Grimm City

@Anti_Assassin: The hellhound tilted his head at the broken speech. His eyes went soft. He hated the thought of a human being killed, but perhaps he could empathize with this creature's doing given the reasons. He hardly seemed hostile. Victor drew the shadows to himself, engulfing his form in a cocoon of darkness. He pulled at his collar, once again as a man."Well, it seems you are a reasonable beast. Whatever you are. I go by Victor. Do you have a name?"

@GreyWolf:

The Anti-Assassin siphoned through its library of responses, taking a moment to say or do anything.

"Primary function...zzz...assassinating assassins..." it finally said in the voice of its long-dead creator Vincent Amadeus Blackburn.

@Anti_Assassin: "Hm... I see."Victor pursed his lips. The creature didn't seem particularly intelligent, but neither was he himself. His humanity and speech was self-taught or from observation."You kill killers. I am like you then."The grey haired man stretched a palm toward him as a gesture of goodwill and acceptance. "It is my mission to hunt down the things that endanger humanity. I always first try to give them the chance of reformation because I was once such a monster. You have difficulty speaking. It is a challenge with which I am familiar."

@GreyWolf:

"I would put down your hand if I were you," a voice called out from the impermeable darkness.

The only clue of the origin of such a commanding voice was the click of a lighter and the subsequent flame on the tip of a cigar.

"The big guy doesn't like sudden moves."

@Jhentoh: Victor's head tilted to discover the directionality of the voice."It was hardly sudden. Who are you?"

@GreyWolf:

"It was created to be the perfect bodyguard. It once attacked an innocent bystander for standing too close to its creator. I've since reprogrammed it for a better purpose,"

Stepping out of the shadows, the skeletal man with transparent skin reveals himself and straightens his tie.

"Name's Mr. Mortis."

@Jhentoh: "Reprogrammed? You make it sound like a machine."He cast a glance back at the creature before returning his attention to Mortis."Well, I suppose it's good to meet you, Mr. Mortis. I'm Victor Valen."His grey eyes scanned his form, marveling at the strange visage, but he said nothing on it so as not to offend.

@GreyWolf:

"Like I said, it was created, not born. Vincent Amadeus Blackburn was a genius, but paranoid. He always thought someone was trying to kill him, so he borrowed funds from the Future Institute to create his perfect bodyguard: the Anti-Assassin. The big guy saw Vincent as a father figure and had nothing to do but follow his prime directive of killing bounty hunters and hired guns once Vincent died. At least now he's killing the mercenaries that deserve to die for their cruelty to others,"

Mortis blew a ring of smoke off to the side.

"I suppose it's good to meet you as well, Mr. Valen. Be honest - what did you expect to find down here once you followed the Anti-Assassin?"

@Jhentoh: Victor listened to the tale with interest. He himself was not born either... at least, not in the conventional sense. He wasn't even sure if hellhounds were capable of reproduction. It certainly wasn't in their purpose. Some of his kind were created to be body guards as well. He felt a sudden kinship with the monster. He was glad he found someone to which he related that he didn't have to kill. He had been looking off during his thoughtful moments before turning his gaze back to Mr. Mortis."Well, I wasn't sure. I've never smelled anything like him before. But I figured I'd find a monster over a half-eaten corpse. I hunt monster that are a danger to humanity... to more innocent humans at least."He spoke plainly seemingly unfazed by the grotesque imagery.

@GreyWolf:

Interested by the seemingly young man's personal responsibilities, Mr. Mortis snuffs his cigar out on the ground.

"Have you heard of the STARS Initiative?"

@Jhentoh: Victor's brows furrowed over his narrowing eyes. "No... should I have?"

@GreyWolf:

"No. Right now it's just a few friends and myself looking to make a difference. I'd like to know if you'd be interested in helping out."

@Jhentoh: "Well, I suppose that would depend on your definition of making a difference."He stared at the strange man, curious about his offer.

@GreyWolf:

"Things like the Elysian psychopath, the war in Venezuela. Everyday common folk can't prevent big things like that from happening. I think with the right people, major crises can be averted and the world can stay together for a bit longer."

@Jhentoh: "Elysian psychopath? You mean the leader there? He was very nice to me. He even helped me catch and put an end to a hellhound I had hunted there. But I suppose that's beside the point. I worry about getting too embroiled in the affairs of humanity. I guess... I just feel like it's not my place to decide who is fit to rule or decide what wars are wrong. I've always been a hunter. I've chosen to hunt monsters. That's all I've known, and I think that's all I could really ever be good for."He looked down. Despite his power, he felt inferior or like an outsider to humans, like he didn't fully deserve to take part in their existence.

@GreyWolf:

Mr. Mortis puts his hands on Victor's shoulders in a reassuring way.

"There are plenty of monsters out there. We're never going to run out of them. If you think you're always going to be a hunter, that's fine. It might just be what we need in these crucial times."

@Jhentoh: The touch startled him somewhat. He stared into the man's eyes."Well, if there's anyway I could help, I suppose I would be glad to lend my services, use my abilities for the good of humanity."

@GreyWolf:

He smiles and folds his arms behind his back, putting distance between him and Victor in the process, but not before slipping his business card into his hand.

"We'll be in touch, Mr. Valen."

The Anti-Assassin lunges for Mr. Mortis, picking him up like a toy before scurrying out of the sewers and disappearing.

@Jhentoh: Victor nodded and took the card."Good evening then, Mr. Mortis."He watched the two off before turning to leave himself. He slid the paper into his pants pocket. Part of him worried about incurring the greater wrath of hell being more involved in earthly affairs, but his very existence was a dangerous rebellion. He would not let his life be dictated by fear. He walked silently through the night, his mind lost in pensive introspection.

@Pyrogram: "Yeah, I understand, b@st@rd. Just as I hope you understand that the next time you put me in an illusion, I get to give your d*ck a third degree burn." Letting go of his collar, his fire died down and he turned away from the guy.

"Doctor?! Mei?! Let's get this show on the road. Those angels are probably more than half way to the Church by now."

@deathbymanga:

"My friend, Calm down. You do realize I could make you disappear to never be seen again? Or...He smiled "Put my consciousnesses in your mind for eternity...But I am no bad guy. I am sorry and I will respect your wishes" He looked at the doctor and Mei and awaited a response.

A man walks the deserted, trashy, and disgusting streets of Grimm City. He thinks to himself, just as he sighs at the thought of this place. "Tonight is as cold as the heart's of the people who run this place. The scum of the earth, men who can not change. When men who can not be moved meet an unstoppable mob, what shall happen?" A smirk crept his face as there was an explosion down the street, another house to an outsider, but to the mysterious man a symbol.

A symbol of how the mighty will soon fall.

The day of Reckoning was nigh.

I think I'm gonna redo the OP and just build from this

@surkit: For what?

@shadowknight666: Alexander crouched on the edge of the rooftop, masked from head to toe. It was basically his uniform from his masked man of martial city days, but this costume was technologically superior. His visor for example had zoomed in straight to his target and then zoomed out. Alexander rose backing away from the ledge and as he checked his blade. He looked over to Cain, "Alright listen, we're doing this my way. No exceptions, alright?" He waited for no funny response and continued.

"You will watch from a surrounding building make sure you watch my back at cost from the looks of it, the target has 5 men with him at the moment, but this is his friendly territory, I have no idea how many may come. That's why I brought you a little insurance, someone I can trust to watch my back." Alexander felt the blade made out of a meteor one last time and then he holstered it and looked at his Irish brother, "understood?"

@fallenprophet: The flicker of a zippo lighter's flame gave a bit of noise to drab, silent atmosphere that the Suave Fighter had created. A Simple mission for the two brothers that Alex chose, how Cain saw it was that as long as it got him off his ass, he'd be fine. The now fully lit cigarette was pulled into Cain's mouth, the top half covering it was his Balaclava, the other being his bottom lip. Eyes looked over as Alex took command for a moment, prompting Cain to reply back "Aye, Lieutanant Kilgore." He gave a quick nod at Alex, real simple, provide a bit of covering fire to his brother and make sure the man he wanted dead stayed dead. Cain stood up for a moment, and began running across the concrete rooftop with his hands positioned in a square, scoping out the perfect spot for his support. Finally deciding, he dropped to the roof without hesitating pulling a Modified Cheytac Intervention off his back and setting up the Bi-Pod.

A quick twist of hand screwed on the flash suppressor and two more loud clicks were the sounds of a Hollow Point magazine loaded into the chamber, followed by a push of the bolt. All of the cold metal and polymer now sealed, the Irish Comedians eye peering into his scope and his mouth curling into a smile, he said hushly "I f*ckin' love my job..."

@shadowknight666: @fallenprophet: Looming over Cain was a cigar chomping Grinner, in his casual bizzare bug suit. In a mocking Irish accent he patted the cold blooded killer on the shoulder. "Aye! I love f*cking my f*** *** *****! And *** in the f******!" He shouted a string of profanities, while winding a fist up to try and knock the Irishman out cold. He wasn't going to have some contract killing happen on his watch..Or city that is.

@xgrinnerx: Wham! the bug suit wearing, hyperactive hero, Grinner sent a surprisingly hard punch to the Irishman's face, smashing open a section of his, proceeded by warm blood gushing out. This man was completely unexpected, and you could tell as he had a look of vigilance upon his face that was difficult to comprehend it's either look of joking, or it's look of dead seriousness. Regardless, Cain immediately clenched his face for a second with one hand and responded by removing a large combat knife from his boot and stabbing down at the feet of the man, hoping to severely injure him. "Who the f*ck er' you?!" he said, bewildered at the attack

@shadowknight666: Cain would quickly discover Grinner's alien mutation, his rubber like skin. The knife went down on his foot but it only made a quick indent and bounced off, still hurt him though. "Yowch! Better watch it there lucky charms! My fists are magically delicious if you haven't noticed!" He threw up his fists while hoping back and forth a bit, almost in the same style as Ali in his boxing days. "I'm the bounce bug annnnnd I don't have a good come up for that so..Yeah..Bounce bug.." He gave a quick shrug before moving a bit closer. "The jig is up Panell! Your contract is cancelled!" Bug was mentioning the fact that the police sirens were blaring in the distance, even the hell hole Grimm city had men in blue.

@xgrinnerx: The Irish comedian was used to stacked odds. He felt a bit more prepared now that the cops surrounded, and he took his opportunities well. Sure this meant bad news from him regardless, but he was used to it. He titled his head for a moment before saying "Bounce Bug?...I think this Portuguese girl gave me one of those last weekend..." He then quickly made one move that would hopefully seal the deal. Running to his feet, the mercenary attempted to tackle the bug, and stun him just enough to take ahold of him, point a CZ75 to his head and shout "Listen up you f*ckin' cops. Give me some space now! or I will blow The Tick here's brains out, UNDERSTAND!?!?" it was a risky move that could fail, but it was worth a shot

@shadowknight666: "Oof!" Bug shouted while being tackled, Cain would notice that of course, the did bounce an aweful lot, three times before they finally skidded onto the floor. "I really don't think they speak Guinness!" Bug quipped before slamming both of his fists on the ground, sending his body (and Cain) right into the fragile ceiling. The green hero would quickly and impressively land back on the ground in a roll and grab the sniper rifle from the bi-pod, pointing it at the merc. "NOT...So fast you Boondock saint reject!"

@shadowknight666: @xgrinnerx: Alexander was completely focused on other business, his brother's dilemma would have to be solved by Cain alone for now. The KO Kid had rand across the rooftops, just above the men. He didn't wait for a "ready" from Cain, Cain was an expert and he was always ready or at least he gave that impression. The Wild Card was Panell's nickname as in you never really knew about him, that was except for Alex. They had a bond that went back for sometime now. Two loners bonded with blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of Guinness. That's why he brought him along, a man he could trust to have his back when he needed it.

As for the target, it wasn't a contract killing, Alexander wasn't hired for this, no pay in return, it was simply one of his random acts of heroism in his f__ked up mind. The Target had blown up two buildings one being a children orphanage, everyone 'knew' it was him, but there was no prosecutor willing to try and all that was said were just whispers in this Grimm City.

Alexander relaxed threw down some tear gas and whispered, "show time." He landed in the middle circle of guards, too close would've been obvious and caused a lucky shot for his enemy. He wielded his sword and then cut straight through one of the men's femur. He crept through the gas, as the men coughed, his suit cycled the air and it was if Alexander was in a clean atmosphere. He walked closer to another man, sending a his hand straight to a pressure point as the man fell down Alexander capitalized with the sword running straight through the man's back.

"Two down...four to go he thought." As he heard police sirens...."sh!t"

@xgrinnerx: Rolling over in collision the Irishmen was bewildered by the rubbery physics of the bug. Instinctively, Cain rolled on the roof floor once he finally hit, staying aware as just in time he was able to draw both his CZ75s and level them. His own rifle pointed at his face, Cain wasn't sure of the proficiency with fire arms this lunatic had, hell Cain wasn't sure if he knew where the trigger was. In response and without a thought he fired off a series of shots with his right handed gun at the receiver of the gun, hoping to shred it apart, and another series simultaneously at Bug's lower body, bullets whizzing, one could only pray for a peaceful ending to this move.

Bug's eyes widened as Cain pulled out two more guns, using a hand to wave at him with caution while looking over at some construction gas tanks. "No no no! Bullets and me don't mix well! Bullets and m-" Cain hit his target dead on, shredding the gun but also landing the shots on Bug. Bug's rubbery skin bounced the bullets right off him like bullet proof glass. One of the many stray bullets did in fact, hit the gas tanks. Bug quickly tackled Cain and had his back face the explosion, his body along with Cain's being sent out the closest window. What would have been a fatal fall for a human was but nothing for the bouncing bug, landing back first to make sure Cain would simply bounce off Bug instead of the ground.

@xgrinnerx: The explosion was an unexpected side effect in the battle, Cain was remarkably unaware of the gas tanks. Heat filled as the ever so functional bounce bug saved Cain from the explosion. Flying through the air was a bit of a shock that made the Irish Comedian realize something...You should never shoot at a man whose skin can't be penetrated heavily by razor sharp steel knives. Finally reaching his landing point after a bounce, eventually departing the contact with bug and landing rather painfully onto the hood of one of Grimm's Finest. Quickly the Killer spat out a chunk of blood, and brushed away the shards of glass in his back before coming up with a devious plan. Spotting bounce bug, He realized traditional piercing weaponry wouldn't work. Rolling over with his last inch of breath, the killer was determined to finish him, and as such would resort to unconventional tactics. He noticed that a thirty pound cinderblock was lying on the ground as it was propelled from the building with the explosion. Cain took advantage of this by pour over his flask of highly alcoholic god-knows-what over the top, and taking a zippo lighter to it. The cinderblock know aflame, Cain did his best move to end this by concentrating all of his mutant-like marksmanship skills to slow down his own perception time, and stare dead at Bug's position. He hoisted the block by the sides and arched the throw to land directly above a few feet of Bounce Bug's movement side, hoping to get a hit in the torso or the upper body.

Whistler leaned casually up against the brick wall of the South Pole strip club with one cigarette in hand and his handgun tucked underneath his breast coat in the other. He had been in Grimm City for months and not once had he left his building without it. It wasn't the ruthless thugs or wired psychopaths that put Whistler on edge, but the hired guns who had been paid to hunt him down by the US government. If there was one city in the world that could provide him with the cover of darkness and the cloak of chaos it was this one. His only complaint? The rancid stink that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. The smell itself was always new and kept him guessing which was the worse part about it. Tonight it was the strong odor of vendors selling dog meat tacos to their unsuspecting buyers mixed with the musky combination of sweet perfume and stale sweat which seemed to radiate directly from the club. "God I hate this city." Whistler sighed in revolt.

Bug was of course quick to his feet, looking at the police that pulled up at the end of the alley. But as he was busy, his antenna flicked slightly to warn him about the cinder block that was flaming towards him. It was far to late to avoid it, only having time to look at it and proceed to get hit right in the collar bone. His bouncy body forced the block away like a trampoline, however this was not the problem. "Fire!" Bug yelled while trying to pat the flame out, but was not working out so well. He finally dived into a puddle to put it out, sighing with relief.

Alexander sits alone on the edge of the tallest building in Grimm City. He is not in any costume, he is simply in his usual black suit and black shades. He's smoking a cigarette and it drifts in the wind smoothly, it was the calmest thing in the city and it was a sight to see. Alexander was on no contracted hit, no righteous killing, or dressed for even any hero business. At the moment, he was simply a Loner on a chaotic city, and he was watching the scene unfold continuously.

@fallenprophet: "Now THAT! Is some depressing narration!" Bug said as he was perched up on a lamp post, staring down on the shaded fellow.

@xgrinnerx: Alexander slowly turned around to the Bug and said as he flicked the cigarette, "May I help you?"

@fallenprophet: Bug shrugged as he started to hang from the post. "Where is your Irish friend?"

@xgrinnerx: "Cain, hmm...I really don't know why?" Alexander thinking back to what the Bug said at Loner's nightclub.

@fallenprophet: "Oh just making conversation, I grind his gears and well that cracks me up!" Bug chuckles while finally leaping down from the post.

@xgrinnerx: "Conversation? Hmm what the hell are you? A hero bug or what? A mutant? You're something else that's for sure." Alex smirks as he pulls out a flask.

@fallenprophet: "I'm an alien..And a bug hero too I guess!" Bug chuckled while looking at the flask.

@xgrinnerx: "Even the insects are big enough to eat me here." Whistler spat under his breath as he passed casually down the sidewalk nearest to the alien.

This still has a pulse :O

@xgrinnerx: The Suave Fighter could see the alien being looking at the flask as if he had hardly seen one, "would you like a drink?" Alexander asked

@clara_mass: well just a little one, but I'll be damned if I call it just yet nurse.

@fallenprophet: @whistler: "You know it!" Bug chuckled and turned his attention back to Alex. "Ehh why not!" Bug swiped the flask and downed the whole thing, with a smile he handed back the empty flask and wiped off his mouth.