The Alleys
At the end of an alley, three individuals, a warthog, bat, and mantis demon, were tied up in magic bonds and were desperately trying to shuffle their way out of them as a witch paced around them, holding and twirling around a metal club.
"You don't have to do this," said the frightened warthog demon, "we're your best customers! We'd never lie to you!"
The witch drove the club to his palm as he paced around the trio of trapped hobos, "I don't give a damn about whether you're my best or worst customers," he then walked over to the warthog and poked his chest with the club, "the boss' orders are the boss' orders."
He then resumed his pacing and spoke again, "now, let's play a little game. It's one you're all familiar with," he then stopped pacing altogether as he finished his sentence, "it's called twenty questions."
The bat demon gulped as the witch got into a stance with his weapon, while the mantis demon shook in his tarsus'. The witch continued to speak, "first question. What do you know about a guy named 'Spawn?'"
The warthog demon answered hesitantly, "we- we don't know anything-"
Bam! His side was hit by a sudden and hard hitting impact that he was surprised it didn't break any ribs. The mantis and bat demon screamed in fear as their friend screamed in pain. "We don't know anything, we swear!" said the bat demon as she faced the witch, who ignored her.
"Alright. Next question," the witch said as he readied himself again, "come on, people. Don't lie to me."
"We're not lying, you fucking asshole!" the mantis demon said, mandibles flaring as he spoke.
"No need for name calling, buddy. Let's all act civilized here and we can all go on with our lives, with a few bruises or two at worst. Besides, I got a loooot of pent up stress today and I gotta release it," the witch tightened his grip on the club before continuing to speak, "now let's go over this again. Second question: Who is-"
"About to rip your head off?"
The witch looked behind him to the source of the sudden voice and saw green, hate-filled eyes stare at him for the briefest of seconds before he found his head grabbed by a massive hand and felt a sharp pain at the base of his neck, before his vision went to black.
The trio of demons felt their magical bonds disappearing and stared in horror at the red caped figure holding the head of the witch like a hunting trophy, dangling spine and all. It took a solid second or two before the rest of his body would collapse onto the ground, spurting blood.
Spawn then crushed the head in his hand into a bloody paste before narrowing his eyes at the trio and saying one simple command. "Get out."
The trio didn't need to hear anything else as they hurried past him and out of the alley, the warthog ignoring the pain in his side as the adrenaline took over. By the time Spawn dropped the mushed up head, he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore. He grumbled before leaping upwards to the rooftops above.
As he landed on the roof, he began to run and leap from building to building, his cape flowing behind him as he did so, flaring out with every jump as though they were the wings of a blood-soaked raven. After a solid minute of running, he found a good vantage point that was high enough for him to observe the empty streets below. If someone were to look up from where he was positioned, they might mistake his flowing cape as a tattered, blood red flag on top of a pole.
He observed his surroundings for anything to do around here. He looked at the empty market stands in this area, the stray wagons that were left on the sides of the street, the crates and barrels that littered the entrances of alleyways, and the occasional strange creature that fluttered about in the air.
Speaking of strange creatures, a little fairy flew up to him, a mischievous smile on its face as it asked a question to the Hellspawn, "can I have your teeth?"
Without a word, or even a grumble, Spawn simply grabbed the pest in his hands and crushed it without a second thought, barely giving it the time to scream in panic. He released and shook his hand to get the fairy goop off his palm as he went back to observing the environment around him.
This place… It was different from what he was used to. The buildings didn't touch the skies, the sounds of honking and passing trains didn't play over any potential silence, and the smog of pollution didn't blot out the stars above. They didn't seem to use any technology he was familiar with, like phones, or televisions. They used strange scrolls and crystal orbs like he was in a damn renaissance fair.
And don't even get him started on the weapons they used. Positively medieval. Crossbows, swords, axes, and flying staffs used in combination with magic. Though he was no stranger to using his own set of powers, he preferred the familiarities of modern technology. Especially the ones that let him kill someone from several yards away.
Yet the more things were different, the more things were the same. This place reeked of sin. Crime and corruption infected this city like a plague. It reminded him of when he was first dropped in New York at the beginning of his career, especially in Rat City. At least now, he was more experienced and knew the insides and outsides of how the scum who kept things in their grip worked.
As he reminisced, he looked at a building in the far distance, one of the few buildings that reminded him of home, seeing how tall it was. He's only been to that general area maybe once or twice, but he's done some digging on it… he'll have to pay the owner a visit someday. He always knew corruption starts up top, slowly trickling down the hierarchy like overflowing sludge down a vertical pipe. Before you know it, everyone has been covered in it. He'd have to fix that problem soon…
The sounds of mumbling down below interrupted his train of thought and he looked downwards to see a girl, no older than fourteen, maybe fifteen, walking down the path and into the nearby alley. The vigilante observed, staying still upon his perch as the little girl leaned against the wall and slid down.
Spawn raised a brow, knowing this kid was placing herself in danger by being all alone in the dark of the night, especially in a place like this. He leapt from his position, his cape extending, allowing him to glide across to the rooftops below, slowly and quietly. When he landed, the cape immediately surrounded his body like a shroud, concealing it and leaving only his head and green eyes exposed.
He saw the girl mumble something to herself before sobbing into her knees. He couldn't help but feel bad for her. He leapt down, his landing as silent as the wind itself and took a step or two to get a closer look at her. She saw she was accompanied by some sort of owl that seemed to be made of wood. It was trying to comfort her, not too dissimilar to how a dog might comfort its owner when they felt sad. Seems these attempts went unnoticed as she kept crying into her knees.
The vigilante's green eyes, once windows of malice and anger, now formed into windows of pity and sadness as he continued seeing her cry, reminding him of too many images he's seen of a lost, scared child.
He exhaled a silent sigh before backing to the wall behind him and sitting down to her eye level and asking a simple question, "are you alright?"
She looked up towards his eye-level, eyes watery and red, then she went back to burying her face in her knees as the little owl hid behind her head in fear.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he clarified, a soft, reassuring tone, "I promise."
That seemed to comfort her a bit, but not by much. She wiped the leftover tears on her eyes, sniffling a few more times, before looking at him, her eyes showing hints of fear, but also a hint of a strange understanding.
"Why are you out here all alone?" he asked her, "it's dangerous here, especially at night."
The girl hesitated for a bit, sniffling one more time before answering, "I just want to be, I guess," her voice was somewhat quavering as she spoke, "I just have a lot going on."
"What kind of things?"
The girl sighed before answering, "you wouldn't get it."
Al settled for that. He probably wouldn't understand her problems and she had no business telling him about them anyways. He was, after all, just a stranger to her.
He sighed, feeling this kid didn't want any help, before he spoke again, "look, kid… I'm sorry if I seem intrusive. I just wanted to make sure you're alright," he began to get up from his sitting position, "I'll leave you alone if that's what you want-"
"No, no, it's fine," the girl said, wiping her eyes, "you just wanted to look out for a stranger. I understand that."
He nodded, sitting back down and seeing the girl's mood slowly change from a fearful sadness, to a reserved neutrality, before speaking again, "I know it seems unlikely a guy like me would look out for others, but…" he then looked to the stars above, "appearances can be deceiving."
The girl shrugged, a small smile on her face as she responded, "it's no biggie. Everyone is a bit of a weirdo in my experience."
"Hmph," he said, a small smile beneath his mask as he looked back at the kid. Noticing that her little owl companion no longer hid behind her head and was instead perched on her shoulder. He seemed a bit content knowing the kid felt a little better now. He then watched the kid walk up to him and extend her hand to him.
"Just so we're not strangers anymore… I'm Luz."
Al stared at the hand for a few seconds before extending his own to shake it, "Al," he said, before standing up to his full height, with Luz feeling slightly intimidated that he was at least a foot and a half taller than her, with his encompassing cape making him look even bigger than he already was, "come on, kid. Let's take you home."
He walked towards the entrance of the alley and onto the stone path that encompassed the empty market outskirts, turning back to see Luz's demeanor had reverted back to a melancholic state and her walking speed was so slow, it may as well have been a halt.
The Hellspawn raised a brow as he headed back to her, kneeling down to her eye level, "what happened?" He said, hints of concern in his voice as he spoke, "don't you want to go home?"
Luz looked away as her eyes got a bit watery again, leaving Spawn with a worried expression, "did something happen?" He asked, feeling guilt over possibly touching a nerve, "did you… run away?"
Luz's tears seemed to get stronger. Even her owl companion was worried about it, now. Spawn wasn't sure what went wrong or what he said to warrant such a reaction. He wanted to say something but saw an unusual sight now that they were exposed to more moonlight… Her ears were normal.
"You're…. a human?!" he exclaimed, eyes forming an expression of surprise, as she seemed to pause, "you're actually a human!?"
WIth a sniffle, she nodded as she wiped away the newly-formed tears in her eyes, the one question in the recent seconds she actually seemed to answer. Spawn wasn't sure what was going on, but something happened to her that made her react this way.
"Luz…." Al said, raising a hand to her shoulder to comfort her, "what happened?"
Before he knew it, he was hit with a mass going as fast as a speeding car.
At first, it felt weightless, then the pain registered as he felt his back being dragged across the stone for a briefest of seconds before stopping completely, a sudden weight on his chest as he grunted in slight pain from the entire ordeal. His vision cleared and saw what could only be described as a half-woman, half-bird on top of him. Wings on her back spread out like an angel of death as her yellow iris' surrounded by black sclera and filled with a black pupil stared down at him with an expression of pure rage.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" she said, voice speaking with an echo as she leapt back to Luz, landing with grace combined with ferocity.
"Eda!?" Luz said, completely surprised at her sudden appearance, "what are you doing!?"
"Saving your life," Eda responded, not even turning around, "you're welcome, by the way."
"Eda, you've got this all wrong-"
She was then interrupted by the appearance of a dog-like creature with horns appealing out of the harpy's hair, "I'm here too!"
"King!?" Luz asked, perplexed, "what are you guys-"
"King," Eda said, interrupting the human again, "take her somewhere safe. I'll deal with 'tall, dark, and spooky' over here."
King didn't need to hear it twice as he leapt out of the hair and grabbed Luz's hand and ran behind one of the many stacks of crates in the market outskirts, ignoring Luz's protests as they ran.
Eda turned back to see Spawn get up, cracking his neck and loosening his joints from the impact he just received. His cape flared outwards, no longer concealing his body, revealing it to be charcoal black, with a strange shape that looked like an 'M' and 'V' mixed together going down the middle of his body. His vambraces on his arms were spiked and red, a skull belt buckle and chains surrounded his waist, with a similar design existing for the buckles on his upper chest that held his cape. Topping it all off, a red pouch was wrapped on his left thigh, and he had a big left red boot, while the other foot was bare save for smaller ankle guards, leaving a strange, asymmetrical style to him.
He spoke up to her, "I don't know what your problem is with me, lady, but I have no intention of fighting you. Back away and let's talk this through."
"Did you say that to all the people you murdered!?" Eda said, her feathers flaring up in anger.
He retorted, annoyed at the thought of dealing with another wannabe crusading savior "my fight is not with you, ma'am. Back off now."
Eda didn't seem to listen, though, seeing as how she charged at full speeds at him. She would have landed a hit had the vigilante not caught the fist in his hand, squeezing just hard enough to stop it, while being light enough to not hurt her in any way.
"Last. Chance." He stated, both words emphasized grimly. Eda responded by swiping a claw at his chest, causing him to back away slightly, before a fist connected to his face, then another, and another, and another. He had to admit… They hurt .
Eda then finished the string with a haymaker that nearly knocked him over had he not planted his foot on the ground with such force that it cracked the stone beneath it. Once again, he loosened his aching muscles, especially in the facial area, slightly amused at Eda's concern as she no doubt realized she underestimated him. Severely .
If he couldn't talk some sense to her, then surely he could beat some sense to her. He cracked his knuckles and uttered one more set of words to her before the real fight ensued.
"My turn."