Start the Apocalypse

[Doctor Oak]

"How the hell is it my fault?" A young female voice retorted angrily across a sea of noise and chaos before following it up with a stunted grunt as she continued breeding it.
"Let's go out for dinner. Let's get out and not have to fight for our lives for a change. Let's just have a nice relaxing time." Similarly stuck right in the middle of the chaos was a male voice, older sounding - much more lived in, but still strangely fresh at the same time. "How much more fate-tempty could you get?"

A gravestone shattered into rubble as a body was thrown through it. Around it, another dozen or so were fighting against just two people. The body was bleeding, battered and bruised and the blow to the head from the stone should have killed it.

Seconds later it was running back into the fray.

"Ok. So maybe it was a bit my fault. But how was I to know we'd be attacked just on the way to get dinner?" The girl wiped her amber-coloured hair from her face before smashing her elbow into the man behind her. His nose shattered instantly and left blood all over her black leather jacket but he continued to fight.

Meanwhile, her companion grabbed the heads of two enemies standing before him and proceeded to smash their foreheads together. Twice. They were dazed, but not out. They only gave him enough time to drop and sweep a leg across theirs and bringing them both down to the ground.

"I'd hazard a guess that taking a shortcut through the cemetery was a pretty good catalyst at getting us attacked." As he rose back up he threw a foe over his shoulder and into another in front, knocking them both to the ground. There, they joined the other two in getting right back up again and back into the fight. At the same time, two others were fighting back against the man, in the process slicing into his arm with a knife and tearing his long leather jacket.

"Ok. Now you're making me mad." He roared, looking around him showed his dozen enemies in their true faces. Their brows furrowed deep and thick, their throats growling like beasts and their fangs bared for all to see. He pulled his arms out rapidly and thumped the creatures around him away before growling himself. His face rapidly changed - his brow distending downwards and his cheeks rising to expose his fangs. The monsters around him took a step back - not comprehending what was going on.

"You wont like me when I'm mad..." Growling, his voice slightly changed because of the changed positions of his mouth and cheeks. Striking faster than before and with even more power, he brought down all his attackers in one quick flurry of attacks. Then he looked across to his companion - also holding her own but like him, she was slowly becoming tired and would need to end this quickly.

"Amber!" He dived into his coat pocket and pulled out a wooden stake - throwing it across to the girl as she looked to him at the call of her name.

Amber grabbed the stake from the air with inhuman precision before automatically launching it into the chest of the assailant in front of her. He looked down to see Amber's fist clenching the weapon - now sunk deep into his heart - before growling his last and falling apart. The skin dissolved from his bones and his skeleton disintigrated to leave only a small mound of dust, almost as if he had never existed.

She turned, expecting to find another attacker behind her, but found nothing at all. Looking to her friend revealed why. The rest of the monsters were now all duking it out with him.

"Hey, Alex!" She called over, only getting a minor response from him as he fought outnumbered but not outranked. "Don't hog the vamps, I wanna get some fun too!".

She leapt at the pack right foot first and smashed her heavy steel sole boots into the skull of a vampire on the perimeter. His skull caved in but he still turned to attack back as she landed. Before he could, however, Amber had thrust out her arm and he fell away in a cloud of dust.

One by one they began to fell as Amber picked them off from the edges of the fray whilst Alex continued fighting - the vampries all determined to take him down and clearly not caring about Amber any more.

"I'm beginning to think i'm simply not turning these guys on any more." Amber said angrily as she turned another vampire to a pile of dust. "Maybe they're all gay vampires." Another fell before her effortlessly as she turned - arm already extended and slammed the stake into the vampire's chest as he ran at her.

"If they are, I'm glad I'm staking them and not the other way around. Somehow I doubt they'd go for my heart...." Alex punched one of the vampires in the face before striking his chest with a stake of his own and seamlessly turning to the vampire behind him and doing the same.

Amber backed up against Alex and the pair looked across to their enemies - only two of them left and one on either side. Alex's face by now had changed back and he was glaring, blue eyes front and centre, at his final target.

"Ready?" He nodded his head back to Amber, eyes still focused on the vampire in front - moving around as he did, locked on and ready to strike.
"Ready." Amber replied, doing the same.

In a flash they both leapt forward, the vampires they attacked both trying to dodge and escape but failing miserably. Amber lifted her leg and smashed the side of her foot into the face of the enemy before thrusting her stake into his heart and letting it drop as he fell to dust before her.

At the same time Alex had let loose a parry of headblows with both his fists and feet before finally kicking the vampire in the chest and pushing him back just enough for Alex to throw the stake at his heart and watching as he exploded and left only him and Amber standing.

Both of them took a deep breath before sighing and turning back to the entrance of the cemetery.

"Next time, let's just get some pizza delivered." Alex sighed as they headed back out. Out into the city they'd only just recently made their home. Or at least, they'd moved here anyway.

~~~~

"Silver City."

The humming of electrical equipment buzzed below the gravelly voice of a man sat at his desk, computer screen shining information up onto his face as three men in US Seargent uniforms stood over him, listening and watching intently.

"It's on the East Coast sir, not too far from Los Angeles." A map flashed up on the computer screen, highlighting the location before zooming in and showing Alex and Amber walking from the cemetary.

"Well, that makes sense." The Seargent standing between the other two was aged and battle-worn. His grey hair was thick enough but his hair-line was already receeding. It exposed a scar on his forehead that cut clean across from the top of his head to the top of his nose. A souvenier from a past fight.

"The East Coast means they headed straight here from the Eastern Islands. They left Goldenrod City for Silver City..."

"...and they did it in hurry." The man sitting at the computer finished, bringing up a table of data and highlighting dates and times on it.

"It was days before they fixed themselves up with a rented apartment. The hotel they were staying at before that was giving them free accomodation on a deal with some Mage they knew but the apartment they rented legitimately. They didn't come here as prepared as they normally would have."

"You've done a good job." The aging Seargent complimented before looking to men either side of him.

"Looks like we finally get our second chance, lads." The two other Seargents were barely half the central man's age and probably only recently promoted. "This time, Alexandros will pay for his crimes."

He turned and led the other Seargent's to the door, leaving the computer room and the technician they were talking to. As the older Seargent opened the door and waved the other two out, he turned back to the man and his computer.

"I want that Vampire dust by the end of the week. I don't care how you do it but I want it done."

The technician looked back to the screen, Amber now displayed zoomed in on it. "And the Slayer?"

"Leave the body count as high as you want. So long as the Vampire is dead by the end of it. If that means taking out the Slayer, then do it."

He lifted the cap he had been holding at his waist and placed it back on his head before turning and heading out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving the technician to his job.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Some old images related to the characters

NEM EDIT- And Raven

[attachment deleted by admin]

 

[Nemesis]

High above Silver City, the night sky was calm, the dark void lit only by the silver of the moon. Below, residents were sleeping, the only lights from houses dim night lights, or reading lights. However, they were soon to be woken from their slumber as a large double rotored helicopter swooped over head.

The front mounted lights swept in a small arc, illuminating the top of tall buildings, and shining through windows, as the crew on board search for their target.

"We have a lock." The solider sat in the passenger seat said loudly,fighting to be heard over the engine noise.
"Affirmitive." The pilot aknowledged "Remember, no missles in inhabited areas. Machine guns only."
"I know, I know." The first nodded, looking at the bleep on the radar screen as he placed a set of ear muffs on his headand listened for further orders from base.


Meanwhile, the small radar bleep was silently panicing. He looked down at the city, knowing of nowhere safe enough to hide, then back at the bright light of the helicopter across the city. His powerful black wings flapped, propelling him at great speed through the air, the momentum blowing his shaggy mane like black hair wildly. The figure had his legs held tight together, to aid his areodynamics, as he flew, the back of his leather jacket flapping around as the wind caught it. The jacket was battered from continued wear, not to mention the large ripped holes in the back where the huge feathered wings protruded.

He glanced back for a moment, his bight yellow eyes catching sight of the persuing helicopter, before turning his sights back to the skyline ahead, and swerving right around a skyscraper. Unfortunatly, he turned back too early to see the flash of the machine gun barrell.

The bird/human hybrid let out a high pitched squawk as a bullet ripped through the bottom of his left wing, sending a flurry of feathers falling towards the city. Quickly the creature pulled up, as well as he could, as a line of bullets swept past him. Normally, he would not have doubted his ability to escape, but now the military had caught him off guard. This time, he was the prey.

Although a relativly unwieldy air craft, the helicopter was doing a good job of keeping on the tail of the injured bird man as he flew around the city, slightly off balance due to his injuries.

"We have to get him this time." The gunner announced loudly. "There's no saying we will get another chance like this, when he is injured. It's now or never."
"Agreed." The pilot nodded, as he looked at the radar screen. "And I think I know how."

The hybrid swept around a large sky scraper, his vision a little blurry, both from tiredness and pain. He knew there had to be some way out of this, the only challenge was to find it. He turned as he reached the corner of the building, and swore at himself as he realised what had happened. The familiar noise of the rotor blades and the glare of the light were closer now, as the air craft came from the opposite corner of the building, flying face to face with it's prey.

Quickly, the creature turned in the air, loosing a little altitude, but he knew it was too late, even before the machine gun roared with fire.

Pain ripped through his body, as his wings took the spray of bullets, and he began to loose conciousness, falling towards the ground, his eyes becoming a dark brown, his wings folding in to themselves, pushing in to his back.

The two men aboard the helicoptor look on triumphantly as their prey plummeted towards the ground.
"Nice move." The gunner said to his partner.
"Agreed." The pilot said, emotionless. "Now, contact base, tell them to send in a squad for pick up."

 

[Doctor Oak]

"Seargent Constantine sir." The computer operator that had been monitoring Alex strode into the central operations room, a full file dossier in hand as he approached the ageing Seargent and joined him in over-looking the floor below, filled with people talking, moving and generally working at their computers while dozens of huge screens on the wall in front flickered with sattelite images from all over the world.

"What is it Ensign?" Constantine questioned, still focused on watching the floor below.

"We've got a live one. And a new one at that." The Ensign flipped open the file and leafed out a page showing sattelite captures of a helicopter chasing through a suburban area - a humanoid with wings being its target. Constantine finally turned his attention to the dossier, taking it from the Ensign's hands and flipping through the pages of information within it.

"Some sort of Bird Demon?" He muttered, staring intently at the blurry images of it.

"Appears to be half-human, sir. We picked up a report of what was described as a 'Dark Angel' roaming the alleyways of Silver City and the Chopper was deployed to bring it in."

Looking to the Ensign for the first time, Constantine pushed the dossier back into his hands. "Tell them to bring it in alive. Holding Cells C and D are both empty, use one of those."

He turned back to leaning against the railings, looking down over the bustling crew below him.

"Call me when it's secured. I want to see this one for myself."

The Ensign took a second to be sure Seargent Constantine was done before shuffling the dossier back within itself neatly and slipping back out of the room.

 

[Nemesis]

The air whipped past the creature's body as he plummeted towards the city, his brown eyes twitching as he slowly regained partial conciousness. He could feel a searing sensation in his back, but he was used to it, used to the feeling of his human flesh knitting back together covering the wounds created by his large wings.

The pain became worse, however, as he focused on pushing the wings back from his flesh, large bones growing from his back, covered with pure black feathers, the damage done by the bullets now gone. Soon, the human figure was pulling up from his dive, his flight path clumbsy. The transformation had taken alot of his energy, energy he didn't have at this moment in time.

With his wings now slowing his descent, the hybrid swooped towards the ground, his vision blurry again, as he felt his wings involentarilly retracting back in to his bodt. Fortunatly, this time he was only a few feet from the ground as they vanished, the creature falling to the could grass of the grave yard, and landing with a roll.

Looking up with his now brown eyes, the creature saw two figures at the graveyards exit, too close to have not heard him crashing to the surface.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Alex's head jerked up suddenly and both he and Amber froze at the gates of the cemetery.

"What is it?" Amber puzzled, looking up to him as he sniffed the air and eyed around his surroundings. He turned abruptly and stared into the graveyard, sniffing again before dashing off without muttering a word.

"Damn that Vampire." Amber cursed as she chased after him, not even knowing what was going on but suspecting that it definitely meant something was up.

Not too far into the cemetery was a seemingly normal man lying bleeding on the ground. Standing over him was Alex, watching as the man's head baubbed up and down - barely concious, if at all.

"You smelt the blood." Amber said, kneeling down to him and feeling his wounds after finally catching up with Alex. He continued to stand above him, now taking his gaze from the man on the ground to the skies above.

"Yes. But only after I heard something a noise. Like something was falling." He looked back down to the man on the ground and took another sniff.

Amber continued to kneel, looking up to Alex as she felt for a heartbeat.

"He's not human." Alex concluded, the overwhelming smell of blood working its way into every millimetre of his Vampire-Enhanced nostrils.

Amber looked back down the man, dropping out of conciousness again and cocked her head in bemeusment. He looked and seemed perfectly normal. Nothing indicated any demon traits at all and if he was a Vampire, Alex would have been able to tell right off.

Her train of thought was brought to a screeching halt, however, when a bright spotlight shone down on the three of them as a helicopter soared noisily over head.

"Alpha Team, extract the Demon." A voice from the chopper called through the crackling intercom system, giving way to at least two dozen men springing up from apparently no-where, all in full combat gear and all heavily armed and pointing their guns at Alex and Amber.

"Sir, we have the Vampire in targets. Permission to fire?" Alex spun around to hear a man taking into the walkie-talkie attatched to his chest, automatic gun pointed right at the vampire's chest.

"-Granted-" Another voice called over it, giving way to a sea of gun-cocking that caused Alex's eyes to widen before grabbing Amber and diving to the ground.

"Well. Shit." He cursed loudly while rolling for cover, Amber doing the same with him, as the men around him all let loose their rounds of bullets in one go.

Diving behind a gravestone, he pulled Amber into shelter and pushed her down out of sight and out of harm's way.

"We have to get that guy out of here." Amber said, looking up to Alex as he leant against the tombstone.

"He's a demon, Amber. For all we know, those guys with the guns are the good guys."

A bullet sped past his ear, leaving an annoying ringing sensation behind it.

"Of course, I guess they don't much care that we are too."

Alex sighed, looked to Amber and then back up. "Stay here. If they run out of bullets, kick their asses."

"What if they don't?" Amber pushed herself down further as the hail of bullets continued.

"Run. Get out of here and don't look back." Alex looked into her eyes for a second before turning back to look at the torrent of bullets screaming across the skies around him.

"Here goes nothing..." Alex's face morphed into 'Vamp Mode' and he roared as he leapt over the tombstone and into the thick of the firing line. The odd bullet struck against his arms and chest as he dived across the graveyard, causing him to flinch a bit but continuing on nonetheless. Tucking and rolling he dived across to the creature's body and grabbed him, lifting him up and rolling back to his feet in one swift move that had him and the non-human across to the other side of the path before Alex dived in behind a thick oak tree, dropping the body and panting as he bled from the numerous bullet wounds he now held.

"I hate guns..." He murmured as he slumped down, the shooting still going on in the background. as he sighed in pain and his face morphed back to its normal state.

 

[Nemesis]

All he could see was the darkness, and the bright glare of the spot light once again, as the familiar sound of gun fire filled the area. Everything was a blur, his muscles aching as he tried to asess the situation. The strangers he had seen had been nearbye, but seemed to have vanished, for now.

The comotion caused by the arrival of the helicopter had stired the local wildlife, sending sleeping birds flying from their nests. Even in his half concious state, he knew this was good for him. He just prayed that it lived nearbye.

Then he saw it. The raven, flying above him. He took a sigh of relief as he felt his energy returning, but hardley had a chance to aknowledge it as he felt himself lift from the ground, and carried across the choas of the graveyard.

His vision now returning, the creature could see his rescuer's face, the deformed jaw, and large teeth. He knew exactly what this person was, but he had apparently just saved him, so would reserve judgment for now.

The ground impacted on hs back, as the vampire dropped him to the ground once again. The bird man moved slowly, taking in his surroundings. Apparently, the vampire had taken refuge behind a large oak tree, but they wouldn't be safe for long.

Rising to his feet, the man looked down at the seated, injured figure of his rescuer, whose face had now returned to more human state. His blonde hair fell to below his shoulders, and if he hadn't seen the teeth before, the hybrid would have said he was human, much like himself in fact.

"Thanks." The creature eventually spoke in a calm but slightly menacing tone, brushing mud from his khaki combat style trousers. He looked to his own hands, gloved as usual, and extended it to the stranger. "My name is Raven, and I much appriciate your assistance."

 

[Doctor Oak]

Alex was breathing heavily. Not that he needed to actually breathe, but the pain from the bullets forced him into it involuntarily. He watched as the man got up in front of him, the man who had been seemingly dead - or on the brink of it - for the last 5 minutes or so and hold out a calm hand.

"I knew you weren't human." Alex said through forced breaths, glancing around the Oak's circumference to see that the men were still firing wildly in an attempt to hit them in any means possible. Looking back to Raven's hand, Alex extended his and shook it firmly.

"I'm Alex." He shifted around uncomfortably as he took his hand away from Raven's, trying to work the bullets out from his muscles so he could move around more freely.

"Can you fight?" He said, glancing back again into the hail of bullets. He knew they couldn't keep this up forever but figured that they were also unlikely to be alone too. Taking an extra second to look across to where he had been previously hiding, he saw a moving shadow heading into the distance. Amber had done as he'd said and left, for now.

"We have to get out of here." Alex turned back and looked to Raven. "We have an apartment not too far from here we can get you to. It'll be safe but we might have to fight our way there."

Leaning against the bark of the tree, Alex forced himself up, flexed his muscles and growled as his face morphed again.

"You game?"

 

[Nemesis]

"Indeed I am, Vampire." Raven nodded, his tone odd, part polite, part harsh and seering. "Just give me a moment."

Raven stretched his arms out, flexing his muscles as bones pushed thier way from his back again, the feathers growing quickly. At the same time, he flexed his fingers, as they expanded, ripping through his dark gloves and taking on a rough texture, his nails growing in to bird-like talons. His eyes now a bright amber, Raven glanced down at his neck, noticing the feathers sprouting from the skin.

"That should do." He muttered, looking to Alex with his peircing yellow eyes, before dashing forward, taking off and swooping up towards the branches of the tree, then glancing at the array of soldiers facing the large oak, attempting to drive the two demonic creatures from hiding.

Quickly, the hybrid dived, screeching through the air towards the confused military troops, before pulling up, throwing an arm out sideways, knocking one of the attackers back in to one of his allies. The troops had now turned their attention to Raven and away from the Oak, as he gained altitude, bullets whizzing past him. He looked back, dodging another spray of shrapnel, trying to spot Alex amongst the chaos.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Alex watched in quiet wonder as Raven transformed before him. He'd seen hybrid transformations before but never right in front of him. He made note that he might have winced at watching the huge wings sprout from Raven's back if not for the fact that Alex's own flesh felt like it was tearing itself apart from the bullet wounds.

Before Alex could form a sentance about a plan, Raven had already dived off into the crowd of gunmen to distract them.

"Good enough plan for me then." Alex muttered to himself before taking off into the darkness, taking a look back as he ran to see if Raven was managing to excape the gunfire and catch up.

Whether Raven was behind him or not, Alex continued on through the cemetery, meeting little resistance until he spotted the other side's exit - with another two dozen armed men stannding in front of it, not to mention 3 jeeps sitting on the road outside the metal railed fence, probably housing even more men or weapons.

"Crap." Alex sighed as he ducked behind a tree and stared out at the obstacle. He knew that it was the only way out of here without doubling back and trying to fight past the men at the other exit - which by now was probably similarly blocked too. The only other option was to go over the railings and with the wind-slicing noise of the chopper still really low overhead, Alex knew that going out into the clearing to get past the fence only left him open to being seen.

He sighed again and turned back to look for Raven. Knowing his luck tonight, the poor bastard was probably already dead and Alex was stuck here alone.

 

[Nemesis]

Raven had also stopped the large group at the graveyard's exit, and was fully aware of the chopper, only slightly higher than himself. The spray of bullets had halted, for now, and Raven presumed his attackers had decided to leave himself and Alex to the group at the gate.

Through the darkness, Raven could see Alex perched behind another tree, which seemed to be his prefered type of hiding places. The demon knew there were limited options to keep them both alive. Alex had saved him, so there was no question that Raven was going to leave him on his own. The first option was fist fighting their way from the gate, hazardous, due to the helicoptor patroling nearbye. The second, take down the helicoptor, a near impossible task for someone like Alex, but for Raven, who had the element of surprise this time, it was far easier.

Swiftly flying towards the machine, Raven gained altitude, positioning himself below the tail of the vehicle. He glanced up at the smaller spinning blade above him as he continued to fly towards it, concious of keeping it as far away from him as possible. He may have recovered from gunshot wounds to his wings, but loosing an arm wouldn't be as easy to heal.

Holding his arms up, Raven's talons reached for the metal tail of the helicoptor. He only had one chance at this, if he wanted to stay alive anyway. To the pilots surprise, the tail started to tip down, towards the ground, Raven's weight pulling it. He knew he had to let go soon, as he felt his body shift position in the air, the larger rotor blade tipping down. As the chopper was becoming more vertical, so was he, and Raven could feel the wind created by the smaller rotor on his leg.

Taking a large breath, the bird man let go, soaring in to the air as quickly as possible as the helicoptor started to spiral downwards, towards the gates below.