yellow was explaining to Red. "And the lunch hall is two stories tall. There are tables all around the edge, but the middle is open so you can see down to the first floor."

"Is there a library?" Red asked as kids began to stand in preparation of exiting the bus.

"Yes there is," Crystal piped up. "It's actually the city library, but students have free access to check out books. It's enormous with a giant glass-domed ceiling and windows with little alcoves where you can snuggle up and read for hours!" She sighed dreamily. "I could stay there all day, except that it would mean missing school..."

"And we all know how much you would hate that," Gold joked as he walked past.

"At least I do the work instead of spending all of class goofing off," Crystal remarked. "I don't know how we're still in the same grade, I'm sure you should have been held back once or twice by now..."

Gold sighed, crossing his arms behind his head. "You need to learn to stop being so super serious, gal."

Crystal turned to him dangerously. "What did you just call me?"

"This sounds like it's going to get ugly," Yellow sighed. "Come on Red, let's find your homeroom."

The two walked away quickly, ignoring the scuffling and crashing from behind them. Yellow pulled a sheet of paper out of her bag and held it up.

"My schedule," She explained. "If you get yours out it should tell you where your homeroom is at the top."

Red nodded and pulled off his bag, unzipping it to shuffle the papers around inside. After a bit of searching he pulled out his own schedule and checked it. "It says room 132."

Yellow compared the two. "Aww, guess we don't have homeroom together, but we do have the same History and P.E. classes, and there's always lunch time, so I'll see you quite a bit," She stepped away and waved. "Well I need to get to my own class, so I guess I'll see you later."

"Right..." Red nodded and waved as he stepped off toward his own class. "See you...Yellow..."

And with that they went their separate ways.

-X-

Steelfinger was browsing again, looking through a "catalogue" from last year of potential targets. The catalogue in question was actually a year-old Darkwing Academy school yearbook, and two tiny pictures were already crossed out. With a flourish he drew a large red X over the image of the girl he had slaughtered the night before, checking her off the list.

"Well that was excellent, but who to go after next, eh? Maybe one of the older girls?"

He flipped near the back and began scanning. He was sure to avoid any names with small black dots to the side of them. Those marked students who had publicly admitted to being monsters, nonhumans like himself.

Instead, he noticed a girl in one of the Sophomore columns with no such mark and a smiling face. He grinned maliciously at the image.

"Oh yes, this one should do nicely," He chuckled, checking the girl's name and comparing it with an address book. "Outskirts of the city...a perfect target. I can't wait to sink my claws into this one," He grinned. "Well then, I must get ready."

He set down the book and turned to go, but looked back once more at the girl, taking in detail of the picture. The last aspect he took note of was the beautiful hair, set in two sapphire pigtails which arced to point straight up at the tips. Almost seeming as though they were somehow defying gravity.

-X-

"Welcome to homeroom, class," The woman at the front greeted everyone as the morning bell rang. "My name is Roxanne, and I'm your teacher for this period," She gave a pointed look," And there's a good chance I'll be the math teacher for some of you, so I expect to see you studying hard whenever you're in here."

Yellow groaned-she was one of those students. She had been told that Miss Roxanne was usually quite kind to her students, and hoped it was true.

"As for today, I thought we could start out by getting to know each-other a bit more. So I want you all to pair off and ask the people around you about themselves," Roxanne explained. "I'm not asking you to find out everything about them, just the basics. After all, you'll likely be around them for the rest of the year."

The class immediately took this as an excuse to goof off. Yellow felt the almost physical force of thirty cell phones being pulled out at once. Yellow sighed; since she didn't have a smart phone herself she might as well try to find a partner. She turned around.

Behind her, a girl in a blue sleeveless top and a white skirt over biker shorts was trying to tie a bandanna around her head.

"Hey, Yellow," The girl nodded. "Think you could help me out? I'm trying to decide how to tie this to keep my hair out of my face."

Yellow nodded, then took the bandanna and looked it over. After a second, she rolled the whole thing up and handed it back.

"Try going back around and tying it at the top, Sapphire," She suggested. The girl grinned and nodded, tying the bandanna as Yellow had suggested, letting most of her hair hang to the sides in front of it. The result resembled a large blue bow atop her head, and looked pretty good.

"Thanks," Sapphire bowed, fiddling slightly with the bandanna. "That really does help; how'd you know how to do that?"

Yellow shrugged modestly. "Oh, my uncle is a fisherman and he takes me with him a lot. After tying knots long enough you sort of figure out what will work well or look good."

"Pretty clever," The brunette girl nodded. She turned to the side. "Hey Emerald, what do you think?"

A boy with a terrifying head of blond hair gelled high into the shape of a crescent moon looked over. "I don't see how it's that different."

The girl beside him frowned upon hearing this. "Whaddya mean? It's a totally new look for me. I swear you're the most fashionably-challenged person I know."

Yellow listened to the two bicker for a bit, not really too interested now. She sighed, looking out the window.

I wonder how Red is doing so far, She thought. I hope he's able to make some more friends today...

-X-

For the first few seconds after she tripped into the room, Red was under the impression that his homeroom teacher was another student.

"Whoops!" She called as she nearly knocked over a boy standing near the window. "Sorry about that, I should have been looking where I was going."

The boy who she'd tripped over, a taller guy with brown hair and piercing green eyes. He straightened the collar of his green shirt, making sure a pendant which he wore on a chain was sitting properly, then nodded and walked toward his seat.

"...Right then," The girl shrugged. "Well class, my name is Flannery and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher this year."

Red was surprised to hear this; the girl looked far too young to be a teacher, not to mention a bit under-dressed. She wore a black tied-off shirt which showed her midriff, along with blue flared-bottom pants held up with a white cloth belt. Her red hair was held back by a band, seeming to flare out in all directions.

"We lucked out for sure," A voice whispered somewhere behind Red. "That teacher is hot!"

Flannery smiled. "I'm flattered that you think so. You might also like to know that I have very good hearing, so I can hear every word you're saying."

The boy who had spoken suddenly took a large interest in something on the floor.

"Now then, I'm going to be honest, this is my first time teaching, so it may be a bit rocky for a while, but I promise we'll figure out a system fast enough," She looked down at a clipboard. "Right, first day announcements..."

Red soon found it difficult to keep track of the announcements. Flannery was enthusiastic and cheerful, making it easy to listen to her, but a constant beating in the background kept distracting him. He knew what it was of course, but most days he simply tuned it out. Today, with all these people around him, most of them quietly whispering to each-other, it was like a cacophony.

"...Seems pretty young to be teaching a high school class..." A snippet of conversation caught his interest. He found its source to be the boy who Flannery had tripped over earlier, conversing over the back of his chair with the girl in the seat beside Red's.

"Yeah, I wonder how old she is," The brunette agreed, straightening the white hat emblazoned with a pokeball symbol atop her head. "Do you think maybe she's still a college student?"

"That would explain why she only teaches homeroom," The boy replied. "She's probably doing this as part of her major or something," Unexpectedly, the boy turned to face Red. "What do you think?"

Red jumped slightly. What was with people randomly striking up conversations with him today? "Who, me?"

"Yeah," The boy nodded. "What do you think about Miss Flannery?"

Red shrugged, looking toward their teacher who was now explaining something about swim team tryouts. "She seems really...enthusiastic. I think you're right about her being college-aged too, I'd guess early twenties or so."

The boy grinned. "Impressive deduction. What's your name, kid?"

Red frowned a bit upon being referred to as "kid" by someone his own age. "My name is Red. What's yours?"

The boy smirked. "How ironic, I'm Green."

"And my name is Blue," The girl spoke up. On closer observation, Red took note of her blue sleeveless top and short red skirt. Realizing he was probably staring, he quickly turned. "That's, ah, pretty interesting. All of us being named after colors, I mean."

"I guess so," Green shrugged. "So are you new? I don't remember seeing you last year."

"Yeah," Red nodded. "Just moved in a few weeks ago."

"Cool," Green nodded. "Well if there's ever something you need to know about this place, come to me. I'm kind of the authority on what goes on here."

"Sure you are," Blue rolled her eyes before returning her attention to Red. "So, if you don't mind me asking, are you human?"

"No need to just blurt out that kind of question," Green chastised. "Don't worry about it, Red, you don't have to answer that."

Before Red could reply, Flannery cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention back to the front.

"Now, here's what you can expect for the rest of the day..."

-X-

Yellow collapsed into the chair beside Red at the lunch table he'd chosen, panting.

"Phew, that was intense!" She huffed. "High school sure is different from Junior High..."

"You got that right, but at least the food's better," Gold said as he sat down across from them. "Hey, where's everyone else?"

"Still in line," Red explained, pointing to where Silver, Green and Blue stood in line. It hadn't taken long for Red to figure out that they all knew each-other, as they had already been at the school together for two years. Plus, Blue and Silver had know each-other since they were kids. Crystal, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

"You bring your lunch from home too?" Yellow asked, pointing to Red's bag. The boy opened it and nodded.

"I'm allergic to some of the stuff they use in it," He explained.

"You're missing out then," Gold noted. "The chocolate cake is excellent when they make it, though a bit on the dry side..."

Yellow pulled out her lunch, a regular peanut butter sandwich with jam, along with a banana on the side. She had made it the night before, so it was a little bit soggy, but otherwise perfectly fine. She unwrapped it and took a bite, chewing quietly as Red and Gold talked.

"I've gotta be honest though, my English teacher, Blaine is kinda intense," Gold was saying. "This was the first day and he gave us a pop quiz-I didn't even know what most of it was talking about."

"Maybe if you studied once in a while before now you would remember what you've learned in previous years," Yellow noted.

"You're starting to sound like Crystal," Gold complained. "I'm plenty smart!"

Yellow laughed at this while Gold turned away, fuming. "What about you Red? How was your first day here?"

Red thought about it for a minute. "It was...different. For one thing, it feels like people can't stop talking to me."

"I know the feeling," Gold assured him. "You may not have realized it yet, but I'm kind of a legend here. It's hard to keep the crowds held back, but we just have to grin and bear it," He patted Gold on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you're the shiny new toy that none of them has seen before. They'll back off after a week or so."

Red nodded absently, staring down at his food. He seemed to be deep in thought right up until the bell rang and the students began heading back to their classes. Yellow walked beside him to their only shared class for the day, history, wondering what was going on in his head.

In class, they were greeted by Blue, who waved them over.

"So I guess you two are pretty buddy-buddy now, right?" Blue asked.

"Uhh..." Yellow wasn't sure what to say.

"That's a good thing," Blue assured her. "Do you remember in Junior High when I was the new girl?"

"You mean when you punched Gold in the face for making fun of your dress?" Yellow snickered.

Blue frowned. "Yeah, that's right. But the thing is, if I'd had a friend right from the start I would've managed my anger better. So it's good that you're looking out for him," She turned, "And don't worry, you've got Green and I on your side as well. So I guess whether you like it or not, we're going to be your friends from now on!"

The three of them quieted down as Their teacher walked in. Bertha was a gray-haired woman with a kind demeanor, and she got the class quieted down quickly and began taking roll. For several moments, the only sound heard was each person saying "here" in turn when their name was called, until a certain name came up.

"Sierra Young," Bertha called out, only to be received by silence. "Is Sierra not here today?"

The class was silent for an extended time, before a girl in the back finally raised her hand. "Ms. Bertha, Sierra...won't be at school anymore."

The older woman's face filled with recognition. "Oh, I see. My apologies. Let's continue on..."

Red turned quietly to look at Blue and Yellow. "What was that about?"

"Don't you know?" Blue asked in surprise. "That girl, Sierra Young, was murdered three days ago."

Red's expression was one of shock as Yellow asked, "Murdered? By who?"

"They say it was Steelfinger Edwards," Blue explained. "He's a serial killer who tears his victims apart. He's killed three people in the city so far, all of them girls around our age."

The blood in Yellow's veins turned to ice. "Three girls our age? That's horrible!"

Blue nodded. "They found the first two in old warehouses, and Sierra lying in an alleyway. The police assume he drugged the first two girls and took them there, but he didn't bother with her. It's...not pretty what he did to any of them."

Yellow shivered. She had known Sierra, the girl hadn't lived too far from her. She could just as easily have been the victim.

Blue had the sense to stop talking after that. Instead, she and the others listened as Bertha explained what they should expect from this class. None of them could shake the sickening feeling of dread which had settled over them.

-X-

Crystal chose to get off the bus at an early stop after school on the second day. She had some things she needed to get for her mother and there just happened to be a stop by the mall.

She walked down the street deep in thought, not even really noticing where she was going, just knowing that the mall was in this direction. It wasn't until she happened to look up that she realized she'd passed the corner she needed. Turning to head back, she took note of a man coming down the sidewalk toward her. He didn't seem threatening off-hand, but something about her set her on edge, as though he kept shooting side glances at her.

Calm down, you're overreacting, She attempted to steel her nerves, though she couldn't help but notice how empty the street was. In fact, the guy was the only other person nearby.

Just before she passed him, he looked up. "Excuse me, do you happen to have the time?"

Crystal nodded, sighing inwardly. This guy had only been wondering whether she had a watch, that was all. She brought her hand up to check it, but not before noticing a glint of gold on the man's own wrist.

Weird, she thought. Why would he ask for the time if he's got a watch of his own?

And that was her last thought before the man darted forward and pressed a rag over her mouth. She didn't even have time to scream before he pulled her back into a side alley, the chloroform already ebbing at her mind.

"This time," The voice cackled as the world slowly went fuzzy, "We're going to have some fun."

With that, Crystal's conscious mind evaporated and everything bled to grey.

-FIN-

Author's Note: Two quick things: Firstly, although it's not the style I'm used to, I'm sticking with the Japanese variations of Green and Blue, meaning that Green is the guy while Blue is the girl. I know I've been a stickler in the past for their dub forms, but I'm trying to get used to the original format. It will actually be important later.

Secondly, the ages of the characters in this story have been altered slightly, considering that by the time of BW2 the original three dex holders would be in their early 20s. Therefore, most of the ages have been chosen according to the chapter in which the characters last appeared (Emerald for the Gen 1 Dex holders, HGSS for Gen 2, etc.) A few ages are assumed, such as those of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, taking in to account their likely ages when/if an ORAS chapter begins. As for X and Y, it's currently just an educated guess as the time of events hasn't been confirmed yet, and most of the other trainers were introduced around 11/12.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed, feel free to leave feedback. As always, I'm open to constructive criticism as well, so feel free to mention how I can improve.