November 4th, 8:48 PM
Marcy Projects
Jermaine Henderson was scared.
That wasn’t an easy admission for the fourteen year old to make. More than anything, he wanted everyone to know just how tough he was. To know that they’d better not look down on him just because he was young.
That was the reason he was still playing GTAVI, after all.
By now the rumors about the kids in Brooklyn who had been abducted - or
worse - had spread to the point where New York-based servers that were once packed had now been closed down by Rockstar due to the high profile abductions.
There weren’t many kids that were brave enough to play a game that might literally result in their deaths. Even if they
were, their parents would certainly not permit it.
Jermaine’s sure hadn’t. That’s why he made a show of smashing his CD in front of his mom. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t understand that you could play
without the CD. It was on his steam account now, the CD key was in, and so he didn’t even need it anymore.
And so he was playing, behind his mother’s back. It was a bit laggy, as he had to play on servers based outside of New York, but it was still playable. He had told himself everything would be fine. That the abductions had nothing to do with GTA, that it was just the media blaming video games again like it always did.
He wished he had listened to his mother, now.
“Don’t look behind you, Jermaine,” the voice whispered again, it’s chilled breath causing the hairs on his neck to stand.
It was the second time it had said that, and Jermaine was trying desperately to follow those instructions. His eyes were shut tight, his entire body was trembling. He could feel the heat of tears against his cheeks and the chill of sweat on his brow. Every second that passed, he could feel the
presence behind him more intensely. He didn’t want to look, but…
...It was as if he was being
compelled to do so.
“P-please…
please…”
A low, raspy chuckle sent waves of that icy breath against his neck again. “Don’t look behind you…!”
It was like his heart was going to explode. He could already feel his body turning as the pressure became overwhelming. And he knew for certain at that point…
He was going to die.
Opening his eyes, Jermaine’s mouth opened to scream at what he saw.
The Kinderfresser.Rooftops of Brooklyn
8:48 p.m.He hadn’t been active in almost two weeks. Readjusting to the sounds of the outside world was difficult at first, and the streets below had not yet begun to clear. Through the light yellow slits of the eyes of the suit, Tiger watched over the projects, but not with leisure. Though he was still hurting, it was his intentions that kept him on his feet. Tonight, he would catch the Kinderfresser; tonight, no one else’s children would die because he was injured. He put a hand to the side of the dark grey mask atop his head which capped off the monochrome suit, the latest of his suit’s iterations. Within the stitching of the mask’s mesh, there was a small sensory activated sight module which gave Marvin access to the mask’s built in vision settings: the eyes changed from their light yellow to a deep green--the magic scanner.
Lit were the streets of Brooklyn in a soft hue of a similar shade. A pulsing dim energy flared within the altered visage of the suit; Marvin was staring at traces of mystical energy. A gift from a certain canine friend of his; she wanted those kids out of her castle, he was sure, and so this fine gadget here would speed the process. The Kinderfresser, for all
it was, lacked creativity. From the crime scene photos Marvin studied, all the abductions were the same: no signs of forced entrance, usually no blood--a clean disappearance. The Kinderfresser--or rather, the Child Eater--had gotten bold, bold enough to give Marvin just enough; it had left its name. “Kinderfresser” was indeed German, and it was far more sinister than Marvin previously thought.
The string of kidnappings by this ‘Child Eater’ stretched centuries, and it was indiscriminate of sex or color when picking its victims. The one thing Susan McKenzie, Travis Williams, Brandon Plymouth, and Teon Hollins all had in common? They were ‘bad’ kids, none of them were awful children by anyone’ standards but they had been ‘naughty’ in the Kinderfresser’s eyes. Its method of abduction was never the same each time, but there was one constant: every child was abducted while playing a fashionable game of their time. For Susan, hopscotch; Brandon, Travis, and Teon, GTA VI. Marvin couldn’t figure out why they were all taken while playing video games and chalked it up to coincidence. It wasn’t something of great import right now, anyway.
From his perch, Tiger leapt. He had mastered every crevice of these projects’ roofs, and crossing them--even while in pain--was nigh effortless. It helped that he was overall in better essential condition than a normal human, some still healing wounds would not slow him down as it would someone else. In his traverse, he kept his eyes on the trail sussed by the magic sensing technology. The Kinderfresser forged a hard trail to track, its presence left energy residue instead of footprints and it seemed as though it had been busy tonight, aiming to pick the most satisfying prey, for there were several strands of its energy winding into no particular path.
Until the strands of energy conjoined into a single point of entry. That was not good. It meant the Kinderfresser was about to capture another if it hadn’t already--Tiger had to pick up the pace. His usually elegant leaps and soft landings which preferred for the sake of his knees and ankles he traded for wide and arcing bounds, virtual continuous longjumps which propelled him fifteen to twenty feet forward with any given leap. Combined with an upstart in acceleration and an intentional boost in speed, Marvin closed the distance between his former position and where the Kinderfresser’s trail went dead within a few seconds. His heart thudded against his chest, a jackhammer--even with the cooling insulation of the suit, Marvin was pushing himself harder than he had in a long time, he could feel the ick of his own blood as it zipped through his veins. He was in anguish with each move, but he was exhilarated as well. He was
hunting again.
One final leap, the dark monochrome grey mesh-weave suit glistened against the white moon as Marvin soared across the opaque background of the night. He landed in a squat, knees bent and never bent too far in front of his toes so as to lessen the impact. Even one with his capabilities was not immune to a torn ACL given a poor landing. He didn’t cease his momentum, his target was right below him! He turned on both heels and darted toward the roof’s edge, his acceleration-to-top speed time was incredible, his twist into a backflip which he sprung after grabbing onto the edge of the roof and bulldozing the metallic lined fiber of the suit’s feet into the glass window where the Kinderfresser and Jermaine were was even better.
After he crashed through the window, he ducked into a roll--he landed on his feet with the deftness of his namesake in miniature form and rose to full height; the bleak grey of the suit knocked against the cold blue night, creating a long and thick silhouette around him which highlighted his freakishly athletic physique. His voice was ice from beneath the mask,
”Enough.”The Kinderfresser reached its obsidian hand out for Jermaine, preparing to consume him just as he had the others.
This was a time far greater than any that had come before it. In centuries past, it could perhaps harvest a single disobedient child per year, often traveling great distances in search of the ideal prey. The world was once so disparate, with houses often be miles apart. Disobedient children were also far less common, the harsher times making respect for one’s elders virtually mandatory. But now things were different.
Now there were hundreds, perhaps thousands just waiting to be devoured. Packed tightly into boroughs such as this one, the internet offering them an easy outlet for their defiance. It was, after all, a gourmet. If a child’s soul was too dark, then it would gain nothing from it. On a similar note, should it shine too brightly, the Kinderfresser would be driven away. It was the flawed, the troubled that it sought. Those who were tainted, but not yet consumed by evil.
Those like young Jermaine.
Seizing the boy’s torso with it’s long black fingers, it began to draw him towards that mouth of crimson fire that would be the end of his short life of rebellion. And then the shattering of glass did something that the Kinderfresser believed was impossible: surprised it.
Whirling to face the intruder, that maw of fire stretched wider and released an unearthly roar that shook the entire project. It was in this moment that Jermaine at last found his voice and released a sharp scream that surely alerted his mother.
Howling in rage at having its meal interrupted, the Kinderfresser hurled the boy straight at Tiger, before lunging forward and seizing the strangely dressed man by the neck with a supernatural strength and speed that sent the three of them back through the window.
Fast as Tiger was, this Kinderfresser was several steps beyond; all he could do was catch Jermaine by the collar of his shirt before Tiger, too, was sent spiraling through the window with the Kinderfresser’s charge. That same exhilaration he felt earlier still beat through his being, and he would use it to his advantage; curling Jermaine in one arm, Tiger clutched the midrift of Jermaine’s shirt and tore in into a single ribbon. Tiger waited until he and Jermaine neared the top of a streetlight before he unfurled Jermaine from his grasp like a bowler following through the motion of his form and let the sliver of thin cotton strip snag onto the small arc of the top of the light. Jermaine was suspended tight in air, as a kid who is bullied hangs from the flagpole after his antagonists yoke him up.
Tiger, on the other hand, continued to fall, his back smashed into the roof of a minivan; the absorbent material of the suit dispersed the kinetic impact across the width and length of his body, even as he crushed the hood itself beneath his frame. Though the impact was absorbed and dispersed, it didn’t stop his body from slamming into the lined mesh metal composite of the suit itself; for a moment, Tiger was stunned. Tiger knew he had to move, and quickly, because his opponent was descending on him--and not even his suit would protect him from that mystical crimson flame; he rolled off the hood of the crushed minivan and onto his hands and knees, where he briefly crawled before he wobbled onto his feet. His head still rung.
That was certainly not the smartest thing he had ever done.
Kinderfresser was in truth surprised by its own power. While the taste of tainted children was a strong preference by it, the reality was that it had - for the longest time - simply been too weak to go after most adults. But since a year ago - almost exactly! - it had felt so much
stronger than before.
The laylines had flowed with power, and creatures such as it reaped the benefits. Now it feared no mere human, including this beastman standing before it. While it may not enjoy him nearly so much, it would gladly consume his soul as well so that he would never interfere with its
dinner again.
Stretching its mouth further still, an unearthly howl filled the streets of Brooklyn as the devourer of children fell upon the vigilante, long dark cloak blending almost seamlessly into the night sky as it whipped about its form without any aid from the wind. Reaching out to grasp at him with those serrated fingers, the Kinderfresser attempted to draw him into its form.
Tiger’s senses came about him again, for a moment he was seeing double! In that time, the Kinderfresser had both descended and closed the distance between itself and Tiger; but now, the Child Eater was in Marvin’s world. He countered the Kinderfresser’s outstretched arm with a quick roll of his head beneath its right arm and he leaned his body low, carrying his entire frame toward the Kinderfresser’s side. One strong hook--hard enough to test the durability of this Kinderfresser, but not enough for Marvin to expend too much stamina; he would have to save that for any possible blitzkrieg, but Tiger knew he would also have to end the fight quick lest the Kinderfresser begin to utilize his speed advantage.
Alongside the powerful hook, Tiger went to throw in a knee. He jolted the upper portion of his thigh into the same area he had just tried to hit; first in Tiger’s array of styles, Muay Thai, a form which generated enough force and power behind its individual movements to fell most corporeal beings who were not named Superman, Harris, or Lady Arcana.
The first impact against the Kinderfresser’s ghostly form embedded deeply in its robes, pushing it to the side. The kick that followed likewise pushed it further away, infuriating the creature. It wasn’t used to its prey fighting back. Most couldn’t even react when it came for them. This human was clearly going to make a nuisance of himself.
Flexing its massive claws, the Kinderfresser once more lunged at Tiger with deadly speed and precision. Slicing across the vigilante’s current position, the moment of its strike carried on into the vehicle the human had crashed into only moment’s before. Slicing deep into it with little fanfare, gas began to leak from the punctured tank.
Spinning in midair to face him again, the Kinderfresser unleashed a series of claw strikes aimed at bisecting the beastman. Even if it didn’t get to consume his soul, it would be content to have him gone.
Tiger had--against his intentions--pushed the Kinderfresser away from him and given the Kinderfresser space to use his speed again; when the Kinderfresser closed distance the second time, the first of the claw swipes severed Tiger’s mask along the front, the serrated edges of the creature’s tarsals cut deep into Tiger’s skin. Tiger wallowed in the initial pain, never had his suit been ripped open. In the back of Marvin’s mind, he had (foolishly) begun to think his invention infallible. Of course he was--as was typical of late--wrong.
Muscle memory was the only reason he wasn’t bisected by the second set of claws, his years of boxing training cued his body to evade after being hit, no matter the pain. Half his face exposed, with the tatters of the mask dangling by a thread off his jawline and blood--which quickly began to coagulate--escaping down the side of his face and trailing down the bodypiece of his suit, Marvin had to think of a new plan fast. Then he saw it, the gas leak! The only problem was that he lacked a lighter.
Somehow, he had to make one, and all before the Kinderfresser realized its own mistake. Tiger had to buy himself some time; keep the monster enraged so he would slip up: something told Tiger that this creature was taken aback by new prey that would not merely bow to it. Something told Tiger that this Kinderfresser, for all its legend and the fear it struck in the hearts of children across the centuries, was, for the first time in a long time. . . scared.
That was all Tiger needed.
Tiger had to keep the pressure on, occupy the Kinderfresser’s mind with what was in front of it, force it into tunnel vision. To this end, Tiger took the offensive, he sprinted toward the Kinderfresser; the back of Tiger’s mind fixated on the streetlights surrounding the projects and providing the lone source of light barring the few lit windows of patrons who were watching television. Some had even begun to open their windows after hearing the commotion.
The Kinderfresser howled again at the nimble feline when it managed to avoid being cleaved in twain by its claws. He wasn’t even as a beastman, as the creature had initially presumed, but rather a mere human wearing a costume of some sort. For such a pathetic being to dare and defy it for this long...this incensed it to its very core. Humans were
meat, their souls a mere savory nectar that its continued existence demanded.
Charging to meet the foolhardy man, its claws at the ready, the Kinderfresser released an ear-piercing shriek as its claws began to weave an intricate pattern through the air with their continuous swipes. Any one of them would be enough to end costumed vigilante if they landed firmly, but this man somehow managed to be far quicker than any the creature had ever encountered before.
But it was swifter still. Swifter than any mere human, to be certain. The whistling of the air as it cut through it was proof enough of this.
“They are
mine...” The Kinderfresser’s voice rasped, seeming to carry farther on the wind than it had any right to. “All of them!”
Tiger’s aim was not to meet the creature head on; he would assure death that way. No, it was to give the gas enough time to seep forward and set itself within the various cracks of the surface below. After Tiger had gathered enough momentum, he slid low between the creature’s legs--no fancy fighting technique, something he learned when he was a kid himself and played baseball with his father at the park. Tiger kicked up onto his feet as the creature’s bellowing shriek ricocheted off the buildings and shattered the streetlights in front of the Kinderfresser. As the bulbs popped, small torrents of heat danced toward the ground and sparked the gas into flame!
It didn’t take long for the flame to trail along the fluid and ignite itself as the belly of a snake slithers its owner across surface. Marvin heard it ignite and continue to forge its path toward the Kinderfresser--and if the Kinderfresser dodged--himself. Tiger once again leapt up, this time atop the single piece of the minivan that was left before he quickly changed terrain and latched himself onto a window ledge. As though his body were a thing out of Tetris, he contorted while one foot was on the window ledge and burst himself atop the same streetlight Jermaine hung from. Tiger’s breathing was now rapid; the unhealed injuries began taking a toll on him. He was unsure how much he had left in him while in this state.
Without hesitation, he leaned over his perch on the streetlight and expended more of his strength in order to burst its bulb as well, sparking a more stout stream of flame which fluttered the Kinderfresser’s way and had began to spread at a rapid pace. Screams from the highrises emitted and were carried by the wind below and into Tiger’s ears; they already rung from the reverb of the shriek, these other screams did not help his predicament.
The Kinderfresser had been surprised when Tiger had dived beneath its form, not expecting him to risk being any closer than he had to be after seeing the speed at which it could strike. Still, it had immediately turned to face the nimble human and pursue him, only for a trail of flames to erupt along the path to the minivan and catch the edge of its cloak. For the first time in its centuries long existence, the creature experienced true pain as its cloak was set ablaze. Thrashing about in an effort to put out the blaze, it slammed into the minivan - a panicked mistaked - just as the vigilante broke yet another light above it.
That was when the streams of flame converged onto the minivan, and in a flash that briefly cast away the night, the vehicle erupted in flames. Flames that consumed the Kinderfresser.
A truly ear shattering screech filled the air, windows shattering in both homes and nearby cars as the once pitch-black Kinderfresser burst from the fiery remnants of the minivan and began to hysterically slam into the walls of the nearby projects. Like a ball of fire it streaked through the air, continuing to scream as glass shattered in its wake. Higher into the night sky it flew, its pain echoing on the wind for miles even as it fled the city.
---
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter,” Nimrod spoke the words of Ernest Hemingway, the scope of his Cheytac M200 Sniper Rifle zooming in on his quarry as it sat perched on a street lamp, hunting the the strange spectre.
It was be easy to end him here, to place a bullet between his eyes...but The Tiger was not yet healed completely. That much was clear to him in the way he moved, a certain stiffness that he strived to overcome. Most would not notice it, but he did. That hint of extra tension in his well-defined musculature that he had flawlessly mapped over the past week.
No, he would not kill him yet. He would merely leave him with...a
warning.
Lowering his aim, Nimrod zeroed in on his left knee. With a squeeze of the trigger, the most powerful sniper rifle in the world released a bullet from over 1.4 miles away, instantly clearing the distance.
---
There was only white, searing torment. A shot so sudden, so perfectly placed, Marvin didn’t have time to scream. In an instant in time, Marvin lay sprawled atop the lone piece of the minivan as sun colored flames howled mere inches below. For all the fine tuning, refining, and failsafes placed in his latest suit, Marvin had nothing in it which could withstand a caliber beyond .50.
An err that this day the Brooklyn mask rued.
In the dark of unconsciousness he lie: vulnerable, weak. Prey.
--
“Do
not disappoint me, Mr. Hayes,” Nimrod whispered, standing over the prone body of The Tiger, his silver mask reflecting the fires that burned around them. “I am seeking something far greater than the money of some petty crime lord.”
Reaching into his pocket, Nimrod tossed a bloody ear onto the chest of the unconscious Tiger. “This is a hunt between you and I, and Nimrod shall brook no interference, even from the likes of Carmine Persico.”
Turning away, Nimrod raised his hat slightly, eying his prey over his shoulder. “I suggest you recover quickly, they will be coming for you, my hunter. Wipe them out.”
---
Sirens blared throughout the projects: some from police cars, others from firefighters, the last group from paramedics. The firefighters got to the business of trying to put out the flames; the paramedics aided Marvin and threw him in the back of their vehicle. Marvin Hayes had unwittingly endangered the innocent denizens of Marcy; and this would likely be the last time they saw their masked hero. There was word that the Marcy projects itself was being condemned; despite the severe drop in crime, there was little even Hayes could do to improve the conditions of the projects themselves.
When Marvin next awoke, he stared at the ceiling of the paramedics’ van, a masked ET stood over him; and like before, he was hooked to IVs and tubes. Behind the paramedic van was a police car and a patty wagon.
If October was a long month for Tiger, November would feel as an eternity.
Simple Unicycle
Alfhedil