O yes, There will be blood (CLOSED)

[umbra]

it's always do this, do that
* everything they want to *

The broken down streets were dark, street lamps only casting small orange circles dimly lighting the ground around them. Houses on either side were dilapidated and broken down, many of them abandoned to lives of becoming homes of the homeless or the addicted. All those that weren�t were filled with those who couldn�t afford to live anywhere else. In this world people became desperate; crime was strong, nothing more than gangs, drugs and violence. In this land was where Michael stood as Umbra, standing in the shadows of a house overlooking the road. He had done some digging and found out about something that was supposed to happen that very night.

The area around him had been terrorized by two gangs who were now at war for just that street. Tonight was apparently supposed to be they�re final conflict, blood would be spilled people would die, and not just gang members. No matter how these groups were armed the people in these houses were in danger and that was what he must stop before to many lost their lives. All these thoughts slid through his mind as he stood there like a specter, out of sight of all, yet ready to come out at a moment�s notice. Only one thing though seemed to seep through all of the thoughts of what these two groups had caused this area�..what if he had to kill? Such a thought had plagued him a lot, yet he never had to confront it until now. This was not a robbery; this wasn�t someone beating a guy up for his money. This was a war against two blood thirsty, heavily armed groups who didn�t care who got in there way, as long as they could kill the other. O yes, there would be blood. The only question would be�.would he be one of the people spilling some.

After about twenty minutes of him standing there Michael heard the rumbles from each sides of the street. Shouts for blood, they were coming and coming quickly. He checked the armor his father had sent him, a full set of Kevlar body armor used by spec ops groups. Thank God for his father�s trading contacts. It would be invaluable if, in the likely event, that these two sides had guns. He needed to be careful and calm. One breath, two breaths�..BANG!!

Michaels masked face shot up just in time to see flashes coming from weapons aimed in the air. Each group had guns, knives baseballs bats and a lot of other things. Tonight was going to be bad, but he had to be here, he had to protect the people in these houses. So Just as fear and panic began to rise in him Michael stepped out into the middle of the street, preparing for a living hell.

tagged. text here
words. 399
notes. OPEN
lyrics. five finger death punch - never enough
credits. jurate at CAUTION 2.0

[newbishbynature]

The day was winding down for Princess Diana of Themyscira. She had been meeting with valuable players in New York’s high society, trying to get leads on different superheroes or supervillains that she was unaware of. The job seemed fruitless; every big shot with a billion dollars living in a top level condo had a price, whether it was money or a swearing of allegiance or even—the nerve—a date with Wonder Woman. Diana had no intention of giving them money, allegiance to their crooked underground causes, or being seen on the arm of a businessman—no. With threats of her lariat, some caved in under pressure, fearful as to the side effects of Diana’s magical rope, while others she was forced to use it.

The leads she got were helpful, while others were simplistic and easily found on the internet. Two leads that caught her attention involved a masked mutant superhero of an unknown name. The other lead said that there were rival gangs that were hankering for a fight—and soon. Both were of interest to Wonder Woman and the Justice League. She had to gather intel so she could reconvene with the likes of Superman, Batman, Black Canary, Dr. Fate, and Zatanna. They all needed to be in the know about superheroes and supervillains, events, and the like whether big or small.

Although Wonder Woman wasn’t physically tired, her mind was exhausted. Having to talk in “could bes” and “possibly bes” to big wigs all day was a real nightmare. But she knew she still had work to do. The cops had alerted her to a fight starting on the bad side of New York. Generally, this was the kind of thing she left for her more grittier friends like Batman or Black Canary, but she was in the area and had a rough time saying “no” to the boys in blue.

Besides, if it could help protect innocents, Wonder Woman would be there in a flash. Dawning her red, white, blue, and gold full costume, Diana made her way to the scene via flight. Like clockwork, she saw hoodlums getting ready for a battle and shouting insults at one another. She also noted the presence of a very, very black figure with a daunting mask. Was this a ring leader of sorts?

The masked man seemed to have no fear for he put himself in harm’s way. Wonder Woman dived towards the masked man, she was not about to let this ring leader start a fight in the middle of the street. Diana swooped in and grabbed the masked man underneath his armpits and easily lifted him up to the top of a building near the fight.

She set him gently on the top of the building and glared at him angrily.

“Are you the leader of this fight here? Because if you are, you most certainly need to call this off or I promise you this will not end well for you or any of your friends! By Athena’s grace, you cannot go around starting gang wars just because you want to!” Wonder Woman hollered at the masked mutant.

[umbra]

Jan 20, 2013 13:20:07 GMT -5 @umbra said:

it's always do this, do that
* everything they want to *

Michael had been ready, had his hands on his throwing knives and was ready to deploy them if there was no way to defuse the violence. Yet everything seemed to change in just that instant. Out of nowhere a red and gold streak flew down and lifted him in the air, dragging him to a building amongst the shadowed ruins of the street. Shock had taken over his mind and it was almost frozen in confusion by the time he was set down and berated by a woman in what looked like a one piece bathing suit, a tiara and a length of golden rope strapped to her side. The very vision in front of him nearly made her words lost to him. Luckily he was able to bring up enough mental strength to weed out what se was saying and make an audible whispered voice that he had chosen for his Alter Ego.

“The ring leader?” Michael turned and looked at the two sides that had, for a split second, stopped and forgotten about each other to look at the confusing scene that had just played out before them. He could only imagine how they’re adrenaline soaked minds had taken it. They probably at first thought it was the other side playing games or trying to wipe out the other in some new way. Typical thought process of the current age of war.

“I am the exact opposite. I am the one who came here to end the situation before they kill more than just themselves.” And with that Michael closed his hidden eyes and pulled the nights darkness around him, allowing him to teleport back to where he had stood before, between the two enraged masses. Whoever the woman was, which he kind of figured she was some kind of new superhero like himself, who had deffinatly chosen the wrong side of town, he hoped she would stay out of the way.

“How dare you two come here and put the lives of these people in danger! You stand here feeling power that you think you can use to take over those in front of you yet all I see is primal fury over idiocy.” Michaels words were loud, no matter how much he tried to disguise his voice the Aussie accent seemed to appear in his words. Both sides seemed to grow angrier at his words and moved closer, both wanting the other sides and his blood. It was just starting to dawn on him that peace was not going to work when the first three cracks of a gun ripped through the air and he felt impacts into his sides. Mind blowing pain tore through his left side, the air knocked clean out of him, but he only staggered. The armor had done its job, to bad it didn’t stop the pain.

“You really shouldn’t have done that.” His words were still a whisper, but way more audible then any of the words he had spoken before. What happened next only made it more clear to everyone around him. He would not allow these people to hurt anyone else. If anyone were to end up dead…..it would be them.

Michael stood, and in one swift motion let two throwing knives fly. It took only seconds for them to find they’re mark into the man’s chest who had shot him and seconds more for him to have his swords out and ready.

“May Justice and Punishment judge you.” And with that, the two sides clashed with Michael as Umbra in the middle.

tagged. text here
words. 595
notes. OPEN
lyrics. five finger death punch - never enough
credits. jurate at CAUTION 2.0

[newbishbynature]

The scene before them was about to erupt in total chaos. From her years of battling foes both great and small, she could gauge a battle before it even happened. This was one that was going to explode, each side had such an extreme hatred that it billowed off of them in waves. Wonder Woman had her eye on the scene and the man behind the mask. He confidently noted that he was not with them but against them.

There were few that Diana of Themyscira could trust with the rift in the universe. A simple statement wasn’t good enough—just ask Sinestro! However, before Wonder Woman could even get her hands on her lariat to tie it around the masked villain, he was gone. Like black silk, he disappeared into the darkness. Wonder Woman’s enhanced sight couldn’t even pinpoint him.

“Great… a teleporter…” Wonder Woman groaned to herself.

She was on guard, figuring the masked man would attack her but she was surprised when she saw the man reappear at the spot where she had grabbed him. He was idiotically positioning himself amidst the chaos and fire—did he have a death wish?!

Wonder Woman surveyed the scene before taking part. She had to truly understand the coast of battle before jumping in. Was this man really an ally or truly a foe? It had yet to be seen. She watched him deck some men with throwing knives. So he was skilled in using projectiles, if he would be her enemy, she thought he might be a formidable one.

The man spoke audibly to his enemies before the street erupted into pure violence. Wonder Woman watched the masked mutant’s finesse. He was good but could he really take on all of these people by himself? Wonder Woman used her eyesight to figure her plan of attack. Obviously her captured man was potentially the “masked hero mutant” that the big wigs had been talking about, but what was his name?

He was a person of interest and that meant Wonder Woman needed him alive and well.

Wonder Woman watched the wreckage and noted there were snipers trying to both take out her person of interest as well as enemy gang members. Based on the size of the barrel and the scope, it was certainly an illegal firearm sold to them by those she had spoken with earlier in the day. Diana grabbed her tiara off her head and flung it boomerang-style at both snipers.

She heard the PING-PANG of her strong, magical crown taking out the weapons. One of the snipers grabbed his gun again and pointed it right at Diana, getting a good, solid look at her.

“OH SHIT! It’s fucking Wonder Woman!” the sniper called.

Some of the fighters knew who she was while others blatantly ignored the sniper’s warning scream or hadn’t heard the name before. The boomerang tiara came back to her right hand and she firmly replaced it back onto her head. With a forward jump, she flew mach speed towards the snipers that were regrouping. With a crash she plowed them through a street sign. They’d be fine, as long as the medical personnel got to them in time…

Part of the gang members were sent to take out Wonder Woman and she hid behind a pile of wreckage, waiting for them to pass. As they hurried by her, she easily tripped them with her red boots and knocked them out with a firm, superhuman punch. She carefully watched the masked man fight, continually gauging him to see if he really needed backup or if he was a powerful enough fighter to withstand a bunch of street thugs.

[umbra]

Jan 20, 2013 13:20:07 GMT -5 @umbra said:

it's always do this, do that
* everything they want to *

Michael moved quickly as both sides clashed, his expertise with close combat weapons kicking in. He moved swiftly this way and that, stabbing, side stepping and slashing his way. His worry about killing was gone for now but he knew that it would return when everything was over. These two sides wanted the street and Michael wanted the two sides gone. What was worse about the whole thing was that as the fight built he was starting to see what he wanted to avoid. Bullets began to miss they’re targets and plow through windows, screams coming from the houses. Cars were being torn apart and tipped over, some of them were even on fire. Lives were being threatened that weren’t even apart of this. He had made it clear to himself he was there to end the violence….and instead he was part of it.

Anger flooded hot into his blood and before the man who had raised a baseball bat to hit him knew it he had been sucked into the shadows once more and found himself deep in the shadow realm. What no one else saw he now saw. Men were killing each other in horrible ways, while others had separated from the fight and started to loot houses out of malicious greed. First he focused on these groups. Michael pulled himself from the shadows in front of just such a group and pulled them in, not letting them go until he had reappeared in the local police stations bathroom, tied the men up, took one of their guns and shot a hole in the tiled floor. No matter what happened next, at least these idiots would be caught for their crimes.

Next Michael reappeared on the top of a building overlooking the violence. In the back of his mind he wondered where the woman who had first grabbed him had gone. Maybe she had seen how bad the fighting was and left, maybe she was somewhere around looking for him after he gave her the slip, whichever, she needed to stay out of his way. Especially with what he was about to do.

Michael slipped a flash bang from inside his cape and pulled the pin, then lobbing it amoungst the crowd then turning just in time for it to explode. He could hear cries of shock and confusion at the blast and knew he only had a few seconds to do what he needed to do. He slid a burn phone from his pocket and dialed 911, described the street address he was at and explained the situation to the operator. When his name was asked he simply said: “I am shadow, I am Umbra.” And dropped the phone into the chaos. After that he stood and waited, watching from the shadow of the roof top as the red and blue lights came from both sides.

tagged. text here
words. 399
notes. OPEN
lyrics. five finger death punch - never enough
credits. jurate at CAUTION 2.0

[newbishbynature]

Wonder Woman watched as the man zigged and zagged from sight. From her deductions his teleportation abilities had something to do with darkness or shadows. Was this a person she’d only see at night, like Batman? Was she watching the creation of a future street legend? Her curious thoughts were marred by the fact that the display was heading into hell.

Innocents were being tormented by the ensuing battle and this was not something Diana could stand by and watch. She stood up and launched herself towards the tumultuous screams. First through a window, then through a door of a burning building, easily pinpointing the distress calls. There was a family inside huddled in a small bedroom by a window. Diana ran in, the fire and smoke licking at her enduring skin. She took the dad, who was holding his small children in his arms, and the mom in her massive grip. Wonder Woman catapulted herself backwards towards the window, crashing through it with a sense of grace.

The red, white, and blue bullet flew through the air rocketing to a safe street nearby. She landed on a dark sidewalk and deposited her human treasures. Diana knelt by the children and hugged them.

“I promise you everything will be just fine!” Wonder Woman whispered.

She squeezed the parents’ hands and quickly with a “BOOOOF” she was in the air and heading back to the scene of the crime. Floating in the air, she could no longer see her person of interest. Where did he go? Wonder Woman used her eyesight to scan the area, but it was fruitless. He was nowhere to be found. Like a shadow in the deep darkness, he was gone.

The princess frowned at the scene and her inability to find the secretive hero. The crowd was shockingly starting to disperse and Diana could smell the strange odor of some sort of grenade or explosive round. Had it been the masked man that managed to quell the uprising?

The red and blue lights combined with sirens howled in the distance. The boys in blue were coming to check out the scene. Wonder Woman descended to the ground, in the middle of the street. She glared at those trying to run. These cowards were lucky to escape into the night, while others weren’t so lucky. The police arrived on scene only to come bursting out of SWAT trucks, squad cars, and firetrucks.

Diana strode over the policeman that looked like he was in charge. In fact, upon closer inspection, it was the officer that tipped her off about this fight. She shook his hand and nodded at him.

“How did you know to come?” Wonder Woman quizzed.

“We gotta anonymous report from a person named Umbra, declaring that they were shadow. Sounded like a real nutjob,” the cop shook his head.

The name clicked in Diana’s brain instantaneously. Umbra also known as shadow, the teleporting hero.

“I do not think he is a nutjob, the proper name you are requiring is… hero,” Wonder Woman conservatively mentioned.

As the cop started to rattle off details about this and that, Diana glanced around trying to catch sight of the shadow. Amidst the chaos of cops, firefighters, and SWAT, she didn’t see anyone. If only she had looked to the sky…

[umbra]

Jan 20, 2013 13:20:07 GMT -5 @umbra said:

it's always do this, do that
* everything they want to *

Michael stood and watched the scene. It appeared that the Red, white and blue lady was taking most of the credit, though she kept looking around to different areas of darkness. He wondered if she was looking for him, or was trying figure out where more idiots were. Either way his job was done, it was now that he had to make an exit worth loving. So instead of pulling out of the area all together and appearing back at his flat, Michael teleported through the shadows to a space between two houses not very far away from the Police and changed quickly before walking out into the streets like nothing had happened.

He scanned the scene for a moment, looking this way and that like he was just in the area and was checking out what was going on when I cop came up to him, shining his torch right into Michaels face.

“Hey you, what are you doing here this late?” Suspicion and confusion laced the policemen’s voice as he moved closer to Michael. Unfortunately the air of authority he was trying to impose was lost on him at the moment. So much had happened that night that he was both sore and tired so when the other tried to seem like he was in charge Michael just shrugged, slid his hands into the denim jacket he had changed into and yawned.

“Don’t know what you mean sir. I was walking around town and saw the commotion. Whats going on?” Apparently the Aussie accent did its job, because the cop seemed to relax.

“Nothing really, seems like a bunch of idiot gang bangers started a riot and some of those costume cooks cleaned it up.” It felt almost insulting to hear what the cop was calling him but even more when his next words were spoken. “Wonder Women there seemed to be the biggest help in all of this. She saved a family that had they’re house on fire and was here trying to round up the others when we arrived.” The Policemen pointed at the women and Michael realized that he now had a name to the face of the women who almost blew the whole thing sky high. It took only a second to catch the womans eyes and give here asmirk and thumbs up. She might catch on, she might not, which ever happened he left it at that and thanked the cop before he walked back into the nitch he had come from and started his Harley in which he had hidden there. He needed a good ride after that painful experience.

tagged. text here
words. 399
notes. OPEN
lyrics. five finger death punch - never enough
credits. jurate at CAUTION 2.0

[newbishbynature]

Wonder Woman was giving her official statements to the cops about what had happened. She didn’t want to lie about the mystical figure in black, it wasn’t in her character. However, Diana hoped she hadn’t accidentally angered this Umbra figure. Perhaps he wanted to stay like his mantra… “in the dark” and “unknown”. The ambassador didn’t care; she wanted the cops to know who had taken care of the bad guys because if they sniffed around enough, like detectives and cops do, they’d be able to tell her more information about the male.

Diana finished up giving her report and scanned the scene once more. There weren’t too many civilians gathered on the street. Most were scared out of their minds at what had just happened and others were getting checked out by EMT firefighters.

However, one civilian stood out to her—a very young man with a cherubic face as handsome as Ares’ chosen personage.

This young man gave her a lopsided smile and thumbs up. Diana turned her head to the side as her eyes squinted in confusion at the man. Who was this man? After a long day of talking and arguing, her normally vastly intelligent and deductive mind didn’t quite put the puzzle together. At this point, she thought it was simply a fan… as she had many of those.

The ambassador kindly waved back at the young man before he quickly dispersed. Had she just missed something she wasn’t catching onto? Before her brain could fully grasp the situation any further, a news van complete with a bubbly reporter bounced up to her, begging her for a word.

“I have no comment today, however, I want to go on the record and note if anyone has any information about a possible new superhero named Umbra to immediately contact the Justice League tipline,” Diana spoke to the reporter.

That ought to get him out of the shadows and into some light. She just hoped he wasn’t a dunce and actually paid attention to the crazed media. With that, Diana stated her goodbye to the policemen as well as the reporter. She moved away from her mini crowd and ascended into the dark sky. As she went to sleep in her condo in Metropolis tonight, she would have heavy thoughts about this new superhero and how he would affect both Gotham and New York City.

(exit Wonder Woman from thread)