Disclaimer: Spawn and related characters are owned by Todd McFarlane


The flight took about ten hours, if not more. Talim and I spend that time asleep. When we arrived, the airman woke us up: "Hey, you two!"

We slowly woke up. Even before we had both of our eyes open, he didn't hesitate to tell us whatever he had to tell.

"You better get out now, before they inspect my plane!"

We got up as fast as we could, picked up our stuff, and were about ready to leave the plane!

"Thanks for helping us out!" Talim said before leaving.

"No problem at all. And you couldn't have thanked me soon enough!"

Talim nor I understood what he meant by that.

The airman explained: "If I go around with this plane again, people will start asking questions, so if you need to go somewhere else, now's the time to tell me!"

Talim nor I had any idea. Talim said: "W... We don't know!"

"Then I'm sorry..." he tried to sound like he's sorry, "... but I can't help you two anymore. Now go!"

He actually pushed us off his plane. Nice to see he cared about how we go on from here, but this seemed just a little too suspicious.

I discussed this with Talim: "Don't you think this was a little weird?"

"He's trying to protect himself!" Talim believed, "What's so weird about that?"

There's something about what the airman said which made me believe something's off.

"I... I don't know..." I replied.

"There's no time." Talim said, "Right now, we need to find Rat City."

It wasn't easy to find someone who would drive us to Manhattan Island. For one thing, we looked like tourists, which made us easy targets for thieves, or which made us look like a couple of psychos. I heard that people from New York City have seen everything, so they don't get impressed that easily. This here proves otherwise. It took us a while, but eventually a bus of hippies stopped and drove us to the island.

And that's when our search began! Even more funny about this city is that thieves can run around here, carrying machetes, and nobody would notice. One of them attacked us, Talim fought back. Only the thief was surprised about the way she moved, nobody else seemed to notice, or even care. It still makes me wonder what is wrong with this city. Does it take a giant gorilla to draw these people's attention?

"This is pointless!" I finally admitted.

"Didn't I tell you New York City is huge?" Talim reminded me.

"I don't think if a hell spawn would use one of it's tricks, people would remember it ever happened!" I concluded.

"So we're still looking for a needle in a haystack?" she asked sarcastically.

"There must be some way to make the haystack a little smaller!" I thought out loud, "You and you're whole 'power of the wind' thing, can't you give any directions?"

"I already tried, but I sense a lot of things around here." she said sadly.

If I wasn't in a situation like this, I would be enjoying New York right now. Unfortunately I was in this situation.

Still going through some possibilities, I said: "Since Rat City ain't an official name, the cops wouldn't be much of help either!"

"You lookin' f'r Rat City!" we heard someone say.

It was a bit of a screechy voice we heard. We both turned to the direction of where the voice originated. All we saw was a small, lumpy clown, with a bunch of balloons in his left hand, and patting a six-year-old with his right hand

The clown said "You came to see the right man!"

His voice alone could explain why most people are afraid of clowns.

"W... What?" I still couldn't believe he would help us.

The clown ignored my question: "You tourists want to sleep somewhere very cheap? Or are you looking for a place to stay forever? Rat City is the place."

He started to laugh. It almost sounded like a weird giggle, like he was up to something. I looked at Talim, and judging from the look on her face she felt the same way.

The clown suddenly had the urge to say: "I can even tell you where you could find all the whores!"

I realized this was something no clown would mention in front of kids, so I asked: "You're not really a clown, are you!"

"Scram!" the clown said to the kid, to us he said: "Why won't you follow me, and I'll tell you where to find it!"

He went into a nearby dark alley. He was signaling us to follow him, but Talim nor I were sure we should follow his lead.

Talim felt as insecure as I did: "Is there something I should know about clowns?"

"Ever read Stephan King's 'IT'?" I answered her question with another question.

She shook her head, after which I said: "At least in such an alley we can be completely sure we won't draw any attention."

"Attention?" Talim questioned that idea, "Here in this city."

I shrugged, not knowing what how to be logical in this city. All I did know is that this clown is our fist and only lead to Rat City, so I followed him. Talim didn't know what else to do either, so she followed me.

In this alley, he immediately had let go of his balloons. He searched in the bins for something. When he found it, I was surprised to see that he was looking for a donut, in which worms had already infested themselves.

I said to Talim: "If this sight doesn't make New yorkers even think "Oh my God", I d..."

The clown dropped his donut, and covered his ears as he said: "Aaah! Did you have to use the G-word?"

I know that some people believe clowns represent the devil. But seeing this guy, and considering what I've been through thus far, I was still surprised to find out that something of that myth is at all true.

"So you're supposed to be some kind of demon!" I asked.

"Oops!" the clown laughed, "Blown my cover away now, didn't I!"

"What do you want from us?" there was a sarcastic tone to what I said, "Our soul in exchange for your directions?"

"Your soul?" the clown said surprised, even though he didn't really sound surprised, "Some limited imagination you have!"

A heavy distant voice suddenly said: "It would be for the better!"

I looked around, but saw nobody else. The clown however did seem to know where to look at when he wanted to talk to... whoever that voice belonged to. Nevertheless, whatever it was, the clown started talking to it.

"There you are, sweetheart! I missed you!"

"Don't you ever fucking die?"

"What can I say! I'm just made to make you suffer! Too bad my scheme has been foiled before it even began! Tootles!"

A green mist appeared, and then disappeared taking the clown with it. I'll never know what this was about exactly, but judging from what the voice said I'm better of not knowing.

Talim was the first the break the silence: "Are you the one they call Spawn!"

Chains struck down right before Talim's feet. Shortly after that, a big guy in a black costume, with a red cape, came down. Is this really what a hell spawn looks like, I wondered. If I didn't know any better, he looked more like a comic book character to me.

"You?" Talim seemed to recognize him.

"What are you doing here!" Spawn said as if he knew her, "Aren't you supposed to be dead by now!"

Off course, I thought to myself. I didn't actually think about the possibility that these two may have met before.

"It's a long story, but..." Talim started.

Spawn interrupted: "Too bad you don't have that time!"

His cape changed into an ax.

I tried to reason with him: "Perhaps you're interested in hearing us out first!"

"I don't have time for that!" he kept saying.

I was surprised to hear him say that. Given that he's already dead, I figure he has all the time in the world. It would have been a good argument to use right now, but I choked when I was about to say that.

"Listen! We don't mean any..." Talim tried to say something else, but Spawn started to swing his ax. Talim used her blades to dodge the attack. This didn't stop him however. I really wonder what made him so furious against someone else who's supposed to be what he is supposed to be as well: dead!

I still tried to reason with him: "Look, Spawn..."

A chain with a claw attached to it came out of his suit. It pinned me to the wall behind me. If some of my bones weren't broken already, they sure were then. Suddenly, someone decided to turn on the radio, and let it play Evanescence's "Bring me to life". A freaky coincidence.

"Why are you fucks..." Spawn kept on calling us names.

For some reason, I began to think he had his own plans with the sword, and that's why he's trying to kill us both. That thought got me drifting off a little. Enough to not listen to him finishing his sentence, but also enough for him to be distracted, so that Talim could take him down. Then again, she didn't count on him using another chain, with which he pinned her to a wall. I noticed there were a few bums in this alley, but like the rest of New York City they act as if nothing's happening at all. Not even that one figure that looked down at them as if supervising them.

"If you're still alive, that means you're still looking for that sword!" Spawn concluded.

"We intend to destroy it!" Talim was telling him.

Spawn didn't believe her: "Hah! That's what you said back then too. But in the end, I was forced to work together with some oriental to find the sword, and hide it from everybody!"

Funny to see people contradict each other, rather than stories. I bet there was a third factor that got them to work together. No matter. Heihachi was right, this hell spawn knows where the sword is!

"Well... we got reasons to believe we can destroy it forever!" I tried to convince him.

Spawn still didn't believe us: "Oh yeah! Sure! And I'm Santa Clause!"

I honestly never understood this type of humor. But there's no time to Analise that. I said: "If you would tell us where to find it..."

"There are two problems!" Spawn said, "I don't know where I hid it, and wouldn't tell either of you if I did know!"

Talim didn't understand this: "How can you not know?"

Spawn explained: "I came back to the states, picked some cave or other, dropped it, then it got flooded! Figured nature buried it for me!"

I still needed to be convinced: "And you don't know where that cave is because...?"

"There were no road signs or anything!" Spawn said, "That's why! Nobody will ever find that sword now."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" a deep dark voice sounded.

That voice came from the direction of where I saw the bums I mentioned. That guy, whom I thought to be a supervisor, turned around and threw some kind of huge sword to Spawn. It hit him right in the middle. Spawn redrew his chains, letting both Talim and me go. That guy, whoever or whatever he was, reminded me a little of Blade. He also wore a leather trenchcoat, and a bulletproof vest. Unlike Blade though, this guy also wore a hood. Though it didn't seem like he had a face to hide at all. Is this some kind of ghost? It is just now that I wonder what he needed a bullet proof vest for.

The hooded guy spoke: "Now that I know that the sword is in this hemisphere, I'm sure I'll find it in no time at all!"

Talim was recovering herself, and said: "Not if I can help it!"

She immediately attacked this guy. Unfortunately, the best she could do was tear his clothes a little. Otherwise, there's no real damage that can be inflicted upon a ghost. At first, he dodged most of Talim's attacks, then he decided to punch her in the face. The sword he had thrown at Spawn, he took it out and decided to use that on Talim. That's when something came over me. Not caring about how much pain I was in, I jumped on that guy, trying to stop him. He did drop his sword in the surprise, but he grabbed me by my throat with his one hand.

The hooded guy looked at me up and down. Or at least I think he did. He said: "You are in no condition to fight at all."

Something went through me. I had no idea what it was, only that it hurt.

Luckily, the pain didn't last long. Spawn had regenerated quickly, and had got up to attack this guy, saying: "I don't care who gets the sword! Nobody just stabs me and gets away with it!"

I helped Talim to get up, and we both ran away. We headed back into the main streets, to a place as far as possible. When I had a hard time to breath we stopped.