I had many, many questions, for example… why were even fighting? Apparently, éclair had some beef with them, or something, but couldn’t we have talked it out? She didn’t even really try, if anything, she seemed eager to get into a fight.

  Now, now she was fighting some odd guy wearing a form hugging suit… A guy whom she allowed to transform and simply stood by while he did so.

  A guy that was now moving.

  His cape, made up of shadows, flared out and shot him into the sky. They then pulled in, and with a whistling sound, he shot back down, like a hawk diving for food. His feet were extended, arms at his side. He was almost like a human missile.

  éclair just stood there, no, she took the initiative to drop her sledgehammer and squatted down. Thin tendrils of lightning erupted from her form, and she launched herself up with a clap of displaced air.

  Her extended fist slammed into the man’s feet. I imagined her fist would break, her arm would give, or that she would simply be spiked to the ground, but none of that happened.

  If anything, the man’s legs gave way. Crunching in and quickly dissolving into a syrupy mass of shadows. éclair’s fist carried through, and with a shout, she launched the mass of shadow into a nearby building. The mass crashed through the building wall and that was that.

  éclair hit the ground and walked back towards her discarded weapon when the man shot out of the building. He was fast and leapt straight down behind Eclair, his foot cratered the pavement on impact. His fist shot forward, the very air whistling with its passing.

  Almost casually éclair shifted aside, dodging the blow and picking up her hammer in the same motion. The missed blow then sent out a blast of wind that gouged out a chunk of pavement. Undeterred, he continued. Each step thumped out, cracking pavement. Each strike carried with it stupendous force.

  After the first strike, éclair made no attempt to dodge. Meeting him blow for blow, one fist to his two fists, until finally with a powerful blow of her own, she pushed the man back. She stepped forward and punched, sending him hurtling back. All the while, her other hand was simply holding her sledgehammer.

  He hit the concrete, his form briefly shifted back into a featureless blob before reconstituting himself upright and charging.

  In the corner, behind éclair, I noticed a downed gang member reach for the rack of RPG’s. I opened my mouth to warn her, but… she simply sent me a glance and a wink. My mouth snapped shut.

  The man, Black Hawk as he called himself kept her attention, while the injured gang member levelled the RPG in her direction. With a kick and hiss, followed by a spurt of smoke, the projectile shot out.

  Just as casually as before, she shifted her body, avoiding Black Hawk’s attack and with her free hand, she not only grabbed the incoming rocket, but redirected and threw it right for Black Hawk.

  An explosion rocked out. Shrapnel went everywhere. It pinged against the car I hid behind and lightning crackled around éclair like a shield, protecting her. Once the dust settled, Black Hawk was on the ground, bleeding quite badly. His body-hugging suit gone, replaced with more normal wear.

  Which marked the end of the conflict. People were moaning and groaning. A few lay eerily still, likely dead, and with a motion éclair signaled for me to join her as she began what I could call an interrogation.

  She dragged the man aside and threw him onto the stone steps of an aged porch at the front of a building. Uncaring for how the step edges dug into his back or forced out a dying wheeze followed by bloody spittle that came out of his lips.

  “Right, so…” éclair started and paused… “I don’t think you were here when I said why I was here, but… I’m looking for a lost sheep. They’ve been related to a series of disappearances since last month, and I have it on good authority they might be working towards something bigger. Any ideas?”

  He looked up at her and spat out a glob of blood mixed with spit.

  “Go fuck yourself bitch.” éclair didn’t much care about the bloody spittle that had smacked her in the face. She just wiped it off and continued.

  “I understand your group can be territorial, but a lost sheep is a city problem, isn’t it?”

  He growled and I could tell whatever was about to happen, that I didn’t want to be a part of it. I inched away and decided to check on the downed people. The still bodies were just that, bodies. They had no discernable pulse and were completely still, not even breathing. The injured were numerous, most were groaning with broken limbs and bones jutting out of ruined flesh.

  It was awful, and I had no real response for all of this. It seemed like overkill. I had coins on me, but it wasn’t like I knew a lot about medical procedures. Cleaning up a wound I could do easily enough, but setting a broken leg? That was way out of my expertise.

  What was I supposed to do in a situation like this? Call the emergency service? Did I even know their number? The answer was a resounding no… But leaving them to die, that wouldn’t be good. So, what was I to do?

  “éclair!” I called out, “Some of these guys look pretty bad, and I think a few are dead, should I call emergency services or something?” I called out after making my rounds.

  “Emergency services, why the hell would…” She trails off. She appeared to be in the middle of smacking the guy but paused on processing my words. A wicked smile bloomed on her face. “Yeah, why don’t you do that. What do you think about that?”

  For some reason, the man paled. “I won’t say nothin’!” He said, but… it sounded very unsure.

  I eyed the pair and considered… “Well, I don’t happen to know the number, so…”

  éclair casually gave it to me, and thus, with it, tacit permission. They took awhile to answer… Their immediate response wasn’t exactly comforting…

  “Purgatory Central Hospital… What can I do for you…” They sounded bored out of their mind. Like they wanted to do anything but answer this call.

  “Right, so, I have a number of injured and possibly dead people here in the lower city and…”

  Suddenly, the speaker over the phone shouted out, interrupting me.

  “Injured in the lower city!? Where, when!”

  Before she had sounded like the typical teenager being forced to work, she likely had long glitzy nails and was twining the phone cord around her finger while rolling her eyes, but the sudden shift in tone was something else.

  “Er, well…” I gave her the information, we were at a crossroads, the signs, though worn, were still visible enough.

  “We’ll be right there on the double!” And she hung up.

  Confused, I glanced over the injured and made my way back to éclair, whom was just finishing up another round of beatings on the man that called himself Black Hawk.

  “I ain’t say’in shit!” He said, again, spitting out a few teeth in the process. éclair looked concerned, like she was completely out of her element. She didn’t move on my approach, but once I was closer, I leaned in and spoke.

  “I went ahead and called for emergency services. They should be here soon, probably…”

  “Oh, they definitely will be here, now, won’t they little black?” Her single lock of hair jutted forward, a wide grin on her face. She stepped forward, a foot on the step, allowing her to hover over the defeated man. “So, little black, we doing this the easy or hard way?”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  He looked up and glared at me. One of his eyes were swollen shut already, blood dripping down his nose. One of his arms was… not in a good spot.

  His eyes, or rather, his one operable eye focused on me. Glaring right into my soul.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve done!?” He growled out.

  éclair looked at me with a victorious grin, the horror on his face really put me on the spot.

  “I… did I do something wrong?” I asked in confusion. “Some of your people are probably dead, and those injuries look really bad. So, I just thought I’d give the professionals a call, should I not have?”

  He opens his mouth to speak but gets cut off by a familiar sound. The sound of an ambulance siren, multiple sirens. They cut through the silence, but the sound alone had everyone jolting.

  Disregarding their injuries, many of them started to crawl away. Leaving bloody trails in their wake. Their fingers scraping against pavement as they pull themselves along. Black Hawk stared at me for a long moment, his face shifting between a myriad of emotions before settling on resignation.

  “Why is everyone acting like that? They’re the hospital, right? Emergency services?” Were they afraid of the cost of the ambulance ride? I mean, sure it was a real killer, but some of them looked like they might actually die without medical help.

  éclair just giggled in lieu of a response. Unfortunately, I had my answer soon enough. The ambulances arrived. Tires squealed as they turned and surrounded the checkpoint. The ambulance driver doors opened, and hulking orderlies came out wearing white scrubs, small white caps on their head and latex gloves that went up to their elbows.

  The moment the ambulance’s back doors swung out, the injured suddenly grew even more desperate. Out of the back came nurses, clad in the same questionable attire I saw before, each of them decked out with lipstick and glitter like they were professional strippers, dressed like them too.

  Giggling like mad they rushed forward and with the aid of orderlies subdued people and dragged them bodily back into the ambulance bed. All the while they screamed and begged.

  “BLACK HAWK! PLEASE! SAVE US!!!” One of them screamed out, a pair of giggling nurses were pulling him by his ruined legs, the flesh on his fingers were being shorn away as they pulled against the pavement. “They’re going to suck us dry Black Hawk! SUCK US DRY!!!” And with those final, ominous words, he was thrown into the ambulance, the door slammed shut. As it drove off, it shook rather… suggestively…

  I had no idea what was going on, but they gathered everyone up and a pair were making their way over to grab Black Hawk, but éclair cut them off.

  “So, what’ll it be Blackie? Information, or some personal time with the nurses.”

  He looked between her and me, grit his teeth and… his shoulders slumped, head lowered, a tired sigh left his lips. “Fine, you win…”

  “You heard the man, I got him.” With that, she put her hand on him. His body shook and writhed a bit. But the wounds on his body rapidly faded. The pair of nurses clicked their tongues in annoyance and walked off with a saunter on their high heels.

  By the time éclair was finished with him, the smell of cooked meat hung in the air, steam wafted off his body, but… he was hale and hearty, at least physically. He even had new teeth…

  “Dammit…” He muttered, and something told me, he really needed a moment. I reached into my pocket and procured the pack of cigarettes I always had on my person. The single cigarette inside shuffled inside the near empty carton. The moment I presented it to him, he looked at me like a man lost at sea having found safe harbor.

  He took it with shaky hands, but then… a bigger question. How was he going to light it? He looked through his pockets, no light. I glanced over to éclair, who shot me an odd look before zapping the end of it. She waited for him to take a hit before opening her mouth to speak, but I put my hand on her shoulder.

  “Let’s give him a moment.” She didn’t argue and let me lead her away. Leaving the man to his cigarette for the moment.

  Once we were far enough away, I had questions, but apparently éclair did too…

  “Didn’t take you for a smoker.” She asked.

  “I’m not, well, I used to be, but not anymore.”

  “Then why are you carrying that around?”

  “Reasons, but mostly it can help someone out in a bad moment.” I stated. It wasn’t a lie, but not the full truth either.

  “Huh… that’s weird. Like, you just give people cancer sticks like some kind of fairy?”

  “If they look like they need it, maybe?”

  “That is very weird, but… Mm… whatever. Do you carry that everywhere?”

  “I do, but it was my last one, I’ll need to buy another pack at some point.”

  I made to throw the empty carton away, but she stopped me.

  “Hold onto it, for now at least, I want to see something.”

  “Alright then…” It was an odd request, but one I could meet for now. “I do have to ask, what the hell that was?” I asked.

  “What was what?” She replied, back, calmly. Like she hadn’t just picked a fight with an armed checkpoint.

  “That! You wiped out a checkpoint, what about the political blowback! If they’re the biggest gang here, surely, they wouldn’t mind sharing information!”

  She looked at me with wide eyes. “You heard what they said though, they didn’t want to share any information.”

  “No, you…” I paused and took a breath. “From the start you were basically threatening them éclair!”

  “Was I?” She takes a moment to consider. Then nods… “Ah, I suppose it could look like that.”

  Was… was this girl inept when it came to diplomacy? Was that the real reason Grim sent me with her? Or was she just messing with me?

  “Also… if you don’t mind me asking, why were they spooked that you were looking for a lost sheep, as you called it?”

  “Ah, that? Well, remember when we met in the park. When I told you not to tell anyone I was there?” She said, all the while rocking back and forth on her feet.

  I nod.

  “Well, see, a lot of people have it out for me, because back in the day a lost sheep caused some issues, and I was given the right to hunt them down… for personal reasons.”

  She was rather evasive, but Black Hawk decided to speak up at that moment.

  “The bitch right there went all John Wick on everyone. Destroyed the police headquarters, broke into and wrecked the Dragon Vault bank, blew up the high school, and somehow blew up half the city during the final confrontation with that lost sheep fucker.”

  I opened my mouth confused and looked at éclair. She didn’t deny it, but she did look embarrassed.

  “Look, it was a whole thing…” She said, with a blush.

  “She’s a dumbass is who she is, a muscle brain!” Black Hawk cried out. “Everyone calls her Raiju, the lightning beast because of that. She doesn’t do common sense, she just rushes towards her problems and blows it up!”

  éclair looks proud at that statement.

  “That wasn’t a compliment!” Ah, fuck…” He finished with a final swear and finished his cigarette before flicking it to the ground and grinding it away under his heel. “Whatever, anyway, thanks for the cigarette. Never have I ever needed one that bad.”

  “It’s no problem, I know just how much a cigarette can help when your down. The name’s Prima.” I offer my hand, he takes it.

  “You must be new to the city? Ah, and call me Black, or Black Hawk.”

  “Is that really your name?”

  “Not really, just what I like to go by.”

  “Ah, got it. Pleasure to meet you Black, just wish it was under better circumstances.” I say.

  “Naw, don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have left the boys alone so long.” He says with a smile.

  “I’m glad, but… what about the ambulances?”

  “Have you ever been to the hospital?” He returns without answering.

  “I have, it seemed weird, but not that weird.” I answered.

  “Well, you girls don’t have much of an issue with them, at best they ask for blood.”

  “Blood? Why?” I interrupt. It felt important and reminded me of my visit and the obscene amount of blood they drew.

  “The hospital’s run by a mistake, or rather a vampire.” éclair spoke out. “She went ahead and converted a number of people into her blood kin and have them operating as doctors inside the hospital, Though, their numbers are too lacking for most administrative needs, which is why she contracts succubi to act as nurses. The orderlies are all ghouls, not the flesh-eating kind, but the thrall, blood slave kind.”

  “…Huh?” I mouthed stupidly.

  “Succubi, sex demons, you know. Or was it the ghoul thing throwing you off?” éclair said as a matter of fact.

  “Yup, that’s why none of us like going there. Sure, as long as they reach you in time, they can even bring back the dead, but we have healers that can do the same. Generally speaking, nobody visits the hospital because of that. Those boys will probably be out of commission for the next few weeks…” He said with a sour look on his face.

  That made so much sense, why the nurses were dressed the way they were and yet…

  “Oh… Oh wow… I… I really didn’t mean it.” I started, realizing the full extent of what I had done. I’d just alerted a den of sexual deviants towards their chosen prey.

  “It’s not an issue, they’ll be wrung out over the week… or so…” He kind of trailed off. “But your heart was in the right place, and I can accept that much. Also, you are new…” He said, while scratching his head.

  I was glad he didn’t take it too seriously, and yet… Was that really, okay? In the end, it wasn’t like I was going to ask that question. I kept quiet as éclair and Black talked, sharing information. There wasn’t a lot of information.

  No, just the fact that he was nonchalantly talking with her now, it made me wonder if I didn’t miss something important here…

  Regardless of my thoughts, the conversation carried on, and I did my best to listen in though, it wasn’t much.

  We were apparently looking for a place where a lot of disappearances happened, if any gangs were acting odd or suspicious. He even pulled out a district map and began detailing the various areas that might be the part, and in fact…

  “Our own people have actually been looking into the disappearances. We don’t have normal citizens here in the lower quarter typically, since it’s considered a PvP, or player versus player zone, and we do get monster spawns in the darker alleys throughout the month, which only gets worse as the full moon approaches.”

  Which explained the checkpoint and firearms. Somewhat… I had more questions, but I kept them quiet as he continued to explain.

  “But when gangs start acting oddly, we tend to pay attention. Our leader has no desire to be a tyrant, which is why we leave chunks of the lower quarter alone for smaller gangs to develop. It also keeps us on our toes and from getting complacent.”

  I nod along, and he finally pointed to a particular gang.

  “This gang though, is rather new. They’ve been doing fairly well lately, with new powerhouses appearing with odd regularity. We didn’t think much of it, but with what you’ve said about a lost sheep being active, well, that makes what has been happening a tad more sinister.”

  The area he pointed out was rather large. Apparently, the gang had been expanding a lot recently, gobbling up smaller gangs to the point that even the Wizard Gang was starting to pay them attention. Which meant that we had our first destination.