Dead Gambler Rising (Open)

His luck had run out, the last beads of sand hitting the bottom of the hourglass. He only prolonged the inevitable, he had a debt to repay and there was no way to avoid it in the end. Despite his efforts, one Johnathan Luc, or Johnny Luck as he was better known as, had dealt his last hand. But, while his soul was tormented in the depths of whatever hell was to be his, life is full of surprises. "Johnathan Luc Aimery. Rise and strike fear into the living!" a booming voice commanded, prompting a pale, dirt and mud encrusted hand to shoot out of the ground.

It was relatively simple to break free of his coffin, digging his way up was a different matter but he managed to do it. And not just him, but a select few of others like him. He was back! Johnny didn't know how or why he was back, but he was no longer... someplace else so this was already an improvement. He paused for a moment and looked around, paying the other newly ressurecteds little mind as he patted his head as if looking for something. He was, and reaching down into the dirt, he pulled up a wide brimmed hat to go with his suit. "Thought I felt a draft," he muttered to himself, trying to dust himself off when he suddenly heard a voice that even made HIS spine crawl.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF DEATH ARE YOU DOING OUT OF YOUR GRAVES?" a gruff, grizzled and ethereal voice beckoned, which was followed by the loud clang of metal hitting bone. John turned and looked over his shoulder, seeing an equally pale man literally behead one of the other people that had been ressurected... with the blunt side of a shovel no less. "Those who are buried in MY grave STAY buried unless I SAY SO!" the man bellowed again, somehow bending the earth to swallow up a couple more people. Then the disgruntled caretaker swore something in one of those far eastern languages, might have been Japanese.

John didn't know, but he did NOT want to take a chance with that shovel. So John casually slipped away while the rest of the undead people were dealing with an old, undead samurai.

-A short while later-

John found himself wandering through an alleyway he started to recognize. Yes, this was where he was gunned down. Wasn't anything here- except a police cruiser parked in waiting. Grinning evilly, John made his way over to the car. He tapped on the window, startling one of the officers inside who started rolling down the window. "You alright there fella? Look like someone tried to bury you alive," the officer said warily. He paled slightly when John met him at eye level, revealing those pitch black eyes with yellow pupils.

"I've never felt better," Johnny replied with an evil grin as he grabbed the officer by the face in a death grip. "But you my good sir, are in for a rough night," Johnny chuckled darkly, absorbing the man's luck as he struggled to break free from his grasp. The officer's partner was already out of the other side, pointing a gun at Johnathan.

"That's enough you wack job! Let him go or I'll drop you without hesitation," the other officer commanded.

"As you wish," John replied, his grin widening as he tugged and literally yanked the officer out of the car through the window. Letting the man go flying into a wall behind him. The other officer started firing, to which John on reflex pushed his hand out and created a wall of flaming cards which blocked the barrage. "Fantastic, what power!" Johnathan remarked giddily, previously unaware of this power. He only knew of his luck power, and his dabbling in magic. Speaking of which...

He mentally angled the still burning playing cards at the now running officer, hurling the pain inducing cards into the narrow alleyway after him. The cards would not incinerate him or anything they touched... but he would definitely be out cold from the pain alone.

hellhound groaned he hated it when souls escaped the underworld it really ticked his dad off and the worst part of it was he had to drag them back taking to the roofs he came to an ally and saw one of the undead attacking the living. Hades thinkis to himself Why do they have to attack the living and then shadow travled behind johnny luck and put his sword to his throat letting out a angry growl as he said, "I will give you three seconds to come with me back to the underworld peacefully or I will make sure you spend the next three centurys in the fields of punishment."

Despite the large amount of luck he had just absorbed, Johnny was still not completely immune to ambushes. So he now had a sword to his throat... however, Hellhound unwittingly just set himself up for a big fall. "I say, it's quite rude to drop in unannounced and put a blade to another man's throat my good sir," Johnny commented politely, already draining luck from Hellhound thanks to the sword which was connecting them together. A normal mortal may not be able to notice anything, but Hellhound might notice it which is why Johnny continued by saying, "Under normal circumstances, I'd consider your offer. But I'm afraid that is a difficult matter," Johnny continued, still in a polite manner. He was just buying himself some time, trying to distract Hellhound by talking while he got as much of this guy's luck as he could and then take him out.

"Not only is my soul already forfeit, but the Anti-Nexus has other plans my friend," John added and THAT was when he made his move. He quickly shifted his weight, quickly grabbing Hellhound's sword wrist and pulling down. Using his other hand to grab him by the collar and tugging as he lifted Hellhound off his feet, throwing him over his shoulder toward a wall. "And I'd hate to seem ungrateful for it bringing me back," he said while tossing Hellhound away. Now bare in mind, Johnny had not only taken alot of luck from one of those policemen, but while he was talking he had also taken some luck from Hellhound. Needless to say, he was feeling lucky tonight. Hellhound not so much probably...

hellhound groaned as he slamed into a pile of trash cans that he knew was not there a minute ago thinkiing to him self [i]great I'm either faceing a decendant of Fortuna's demigod child or Nemesis's duaghter or today is not my day fun[/i]. Growling hellhound slamed his sword into the ground and sent a stream of shadow fire at the undead soul knowing that it would probaly miss and hit the fire hydrante near the end of the alley.

Which it did as Johnny casually sidestepped it. His foe used magic, this was unexpected. "You like playing cards fella?" Johnny asked evilly as he summoned a deck of playing cards via hellfire. Grabbing several from the top of the deck, he imbued them with PAIN inducing hellfire before hurling them at Hellhound. He did this more times until he ran out of cards.

Feeling the luck, he summoned a couple dice and seemingly tossed them with no rhyme or reason at Hellhound. They would release a small blast apon impact as Johnny stepped back and found a lead pipe under his foot. "You'll come in handy," Johnny mused as he picked it up, imbued one end of the pipe with hellfire, and then brandished it like a short sword. "En Garde," Johnny challenged.

Hellhound watched as the man in front of him seemed to copy his shadow fire ability with hellfire and threw several cards at him. Hellhound brought up a wall of shadow fire to block the cards only to let it down too soon to see several more cards headed towrads him hellhound quickly blocked the with a shadow fire coated weeping moon rest only for one to hit the now shoting water from a broken hydrent creating a thick fog that would only get thicker due to hellfire and shadow fire being almost impossable to be put out. He could hear johnny say ed grade as he had saw thanks to hieghted senses that he had a now flaming pipe in his hand like a short sword. hellhound rushed forward and swug his sword in a diagnal arc coated in shadow fire after all the boy had propaly never even learned oh to figt with a sword at least he hoped.

Too bad Johnny was still burning with Luck energy. He could just cheat his way to victory! But while he didn't have a prolonged experience with swords, he was still quite familiar with fighting from his days as working in an organized crime syndicate, specifically a hitman position. And often times he had to be resourceful like now. So on "instinct," Johnny stepped back and brought his flaming weapon up at an angle more to force Hellhound's sword off to the side, both forcing it to miss and also keep it out of action for a brief second as Johnny followed up with a series of flaming swipes either for Hellhound's sword wielding elbow, torso and head. Instinct in this situation was really just the Luck energy helping him to fight.

Pressing his advantage, Johnny summoned up a fistful of flaming cards and hurled them at Hellhound from several feet away before lounging in after them with a series of jabs. Which with a lead pipe would normally be non-lethal. But since it was burning with hellfire, even a poke would be fatal if it connected.

OOC:sorry forgot about the dice, but now I have a question for You I never took into account on someone using something similar to shadow fire would be like should we treat it as the same it neturals them or highly vilital to eachother if kept in contact for long peirods of but thats up to you

Hellhound was surpised that the boy was able to keep up with him but then it could be that the kid was just lucky helhhound was just berarly able to get his shadow fire armor up to lessn the blows that he took to his head torso and sword elbow though he now had a ringing headach and his ribs where now brusied. Hellhound moved quickly only to be hit by one of the cards and watched as it embedded it self in his armor the two fires mixing and battling for domanice. Hellhound was hard pressed to keep the jabs at bay he knew what hellfire could do it was just as bad as shadow fire but he didn't know what would happen if they mixed for long peirods of time. Jumping back to give himself some space and quickly yanked the card and threw it back at johnny mixing in some shadow fire of his own it to the hellfire on the card and threw it at him. That is when he got an Idea on how to turn his bad luck to his favor he hoped it worked because this was a fight he was starting to enjoy it had been a while since he was pushed like this in a fight. Hellhound smiled and rushed in again sending a slash of shadow fire in front of him and the shadow travled behind johnny using the shadowy alley to his advantage and swung his sword in a downward arc.

((OOC: Well, I'm not sure how you envision Shadow Fire to work, but I assume it pretty much works like Hellfire. Hellfire is literally just fire from hell so to speak. So I don't know how to answer this. Depending on how it works, Hellfire may just smother the other flames or they would just neutralize eachother))

Johnny hadn't really anticipated someone to really stand against him with his luck. This was both thrilling and irritating. Maybe he needed to get some more luck? He'd have to figure out a way to do that as he summoned several cards and hurled them at the shadow slash hoping to negate it as Johnny also charged at Hellhound. He raised his flaming lead pipe up to try and meet Hellhound's, but to prove that Johnny can't succeed 100% of the time with his luck, all that he managed to do was hinder Hellhound's arm slightly. Or to put it another way, Johnny's shoulder now had a sword embedded in it.

But that was a risk he was more then happy to take as he used what momentum he had to crash into Hellhound. Yes, more contact! That's all he needed to drain alittle more luck from Hellhound before briefly lost contact with Hellhound.

((OOC: btw, I didn't ignore the shadow. I just didn't know what it was going to do if Johnny kept moving forward))

Hell hound let a smirk show on his face as his sword went into his enemy's shoulder though his shadow slash was negated by the hellfire. Hellhound was surprised when his enemy slammed into him forcing him back. Hellhound let out a barking laugh and said, "you my friend have made this hunt of souls worth it and I am willing to make a deal with you we will both use our most strongest attacks and if you survive then you may live for now."

OOC: nothing would really happen the portal closes as soon as hellhound goes through unless he wants it to stay open

Johnny couldn't feel any pain, at all. So while there was less of his shoulder then there was a moment ago, he barely even flinched. Naturally the gamble was if this dragged on too long. But then Hellhound offered him another interesting deal. Both of them use their strongest attacks, and if Johnny survived Hellhound would 'allow' him to live for alittle longer. Technically he was already dead, but no point in splitting hairs. Naturally being the gambler that he was, Johnny was already weighing the odds of his survival against the odds of Hellhound surviving aswell as trying to figure out if there was a catch. There had to be a catch, atleast in his mind there had to be.

But he could not ignore the excitement of the unknown as a grin slowly stretched across his face. "Your offer intrigues me sir... you must have an ace up your sleeve or else this gambit would be rather foolish to even consider," Johnny remarked casually as he summoned up another deck of cards. Not taking any offensive action just yet but it would appear that he was going to accept. "The odds of either of us surviving are not in our favor... but I'm willing to bet death is hardly a concern for you now is it my good sir?" Johnny added with well thought reasoning. He was a cautious gambler, and didn't just win on luck alone. He had to be smart. But in either case, this would give him extra time to... rectify certain issues regarding his being.

"Regardless... I accept your offer. I'm ready whenever you are," Johnny finished with an evil grin. Eyes glowing unnaturally as he already mentally considered what would be the best 'attack' to use. There was nuking the area with explosions, which would endanger his own body, OR a hailstorm of hellfire imbued cards which should be able to burn right through him. His opponent's attack? Well assuming Hellhound only used shadow fire, Johnny was feeling lucky. UNLESS Hellhound did indeed have an ace up his sleeve that Johnny wasn't aware of.

((OOC: and the hard part... do I keep him or do I scrap him xP))

OOC:I like your character though working with luck can be a little hard its like fear everyone likes it to be easily overcomed and rap it unrealistically or they can but are really big jerks but up to you

"Death is not a problem for me I have a twisted forum of immortality yes" said with a evil smirk and then the wind picked up and began to swirl as four growling shadow fire wolves jump out of a shadow fire twister that began to rush toward Johnny each would explode if they got close enough to leap at him. Then the twister rushed forward at high speed and at the center was hell hound sword ready and a shadow flame shield he would pass out later and would either die and have to reform or not.

OOC: I like the concept yeah. I had this idea to make him into a major player later on but... there's another character I'd like to use more so... yeah. But there shall be a twist here! xD

The gloves were off now! Hellhound launched his attacks which prompted Johnny to follow suit. Jumping back to put alittle more distance between himself and the incoming attacks, Johnny hurled the deck of cards toward the oncoming attacks. Hellfire crackling around them as he guided them with telekinesis to hit the wolves, exploding and setting the wolves off too as Johnny threw his arms out and summoned... MANY MANY cards behind him. "Now or never!" Johnny thought as he hurled the card hailstorm into the twister, which also exploded with crackles of hellfire in an attempt to either stop it or weaken it before it reached Johnny.

Johnny didn't move from his spot, feeling that it would be best for him as the last volley went off and... 'exploded' the twister which in turn, knocked Johnny off his feet. Landing in a pile of trash bags, Johnny wasn't too worse for wear. His clothes were signed in places, his shoulder still had a gash in it, and he had lost his hat. Due to Johnny's dead body, he wasn't tired in the slightest. "I do believe I've won," Johnny stated, getting back to his feet. Noticing that his favorite hat had apparently been caught in the flames. He liked that hat.

"Which means this is where we part ways I suppose," he added with a nasty grin. Now, it was crazy to assume Hellhound wouldn't defend himself. But it looked like he had tossed all his chips into those attacks. Which was lucky for him. "I'd repay you the same courtesy by letting you live, but I'm not that kind of guy any more. Not that it matters either seeing as you're immortal," Johnny said calling up another batch of flaming playing cards.

"I'll see you around some-" Johnny was suddenly caught off by the ground shooting up around him, a series of uneven pieces of concrete shooting up and trapping him. His cards briefly lost air, but he recovered his composure quickly and used the cards to break free of his prison. Who was jumping in now?

"Thought you could run from me baka?" a familiar, ethereal and powerful voice boomed. A figure making his way into the alley with heavy footfalls. It was none other then the apparent caretaker of the graveyard where Johnny was buried. And he looked livid. "Didn't think I'd notice a hole where your grave was huh?" Genji growled, brandishing that deadly shovel of his.

"Now sir what'd you expect me to do? Stay in the ground after I was brought back to life?" Johnny replied politely.

"I'm not concerned about the comfort of my tenants, boy. And you know why? BECAUSE THEY'RE DEAD THAT'S WHY!" Genji bellowed, stomping his foot and making the ground under Johnny sink. But thanks to his luck, Johnny managed to stumble back and avoid being buried again on the spot. "And unless I say so, no one's crawling out of the ground," Genji added as he dragged a hand across the shovel, wrapping it with a spiritual energy that gradually transformed the worn shovel into a gleaming curved samurai sword.

"Well, then it doesn't matter at all what I do or say then. DIE!" Johnny replied, hurling flaming cards at Genji who simply retaliated by muttering something in a strange tongue (Hellhound should be able to translate it into some kind of spell) moments before the cards hit home. All Genji did was move slightly so the cards wouldn't be able to do too much damage, but he still allowed them to go through as Johnny suddenly keeled over howling in agony. What? He felt pain? But how?

Genji wasn't better off, though he didn't scream like Johnny, it was clear on his face that the cards HURT alot. Johnny's ankles and wrists were then bound by concrete as Genji sprung into action, quickly driving his sword into Johnny's chest before the undead gambler could cheat his way out. The sword wailed as it went through, Johnny's glowing eyes flaring up briefly as an unearthly black light erupted from his chest where the sword had pierced. As quickly as it happened, the light went out of his eyes and his body went limp. "Hmph... his soul is already gone it seems. Good riddance then," Genji snorted as he pulled his sword out, also pulling out a handkerchief to clean the blade as it ebbed unnaturally. It almost looked alive.