[center][img]http://gameplay.pl/galeria/ilustracja/217_165634713.png[/img][/center]
[center][sub][i][b]There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the Moon howls.[/b][/i][/sub][hr][/center]

[b]One Short Flight Later,
Roxxon R&D Facility,
Abandoned Lot[/b]

Moon Knight had done several fly-bys of the area atop the Angelwing, his enhanced night vision and the Angelwing's own thermal sensors telling him that apart from a pair of guards set up at a little gate meant to deter 'rebellious' teens or kids there on a dare from going in, there were no enemies on the ground to worry about. Khonshu might radiate disappointment at the delay of punishing those even tangentially responsible for creating the lycanthropes, but it was good news for Moon Knight in Marc Spector's opinion. That meant the most difficult part of this job would be searching this big lot's every room and hidden nook and cranny until Moon Knight found either clues or the professor himself. A slow, methodical search and [i]then[/i] Khonshu would have his justice, nice and neat.

Marc Spector should have known better, after all when the job seemed like it was too easy it probably was.  A bolt of artificial lightning lashed at him from the darkness like the scourge of some angered night-demon. Moon Knight twisted and banked up, maneuvering the Angelwing to absorb the blast of electricity at the last second, though absorbing the sudden surge of power overloaded the glider's anti-gravity generators and sent it spiraling towards the ground with him attached. Thinking quickly, he unlocked his feet from the Angelwing and went flipping and spiraling away from it, his glider-cape deploying from the container at the back of his armor to slow and control his descent. Moon Knight glanced around for his attacker as he drifted downward, only to be slammed into heavily from above, the blow knocking the wind out of him as what sounded like blades shredded through his cape only to glance off of his carbonadium vestment. Fighting through pain and gasping for breath in midair, Moon Knight fired the crescent blade-tipped grapple lines mounted on his wrists into the wall of the old research lab and swung in through a third story window in a hail of glass.

The Lunar Legionnaire tumbled across the floor and slammed into a wall but was up and moving down the hall and away from the windows as soon as he hit, searching his surroundings before finding a corner to duck around. Blending with the darkness via his Shadow Walk, he peered around the corner and waited for his assailant to come and finish the job. Soon enough, a figure did indeed float in through the shattered window and touch down searching for him. As moonlight streamed down around the attacker through the window and revealed his face, Marc Spector cursed under his breath.

it was Simon Maddicks, a mercenary straight out of the Crescent Crusader's past life. Maddicks had always been an unstable monster-for-hire with standards so low they might as well have been subterranean, but the thought that he'd teamed up with someone willing to create [i]literal[/i] monsters filled Marc Spector with a cold rage that thrummed with Khonshu's open approval. Slipping away and finding Milo was not an option. First Simon Maddicks must be made to suffer for his sins. Moon Knight threw his truncheon from around the corner such that it ricochet'd neatly off a lighting fixture in the ceiling above and clocked Maddicks straight across his unarmored mouth. Then he activated the magnetic recall feature so that it spun back and struck him again from the other side, sending him twisting back out the window. 

Unfortunately for Moon Knight rather than taking a bone-shattering fall, Maddicks just hung floating in midair, stunned. Still willing to take advantage of the opening, Spector charged back down the hallway, catching and holstering his still moving truncheon before pivoting to leap atop the levitating mercenary. Maddicks recovered his senses and tried to fly away, but the split-second of weakness had lasted just long enough for the Crescent Crusader to wrap his arms around Maddicks and lock the arm joints of his armor in place, leaving them locked together face-to-cowl in a strange mid-air grapple. Maddicks regarded Moon Knight at first with shocked confusion, then a derisive snarl.

"What the hell are ya trying to do you idiot? Are ya gonna[i]hug[/i] me to death?"

[color=silver][b]"No."[/b][/color]

Moon Knight slammed his helmeted head into Maddicks' over and over again, and though Maddicks seemed to have gotten more durable than he had been in Spector's time, left bloodied and inconvenienced rather than unconscious as any normal man would be. Still, it seemed to be enough of a distraction that Maddicks' gravity-defying powers were weakened, as the two first lowered then plummeted toward the ground. The aerial combat was still Maddicks' domain however, and he was able to flip himself over at the last second so that Moon Knight took the brunt of their fall. The impact briefly overrode the suit's joint-locks and Maddicks dusted himself off, bloodied and bruised but still smirking.

At least until a stun grenade detonated at the mercenary's feet with an explosive bang and a brilliant flash of light. Maddicks tried to take to the air again in order to avoid reprisal only to find himself still earth-bound, with the Fist of Khonshu standing before him once more despite taking the brunt of a fall that could kill most men.

[color=silver][b]"Simon Maddicks, Khonshu's judgement is upon you."[/b][/color]

Maddicks looked unnerved by the sudden loss of his flight powers, unaware that Moon Knight had deduced that he was partially powered by anti-gravity technology that was the stolen property of SpectreCorp. The barrage of headbutts had been nothing more than a distraction while his opponent had sent out the emergency override signal that he built into all of his company's work. Despite mysteriously losing his powers, the killer-for-hire quickly covered up his fear with more bluster and bravado.

"Look freak, I don't know who the hell you are or what your Conch-whatever is but even without flight powers it's gonna take a lot more than loony in black-and-white pajamas to take down Killer Shrike!" The light of the moon shone down on the two costumed men, each poised to end the battle with their next move.

Though the two were too close for energy blasts Shrike's punch backed up his words, not only much faster and more powerful than he could have managed in the old days but charged with electrical energy. But Moon Knight's superior training allowed him to intercept the force of that punch just behind the blades and redirect it into a shoulder throw in time, running off of pure honed reflex. Before Maddicks could recover from his surprise Moon Knight had already drawn his truncheon and jabbed it into Shrike's body to unleash an electric shock of his own. The resulting current caused Shrike's bladed braces to overload in an even bigger jolt and a sizzle of smoke as Shrike writhed and screamed but the Fist of Khonshu wasn't done. He hauled the killer up by his ridiculous plume and threw him into the nearby wall, cracking and denting it.

[color=black][i][b]Shrike, the Butcher Bird. A fitting name given the man's past[/b][/i][/color] Khonshu whispered  [color=black][i][b]Let us see how he enjoys being butchered.[/b][/i][/color]

As Shrike struggled to stand Moon Knight threw a pair of crescent blades, impaling both of his hands and pinning them to the wall. As Shrike shrieked in pain Moon Knight raised another blade, carved a bloody crescent moon into Shrike's howling face then raised it up gleaming silver and red in the moonlight.

[color=silver][b]"Simon Maddicks, you have ravaged peaceful lands, grown prosperous on the lamentations of women and children, piled up the corpses of the innocent in stacks and hills and watched them burn without a care! Your heart is blackened and weighed down by the sheer volume of your sins! I should cut it out and show it to you-[/b][/color]

"NO, GOD PLEASE NO!"

Moon Knight's blade made the plunge as Shrike wailed in fear and pain but froze with the tip over the man's chest. His arm quivered, strained, then moved back. 

[i]No Khonshu, I will not cross that line. Not again.[/i]
 
[color=silver][b]"-but since I am a just man I won't. Instead your sins will be purged through pain...and through truth." [/b][/color] Shrike shuddered and began weeping with relief.

Marc Spector doubted he would have problems finding Milo now.