The Horsemen [Open//Read]

((This is part of a three thread event I'm doing for Halloween. It's all part of Horrace's "Halloween" plot. The Finale will be Open once this thread, or the thread in the park is completed))

---

It was a peaceful evening in Jump City, but not for long. There was a storm brewing overhead that spelled rain and lightning. Probably not the best weather for many who had plans of going to parties, or trick or treating. But the Forecast said nothing about a lightning storm. And there just seemed to be something very off in the air. One could say there was a chill in the wind. It happened so suddenly that no one could have seen it coming, not by a long shot. In the heart of downtown, there was a crackle of lightning in the dead center of a busy intersection. Those closest naturally panicked and swerved on reflex, but no one had been hit.

The lightning was just a diversion, something to clear the way as something else crackled to life in the intersection. It could only be described as the air being ripped apart by a supernatural force, stretching to it's limit as below freezing winds were released, followed by a deep rumbling. The rumbling grew louder and louder as if SOMETHING was about to emerge from the makeshift portal. And a minute or so later, a black carriage came barreling out. This carriage was none other then Horrace's own personal carriage, drawn by an undead centaur (now clad in armor and an ax). It was driven by Antonius, his driver who was also armed for possible hostilities. Behind the carriage, a cacophony of voices erupted from the portal seconds before armored horsemen came barreling through at break neck speed.

What was interesting about the horsemen that they were all from different eras of warfare, victorian era mostly. But their armor and uniforms all belong to different nationalities. They were united with a single purpose, conquest! The horsemen paid no heed to any stranded vehicle, galloping across cars if they needed to as they broke formation and flooded the streets. Panic spread fast as anyone standing on the streets were run down mercilessly and bloodily. The invaders cared not for who they killed, they simply killed.

The Black Carriage however had a specific destination in mind and was moving at alarming speed to get there. While the horsemen pillaged and killed, the police were dispatched immediately and tried to block the carriage off. The drivers soon quickly abandoned their cars though, when the galloping undead centaur simply hefted it's axe and cleaved a path through them. There would be no stopping that carriage as it vanished into the thick fog that had blanketed Jump City since earlier that evening.

In addition to this supernatural craziness, it was almost relieving to see a gang of hoodlums speeding on their bikes through the streets. Unfortunately, they seemed to be working WITH the horsemen, as the armored riders paid them no mind as the masked hoodlums went after very specific targets. Namely the officers of the local gangs, or the bosses themselves if they could be found. They cackled over the roar of their motorcycles, laying waste to the criminals they caught in their sights...

Halloween. Hotwire both loved, and hated the holiday. He loved it because of the overall fun of the holiday, but hated how often it brought about mystical maladies to the city. Today was one of the latter. It was as if the doors to the underworld had been cast open. 

One of the horsemen, dressed in redcoat garb flashed past the streets brandishing a sword. A car would screech to a halt in front of it, a screaming couple inside. The horseman swirled his sword with a flourish, and drove it down towards the windshield, aiming for the girl driving.

*clang*

A blade blocked it, then began to spin, knocking the sword from the redcoats hand. Hotwire stood on the ground next to him, wielding a gauntlet made of leafblower and lawnmower parts. Conveniently enough, he stood in front of a lawn supply store.

"Boo." He said as the spinning blade slashed at the undead torrie, knocking him right off. Hotwire would tap his wrist computer. "Hey, how's everyone else holding up?"

Lightning targeted the horsemen, striking at them as a form blurs through the streets., chasing the carriage. Toji unhooks his communicator, speaking back."Fine....though I'll admit I'm just a tad furious at these jerks. I get to go all out, since they're dead and all, right?" Do it anyway,Cub. Punish them for messing in our Den."Shush, Decatiu." He reaches out,punching a knight and denting his armor and sending him flying, casually catching the long sword dropped and handing it to a civilian as he runs.

Johnathan sighed as he walked away from lily's home he had just dropped her off so she could head to the fairy realm with titana and oerbon to deal with the fairy affairs. He sighed as he tried to ignore the chill of the fog that had rolled in sometime earlier he looked to the sky as a storm started to forum downtown. Johnathan stretched out his magic out of past habits and cursed that storm held magic dark magic. Johnathan changed into brother grim and stepped on one of his scythe. Once he got there he took to a higher vantage point despite the risk from the storm and took a look around trying to see where he should help out and see what was going on.

Johnathan cursed when he saw what was going and dived down and dropped off his grim near the carriage where it would launch a blast of shadow energy before moving with Johnathan as he made his way to where hotwire was and jumped off his scythe with a stumble as his grim grabbed the scythe and swung it over Johnathan to take down another red coat Johnathan couldn't help but say to himself, "240 years later and you red coats still find away to tick me off!"

Drawing his gun Johnathan shot the body for good measure and stole the sword it carried twirling it to get the feel of the blade he activated a shield on his arm and made his way over to hotwire and said, "You know this isn't as bad as I thought this was going to be so far this reminds me of all hollows eve of 82 ad." When the biker gangs appeared he said, "Make that 54 ad where you want me the undead or the living?"

The metal armor did come as a downside to the unfortunate horsemen struck, though it seemed to do more in simply knocking them off their horses then harming them. Since they were dead, all the lightning did to them personally was cause their bodies to spasm and lose control. They managed to stand unevenly back up as if nothing had happened though, either going after their assailant or resuming their attacks on foot. The latest knight which Toji struck also simply got up, but had an easier time of it due to not being electrocuted. The carriage he seemed to be chasing just seemed to be too fast to catch, even for Toji, though the Wight Cyclops did catch sight of Toji. He was not going to be late- his master insisted on his being on time for this evening. That and he didn't like the prospect of Horrace taking what little of his soul remained.

To add to Antonius' woes, some psycho fired freaking magic at the carriage! There was a clang, followed by a silver gleam that initiated it as a headless rider on a pitch black horse galloped along side the carriage. The rider seemingly appeared out of nowhere just in time to swat the attack away. Antonius' eye went wide and he swore he felt a chill go down his spine when he realized what THAT thing was. Contrary to popular belief, it was not infact a Dullahan. It's decorated civil-war era uniform placed the rider somewhere quite differently. The rider looked to belong to the south based on his uniform... though where he got a scythe and WHY he had it were just more questions plaguing Antonius' mind. Thankfully the sight left him, breaking off from it's escort as it turned back around as if going after one of the metahumans.


The Red Coat that was shot was on closer inspection not dead. Infact, as soon as their attention was drawn to the gang of masked hoodlums, the undead soldier drew HIS pistol and tried to shoot Grimm. The gang of bikers were mostly your standard "motorcycle punk" what with the spiked leather jackets, fingerless gloves, etc. But that was about as far as the comparison went when the masks came into play. The masks were blood red Masquerade masks with two "fangs" coming out the bottom of the masks' eyeholes. Those could have actually been tears and the thugs just sharpened them to look like fangs. Either way, they belonged to a new gang that just set up in town known as "The Red Jacks." Hence the red masks. "It's the Techie!" one of the thugs stated to the group.

"Ugh... of course WE'D be the ones to run into him of all people," the apparent leader of the group groaned. They had bikes, which were obviously tech and already put them at a severe disadvantage. A mob of armored horsemen with lances however didn't seem to grasp the severity of that fact and aimed their lances right for Grimm and Hotwire. The bikers hoping to use the knights as a distraction, gunned the engines and followed suit while brandishing their own weapons.

---

((That Carriage cannot be caught, btw))

Hotwire took down another horseman, this one in victorian garb. "Very good. Try to keep an eye on the carriage Toji." He said, slicing down another one. He noticed a group of bikers about to make their escape. Understandable as their tech would place them at an extreme disadvantage when pitted against hotwire.


"Oh no you don't." He said holding his hand out, only to be knocked to the ground by the side of a horse. By the time he got to his feet, the bikers were out of range, and a couple knights had readied their lances for another attack. Hotwire was not ready to let them get in another one. With a wave of his hand, a few component flew over from a nearby electrical panel. Transformer mostly. The coils inside them would be quite useful. The broken lawn mover components began to shift onto his hands until he had two spinning coils on his knuckled.

"You want to joust? Let's joust." He said. The knights looked down at him and charged. Hotwire held his hands out and activated the devices. The knights and their steel clad horses were stopped in their tracks by a powerful magnetic repulsion field, courtesy of of those hypermagnets on hotwire's hands.


"Magnets. How do they work?" He said increasing the power, knocking the knights off their horses.

Toji grunts, picking up speed."I'm trying, Hotwire!!!" He sounded utterly flabbergasted at the fact he wasn't catching up.Normally by now he'd have gotten close and beaten some sense into the bugger driving it.He here's a familiar voice, and grins."Ey, Grimm! Welcome to the party!!Uhm, Alpha Brother, if I can't catch up, what should I do?"

( I want to apologize for the delay. I got a thought in my head that I wanted to ask Mega something,but that question has been forgotten....Anyways, sorry.^^)

Johnathan laughed at toji's comment and said, "I get a invite every life my friend. Luckily I always bring a guest to the party." As saw his grim block the British soldier's bullet with the scythe it held and crushed it's head under it's foot. Then cursed as he saw him again the headless confederate. Johnathan then had his grim charge at the horseman as he took to the air and charged at at him his own scythe ready.

All was going according to his plan. It had taken some preparation for him to come to Jump City, what with the Zydons, then the Russians. You would think it would be much easier to infiltrate the city after all that, but the former affected him more then anticipated and made it an unfavorable venture for awhile. That changed recently when he came into a nice piece of property to begin his operations. And then he was approached by a walking dead man who offered him some assistance... for some assistance. Jack was used to the 'give and take' routine, but the way it was arranged seemed to benefit Jack more then this other Gentleman. What was he supposed to do? Use his men to kill whoever he wanted when he saw the storm appear. That was later amended slightly with the addition of bailing out one of the Wight's subordinates after a certain length of time had passed.

He was currently on his way to do just that in the back of his own personal limo and entourage. As per the instructions of his would-be benefactor, the car had some manner of magical symbols attached to places where they would be visible. This as it turned out, was the only thing keeping the rampaging Horsemen rampaging on the streets from trying to rip into the limo, only to have themselves be ripped apart by Jack or anyone of his bodyguards. Well, by bodyguards, I mean his personal entertainment. Some young, aspiring 'blood witches' who were also his primary source of blood.

"None of these stiffs better scratch up the paint..." Jack scowled out his window as a knight galloped passed his limo with reckless abandon.

"Don't worry Jackie- we'll punish anyone who even lays a finger on the limo," one of he girls draped around him purred silkily. That didn't help him relax any, knowing what this chaos would attract.

"As a matter of fact... David! Take a turn here and go around the long way. I do not want any of the locals to see us and get any ideas," Jack ordered his Driver who simply did as he was told, taking a longer route around to avoid being seen by Toji or anyone else...

The Red Coat which the Grimm killed via crushing his head, gave off one final scream as his soul departed and... went in a very specific direction. The body also burned itself into nothing. Infact, anyone who died had their soul pulled toward a specific direction and left no remains. This may have gone largely unnoticed due to the fog, the horde of horsemen running through the streets, and because no one could see them. If Grimm was sensitive to such things, he could pick this out through the fog.

The horseman continued galloping at breakneck speed, his horse's eyes burning with menace as the horseman readied his scythe. The blade seemed to be giving off a chilling aura of death magic, which would explain how he was able to protect the carriage so easily. When John and his Grimm were close enough, the headless rider swung his scythe with an upward sweep, ending with a flourish as he swung it while barreling passed the two of them. He was gunning for Hotwire now, hefting his Scythe for another attack...

"Just keep an eye on him. We'll keep you on the tracker. Even better if you can slip one of those spare communicators into it. Then even if we loose it, we can track it to it's destination."

Hotwire reached his hand out, firing another blast of electromagnetic energy. The scythe was immediately knocked from his hand. Hotwire used his technokinesis to pick up a broken boombox on the side of the road and pull it in front of him. He fired another charge of electromagnetism, firing the boombox right into the horseman, knocking him off.

Toji sighs."Aight!!!! I'll try to keep track on it...Your butt better call me back if you need help, got it?!" He growls, picking up his pace and hollering at the cyclops."You better slow down, or I'll kick your butt!!!" Pulling out his chains,he whirls them around. Perhaps he could grapple it.

Johnathan cursed as he was thrown from his scythe by blocking the horse man's scythe that held death magic that unnerved Johnathan a but it did give him the sight of watching his last opponent burst into flames with a scream Jonathan cursed as he couldn't keep track of the soul as he had to dodge a knights horse's hoves. Getting back up as his shadow sent several blast of Shadow energy to protect him as he got up.

"This isn't good something is going on here ", said Johnathan as he retrieved his other scythe and threw up two shields on his arms and swung scythe at the arms of the nearest enemy.

The headless no longer horseman simply got back to his feet, his scythe hurling itself back to his outstretched hand. He angled the scythe and sprinted toward Hotwire, the blade of the sctyhe scraping across the ground for a couple of seconds as the Headless body stopped and swung low. The blade of the scythe let off a wave of death magic that was followed up by a second slash that released another one. The Headless scythe wielder continued this as he approached, stopping only as a knight wielding a lance leaped over him and tried running Hotwire through with his weapon.

Undead Calvary and foot soldiers meanwhile continued to try and overwhelm Grimm. Each one slain giving up the ghost, their soul being drawn in a specific direction.

Antonius was content that Toji could not catch the wagon, but that didn't mean much. It would be a problem if he was followed, but all he had to try and dissuade Toji was his rifle. And the fog made using that problematic, even with his superior far sight. The skeletral centaur simply trucked on, weaving through cars or cleaving a path through them with it's battle ax.

With a quick wave, the magnetic device came off his hand. With yet another wave, his cycle sped over to him, and he hopped on. He was detecting odd energy signatures being given off the slain dead, each one being drawn to a different location in the city. As Hotwire sped off, he knocked down a half dozen undead, hopefully making Grimm's job a bit easier.

With the data he had obtained, Hotwire began to run a second scan. There was an area where the energy signature was strongest... and Toji seemed to be following his target right into it. That couldn't be good. He pulled up Toji's channel. "Toji. I'm en route to your location. Be careful. Wherever this guy is leading you, it's smack dab in the center of all of this." He said. Before switching over to the all titans frequency. "Titans. I've managed to triangulate the destination of the energy signatures given by defeated footsoldiers. Toji is currently heading towards that location. I'm heading there as well. Please head there as soon as you're able."