James was bored.
Plain and simple, he was bored.
He has been invited to a party hosted by the Emperors coven, that meant him and about every other rich, snobby, stuck-up aristocrat in the isles.
He had been sitting here for nearly an hour before someone came to talk to him, it wasn't pleasant but better than the silence. He eventually ventured to the chess table situated near one of walls of the ornate ballroom. He sat arranging and rearranging the pieces of the board as well as watching the crowd, he saw the usual at place like this, people with their nose so high they could smell the clouds. But noticeably the Blight family was absent, they're usually showing off their youngest like piece of fine jewelry around this time, poor girl...
James had reset the board for about a dozen times when someone finally walked up "Bored already James? The party has barely started!" he heard a familiar, gruff voice come from behind him, he turned and saw a balding man in a cyan suit that did not, well, suit him. "Ah, Aleks, good to see you, were you too drunk to read the invitation correctly? I don't usually see you at these fancy parties." Aleks chuckled at that before taking a seat opposite of James "Sadly no, I was as sober as a preacher, I have business to attend to and they insisted on meeting here." James eyed his suit "Is that the reason for the suit?" Aleks looked down at his attire, offended "Hey! It was last minute, and I'm not as picky about my looks like you and Krause are." James chuckled at his reaction.
Aleks looked off into the crowd and with a raised eyebrow turned back to James "Where's the Blights? They are usually the main ones at these types of parties." James watched the crowd with growing disinterest "Yes, i believe you and everyone else here is wondering the same thing." Aleks thought for moment "I did hear of a house fire, rumors were that the Blight manor had burned down due to mysterious circumstances, but i don't think anyone was injured." James hummed in acknowledgement before they both sat in silence, letting the noise of the other partygoers act as white noise.
James looked up onto the stage as a man with a coven badge walked up to the microphone and tapped it several times, checking if it was on and gaining everyone's attention. "Ahem, Welcome to the boiling isles' annual ball," The speaker started, "Celebrating the unification of the isles, the banishment of wild magic, and the rise of our glorious Emperor Belos! Please enjoy yourselves and if you stay until-" The speaker stopped abruptly when the lights of the ballroom shut off, people gasped and a few people shouted, James was silent as he heard shuffling all around the ballroom. When the lights switched back on, and james' eyes adjusted, he saw the speaker being held at knife point, he wouldn't have been worried if it was just that, but there were people all around the room with masks on, making sure no one tried to run or escape including him.
He looked into the eyes of the man that was keeping an eye on him, Aleks and a few others. The man held his gaze and only looked away to keep another person from running 'These guys are trained.' James thought, he eyed the exits and saw them either chained shut or closed with abomination goo. 'No going out the front door.' He looked up onto the roof and noticed some catwalks and saw figures moving about up there 'They have the ground and the roof covered, these guys were prepared.' James was ripped out of his thoughts as the sound of magic being cast was heard.
The person holding the speaker hostage moved to the side as they awaited... something.
The doors at the back of the stage busted open and a coven guard flew out sliding across the stage and knocking over the microphone, the guard tried to stand but was hit with a blast of magic and flew off the stage, nearly hitting a woman and making her shout. An abomination walked... no, slid across the stage. The bottom of the abomination was a large mound of goo that it used to move around 'Never seen that before' James thought before his attention, and everyone else's, was brought to the catwalks above the stage. He could see the glow of two yellow eyes before they disappeared "Hello aristocrats of the isle's!" The voice sounded around the room as the lights flickered on and off again "I know this beautiful party was hosted by the Emperor, but due to his absence and general lack of caring..." The lights around the ballroom shut off except the ones on the stage which were all turned to the center "I'm your new Host!" in the blink of an eye a hooded person appeared on stage, their arms outstretched and the yellow eyes of their mask scanning the crowd, they walked over to the fallen microphone and picked it up detaching the mic from the stand "You may call me, Owl Wing."
This new person- Owl Wing, was about to speak again but was cut off when a coven guard popped out of the crowd with a spell circle raised. They looked at the guard, unmoving. James thought they were just stupid at first but then the guards arm jerked downward firing the spell into floor, a person with a flaming animal skull on their head as well as a wide-brimmed hat, materialized in front of the guard holding his arm before uppercutting the guard, knocking the guard on his back before finally knocking the guard out with a kick. They joined Owl Wing on the stage and crossed their arms watching the crowd, Owl Wing chuckled before speaking again "Look at that display! Always the last-minute showman. Everyone," Owl Wing placed their hand on the other person's shoulder "This is my great friend Serif, Illusion extraordinaire and great jokester. There behind me is another friend, we call 'em Abomaton, their outfit isn't the best for a party like this but it gets the job done."
James sat there wondering if this is just some sick comedy act or if they're actually serious, he looked over at Aleks and it looked like he was thinking the same. James turned back to the stage and saw one of the masked people whisper something in Owl Wings ear, They nodded and the masked criminal returned to keeping an eye on the crowd "Well, looks like we'll have to cut our time short, the Coven Guard are on their way. You all are probably wondering why we haven't shaken down you and your extended family for money and jewels yet right?" The crowd nervously stayed silent as Owl Wing jumped off the stage walking amongst them "I'll take your silence as a yes. Well the answer for that is, we don't want your money, which i can almost guarantee has been acquired in more nefarious ways than this. We just want to send a message, to you, to Emperor Belos, to the Isles, we want everyone to know that it doesn't matter how much money or power you have, if we find out you have some shady shit going on, money or property obtained through many evil means, we'll find you..." Owl Wing stood still before pulling out a weird shaped object and walking back on stage and motioning for the person holding the previous Coven speaker to come closer
"We will find you, Harold Jameson." Owl Wing motioned to the speaker as they pointed the object at him "Let him go." The masked person obeyed and dropped the speaker to his knees and then Owl Wing looked to the crowd "The object I am currently holding is something from the human realm, you'll see what it does in a moment. But this man, Jameson, all dressed up in this fancy suit, recently got promoted did you know that? Yep, lieutenant, all it took was an innocent family dying." The coven speaker tried to stand but was held down by the masked person "They weren't innocent! They were a bunch of wild witches, they deserved what they got th-" He was cut off when Owl Wing hit him in the jaw, a nasty crack sounded through the ball room making James wince slightly. Owl Wing pointed the object back at the speaker, ignoring the blood on the grip, and continued "The father maybe, but there were four more in that family, a mother, daughter, and two sons, one of the boys couldn't even walk yet and you decided to torch their home and kill them, not even burying them just tossing them in a shallow ditch!" Owl Wings voice raised to such volumes they didn't even need the mic. "I said I was going to show them what this thing does so let us show them!" Owl Wing dragged him forward until he was the the front of the stage, Wing stood beside him the object pointed at his head "People of the Isles, a new day has come to you, where people like this will no longer terrorize innocents with the lie of the 'greater good' or 'the titan's will' backing up their acts of violence!" Owl Wing cocked back a lever on the object and pulled the trigger.
The sound the object made nearly deafened James as his ears rang, the sound was like he was standing next to a lightning strike, he looked at the stage and saw the speaker laid out on the stage with blood pouring from a wound in his head, a large chunk of it missing, after a moment the ringing subsided and he could hear somewhat clearly, Owl Wing grabbed the mic again "Well, I think I added a bit too much powder on that but nevertheless it worked!" Owl Wing held up the object with it still smoking "This is what the Humans call a gun, Human Magic I like to call it." the Vigilante was cut off by the sound of someone banging on the doors "Emperor's Coven is here!" a masked individual yelled from above, Owl Wing nodded and motioned her hand in a circle and the masked people all started to move, then they turned to the crowd once more "Well, I hate to cut our time short but the Fun Police are here, so i bid you all adieu and wish you all a goodnight!" Abomaton pulled themselves upwards onto the catwalks above then created a platform, lowering it for Owl Wing to get on. As Owl Wing was lifted up Serif used a hanging banister to climb up onto the catwalks before joining by Owl Wings' side.
The main doors of the ball room busted open with coven guards flooding in, they looked up and saw the figures "Hey! Stop right there criminal scum!" a guard drew a spell circle and shot at them but it was reflected back at him by Owl Wing who disappeared up to the roof shouting about a 'homerun'?
James sat in his office sipping at a glass of Apple blood, the day replaying in his mind like a movie. This new player 'Owl Wing' and their partners, 'Serif' and 'Abomaton' they all could be a problem. He sighed and finished the glass before summoning his scroll, starting a group call. Two others joined, the third didn't answer, 'Aleks is probably drunk again', James thought as he held the scroll to his ear. "What do you need James?" an accented voice came over the speaker, Krause. "Yes, James, why are you calling? I have much to do." another voice sounded, Saito, this one more strict. "I've got news, we need to call a meeting, there might be a new player on the field that could spell disaster for us all." Krause and Saito both went silent before agreeing to meet tomorrow, James hung up and poured himself another glass of Apple Blood, sipping it. He had a feeling that the speaker Owl Wing had killed was just the beginning of a long list that he felt probably included his name as well, along with Aleks, Saito, and Krause. 'Looks like there's a new boss at the table.' James thought as he looked over the things on his desk. 'Hopefully there's enough chairs, I'd hate to kill someone that skilled.'