Night of the living Gent [Open]

It was an eerie calm night in Jump City. It was morning according to your clock, yet the sun wasn't up yet. There would be very few people out at a time like this. Only the Enforcers, various criminal elements, and probably a teen titan or two would be still functioning at a time like this. Or if you were undead and didn't require sleep it was a given you'd be out on a not so peaceful stroll. A tall, thin and well dressed figure made his way through the darkened alleys of the bad part of town. He had been in Jump on many a halloween. But things changed during those long periods of absence.

Now that he was actively here, he was relearning all the nooks and crannies of one of his favorite cities. "Shut up man. Look just go through his pockets already," Horrace heard a hushed voice command. He paused and listened for a moment, letting his one visible eye wander as he slowly made his way around a corner. Huddled over a body, were two small time crooks who Horrace assumed to be picking the pockets of their recent victim. Horrace saw a foot twitch and was greatly pleased at this sign. Looks like he'd be having a late night meal after all.

"Good evening gentlemen," Horrace greeted them casually. The pair shot back up to their feet, almost losing their balance in their brief moment of panic. They had been expecting one of the local heroes, not some tall guy.

"You just made a big mistake my friend," one of the thugs stated. Horrace noted that the speaker was the one with the knife, as he saw the blood stained blade.

"I say- it's awfully late for you young gentlemen to be skulking about. You could get hurt," Horrace replied, slowly walking toward them. It was at this moment that both men paled. He didn't even flinch at the sight of a dead body, much less at the fact one of them had a knife.

"W-what that's supposed to me? Aren't you one to talk," the knifeman retorted.

"Don't come any closer man!" his friend commanded, pulling out a handgun. He seemed to be much braver on account of his weapon.

"I hope you intend on using that gun my boy. Because fear through violence only works up until greater violence defeats your violence," Horrace continues unabated. The air seemed to become much colder then it had been a moment ago. And as you can expect from someone frightened with a gun, the man proceeded to shoot. The first one was more then enough to topple Horrace due to his thin build, so the shots thereafter were wasted at best. "How rude... to think your toys can defeat me," Horrace rasps much to the surprise and fear of the men.

Horrace simply sits up, straight up like the serial killer from halloween one. His one visible eye seems to be glowing now in the moonlight as he gets back to his feet. "Time... to sleeeeeep," Horrace rasped with an ethereal edge as he reaches the pair of them with his hands. And in one, lightning fast motion; he snaps their necks. And with his hands still clutching their necks, he drained their souls within seconds. Dropping their bodies, he knelt down to the unfortunate man who had run into these crooks. He was dead now. He had taken too long.

Oh well. He still had two more souls. The bodies of the fallen stirred behind him with a groan, slowly rising to their feet like sleepers just waking up. "Go out. Drain any living thing you come across," Horrace says simply, rising back to his feet. And with that he's off again. It was best not to stay there any longer. The gunfire was sure to attract attention, which was precisely why he sent his little minions off to attack whatever they saw. Would give him more time to find some more servants.

A short time later, Horrace shambled out into the streets and was promptly hit by a car. A highly unpleasant experience to say the least. After he hit the pavement, he waited as the ONE time the drivers stopped and got out of their car to check on him. "Oh my god! Is he alright?" The usual, stupid question came.

"Oh man oh man! I told you we shouldn't have been out so late!" another voice piped up. Horrace didn't care, he just waited and pretended to be dead.

"Is he wearing bandages?" a third voice asked. As soon as he was sure they were in range, his arm's shot up again with lightning fast movements and snapped their necks. And with that, three more souls. Back on his feet, Horrace squeezed himself into the back of the car and waited. Just like before, the three rose back to their feet. But this time they too got into the car.

"Take me to one of the local pubs," Horrace commanded stiffly. The zombie-like driver didn't respond, he simply obeyed and they were off!

Several gunshots got the attention of a certain hero, crime rate had been going down so really this is the first exciting thing that had happened on this patrol. Kane ran into the alleyway, only to find that whatever had happened was over, there was a dead body laying down on the ground. Kane picked him up and walked over to the side of the road, leaving him there and calling enforcers so they could come and investigate how he died, probably by doing some CSI stuff.

Once they came, Kane thanked them and would take to the sky, trying to look for anything suspicious from a birds eye view. He saw a woman being attacked and would dash over to her, kicking one of her attackers in the face and sending him flying, he would then turn to the other attacker and would knee him in the stomach. Both of these attacks were held back enough to incapacitate an ordinary human thug without dealing serious damage, despite his strength. He naturally assumed these were ordinary thugs that would be out for the count, so he turned his back to talk to the woman, not knowing that they were actually zombies that may be able to get back up.

And they were zombies. Well- technically they were Wights. Zombies traditionally hungered for human flesh and or brains. Neither of these things were desired as one by one, the pair got up nonchalantly and tried to attack Kane. Also unlike zombies, they would be able to drain Kane's soul after "softening" him up alittle first.

Meanwhile... with his new entourage, Horrace arrived at one of the local bars not that far from where this was going on. This entire district was vulgar and lacked proper class. He would be sure to change all of that when he rose to power. For now the undead gentleman made his way inside, taking care to duck under the top of the door frame. "Look who's back. Thought you guys were calling it a night," the bartender greeted Horrace's unwilling servants. That was highly amusing, which was made more so when the bartender noticed that there was... something off about them. The glowing eyes were kind of a dead give away.

"Block the exits," Horrace stated simply. The bar had become eerily silent as he made his way toward the bar. "You wouldn't happen to have anything strong would you?' Horrace asked with no ill will. The bartender paled despite the fact Horrace wasn't actually doing anything. It was just a feeling he had looking into Horrace's eye.

"S-sure. On the house," the bartender said weakly, mixing Horrace up something good. His life could depend on it. After he was done, the bartender took a step back as Horrace picked the glass up and downed it in one gulp- a very audible and disgusting gulp. Horrace paused for a moment, his taste buds weren't what they used to be. Being dead for so long tends to do that.

"Mmmm," Horrace murmured contently. Though refined as he was, nothing quite beat the liquid heat of alcohol of the really strong stuff. He didn't know what all the bartender had put in it, but it was fantastic. "Congratulations my good sir. For such a fine drink... you'll be the first in this room to die. But you'll be able to enjoy it," Horrace said and just like that, his arm was over the counter and around the bartender's neck. He slowly choked the man as some of the rougher looking bar goers came to his aid. One brandished a chair as a weapon and was about to swing when one of Horrace's zombies slipped up behind him and broke his neck.

The others followed suit and a bar brawl ensued as Horrace finally released his grip on the bartender. True to his word, the bartender would not be rendered a mindless zombie. Some people managed to escape, screaming for help at the top of their lungs. Feeling rightfully fed, Horrace didn't care much to leave and simply joined his minions in drinking the souls of their victims.

The woman that Kane had saved was rolling her eyes at a lame joke her savior had made when she saw the wights move, she screamed and pointed at them, Kane got this advice just in time and whirled around, kicking one into a wall and kicking the other one into the air a few meters. Kane had gone a bit overkill, if they were ordinary humans they would have been hospitalized, but they got back up again.

Kane dashed over to the one that he kicked into the wall and swept him off of his feet, then he stomped on his head, crushing his skull. The other zombie went for the woman again, so Kane zoomed over and kicked him in the head, crushing it against the wall, he turned to address the woman Run home, just in case their are more of these guys she nodded and ran away, not looking back.

Kane heard some people screaming for help, Kane dashed over and stopped one of them What's going on!?! the bar-goer explained what went on in a panicked way, Kane ran over and kicked the door open like in a western, walking in just like the hero of a cowboy movie What've we got here? to someone who doesn't know about the local heroes of jump city, he wouldn't seem scary at all. But those who do would know that he has been the bane of many a criminal.

Horrace didn't know but had enough sense to conclude any fool that dynamic entries like that is either incredibly foolish, or has powers. The fact Horrace wasn't JUST a criminal and was more a monster probably also lent itself to his calm demeanor when Kane arrived. "Are the youth of today so tactless that they break things without so much of a second hesitation?" Horrace scolded Kane as he and his Wights finished the remaining patrons of the bar.

There was a whole bar full of undead monsters, and one Kane. Surely these were odds Kane was used to against living opponents. Not that Horrace knew exactly what to expect, he was getting a sense to be careful.

Kane looked around at his surroundings, seeing a guy that looked really weird and a bunch of the zombies, it didn't take a genius to figure out who was the one controlling the zombies Only when the thing they break is the door to a bar where a bunch of freaky zombies were reported to be at. That or the bones of the people controlling the zombies if they don't surrender his eyes met the man's after his thinly veiled threat, Horrace would be able to see how very uncaring he was of the zombies surrounding him.

"Firstly my young sir, we prefer to be called Wights," Horrace pointed out politely. "Secondly- it'll take more then that to keep the dead down," Horrace added as he snapped his fingers, prompting the bar full of recently turned Wights (excluding the bartender) ran toward Kane with hunger in their glowing eyes. They didn't technically need to kill him to steal his soul. All they had to do was get their hands on him for long enough. It would just take much longer to do so.

The man defined his zombies as Wights, then said that Kane would have to do more than break bones to defeat the wights Trust me, it won't be hard. The wights then charged towards Kane, who spent half a minute just dodging them with ease, the leader wasn't going anywhere after all. After a while he got serious, kicking heads clean off of heads, tripping them over and crippling them. All the while, crushing their heads underfoot. If this was an effective method of taking them out, then they would soon all be down, Kane stared at Horrace and hopped on his feet What next, Mr Halloween?

"You didn't even show the slightest bit of consideration that there was a way to bring them back did you?" Horrace chuckled, adjusting his hat. Just as he suspected, the youth was one of those metahumans. Not just because he managed to dodge the Wights, any clever soul could do that. It was the way he effortlessly put them down, which involved smashing their skulls. Given the fact these were just turned, that wasn't a pretty thing to behold. "What's next depends on you my young ruffian. You barged in here and laid waste to what were once living, breathing people without stopping to think if they could have been saved. Much less the fact up until minutes ago, they were living, breathing people," Horrace continued, his eye glowing menacingly.

"I simply wonder if you came here to save anyone, or were just looking for a fight," Horrace teased coldly. It was clear he wasn't going to make the first move, atleast not without proper provocation. Besides, he needed more time to think about how to handle this one. Since he was technically still flesh and bone, he knew he wouldn't last in a straight out brawl. Granted, it would take more then simply destroying HIS head to keep him down. Not that he planned on having his head smashed like a pumpkin mind you. He would just need to be extra careful.

It didn't even occur to Kane that these people could be turned back, the others had gotten back up from knockout blows, so he assumed that this tactic was the only way to go. He just thought that because they had been zombiefied they weren't human anymore. But if they could have been brought back then Kane had just killed them. Kane was horrified, but he was adept at acting as if nothing was wrong, and the only real changes to his posture or expression would be very slight. Horrace asked if Kane was looking to save lives or to start fights, to which Kane just scoffed Well, no matter what the truth is, the result is still the same. Unless you come in quietly of course.

Horrace was very observant however, it all came with having only one working eye. That and he had been wanting to see his reaction in the first place. Though he wasn't entirely sure that he had seen anything unusual either. He felt like he had to really know Kane to be sure if he had any effect. "Oh, I'm sure it would. But then... my body would decompose and vanish into nothing," Horrace replied with an exaggerated gesture with his fingers. "But all of these bodies... they will remain. And then who is left to blame for the deaths of all of these people?" Horrace continued with a sinister chuckle.

"What a spectacle that'd be. 'Super Vigilante goes on killing spree.' I can see the headline now," Horrace commented evilly. He actually did know of his earlier Wights being destroyed, HE was the one who turned them. But up until now he couldn't be sure how they were destroyed, much less know about the single witness. "Are you willing to stake your life that anyone would believe some 'drunken' party goers with your little 'Halloween' coming up?" Horrace finished smugly. Even with the few bar patrons that fled, there was still plenty of room for reasonable doubt. What could have just been him stopping some crooks had quickly escalated into slaughter. Like anyone other then the two of them would know otherwise.

Horrace threatened Kane, saying that if he was defeated then his body would be reduced to nothing, but then the bodies of the vanquished zombies would stay there. Meaning that Kane would be the one to blame for all the deaths, since any witnesses word could not be taken seriously. Kane's mouth twitched downwards slightly for a second, but he regained his cocky grin So what? I'm supposed to let you go? I don't think so he realized that this could end badly for him, but he couldn't just let this guy go. He lifted a stool into the air with his foot and hurled it over, firing a warning shot that would soar just next to his head.

Horrace's hidden grin widened behind the wrappings around his face at seeing Kane's reaction and attempt to cover it up. So what he was saying DID bother him. Good. Because while Horrace was very confident in his ability to defend himself, there were still limitations with his decomposed body. But his assumptions had so far been proven correct, and he had been allowed to talk and talk. So it should have been no surprise to anyone when Horrace simply stood still as a chair whizzed by his head with incredible speed. He simply chuckled with amusement.

It also seemed like to the undead gentleman that this boy's power seemed to primarily stem from his kicking. Which meant if he really needed to defend himself, he'd just have to avoid those kicks and choose carefully when to counter attack. That was just an initial observation though. "You cannot intimidate that which cannot feel fear. I am dead, there is nothing you can physically do to me in order to get me to surrender. And I have already stated what would happen should you attempt to destroy me. If you value your reputation, then the only logical option is to simply let me go," Horrace stated calmly, but there was still some mockery in his tone as he watched Kane intently.

And then the sirens came. Which if they managed to distract Kane, then all the better. But Horrace wasn't going to wait and see, opting to bend his knees and then hurl himself at a window a little ways behind him. Despite his thin frame, he used just enough force to break through it. But he didn't stick the landing, not that it mattered as he was soon back on his feet and shambling down the closest alleyway in his attempt to escape, or atleast get a head start in doing so. Kane would have to leave regardless of whether or not he chose to chase after Horrace. A prospect Horrace was not looking forward to.

Hmph, this guy... Kane wanted nothing more than to kick him into orbit, of course, that would involve kicking him in the air and then going into the air to kick him again until eventually the guy ended up out of the atmosphere. It would be much simpler just to kick him once, but Kane didn't know if that would make him feel better. But... the guy did have a point, he couldn't destroy him, and anything less wouldn't work on an undead. Kane couldn't do anything. When Horrace dove out the window, Kane would follow him, going right past him and intercepting, just to vainly prove that he was faster I'll let you go for now since I have no choice, but this is not the last you've seen of me hah, usually villains say that kind of thing, it's funny to see the shoe on the other foot.