Chapter 1: Welcome to the New World

"this is my home and what makes you think i'd give tours?"zeru as he drew a combat knife and stabbed one of the enemies on the ground in the heart killing him.

"So, should I leave now or what." Marcus said as he got rid of his amour

"depends do you want to?"zeru said as he continued going through the bodies checking for any survivors and if he found any killed them"right now i'm looking for someone who's willing to work for food and board"

Marcus was about to turn towards when he heard those words. "What type of work."

"physical labor,security and anything else that needs to be done"

"Hm, Well so how do I per-say get this job." Marcus was a little excited, he could pretty much do all three

"it's not really job more so it's a everyone helps keep place running kinda deal"

"Well I can take that Job then." Marcus said in a joyful tone that sounded childish for a demoniac voice

~Tecchie~

"Alright Shadow, I'll come find you when the time comes to meet these guys," I respond to him. The other man asks about a job, and as soon as Shadow accepts, I speak up.
"Call me in too. My apartment isn't going to be safe anymore, and as soon as I go turn that GPS tracker off, they won't find me here for quite a while. As long as I leave now though. I'll be back as soon as I get word from that guy I'm meeting tomorrow," I say, walking toward the stairs.

"Bye, bye davey" Marcus said as his demony voice returned to normal. "So where am I sleeping because I am tired as hell."

"only place with enough room is small to about medium pair of storage rooms so pick one and then we'll leave the other one to david"zeru said as he moved the bodies together before calling out to urthus"need you to get rid of them fast since we can't leave a trace of anything"

"roger that" Marcus said as he moved into one of the storage rooms, this one seemed to be filled with types of equipment he didn't know but he didn't care, he just made a place for him to sleep and dropped like a fly, he was pretty sure it was late.

after shadow left to go sleep zeru got on a secure channel with one of his contacts and let them know he'd need there help repairing some damage and after waiting an hour for them to arive began to try and finish everything from the day before while they worked on the repairs.

So unless anyone minds, going to timeskip again by about two days. If you weren't done, please tell me and I will delete this post to give you time to finish up

--Timeskip, Friday October 13th, 2:12 PM

Wednesday and Thursday passed by without the same level of events as the Berserkers, but then again James was only ever to be in one spot. Gestalt had informed him of something that happened across town, caught on cameras though the footage was a bit difficult to make out, bits and pieces of a puzzle that gave hints of even more unique individuals in town. While his heroing life was filled ith stopping muggings and robberies, saving people from fires, he found it shocking how little his normal life changed. He still went to school, still had the same school problems. Hell his English teacher Mr. Buckell was reminding him that he had that paper to finish which he had even yet to start. A few, small changes were noticed though, mostly by Chris.

James was using his headphones a lot now whenever they weren't talking on the way home. She could hear the music pumping out from behind the earbuds. He had never done that before, and it made her wonder why. They tried using the grill out back for some burgers but he wouldn't come out to help and said she looked like she had it under control. But when she saw the way the flames licked up from the burner to play against the cooking meat......Chris got a sinking feeling of what exactly was going on with her friend. She wanted to confront him about it, but whenever she tried he'd find ways to change the subject. But on a brighter note, she and Amy were together a bit more. They hung out at Amy's house on Wednesday when James was out, watching TV together and having a good time.

Now, in their last class with eight minutes on the clock before class got out, they all sat in the same room and watched the hands of the clock tick by at an agonizingly slow pace. There was a new student in the room, Kyou Ishii. Recently moved from parts unknown, though she said she was born in Japan. Most of the guys took notice of her, since she was essentially a cute looking Japanese girl. James, along with Chris, rolled their eyes a bit at how the others acted. Kyou was for the most part silent, withdrawn even. Her eyes scanned the room, a habit of hers. She was looking for an easy mark, someone to potentially steal from. It wasn't really good practice since none of the people here were carrying anything of real value, nor were they secure enough to make it fun. For her, it was a way to pass the time by.

Marcus spent all of yesterday moving all the unnecessary equipment from his new room and replacing it with living tools, by today it was looking like a really small house but Marcus didn't mind, he felt like taking off his mask because these guys were not too bad with the identity's and he played on it for a while, sitting in his new bed as he thought.

Bella spent the last day looking for three things, money which she did find, food which she did find and a school which she half found. One disadvantage of living alone when you want to go to school is no parents to write paper work and pick up phone calls and the such so this made Bella think, think about how if they used a digital roster like most schools which would allow her to plant herself in their system.

When the bell rang and everyone got up, Kyou seized the moment to grab something. Walking past James' table, she faked a trip and bumped into him, her hand going into his pocket to quickly nab his wallet. She got all the way to the door though, before she felt a cold, hard hand clamp down on her shoulder. "Can I have my wallet back?" James asked politely, his tone quiet as he walked out with Kyou to avoid making the teacher suspicious. Kyou kept walking, but arched a brow as she turned her head to look at James. "You knew?" she asked, surprised. "Yeah, but I gotta admit if I wasn't paying attention to the new student, I'd have never caught you. That and uh....well, you're not the only thief in here." A chortling sound came from behind them, Chris coming up on Kyou's left as she said "Yeah and I'm still glad you stopped stealing James."

"Hey I only take when I have no money. Otherwise I pay for it," James shot back. Kyou held his wallet out, and he gladly took it. "Thanks. But still, I'm like a poor amateur, you managed to take it with me barely feeling a thing." She blushed a little, though wished he would take his hand off her shoulder so she could leave. That, and it was a bit creepy: a prosthetic hand, lifeless and fake, touching her. He got the message from the way her eyes moved to the hand as she looked at him, and he removed it. "So Kyou, welcome to our school," Amy said, catching up as the group got to the school exit. "Thanks," Kyou responded, James moving ahead to open the door and hold it open for them. Stepping out into the light, a faint chill swept past them from the wind outside. Today's weather was muggy with grey clouds across the sky, the sunlight doing its bets to poke through. The forecast earlier said it might rain and it looked like this would be one of the few times they got it right.

"So, I guess see you next week Kyou," James said as he Chris and Amy began walking in the direction of their neighborhood. Kyou had to go another way, but she found herself......mildly interested by the three, and decided to follow. It'd be a small detour anyway. "Sorry about the theft by the way," she said to James. "I just......I'm a bit of a klepto." Grinning a little, James responded with "Hey no harm no foul. So, what brought you to New York?" With a shrug of her shoulders, Kyou said "Oh, my mom's work brought me here and she had to drag me along. I always liked New York though, I've been here before. Though, to be honest I prefer Manhattan." Chris snorted out a small laugh and said "Everyone loves Manhattan. Just not that many can afford to live there."

Before anyone could get a chance to laugh, there was a sound of tires screeching and it made their heads turn in the sources direction. A white van came shooting down the road, coming up near the sidewalk and stopping as the side door opened. Inside were three individuals, dressed in black clothing and wearing masks. "Get her!" one of them barked and they jumped out, catching the group off guard as they shoved James, Kyou and Amy to the ground and grabbed Chris by the arm. Instead of screaming, Chris snarled and rammed her other fist into the face of one of the attackers, a scream emanating from him as she broke his nose. Another punched her in the stomach, hard enough that she doubled over before flinging her head back up into the chin of the puncher as he moved to grab her. Then someone pulled out a taser and shot her, her body convulsing as she cried out. James saw it and yelled, getting up to save her when the guy with the newly broken nose aimed a kick for his knee. Remembering some of his training with Chris, James shifted his leg so instead the attacker hit his shin. His face grimaced in pain but he shouldered on and managed to slug the guy with the taser, before the driver's window rolled down, a gun poked out and a shot rang clear.

The bullet, never aimed to kill, soared past James but close enough he could feel it and he stopped in fear. It was enough that the kidnappers managed to load an unconscious Chris into the van and drive off. "Chris!" James screamed, along with Amy who looked like she was near tears. They both ran off after the van, Kyou just now standing up, wide-eyed and truly worried. She was a thief, but that didn't mean the same as wanting people to get hurt. Getting up, she took out her phone and dialed the police.

"James," Amy panted as the van drove off faster than they could run. "Go after them. Please!" Nodding, James kept running after the van. Looking for a place to change, James ran between a pair of buildings and the nanites suited him up as he moved, before he fired a cable up and hauled himself to the roof. Gestalt I need you to track them!

Already doing so. Connecting to the city surveillance now.

After finishing the process he started a few days earlier zeru climbed to the top of large tower overlooking the abandoned area and sat on the edge"such peace and quiet"he said as he enjoyed the view.

Stella, at first frozen with fear as she looked out, was galvanized into action. She speinted past Amy and Kyou and slid into her car. The computerized surfaces blinked awake, and her commands were a rapid fire.
Every hacking suite known to humanity went alive as her network of shipping container hacking nests linked to form a virtual supercomputer, so to speak.
They went to work...as a familiar black and red motorcycle sped by.
"...where the fuck has he been?"

While James ran over rooftops in the direction of the van, Gestalt sifted through the live surveillance footage, scanning the nearby streets for the black van.

There. Two blocks east and moving north.

His only response was to move in that direction, heading for the street the van was taking. Going over the next roof, James came to the edge of the building and looked down to see the vehicle stopped at a red light. Got you now assholes, James thought. Leaping down, he landed on the roof of the van, arm formed into a sharp blade before he swung it down and carved open the van like a can. He was shocked though, when he saw through the gaping hole an empty compartment, save for the driver looking back at him, stunned. "Where is she!?" James roared, before the driver floored it and the van lurched forward. James lost his balance and fell backward, over the rear of the roof and nearly landed on his ass, before snarling and firing a cable, the end of it latching onto the fender of the van and pulling him onward as if he were skiing behind a boat.

That was when something really big ended up in front of the van, punching down on the hood and crumpling it. The vaj skidded the figure a bit further, until finally he drew to his full height.
"Whats so important you have to invent Van surfing, Revenant?" Paladin asked, gun hand aimed at the driver.

Stella was parked a block away, watching through security cameras at the return of the armored Paladin.

"Him," James snarled as he skidded to a stop. The front of the van was crumpled and the airbags had deployed so he driver was still alive. James ripped him out his seat, holding him up inn one hand while the cars around them were all honking their horns, drivers getting out to see what was going on. "Where is she?" James growled, his distorted voice even more intimidating than it would have normally been. But it was wasted breath, the man unconscious from the airbag deployment. "Dammit wake up!" James roared, slamming the guy against the side of the van but to no effect.

Paladin walked over. "Beating him to death will not help you find your target. Chill the fuck out - you're not helping anyone. Also, throw water on him." He said helpfully.

"Stay out of this!" James snapped.

James, there is no point. The driver suffered a concussion and has been rendered unconscious. It is doubtful he will wake for the next several hours

"Dammit!" he screamed, punching a hole through the van. Dropping the guy, James moved to the otherside of the van and opened the door. It was empty, but upon careful inspection, he saw the seam in the floor paneling. Looking back for where the van stopped, a thought occurred to him. Why would kidnappers stop at a red light so close to the kidnapping spot?

Paladin growled. "If you think you can do everything by yourself, fine. When you die I'll make sure I tell you I told you so." He began to rise into the air. "Not even the mighty revenant can survive alone."

Stella noticed the stop...no...fucking angles....okay....wait...m...manhole?
That's like a spy movie. Smart bastards.

Moving for the stop, James found what he was expecting: a manhole to the sewers below. "Dammit.....they've got a headstart now," he growled. Can you track them?

No, there are no means of surveillance within the sewers. We have lost her.

James nearly yelled, but stopped. If they went to this much trouble in a kidnapping, it meant that they were not perverts looking for some new product. We need to go home, and call her dad. They're bound to call him soon.

you still never told me why.

What dark?

Why you chose the snakes as the converger.

Oh yes, well I think its about time I told you. Snakes are my 3rd favort animal, their was a video game and comic called the darkness that had almost the same powers and some the same thanks to me as you and the snakes make it easier to converge souls as they can easily rip out the hearts.

You choose these snakes because of a game, Really?

Yea pretty much. With that Marcues Phone went off, the phone he stole from one of those sellers. Pulling it out of his pocket he press the simple green buttion as the man had no lock on his phone and held it to his ear. "Hello."

"I have a deal going down in the Brooklyn sewers, where are you." The mans voice said with amost a hint of hurrying.

"Close to Brooklyn where in the sewers" The man gave him directions to get their. After saying he was going out to his host he left and went stright for his given location.

The man put the phone down as his other hand had two knifes in it. The creature that put them there and had told him what to say had no eyes and her face was peeled away and cut. Giggling she sat on his knee and pulled one of the knifes out, making the man wince in pain. "You did good my puppet but alas you have seen me and I'm sorry but we cannot be together." Fnishing her sentice she bought the knife up to his thoat and pulled it along slcing the skin and underneigh. Hoping off his knee she watched him slowly die of blood loss, she said she would let him live but then again she was hungry for death. "Sweet darkness, you have been a very bad boy and Death would like to have a word with you, I will gladly bring you there." She said to her reflection in the mirror before returning her Host eyes and skin so no one would suspect her. Walking out the door and down the flight of stairs she made it outside and entered though a manhole. "Two birds with one stone."

James shot Paladin a look, and said "Paladin, I've got your number, so I'll call you when I get more info. If you can take to the sky and keep a look out for the girl." With that, James left, running back on the rooftops after using a cable to get up there. Already he was getting a call on his phone from Amy, and when he answered she sounded......well, in bad shape. Panicked and near tears, she cried into the phone "James, please tell me you got her back."

"Amy.....I didn't," James said, keeping the anger out of his voice as best he could. "They took her into the sewers by the time I found the van, and I've got no idea where they've taken her now. But this was too....much, for a simple kidnapping. They want something. They're going to call Michael. So that means you and Gestalt need to work together to track them down. Heck, track her phone. But we need to find her fast."

"Right," Amy said, working as she moved. Having hacked her phone's wi-fi hotspot generator, she used that to help her tablet connect to the web and from there she began hacking.....well, everything. She ran a trace on Chris' phone, using the GPS to track it while keeping an eye out for it if it came up as moving. Last but not least.....she sent an email to Stella.

Amy wrote:

Stella, it's me Amy. Chris has been kidnapped and I'm trying to find her and I could use your help. Please, help me find her.

Stella emailed back.

I'm mapping the sewers already. I saw everything. Meet me at my container so i can tap you into my processing power. wrote:

Paladin took to the skies, and keeps a lookout.

"So what do you think the deal is."

Could be drugs, murder clean up, kidnapping.

"Yea hoping it isn't the 3rd."

Why is that?

"I would kill them all then release the person instead of knocking them out" Marcus replied with a laugh to his friend. Reaching a manhole close to his Job he easily pulled it up and jumped down landing on cerement with a thump that almost echoed. "Well time to go."

as zeru was relaxing on the tower he saw something fly across the skyline in the distance"wonder what it is"he said as he went back to enjoying the view.

Amy wrote:

I'm on my way.

Amy felt her lungs burning as she ran for the shipping area where Stella was housed. All the while, James kept running a the way back to Chris' house. On the way, he called Michael. It took him until the second ring before he answered. "Hey there James," Michael's voice sounded over the phone. "You and Chris just get out of school right? What's u--" James' panicked voice cut Michael off as he said "Chris has been kidnapped!"

There was a moment of stunned silence from the other end of the line, Michael, currently sat in his office at Nexus going wide-eyed and still. "What did you say?" he asked in a stern voice, but there was a quiver there. "We were walking from the school when a van pulled up near us, the side door opened and a bunch of guys came out and grabbed her. I tried to follow them but I couldn't keep up."

Before Michael could respond, he received another call.....from Chris' phone. Without thinking he put James on hold as he answered the call, expecting to hear his daughter's voice. "Chris?" he said, praying this was a joke. Instead, a male voice he didn't recognize answered him. "Mr. Martinez," the man said, as if in greeting. "Who is this?" Michael asked, standing up and ready to move. "My name isn't important. But who I am, is the man who has your little girl safely tucked away."

James wondered what was going on with the silence when Gestalt answered him.

I am monitoring Michael's phone James. Chris' cellphone has just called.

Track it! Get Amy to help if you have to.

"You listen to me," Michael said, his tone unlike anything either Chris or James would have heard. It was something he had buried, from his time being a soldier. "Let my daughter go, right now. If she comes home in the next hour, safe and sound without a scratch I will forget this ever happened. Otherwise I am going to hunt you down and there is no force on Earth that is goi--" The man cut him off and said in a bored voice "Spare me the theatrics, I'm on a schedule here. I have a gun to your daughters head so if you want to make sure she doesn't get a new bullet piercing, you are going to do exactly what I say. Now, don't worry about money that's not what we're after. We are here, to play a game. Rule number one: if you call the cops, your daughter is dead. Rule number two if you deviate from my instructions your daughter is dead. Finally rule number three if I fail to get what I want, your daughter is dead."

While Amy was moving, Gestalt contacted her. He also contacted Stella, routing the call to them with one message apiece.

Gestalt to Amy wrote:

They are calling her father. Here is the line, try and identify the caller.

Gestalt to Stella wrote:

They are calling her father. The line is connected, try and find the point of origin.

Marcus was starting to hate the smell that originated from next to his feet. A stream of urine and feces most likely. "I am not going in that no matter what." he said to himself as his voice echoed which he didn't mind. As he got closer to his 'job' he could hear voices and making a turn he walked into about five to eight men and one that looked feminine to him. Could be kidnapping.

Please God maybe she is just working with them. Marcus thought back as he got closer.

"Now I am tempted," the leader said, "to let you talk to your daughter but sadly she's still out cold. Tasers tend to do that when you ramp up the settings. So for now, I suggest you sit tight in your office for the next hour and we'll call you back with your instructions. But if I so much as hear a siren..." To give Michael an example, the man aimed his gun at the brickwork of the sewer wall and squeezed off a round. Michael blanched as the shot rang clear in the speaker of the phone, a dry chuckle following it from the shooter. "You get the idea." Then he hung up, and said to one of his teammates "Are the charges set?"

A fun fact about New York was that in the Prohibition era, bootleggers had created a labyrinth of tunnels and secret passages to smuggle and hide their liquor. Not all of them were known, but in this case, the kidnappers knew of one. They stood at the entrance to it, where it led to the sewer line they had fled to. Along the archway of the entrance, small, shaped charges were set out to seal the way behind them. "All set sir," said one. "Good. Let's move the girl to the safe point." One of the kidnappers draped Chris over their shoulders, the group moving out. The leader carried the detonator, and at a safe distance thumbed the button. The charges blew, and the way was blocked behind them by bricks and rubble.

In her container, Stella was typing like wildfire. She backtraced and hunted for the bloody origin, but was having horrible luck. With a soft sigh, she continued, face set.
"I will find her." She resolved.

Amy was able to get a lead on the voice, running the phone call Gestalt sent her through a voice recognition program. As she stood outside the container, about to go in, she called James. He was currently stuck standing on a rooftop, having listened in on the phone call (he nearly shit himself when he heard the gunshot) and trying to figure out what to do next when Amy called. "Amy, what's going on?" James asked, his voice still panicked. Amy sounded no better, her voice quivering with fear as she said "I got a lead on the voice. Martin Sanders, former Navy Seals until he was dishonorably discharged five years ago. He's been the suspect in a number of kidnappings and hostage-takings. So far he's never been caught."

"Let's change that. We need to find where he might be, since that'll be where Chris is," James said. "Right," Amy responded. "I'll run his face through my programs, see if they find where in the city he's been. Same goes for any aliases he has." Then she walked into the container, finding Stella at her workstation. "Hey," was all she could manage.

having gotten bored zeru had decided to head into the town proper and se if he could find anything interesting."wonder if they have anything good to eat"he said as he tried looking for any good bakeries.

Stella pointed to a chair. "Work. Fill me in. Tracing the signal but it disappears underground. Hacking city planning to find a map of old tunnels."

Had to be kidnapping eh. Marcus thought to himself as the explosion in front of him. "Shit, you think they saw us?" Well we were hard to miss until this happened. "Can you smell them, find another way to get to their because thats a kidnapping and I feel like I need to try and stop that." Go that way and take two lefts think we can blow up a wall? "If its thin." Marcus then went the way he was told by his friend before coming to a stop. he gathered enough darkness to make a orb that would explode. Backing off he threw it and letted it crumble before quickly going out into the light. "Crap."

Already sitting down and setting up her tablet, Amy went to work. "Martin Sanders, former Navy Seal," Amy said. "I'm running his military record through face recognition, along with his aliases to see if they've been used around town."

There wasn't a lot James could do, so he had Gestalt connect to Amy and Stella's computers to monitor in real time.

As for the kidnappers, they began moving out the back of a closed down store, the speakeasy tunnel leading up to its basement. A new van was waiting for them, and they loaded Chris into it. Martin got in the passenger seat, and said "Get us to the safe house, I don't like being out in the open."

Stella began working. "Sec, linking with Icarus satellites...alright. I have full satellite coverage New York City. Realtime superzoom. Neat." She began searching. "Got any leads?"

"Nothing yet," Amy said. "Like I said, trying to find him through facial recognition.....but if he's underground that won't help us mu--wait, I've got something." One of the street cams spotted Sander's face in a new van. "Found him."

"Seems I made a hole in the ground getting out" Marcus said as he looked at the sink hole filling up with dirt. Human, Van. "hmm" Marcus quickly turned around to see the girl loaded up and all the men filing in. "Jesus look for a camra and read the number plate." he looked at the walls before seeing a camra he ran in front of it and started to wave while letting his snakes out. He just hoped that Rev was looking though the camras right now. He wasn't fast enough to catch the van but he got the number plate.

"Uh Stella, you seeing this?" Amy asked. As she saw he van driving, there was a man covered in....well, black smoke and snakes, jumping around like a maniac.

He decided to stop and wrote the number plate on the van in the air with darkness before making it harden in the air and then he wrote his phone number in the air for them to call him doing the same thing. writing it in smoke and then soildfying it. "Dark I want you to keep a hold of that scent and don't lose it." with that he started to run faster than he would during the day. How could I lost the scent of the girl I want to kill.

"He left a phone number. Fucking telemarketers are going after the NSA now? Wow." Stella sighs. "Anyways."

"I'll try tracking the plates. Stella, follow the van," Amy said.

James, watching the scene unfold, could not help but facepalm at Shadow's appearance. Great......well if we're lucky he'll be useful. Come on, we've gotta track the van.

James broke into a run, Gestalt painting a waypoint for him.

Stella began panning over.
"Got it. Heading towards fifth. Also, I got armored dude on patrol in the east, and....fuck, HERCULES VTOL is heading towards the intersection. I got a HERCULES convoy coming as well. Fuck where is that number for Revenant?! He's just here and heading their way!"

"We are aware of them now Stella," Gestalt's voice said over her computer. "I plugged into your network to monitor in real time. But there's not much we can do, so we will have to improvise."

James could see the VTOl craft closing in, but wasn't going to let it stop him from rescuing Chris. "Amy, Stella, try and stall them, fast!"

Marcus was lucky it was a van with around 8-9 people in it as it would make it quite slow and running at 30 mph was draining him. "Still got her?" Yea I can still smell her human Stop asking me every second. "Sorry" With that he kept running where Dark said to go.

having walked around and checking out several bakeries zeru eventually forgot the main reason he went shopping and decided to just meander around new york.