[centre][img]http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo63/NMShape/coollogo_com-8436315_zpsd02f9fa5.png[/img][/centre] Isaac cut a path down the dark alleys, jumping mesh fences to get back to his car, when he sensed it. Movement just ahead, he heard a scraping of heels on the concrete, before seeing a dark silhouette move into the shadows of a wall up ahead. Isaac kept pace, but slid into the shadows himself whilst he put his balaklava back on. A stick-up man. Less than 30 metres ahead. Time to scare him straight... Suddenly the figure stepped straight out of the shadows next to him, somehow he dropped right in Isaac’s lap. He’d never seen anyone else move that stealthily. But the attacker cared little for using it’s stealth, letting out a blood-curdling screech as it lurched for Isaac. [b]“Shit!”[/b] Isaac exclaimed, and threw a right cross as a reflex. A sound like paper tearing, followed by what the Vigilante would come to know as a demonic howl, and Isaac then looked at his handiwork. There was a lot out of the ordinary. The first thing he noticed was that his attacker had wings, the second thing... well, he’d punched a hole clear through it. Third, he noticed that just above the new hole he’d created in his would-be assailant also had a pair of horns on its head. Granted, the third thing wasn’t so surprising when you considered the first, but it still generally bears mentioning as something you don’t generally see. [b]“How--?”[/b] The beast crumpled and flailed its wings in agony, Isaac decided to finish it off before wondering what the hell was going on and did so with a second punch, this time punching right through its face. It moved no more. Silence once again filled the alleyway. “What in the hell are you?” He thought to himself. But not too long. After all, Isaac had engaged in adventures with one who was blessed by the Archangels of God and flew around on angel wings with an “angel-fire” sword. It wasn’t two big a stretch to think he could be dealing with someone from “the other place” especially when he was looking at one’s battered corpse in a dirty, piss-smelling alley. But if that was the case, and he was dealing with some kind of hellspawn demonic creature from Justin Bieber’s future home (come on now, let’s not kid ourselves... that’s where he’s going – probably be the least fun guy there too...) then how the hell did he dispatch it so easily. Then he remembered what the alien said: [quote=Alien creature][/quote] [quote=Alien creature]<--Can’t have one without the other, and one can only exist with the presence of the other.>[/quote] Everything pieced together. Isaac took his bare fist and held it in the hole he created in the demon. He stretched his fingers out and the hole grew, without his fingers ever touching flesh. [b]“Their machines... they work using magic. That’s why they wouldn’t work. I don’t have a destiny. Destiny’s a fundamental point of magic.”[/b] He put the pieces together. [b]“I’m no longer a conduit... I’m not conductive to magic. That’s what it meant. I’ve never BEEN magic, but I’ve been open to its effects. Demons are inherently magical creatures.”[/b] Isaac took a few seconds and literally punched and stomped the demon’s remains to nothingness before running on to the location of his car, only one block away now, whilst running the new revelations through his head. He emerged from the alley out to the corner of a main road, and now clear from the close cover of buildings he saw it in the distance. The discoloured sky, the thousands of dark winged figures pouring up like a dark eruption. The near vicinity was mostly clear, a few demons were feasting on stragglers, but it was clear the demonspawn had mostly not reached the deep French Quarter of Lost Haven. Then he saw his car. His car with the young kid in the driver’s seat. And the seven foot demon perched on the bonnet like Satan’s hood ornament. [b]“Little punk’s tried to steal my car...”[/b] Isaac spat, running to the car. The demon screeched on the hood, wings spread. Seemed a lot like the final act before it would plunge through the windshield and— [b]POC![/b] A small bolt pinged off the demon’s head, little more than an irritation, but more than enough to silence its fiendish howl. [b]“Gonna settle for the veal cutlet when you can have a whole beef tenderloin?”[/b] the metallic voice echoed through Isaac’s voice modulator. The demon swooped from the hood of the car, flapping and screeching like a demented stork. Once again the sound of tearing paper could be heard as he punched right through the devil, two halves slumping to the ground on either side of him. [b]“Yeah, you should’ve stuck with the veal. Beef does tend to be a hell of a lot tougher.”[/b] Isaac walked up and tapped on the window. The boy was rolled over in the chair, arms over his face too scared to stare his fate in the eye. Still terrified of the demon which the boy believed would jump through the windshield at any moment. [b]“Oi! Kid!”[/b] he tapped on the window again. The small boy in his early teens peeked out from behind his arms, surprised the beast was gone, he then looked to the window where Isaac stood. Isaac made a gesture to wind the window down. The boy shook his head. Isaac made the gesture again and scowled, before reaching into his pocket and holding up the car key for the boy to see. The boy glumly nodded and wound the window down a crack, just enough that conversation could be clear and unmuffled, but not far enough that someone could get at the boy with anything. “Of all the cars I could take in this city to get away from this I had to steal the broken piece of—“ Isaac cut him off with a simple command [b]“Pop the hood.”[/b] The small boy reached across and pulled the hood catch on the old sedan, and Isaac moved to the front of the car and lifted the bonnet. He plugged the battery back in and fixed the rotor distributor. [b]“Thought you could hotwire a car, huh?”[/b] “I have! But this stupid piece of—“ Isaac saw a van come roaring down the street towards Armageddon, he squinted down the street and saw the reason why. [b]“Wait here...”[/b] he told the small boy. Isaac waved down the van he had recognized to be a press van from its antennaes and extra equipment. The van pulled over to a stop. [b]“So... where are you headed?”[/b] The driver looked at him, then the discloured sky in front then back to the figure in black. “Really?” the driver sarcastically spat. [b]“Fair enough.”[/b] Isaac responded, understanding the foolishness of the question. [b]“Got room for one more?”[/b] The driver and his co-worker in the passenger seat looked at him like he was an idiot. [b]“There’s a story in it for you.”[/b] The passenger snorted, “Yeah, what story?” [b]“Something ranging between ‘Hero Saves City, Possibly World’ or ‘Costumed Idiot Dies Trying’...”[/b] he replied, pointing across the vehicle at the remains of the demon. The pair looked across and saw what he was pointing at. “That was you?” Isaac shrugged. The pair in the van looked at each other. “Alright, hop in.” [b]“Yeah, just hang on a minute...”[/b] Isaac said, walking back to the car. [b]“Alright, here’s what you’re going to do, kid. I trust you wouldn’t try to steal a car if you couldn’t drive the thing, so you’re getting the benefit of the doubt. You’re going to take the East Bridge through Royal Park, then you’re going to keep going, here’s a fifty for gas and don’t stop til you hit you run out. If you see anyone trying to hitch a ride you pick them up and you GET THEM OUT. Got it?”[/b] The small boy nodded. [b]“Go.”[/b] The car was a cheap sedan, he’d paid cash and never signed the pink slips. His name was nowhere to be found in the buyer’s history, a necessity in the preservation of his other life. He’d get a replacement easily enough... assuming he lived through this. He watched as the car did a full u-turn and burnt rubber tearing down the street. Isaac walked back to the van, stopping only to eradicate one more screeching devil with a single punch. The pair in the van looked on wide eyed. “Might want to get the handheld out and keep it with you while this guy’s around...” The driver said to his passenger. The rear door of the van slammed. [b]“Alright, let’s get going then.”[/b]