Exekiel was at odds with himself. The last few excursions were quite fruitful and his next evolutionary stage was coming on faster than he originally planned for. Despite the apparent success on the surface of things, the truth of the matter was he only managed to sabotage fringe operations of the shadowy organization known as the Shroud Syndicate. He waited patiently for the results of his actions to bear some sort of response but it seemed that either the underlings were too afraid to report their... accidents, or they were simply apathetic to the losses. Either scenario was extremely unacceptable, but the half-demon didn't survive so long by slipping into habitual impatience. The Cancer was a far more elusive prey and striking his operation centers proved inefficient at best. It was like striking at a foggy entity that only shifted around his careful prods.

The Predator within was content with the bloodshed, but it hungered evermore for bigger game. Metas showed up every now and then, but they proved to be small timers with lackluster or useless (to him anyways) powers. The top tier power players were probably not likely to hang so freely with the bottom feeders. Another issue was caused by the murderous entity known as Nightmare. Exekiel couldn't confirm without meeting the creature firsthand but he assumed it was not a demon. At least it wouldn't be an Abyssal demon since he would have sensed a powerful demon like that. Regardless of its origins, the mere presence of the creature instigated wide searches throughout the city by various organizations and so called Meta Heroes. Since he had a rather similar habit of sticking to the darkness and had a tendency to terrorize people. In all fairness though, he only targeted criminal elements but he doubted most people would be understanding and open at first glance.

[color=red]"I did meet that strange so called Hero a couple nights ago... What was his name again? Just A Guy? Justice Guide? Juice... Gourd?"[/color] muttered Predator to himself as he hung upside down from the edge of one of the buildings in the financial district by his powerful tail. He was too high off the ground to be seen from the ground and it was far too late... or early for there to be workers hanging around.

Predator originally dropped by in order to observe one of the more legitimate (superficially) associates of the Cowl. A mere legal cog in the bureaucratic machine that ran the town. It proved to be a rather pointless venture. He could eat the man but it was hardly worth the effort. Instead he found himself simply hanging there and watching the empty streets with vague interest. It hasn't been too long since he began the campaign against the underworld. He was pretty much working blind. No contacts and no informants meant that he knew far too little about the inner workings of the Syndicate. Perhaps he would need to break out of isolation and work with another.

[color=red]"Kukuku... I don't think that's an option. Too many questions... too many variables."[/color] chuckled the massive beast mirthlessly as he dismissed the notion. He crept back up to the roof and headed home for the night. He had much to do and even a little sleep was more than enough to satisfy his human side.