Chapter 1: The Cloaked Man

[Admin]

Chapter 1: The Cloaked Man

Our story begins in a dark alleyway on a cold, rainy night. Several large men in suits can be seen encircling a pair of children like a swarm of vultures awaiting the death of a sick animal. One of the men steps towards the children with a smile on his face as he removes his glasses. “Did you really think that you could just stop working for us whenever you please? You should know by now that you and your little brother are our property you little brat. To think this is how you act after we took you off the streets,” the man spoke as he knelt down beside the children, letting out a sigh at the end. “Well since you seem so determined to return to the streets..” the man stood up and put his glasses back on. “I guess I’ll just show you where you’ll end up without us around!” the man exclaimed as he reached for the gun at his side. He was interrupted mid-reach by a scream from one of his men.

Everyone in the alley turned to see one of the suited men lying on the ground lifeless as blood pooled around him. “What the hell just happened?!” one of them yelled as they all pulled out their guns. While they stood there in confusion as to what could have happened, another two men dropped silently to the floor. This caused the rest of the gangsters to look around in a furious panic for their assailant. Just as one man turned his head in the direction of a peculiar sound, it fell effortlessly from his shoulders with a look of confusion on his face. The remaining three men began to feel the cold grip of terror washing over them as they stood together back-to-back.
“Wh-what’s going on?” one of them asked with fear prevalent in his voice as he shook violently. Another man was about to respond when suddenly they started hearing footsteps approaching from down the alley. Without hesitation, all three men began firing their guns in the direction of the footsteps until they each heard the click signaling that their clips were empty. Sighs of relief and nervous laughter could be heard moments later when they no longer heard footsteps. One of them fell to his knees and began saying thank you to nobody in particular as he cupped his hands together as if praying.

“It may be a bit early to be saying thank you,” a voice echoed out from seemingly everywhere. It was a somewhat soothing voice, but the malice and power that reverberated throughout the alley completely petrified these hardened gangsters. They could do nothing but stare on in disbelief as the shadows in the alley seemingly parted ways for their tormentor to step forth. Their leader examined the man that stood before them thoroughly. His somewhat lean physique was hidden by a closefitting black shirt and a pair of black jeans with tears at the knees. A jet-black jacket with clasps of what appeared to be pure silver cloaked the majority of his body and a pair of black boots completed the outfit. The gang leader looked past his assailant’s messy, pure white hair that seemed strangely out of place into the deep black abyss that was this man’s eyes.

“So..” the cloaked man raised his right hand to his chin with no sign of emotion on his face “..what do you pieces of trash think you’re doing on my turf?”. “Your turf?! This is our territory punk! And who do you think you’re calling tra-“ one man protested until he was cutoff mid-sentence as blood dripped from his mouth and he fell forward. The cloaked man let a wicked half-smile cross his face at the confusion and fear of the other two men. “Now then, as I was saying..what are you doing on my turf?” he asked slowly as he picked the other man up by his throat effortlessly and stared at their leader.

The gang leader stared on in amazement wondering how a man this size could pick a man substantially more than twice his size up by the throat..and with one hand no less! This question however was towards the bottom of the list of things he wanted to know about this man. Who was he? Why was he here? How did he kill all of his men, and how did he not even have a single scratch on him from the barrage of bullets they fired?! Finally he gave in to his curiosity and asked the most obvious question. “Who are you?”

The cloaked man let the lifeless body of the man he was holding fall to the ground. “Who am I? Hmmm I wonder,” the cloaked man said with a smile as he mindlessly tapped his chin. That was when the lone remaining gangster noticed the gloves he was wearing. At first glance they seemed to be a normal pair of leather fingerless gloves, but there was a small silver plate on the back of it with a symbol etched into it. It only took the gangster a moment before he realized what that insignia was.
“You..you’re with the organization?!” he asked as he fell backwards and tried to back away slowly. “Bingo! Guess you’re not as dumb as the rest of the trash in this alley,” the cloaked man stepped forward and reached into his coat. The gangsters eyes went wide and he tried to get away as fast as he could. He jumped to his feet and bolted for the exit of the alley. He looked over his shoulder to see if the cloaked man was chasing him, but saw nobody. He turned his head back around to watch where he was going..and there in front of him..the cloaked man stood calmly with his hand still in his cloak.

The gangster fell forward and hit the ground right at the cloaked man’s feet. He quickly got to his knees and looked up at the man before him. “P-please! I-I’ll never do anything like this again I swear! Please don’t kill me!!” he begged as he cowered on his knees. The cloaked man pulled his hand from his coat and a large black gun along with it. The gun was pitch black and looked like no metal the gangster had ever seen. It had no metallic sheen to it and seemed as pitch black as the shadows this man emerged from. He pressed the gun to the gangsters forehead with his finger on the trigger. “Sorry..but I don’t like having my city full of trash,” and with that said, he pulled the trigger.

The two children watched the entire encounter in silence as they were filled with fear..and hope. They hugged eachother tightly when the leader of the gangsters fell to the ground dead. Finally they could be free from their captors. As they released eachother, they turned to see the cloaked man staring at them blankly. Their brief moment of happiness was replaced with fear again. Was this man here to save them? Was he like those other men? Or perhaps..would he kill them?
As the children pondered these things, the cloaked man removed something from the gang leaders pocket and began to approach them. They closed their eyes tightly fearing the worst. When nothing happened, they opened their eyes to see the cloaked man knelt down in front of them with an outstretched hand. The older of the two brothers put his hands out to accept whatever he had to offer. He then dropped what could only have been the gangster’s wallet into the child’s hands and stood up. The child looked at the wallet for a moment then looked at the man as he began to walk away. “Wait mister! What’s your name?” the man stopped but did not turn to face the children. “You should get out of Nightgate City. It’s not a safe place for kids,” was all he said as he continued down the alleyway while the shadows seemed to caress him like a lover until he vanished. “Thank you!” the kids called out as they waved at the darkness with smiles on their faces, unsure if their savior was even still there.

~~A few hours after the incident with the gangsters on a rooftop~~

“So I heard you got to have some fun tonight!” a strange young man said as he sat down on the ledge of the roof next to the cloaked man. “What are you doing here?” the cloaked man asked plainly as he looked out over the city. “Awww c’mon don’t be like that Toshi,” the young man said as he nudged the cloaked man. The cloaked man turned his head and glared at him.

“Woah woah calm down now. I know I know, the great Toshima Yamikuro doesn’t like to be touched haha. Seriously man you need to lighten up sometimes,” the young man said with a smile. Toshima looked over the man next to him. He was close to the same age and build as Toshima, but their differences were numerous. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a red shirt decorated in flames that one would swear seemed to give off a faint light. He had short brown hair that was spiked up in every direction with faint red highlights here and there. Most notably, he wore the same gloves as Toshima signifying that he too was a member of the mysterious organization.

“Cut the crap Arc. What the hell are you doing in my sector?” The young man just stood up and looked at the city. “To put it simply..I was bored! There’s nothing goin down in my sector right now and the nightlife there isn’t nearly as fun as it is here!” Arc said with a smile as he put his hands behind his head. Toshima glared at him and he put his hands up. “I’m kidding dude. We’ve got a job,” Toshima sighed at this and stood up. “I’m not interested. You should be able to handle it just fine on your own,” he said as he started to walk away. “Sorry but those are our orders. And it’s straight from Leviathan this time!” Arc said with a smile knowing that was all he had to say. Toshima stopped at the mention of Leviathan and sighed. “So what’s the job?”

What is the organization? Who are Toshima and Arc? What really happened in the alley? Find out in the next installment of Darkness Rises!!