The Crow: Retribution
By THE Xenomorph (aka Xenomorph666)
The Crow is © James O'Barr
Garou and all other W.o.D. related articles are © White Wolf Publishing
All other Characters are © me and their Real life counterparts
Graveyard Kung-Fu Fightin'
As I dashed over the roofs and through the alleys I became acutely aware that only two of the werewolves were actually continuing to chase me. Whether it was because I was moving to fast for the others or just because they had become bored, I never knew.
However, the chase soon ended as I came to a wide open graveyard, which I had absentmindedly run straight into. I spun to face the wolves, but I only caught their blurred forms as they ran off to my sides. A few seconds later I was surrounded by four werewolves, apparently I had miscounted, and unfortunately none of them were Freddy-Boy.
"Listen Dog-Soldiers, I don't have a problem with you, just your psychopathic human killing douche bag Red-Talon local and his comrades in killing." I said as I held my hands out to show I meant no harm. Of course my luck persisted and they promptly attacked me.
I managed to dodge the first several claw rakes with ease, but then one of them grabbed me and threw me into a tree. I got back up and gave the closest one an uppercut that sent it sprawling into a nearby gravestone where it cracked its skull. Then they backed off.
"What the heck is he?" A large grey wolf asked.
"A monster…" A silver one said.
"Fomorii." A spotted one growled.
"Oh, I know!" I said mockingly. "I'm a fucking CROW!" I regurgitated what the bird had told me earlier.
"Corax?" The silver one asked.
"No." I shook my head. "Crow; noun- a bird of the family of Corvus or the spirit of tragically slain individual returned to set the wrong things right, or as I like to say; kick some wolfy ass." That got them back on their feet, right along with half the graveyard.
"What the!" The grey wolf shouted. "YOU DID THIS!" He pointed a clawed finger at me.
"Hey, what's with the hating of the undead?" I shouted as several zombies shambled towards me, a few kung-fu kicks and their skulls were smashed in.
"Lousy little!" The spotted wolf tossed several zombies off of him. "They're everywhere!"
"Try going for the head." I said as I smashed several ore skulls in. "You know this is actually kind of fun!" The werewolves stopped and gave me an odd look. "Hello, returned from the dead one year after the fact, reality is a little skewed for me!"
A shotgun blast pulls our attentions to the gates.
"HUNTERS!" One of the wolves yelped as he picked up his unconscious comrade and fled with the others.
"Well, gee thanks for leaving me all alone with these freaks…" I pushed a zombie down, while several more bumped into me but did nothing. "Oh so now I'm not good enough to be zombie food?"
-You need to calm down.- The bird had returned.
"I need a name for you." I said, ignoring his advice. "How about 'Scout'?" I asked as several dozen men with flaming crossbows filtered into the graveyard and all focused on me. "I take that back, you're a lousy scout."
"In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit we will consecrate your bodies to the ground starting with the intelligent one." A lead hunter with a lack trench coat, a face that looked like it had gone a round with a blender and lost and a rather large claymore shouted at me.
"If I could feel pain I'd fuck you over for it!" I shouted at the hunter, a second later my body was filled with flaming bolts while I just taped my foot impatiently. "So are you guys done now or do you have a Limit Breaker you want to use?" They looked at each other in a confused manner. "Jeez, you guys need to get a life!"
"UNHOLY DEMON!" The hunter shouted, "Fire again!"
"Jeez, Skull Cowboy was right…" I grumbled to myself as I walked towards them. The zombies had strangely returned to the earth. When I got in range they all drew their swords and knives and other weapons and started to attack me. That just ended up with me slapping them around with out breaking a sweat. Not that I could break a sweat anyway.
As I left the graveyard and plucked the last of the bolts from my body, I looked over my shoulder to see the hunters looking back at me and groaning. I hadn't killed a single one of them and I think that fact alone shocked them. At least they knew better than to bother me now. I hoped.
I then noticed the rising sun and normally that would tell me I needed some sleep, but being dead changed a few things. I needed to find my enemies, mainly Freddy-Boy, he had run out on my and I was a little disappointed by that.
888888888888888888888888
"You're sure it was one of them?" The large Crinos form of Talons-of-Blood asked.
"Abso-fuckin'-lutely!" Freddy McCain snapped. "Bloody bastard put me through a brick wall."
"This is unfortunate then." Talons sighed. "We are so cursed. First humans populate the earth like a cancer and then when we remove a few cancer cells and are about to start the therapy…"
"They pop right up out of the blue." Freddy sighed, "I know what you mean."
"Yes, you may have been born to humans, but you have the heart of a wolf." Talons smiled as he petted his only possession, a copy of The Art of War, "And you have helped learn more about my enemy in only a few years than I could have ever hoped to learn on my own in my lifetime."
"So what do we do about this guy?" A mysterious voice asked.
"Bring me a Corax, clip its wings if necessary, if it doesn't know find a Nuwisha." Talons said.
"And if the Nuwisha doesn't know?" The voice asked.
"I'll handle it then." Talons said confidently.
"Sir." Two twin Asian girls entered, "Your public appearance is scheduled for this afternoon."
"Who woulda thunk it." Freddy smiled. "A motley crew like us on top of tha business world. Rivaling Pentex."
"Only until we strike." Talons smiled as he assumed his human shape. "Then the humans and the parasites that feed on them will be greatly reduced in number, while our numbers surge."
"Well then I'd best get the security set up, Mr. Chairman." Freddy smiled jovially as he gave a joking bow.
Talon let a cruel smile slip as well. "Please do Mr. McCain."
"Sir, whats wrong?" The twin with a ponytail on the right asked.
"A bitter memory from a year ago has surfaced on the wings of vengeance." Talons smiled. "Julia, Renee, please visit your mother for me when you get the chance, I wish to speak with her about her prayers."
"Of course Master Talons." The twins bowed.
"Leave me." Talons dismissed the twins. "Come get me when the appearance is to be made."
Talons-of-Blood stared out the window of his skyscraper. He had learned long ago that if he wished to stop the human threat to the world that he would have to give way to some necessary evils. He knew claws and jaws could not topple the mighty stone buildings and that no matter what their numbers where now, the Garou could not hope to control the humans or the evils that resulted from their experiments and numbers. He knew that to have any hope of control that the long forgotten Impregium would have to be repeated; the human herds had to be culled. Yet at the same time the Garou number would need to sky rocket. And that is where the undead creature became a problem. Whether or not it had come back to kill him and his pack did not matter so long as they had accomplished their goal. He only needed to hold the strange demon at bay for three more days and their goals would be complete. Three more days until the world choked on its own poisons and weeded out the week and unneeded and left only the strong humans and kin.
Still, he knew the legends; the Red Talons had a long oral history of these strange bird-men that had returned through out history to strike a terrible vengeance upon the humans that had struck them and their loved ones down. He knew the threat was legitimate, but so long as the pack was ignorant of the threat they would work with out error towards the ultimate end. The only question for Talons-of-Blood was how he could best distract the bird-man. He had ideas, but they were only that, ideas. He needed to know what the bird-man was and how to deal with it. Then a sudden thought occurred to him and he pressed the intercom on his desk.
"Julia, send a message to the local vampire Prince and Baron, I wish to discuss a mutually beneficial alliance." Talons smiled to him-self, the vampires were disgusting parasites, but even parasites had a use in the grand scheme of things.
"Yes sir." Julia responded.
"Soon little bird-man you will be to busy running for your un-life to even notice me." Talons looked out over the vast downtown city of Los Angeles and pressed the intercom down once more. "Who is the Prince anyway?"
"I don't know sir; the last one was blown up in the Ventrue Tower incident.(&)" Julia said. "Should I send it to one we know the most about?"
"That will have to do." Talons sighed. "Try to have it done before the appearance please."
"Of course sir." Julia said.
"Now all that is left is to wait for the leeches' response." Talons smiled inwardly once more.
8888888888888888888888
(&): Reference to Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines. Expect to see characters from that game. And yes Jack will be there.