CHAPTER 2 IS HERE. It probably has errors as H made me write it tonight.

And so he came to be working for the hand, without knowing that this wasn't the good fight. His first task was to remove several assassins working for the hand, ones that had become double agents.

And so that was how he came to
be hidden in the shadows above New York City. This assassin had been destroyed once again, but had returned, although now he had lost the protection of the hand this was no longer an option. The name of the man was stone. His power was basically that he was built like a tonne of bricks. Gareth's task was harder because of this, and he therefore chose to drop a lamppost on his head. Gareth sensed Stone walking down the street, and swung into position. The next few seconds flashed by, and the next thing Gareth knew, was stone imploding.

Second assassin was a new member of the hand, who had no special abilities, or powers. He had simply seen to much one day, and had been given the choice of joining the hand or dieing. He chose to join the hand, but was later discovered to be a spy, placed there by the followers of Kimiguri, who Gareth had been told were out to destroy the hands attempts at maintaining the balance. Gareth barely thought about this one, and walked up to him in broad delight. Gareth called his name, and as the spy turned, Gareth sank his blade into the spies heart. Of course, Gareth then had to run, as you cannot knife someone, even in NYC, without an uproar. As he left, jumping to the roof of a nearby building, he called at the crowds that he was the man with no name, keeping the balance in check.

This pattern continued, and soon Gareth was assigned to end the lives of some of the assassins for the other side, the followers of kimiguri. With the first kills Gareth had built up his strength, built his reputation within the hand, and became a force to be reckoned with. Every kill, every task he did for the hand. Kirigi rewarded him, providing him with weapons, clothing, even shelter, until Gareth had created his image. Clothed in leather reinforced black jeans, black leather jacket, long black leather coat, and half facemask and hood, he struck fear into any who opposed him. He carried two chrome covered samurai swords, although he used only one most of the time. He became the man with no name, and yet his he wasn't a true superhero, he had no weakness.

Most of the hands assassins had been easy, but this was not true of the followers of kimiguri, they could always sense him coming. Of course Gareth did not know this. He walked up to the man, and before he had time to react, the man spun, and attempted to bury a knife in Gareths gut. However the man failed to realise that gareth couldnt be easily killed that way, and that the damage would heal quickly. Gareth turned around, and broke the assassins neck. However this taught him a lesson, and Gareth took to killing the other assassins long range, using a sniper rifle Kirigi provided. However after some time the heat attached to his name grew too much and he chose to return to his family home, a place he had not visited in a long while. Just after he had gone to university his father had moved the rest of the family to a small village in the north of France, so Gareth caught a plane to Paris, before catching the train to nearby Flers. As he walked the 8 kilometres from the station to the small village of Chanu, he contemplated his life, and the similarities with his hero, the Phantom. Gareth had visited the opera in Paris, L'Opera de Charles Garnier, on the Rue Scribe, and had noticed the similarities between his life and Erik's. Both had abusive families. Both were gifted musicians, both were assassins. The only difference was in Erik's deformity. This had been similar, but due to the miracles of plastic surgery, the damaged inflicted on his face by his father had been fixed. Since then, he had cut contact with his father, who had turned against Gareth, blaming him for the loss of his job, and his friends. Last time Gareth saw him he had threatened to kill Gareth if he ever saw him again. Gareth figured that he might have forgiven this by now. After all, he was his father…although he didn't act, as one should.

He entered the village of Chanu in the dusk of an early summers evening, and walked up to the house his family owned, not realising that he was being monitored on a CCTV camera linked to a Face-it program, written to communicate an alarm on Gareth's approach. He walked through the garden, to the front door and knocked. After an indeterminable wait, Gareth felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against his back.

"I told you if you ever returned I would kill you. Goodbye, Gareth."

The gun exploded in his father's hands, a slug entered Gareths body, and the last things Gareth saw before he died was the peculiar shaped gun in his father's hands, and the blade of Kirigi's sword slice through his father.

THE END?

Cliffie or what? Now review.