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The rain was coming down again in the chilly evening. This was typically enough to keep people indoors, or have them rush out of the weather. Of course, for some people, they had greater needs than staying warm and dry, and were heading down to a particular street corner in a bad part of town to pick up their 'goods' from a foursome of larger fellows, all with varying face tattoos. Street thugs from the Toto Haka gang, originating from Samoa; definitely not the kind of guys anyone in their right mind wanted to fuck with.

Of course, on a rooftop above, there was a glint of moonlight shining from those red sunglasses. Dain stood perched there, lit cigarette in one hand as he observed the comings and goings. Sure, all the buyers only saw one seller and his backup watchman, with the other two brutes sat in a car just up the street to make sure no one got in the way of their business. He had read a few stories in the paper about this particular crew being involved in several brutal murders, even using 'traditional' Maori style weapons to kill victims slowly, such as a Sharktooth Club and Stingray Spear. Definitely guys that would be on par with Dain himself for their viciousness. If they weren't attacking innocent people and selling death on the street corners, he'd probably even be obliged to have a drink with them.

Rest assured, they were on his radar now as he was simply biding his time, waiting for the right moment to approach. After all, he didn't want some hapless addict caught in the crossfire.

"Well....at least the rain will help wash the blood away this time...."
Emmas stash had run out as she sobered up from her night at the pub again. Bundled in a long coat and her flaming red hair tucked up in a beanie, she headed down to where her dealer usually liked to linger. Leaning on the bus depot, doing her best to ignore the chill from the rain falling from the already dark skies, she removed her phone, busily texting trying to get his location. This wasn't her usual seller, her normal one having been locked up prior for some bullshit charge.

Listening and keeping her eyes open for the arrival, she continued to text and fuss with her phone, her free hand leaning heavily on a thick, wooden cane, metal with the rain and her mutation being far to risky. Half a ciggarette hung from her mouth as she swore in annoyance, stepping under the bus stop over hang.
“Are you always so dramatic?” came the rough, low timbered tone of a woman. It would sound faintly familiar, yet the secondary tone ringing in his mind would definitely trigger his memories.

Standing on a rooftop, brooding. Some things never change. Do they, my pet?”

If he turned to look for the figure that houses the voice, he would simply see a woman in a black trenchcoat, scarlet sheer stockings, and black heels. An umbrella was held over her head and the shadow cast obscured any defining features but a blood red sharks grin, and a strange scar on her lip.

Yet each time he turned, she would only appear in his peripheral, always on the edges of his vision. If he looked even closer, he would the rain didn’t seem to touch her at all. Was he even really there?

”Hunting rats in your spare time? You can’t even go after bigger pests? How tragic...” her voice mocked and tongue tutted, the voice was older yet the intonation never changed.

“Don’t you want to have fun, again? You can lie to the others but you enjoyed being my pet, didn’t you, darling? You enjoyed the freedom and the easy lie of not being in control. But we both know that I was simply freeing you to do what you truly wanted, for once in your sorry life...” She laughed, rich and throaty, the sound echoing around and distorting which each pass around his ears, until it was deep and slow, and eternal.

“Come play with me again, my dear. Come dance with me in the moonlight...” the woman whispered into the cool, wet wind, her breath against his ear, and his neck.

Of course, only he could see her... since she wasn’t really there, was she?
Dain had picked up on another approaching buyer right as he was prepared to make his move, frowning as he made out the outline of the person nearing the bus stop. Even with his eyes, the details were blurry through the rain. But it had been enough to keep him on the ledge for the moment. And then....it seemed he had another distraction, causing that cigarette to again fall from his mouth, splashing out in a puddle on the sidewalk below.

"Even I can only take care of so many problems every night...besides, if the city were to find a few dozen...a few hundred corpses at dawn on the same day, that would be a tad suspicious....not that I have any reason to explain myself to you."

Again he would spin on a heel, only to find....a faint blur of the woman as she easily eluded his direct field of vision. Guns had already been drawn, but trying to fire would be pointless.

"Not a damn chance in hell....ever again. You tried to turn me against....people who were innocent. And then...against people who actually once meant something to me. Problem now is...you don't have any leverage. You're no more a shadow to me than I am to anyone else in this world..."

Meanwhile, the dropped cigarette hitting the puddle did alert his prey, as they looked up...fortunately seeing nothing, but hearing ever so faintly at least once voice. The timing was not good at all for Emma as she was just trying to get her fix, with the burly fellows eyeing her up and signaling to their buddies in the car, which would start up...clearly intent on pulling forward on a moment's notice, while the seller and his immediately lookout were chattering back and forth.

"Think this bitch a decoy...someone wants to try and rob our product..."
Emma sidled up to her dealer, shoving her phone into her back pocket and exchanging dry conversation for a few moments. She didn't want hard shit, she just wanted her pills and to go home and pass the fuck out. Money exhanged hands, and a plastic baggie was passed her way. She counted the small, round white tablets right in front of him, measuring it out.

"Should be fifty. There's forty five here."

Narrowing her eyes, she extended her hand in her dealers direction. "We agreed on fifty. It's been fifty for five months. I paid for fifty." Her nerves were getting short, and she shook her head. "I can take the last five or take my money back."

Enmma was by no means a waifish woman, standing at 5'9 and a solid 190, she worked out when she had the energy but against someone as large as these men she was playing a dangerous game. "Can we just get this going so we can all go the fuck home?"
The woman’ grin deepened, the shadows making it seem longer and wider... and sharper.

“You think me a shadow?” the grin turned into a feral snarl.

Then she held out a gloved hand and snapped her fingers together. And then the world faded away...

A pattern began to etch itself into the air, like tears in the fabric of reality itself. Suddenly it was like a projector kicked on and Dain would be assaulted with images- memories more precisely. Every horrible thing he had done, whether by choice or not, everyone he had ever loved and lost... all would tear into him, any emotion he experienced in those memories amplified by a thousand. It would feel like an eternity but would last only a few seconds.

”Is that real enough for you? Or shall I have you kill your friend down there?” she asked, her voice high and cold, no laughter hiding in it any longer.
Dain had been trying to focus on the interactions below as much as he could, while also dealing with the ever present threat before him. With his level of hearing, he could make out the conversation going on between the dealers and the apparent buyer, and as the buyer got antsy, coupled with the heightened tensions with the street thugs from his own gaffe, he was definitely concerned things might go bad.

Of course, that was also the moment that his 'tormentor' had clearly been set off by his words. Those enhanced senses of his were NOT to his advantage against this one; they only made him easier to overwhelm as the streets and rooftop and cityscape vanished into the void, while his mind felt as if it were being shredded apart. An growl of rage was distilled into a grimace of pain as he was subjected to his countless past deeds and misdeeds, unable to even revel in the 'wrong' things he did for the 'right' reasons with how rapidly they were coming and going on that loop of life flashing before his eyes.

"Stop it....you want to...fuck with my head, fine but.....you're...not going to drag...others into this...."

Hands were shaking rapidly as he was trying to level those guns towards where the voice was coming from, though it was useless even trying to fancy a guess to where she might be with those images, intense feelings, sounds...all flooding his brain.

On the streets below, the fellow selling the smack would just sneer at the irrate 'buyer'.

"Is that so, lady? Alright....we can do it THIS way then. You can just give me the money and get the fuck off my street. Or I can cut them lips and tongue off instead."


The second fellow was also moving forward now, as if intent on boxing Emma in to leave her no avenue to retreat.
The bag of pills was stashed in her pocket and Emmas hands removed one of her gloves, electricity arcing from fingertip to finger tip. "Or, I can decide to fry you and your friends within an inch of your life, I take what I want, and go about my merry way and then find a new plug."

She slid the other glove off, tucking them in her pants pockets, it had been a while since she'd had to use her mutation and while she wasn't rusty, damp pavement could be a blessing or a curse. The streetlights flickered from the increasing voltage the woman gave off, and the air became staticky and smelt of burnt ozone. The second man move in on her and Emmas hands balled up into fists. Her body was already screaming from muscle cramps, so if they'd want a fight, they'd have to get a quick one out of her.

"Don't you know that that's no way to talk to a lady?" Emma smirked. Keep a cool and calm demeanor, its all in the act...as long as they don't know she's coming down from a high. Dull crackles of white arcs danced from knuckle to knuckle, and she fought to keep it contained. "I'd rather not kill a man tonight."
A strange whistling pierced the air around Dain, like a dog whistle but harsher, higher. Even if the sound was real, it wouldn’t be decipherable to anyone but Dain. The sound shifted into church bells, slowed and distorted, each sound like a churning wave of nausea. She would let that feeling rock him in the aftermath before all went quiet.

“So we’re in agreement then. I will not kill what pathetic friends you have left and you will serve me once more. Well, you won’t have to kill anymore of your friends... I should say,” and her laugh was high and cackling, like tinny thunder or a witch’s shriek.

She walk past his peripheral, suddenly standing next to him as she placed a hand along his throat, cold gloved hand wrapping around it, the sensation real and yet if he tried to round on her... she would disappear like smoke.

The woman’s face was still hidden by darkness, the umbrella gone now its shadow remaining. Her hand pressed harder but it was clear this wasn’t a means to physically harm him...

The other hand snapped again and the shadows around her smacked against the wall of the alley, jagged teeth monsters of void, two dimensional and impossible to truly perceive. Fangs of milky blue and fiery orange pinpricks of eyes, they warped reality around them, your eyes being sucked in and your entire vision spinning around itself.

It was like trying to stare into a black hole. For a brief moment, Emma would also see the unfathomable creatures step from the wall itself and wrap themselves around the men. It was as if the creatures mouths were an erasure function, one bite completely unmade the men’s very essence. No blood, no carnage, just a clean cut so smooth that it would take minute for the blood flow to react.

Their screams would only last a second as they were devoured and then all was silent.

Of course, their bodies would reappear after the illusion had worn off but for now, not even blood remained.

“There, my pet. I’m not totally heartless this time around. You help me, and I help you...” she whispered in his ear, the hand on his neck having remained in place to force him to watch the carnage.

“You have forgotten what I am capable of, Dainius. I hope this reminder served you well, my sweet,” and her lips brushed his cheek, buzzing with the energy of a thousand electric bugs.

Her words disappeared into the night, her whispering remaining as images of men and women were pushed into his mind...

Bring me their hearts...
Dain would do his damnedest to try and fight back against this..warped reality he was being subjected to. Of course, the more he resisted, the worse it became. That sound might very well drive him completely mad, if it didn't make his ears bleed as the pistols dropped from his hands while he was forced to try to grasp his ears and block out the sound. This was....far beyond anything he had previously experienced from her. There were times when he could even escape that leash and fight back, back then...as he had done the last time, inflicting pain on himself to break free from those other sensory perceptions. But now? What the hell was he up against?

Words would not come...and perhaps, he should have been thankful for that in the moment, having already clearly got more than he bargained for. He could only watch....feel that cold grasp...see what was happening below once more. Completely helpless to intervene or react. Head fell forward in that clutch....a nod of agreement with that devil, or an involuntary reaction? That was anyone's guess, as those images flooded through his mind again. People. Faces. Targets. Prey...

And as soon as she had gone again? The vigilante was snarling at the air, hands again shooting out to retrieve those guns, followed by a blood fueled surge of strength and agility that had him spring into the air from that kneeling position, only to rapidly descend from the rooftop onto the hood of the car where two of those thugs...or their lifeless bodies, sat. The audible thunk of boots against metal had enough impact to even deploy the airbags in the vehicle onto the men's faces, before each hand raised a pistol, and another vicious growl escaped Dain, before he would erratically unload both of those weapons into the two thugs.

If the other two guys hadn't been backed off by Emma's electric display or been tazed into oblivion, they were simply standing where they were, lifeless from whatever she had done to them...
Everything had happened so fast, Emma didn't have a full moment to process where here HAD been people, there simply weren't any more. Stumbling backwards, she forced herself to keep her cool...she didn't know what mutants were in this area and she really was not in the mood for a fight this big.

The moment that the figure from the rooftop landed on the car and the gunshots went off, she turned her attention to him, and the streetlights began strobing as the electricity was diverted into Emma. She was so out of practice, and it hurt like hell. Turning to look at the two men behind her, she stepped away after seeing no response and edged her way to the middle of the street.

"What the fuck are you?" She called over to him. Emma really didnt want to get shot tonight but the gunshots would've probably alerted the proper authorities by now.
Dain would slowly holdster the weapons back under his trenchcoat, slowly pivoting to face the woman. In another blur of motion he was right beside her now, fanged frown evident on his face. That odd bit of emotion that he probably hadn't shown anyone in....he couldn't even remember when. Damn it. He wasn't even....close to this person. At least, not from wherever he had come. And yet he had just allowed himself back under her sway as a twisted sort of compromise. He could barely even recall the faces he had been shown, but something told him they were burned into his memory. And yet, he did what he could to play off his wonton execution of the two men in the car as a typical night.

"What am I? Look at them. Bad guys who do bad things to people. The kind of people everyone....see in their worst nightmares? I'm merely...THEIR worst nightmare."

Sunglasses were tilted down to give full view of his own eerie red eyes as he spoke.

"And here you are....giving over a piece of your soul to these bastards. I'm sure you have your reasons. Everyone does. But some give too much of themselves away eventually....the things they end up willing to do for some attempt to kill their pain. Never realizing how many others are paying the price for their own poor choices."

And yet, his statement seemed to be one of lament, not of judgment as he had already started moving away.

Just as others will pay for my weakness tonight...
Emmas eyes narrowed in on him, and it was the voice that caught her attention. She knew it and for a moment the gears didn't start turning. Folding her arms across her chest, she surveyed him up and down, only pausing in the movement to pull her gloves back on.

"Considering the Dainus where I'm from was a pancake we peeled off the pavement, Im going to guarantee you that what you're spouting might have worked on me years ago, but that isn't going to work on me again." She fished out her pills, before searching the body of the dealer, taking more than she needed and the money on his body, and stuffed it into her jacket pocket. "Pretty words and some scary shit only work on some people. It's just a shame you're not the same friend I lost."

Stepping away and buttoning her coat back up, she burrowed into the warm wool. "Glad to see that some version of you survived." She called after him.
Dain would stop again at that, mind trying to process what was said. A lost soul, one of many he couldn't save. He was a protector, and a destroyer...but definitely not a savior. Not in this form.

"On the contrary. I killed more of myself than you would imagine. But....that was also my damnation to choose, just as you are choosing yours. Drugs...self-ostracization...yes, I suppose I have no right to judge. We all do what we must to kill the pain. But maybe next time I'll be a little more efficient at my work....and these worthless beings will be dead before you reach the street corner."

Another pause was taken to light up a cigarette, seeming not the slightest bit worried at the sirens in the distance closing in or the ballistics reports that would probably link this brutal killing to that crooked cop a few evenings before. After all, the streets were going to run red with blood sooner rather than later. She had already promised that.

"All the same, I'm sorry I am not the person you claim to have once known. I can only wish you peace, and a way to escape your own hell, the same as I lament being unable to escape mine."
"You're damn right you've got no place to judge Dain." Lighting a ciggarette, she spoke around it and lit it with a spark. Inhaling and exhaling a thick plume of smoke, her mouth tipped in a smile. "Trust me, you've got no room to judge. Especially if you're gonna be out here playing vigilante. Im gonna bet that SHIELD has no idea you're here." Sighing tiredly, Emma stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"You don't have to be sorry for shit. However, if you need a hand with cleaning this shit up, you let me know yeah?" Turning to survey him up and down, she removed her hat, shaking out her bright red hair. "Dunno if your dimension even has me out there. If it does, I feel sorry for her. If not, we should grab a drink and talk shop. Because this is some messy fucking work, you need some practice."

The sound of sirens was not a pleasant sound for her. "I'm doing just fine though."
The tidbit about SHIELD clearly didn't faze him in truth. He did recall having a few run ins with their likes before.

"If they did their jobs, I wouldn't be needed....would I?"


The idea of having a drink and a chat? The drink, he could ALWAYS go for. The chat, though....was a little harder to come by.

"Maybe...I suppose I did already go this far in to make sure these lowlifes didn't get their claws into you...."

She would likely have NO idea what he truly meant by that.

"But all the same, associating with me just puts a target on your back. And not just from the forces you know about. It's why I prefer to work...and be....alone."


Another slight pause as he inhaled from that cigarette once more, before tossing it to the street.

"But I guess if you're already damned yourself....not much lower you can go....maybe....we'll see if we should run into each other out here again..."


That said, the 'vampire' went from standing still to full acceleration to get the hell out of dodge in wake of what was to come.
"Whatever you'd like to do. It's my job to monitor the anomalies for people that come through." Pulling her hat back on, she began meandering away from the sirens.

"Trust me. I dont know if theres much father I can fall. After all, like you said, I'm already pretty damned. She grabbed the nearest lamp post and released her charge, exhaling slowly. "You just go on about your buisness. I'm sure we're gonna run into eachother again for sure."

She headed back the way she came, stepping back into the shadows.

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