[center][b][u][color=a187be][h3]Murder Express[/h3][/color][/u][/b][/center] Zahariel smirked as Shawn left the shop at last, his lone employee disappearing into the night. He took his time, taking the cash register's contents and placing them into his bag in order to deposit them in the bank later on. A few hundred dollars Today was a good day for business. An elderly couple came in, looking for the biggest and baddest cactus Zah had in sale, so naturally he directed them to an absolutely enormous specimen in the back of the shop. It was easily as big as the average person, and the spines could be used as deadly weapons. Zah mused that they wanted to use it for self defense as well as house decoration, but alas, they bought it along with some of the water lilies. Anyway, Zah had been looking at the news. The Scourge seemed to be pretty busy nowadays, seeing as how they had just burned down a laboratory. Plus, they've stolen some chemicals. Zah sighed. Why can't they be content with living in isolation from the rest of humanity? Why must they pull these antics and ruin the lives of everyone else in the Pariah Underground? Things are bad enough as is… Taking his cane, Zah walked to the back of his shop. It was open and had a telescope in it, lending him a view of the stars. Sometimes, he'd catch a glimpse of his old homeworld, the Red Planet, glinting in the night sky. He remembered how he lived underground, and only ever got out of that little world on a world with a suit on. Now, here he was, on Earth. He could sense that his body was still having trouble with the gravity, even after a whole decade. Zah quickly downed one of those pills with a glass of water, making sure that he didn't suffer any health issues when he got home. Speaking of which, it was getting dark. And so… A dark mist surrounded Zah. Out of the black smoke emerged his transformation; an eldritch raven, exuding pure shadow. The news reported that the Scourge members went in different directions. He didn't want to deal with Flea, as she could jump up and catch him in mid-air, so he'd rather deal with Graphite and Ruby. True, his raven swarm cannot harm Graphite, but he didn't need to harm them- not yet, anyway. They needed a good talk. "Well that's relieving," Zah thought as he witnessed a bunch of small shapes fight in the dark alley below him. Let's see, a pyromancer, a smoking skeleton, then those two. Must be… Sear and Grassbones. Zah flew down, perching on one of the nearby rooftops, deciding not to interfere- yet. Though to those four, he's not exactly hard to miss. "Cute…" Zah simply mused, watching Ruby and Graphite's irritation. [hr] [center][b][u][color=fff79a][h3]The Collector[/h3][/color][/u][/b][/center] "Sir. SIR! Please step away from the-" "Step away or you'll, what, shoot me?" The Collector stood in front of the set of jewels, his eyes filled with greed and exquisite taste. The glass box was an easy matter. He could just take it along with the set, as the Tesseract Labyrinth would have no trouble swallowing the whole thing into its unfathomable dimensions. Either that, or let his pets break it. "Uh…" "Darling," the Collector said, stepping forward while Satan and Lucifer, those mechanical centipedes, crawled beside him. "I tell you this. Are you implying that you, a man who in most likelihood, has a family to feed, an ambition to reach, will willingly fight me? And for what? How much do these people pay you anyway? Minimum wage?" Collector lazily tossed a black cube at the jewel set, causing the precious relics to disappear into a pocket dimension. "Word of advice, my dear. You shouldn't do for others what they aren't willing to do for you. For instance, fighting to the death. You know who I am, no? You know what I can do? Bullets simply… stop." The security guard whimpered, though he still pointed his gun at the completely unfazed Collector. "You know, with a face like that, my parents would be telling you to marry my sister," Collector said, giggling. As if in cue, Gloriana Hellas and Sol Invictus floated towards from elsewhere in the mansion, bearing news. "Gold plates and vintage wine bottles have been found," Gloriana Hellas said in a monotone, robotic voice. "On the second floor." "Most excellent, my love," the Collector said with an amused tone. He then looked back at the security guard, who was still standing there, scared. "How old are you? 20? 25? You have a long way to go, my good sir! I suppose that your cooperation and generosity should be rewarded here and now, no?" "...what?" "Oh, you misunderstand," the Collector said, taking out another of the cubes from his pocket. "Here, take a peak." The Collector plunged his right hand into the cube, the point that he touched turning into a semi-liquid. He then pulled out a large, glowing ruby that reflected the light of the nearby chandeliers with absolute beauty. "Glorious, isn't it," the Collector answered, holding out the ruby. "This is worth more than the salary you'll get in a whole year. Or your life, depending on how brain-dead your owner, err, employer is. Anyway, if you'd kindly just leave, you can have this." Satan loomed behind the Collector, its mandibles excitedly clicking. Its eyes alternated between red, green, and yellow, as if they were a set of Christmas lights. "Satan, don't scare him, can you?" The Collector chided the machine. Satan looked dismayed, and crawled away. The Collector turned his attention back to the guard, who had his gun down now. Not waiting for anything else, the Collector took the man's hand, and placed the ruby on his palm. "Go on now! Be free!" Surely enough, the guard ran away, leaving his gun behind. And so the ransacking continued. The Collector was very, very pleased.