Midnight City (Open)

[webdevil]

Toronto, Ontario, Canada. New Year's Day. 22:00 hrs.

A city that can go from muggy to flash frozen within the span of a couple of hours. A city where every day travel on public transit can be delayed because of a stabbing or some yippee letting his E-bike catch fire on a subway car. A city where daily shoppers can be disrupted by useless protest. Toronto by day, for whatever beauty the skyscrapers, parks, local food scenes, and sports teams can provide, was a city quickly becoming a place people wanted to leave, assuming they even considered living there with out-of-control housing affordability issues plaguing every residence.

And that was only during the day.

Toronto by night was a very different sort of animal. An animal given only to the darkest and most foul. Where one breed of political bloodsucker is traded for a much more literal (but no less political) type takes over. Vampires. In the past year or so, they seem to have made quite the home in the Great White North, far removed from the insanity of the capes and costumes more commonly seen a few hundred miles away down in New York, but no less urban or developed for their supposed "cultural" needs. In many ways, this city is their ideal nesting ground. Cold, out of the way, plenty of night time in the winter, and with a cultural landscape more, shall we say "tolerable", of alternative looking individuals, so even the most noble of purebloods could walk the street without a second glance. And it only took a second glance to realize your life was over if you happened across one.

Unless of course, that person making a second glance happened to be Blade.

Dhampir. Halfbreed. Daywalker.

Many names, none of which accurately describe the dark-skinned man in black whose weapon of which he is named for was currently sheathed firmly to his back hidden beneath a long black cloak-like duster that flapped in the -10 degrees Celsius (he finally adapted his mind to follow the weird hybrid measurements Canadians used between Imperial and Metric after months of practice) as he dangled a rather Victorian looking pale skinned individual with red dripping freely from his mouth and rather elongated canine teeth by his ankle over the side of a 70 story building.

"Maric..." warned the Daywalker in a mock concerned voice, "I already stabbed you in the ribs with a silver laced dagger, you're bleeding all over the cityscape, and if I drop you now, you'll be ash before you even make it to the lobby. So I'm only going to ask you one more time: Where is Frost?"

<"Go to hell, you filthy Half-Blood!"> came the choking voice of Maric in the ancient Vampiric tongue.

Blade shrugged with a heavy, if slightly exaggerated sigh, and then simply let go. The scream echoed on the chilly wind into the void.

[kingrico]

Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world.

-----------------------------------------

Aperture stood around the new Hellraiser Mansion just outside High Park in Toronto just off the beautiful coast of Lake Ontario, the trio of Witches had long since left Earth in order to return their home and Realm to order. Returning to earth the crowdedness of all the everyday heroes made her work harder, remembering Danny once mentioning moving operations to Toronto she had several months prior bought huge swaths of land to rebuild the team. She had been handling smaller occult things while setting things up, but the air tonight had an odor of much larger issues she may need to attend to.

“Sitoria and Iyana meet in the war room" Aperture would say over the intercom as she was looking at a map of the city, she noticed a disturbance of Vampires over the past few days and decided it was worth the investigation.

Sitoria walked into the room, eyes still glowing with that of the cosmos in it, she had been fresh out of the training room and was confused about why she had been disturbed. “Surely nothing is worth a God's attention in this city, especially not this God's attention." Sitoria would say in a snarky remark. She had not been herself since Danny left for San Vengaza, surprisingly they kept each other grounded to this planet. The Goddess of Death had sunk back into her shell not interested in this planet's affairs, though deep down she knew it wasn't what Danny would have wanted.

“Whilst you may believe that Sitoria, this City does need us. That's why we are going out to investigate the recent surge of Vampire attacks in the north of the city, now where is the little Hellspawn?” Aperture would reply while asking her sister about Iyana, she knew the mother-daughter pair were in need of some field actions. Sure enough, as she spoke of her Iyana walked into her room listening to her music head nodding away, she wasn't particularly interested in the mission but blasting people was always amusing.

“Great everyone is here, let's get on the road” Aperture would say with a big smile as she opened the portal into East Bales Park, the fog was thick in the air as the winter breeze blew through the city off the Lake. As Aperture looked around she noticed movement in the tree line, she pulled her sword out signaling the other two to be on point.

“Oh goody, you think if I get bit I can become a god vampire… ooh or or I can be a Half Hybrid vampire like Uncle Danny's friend umm I think it's Blade right?" Iyana would say as she turned into the White witch, letting off a large bright cosmic like during transformation that could be seen from miles away. Of course, this light was disliked by the nearby vampires as they let off a loud roar. “Oh snap this like some Twilight stuff” Iyana would go on to say.

[Martyr]

WOLFSBANE in MIDNIGHT CITY

form: WERE
. . .

Rahne was far from home. This was as true here as it was anywhere else. She was, in this moment, left out in the cold. This was both literally true, the frigid North brought a familiar cold. This was also true from her lack of grounding. X-Factor had fallen apart. She drifted in and out of Xavier's recently. She needed something else. She needed something new. So, she had gone, at least temporarily north.

She'd been to Canada before, on some clandestine government work, but it had been at best a brief stay, nothing longer than a few hours. At this point, she had time and inclination to get to know the place. She found her way around it with both sight and with smell as she moved around at ground level among the towering buildings.

The purpose was to find paths around. She usually found this or that interesting scent. What she found instead was horrid. It was pungent. It was the unmistakable odor of death and decay. She tried to pinpoint the source. Not that she wanted to be subjected to it more. Even with the wind assisting her, it as hard to pinpoint. She needed a better nose. The human-wolf hybrid's bones and body twisted and turned and reformed until the woman was now a russet red wolf.

Adapted from Silv.

[heroesdreamer]

Mercury had taken a leave of absence from Xavier's school, nothing really big was happening at the moment and to be honest, she was bored. While she was outside she'd heard rumors of vampires living in Toronto and attacking people, so she'd wondered if Jubilee's vampire friend had moved up there. Being curious and also confident that she couldn't be turned due to her metallic skin, she took the money she'd been saving from the allowance that her parents had been sending her and bought a ticket for a train ride up there, where she found a hostel of sorts to live in.

Tonight she was wandering the streets, looking for people to help and also keeping an eye out for vampires, when she saw a very bright light and dashed toward it, unsure what it was but having heard sounds of distress she figured that was where she needed to be. Once she saw the trio of women, she paused with a soft "whoa" and ducked behind a tree, not sure if these guys were good or not so good, so she attempted to listen in.

[webdevil]

Blade watched as a single fleck of ash managed against all odds to make its way back up to him. He hated this city. Yet, in its own way, it had grown on him. It was a strange thing to him, really: Over his many years hunting vampires, cities came and went, all seemed to blur together. But in this moment? As he brooded out over the rooftop and saw the CN Tower loom just a few blocks over, he felt a certain kinship here. He scowled to himself. He hoped it was not because of the vampires.

He tapped a Bluetooth in his ear and heard it click as it connected.

"Go for Simms," said a woman's voice on the other end.

"Maric was a dud," said Blade, letting his eyes slightly un-focus and then sharpen as he performed a ritual of sorts, looking for his next target.

"You killed him, didn't you," said the woman on the other end, her tone was a knowing one. Blade flashed a fanged grin.

"How did you guess?" he asked, though his belt beeped. His grin vanished at once and he looked down, extracting from a pouch his SHIELD-issued hardcrypt phone.

"Well if you think the Frost investigation isn't going to get anywhere tonight, Alvarez is sending details to your phone now," said Simms procedurally, though not without a touch of dryness.

"Just got it. What am I looking at?" asked Blade. The phone switched to a custom GPS app that showed a grid of a park. Earl Bales to be precise, well outside of the downtown core and into North York. It was a half hour drive from his position depending on traffic conditions.

"Mystic energy detection lit up and then zipped away seconds later. Wilson thinks it's a portal based on records, but it was too quick to get a proper reading,"

"Hmmmm" grunted Blade. His squad of SHIELD agents were good at what they did, but their eagerness to jump into any situation without a plan was reckless. True, you could not find a more enthusiastic bunch, but he needed more intel.

"Do we need to gear up, sir?" asked Simms hesitantly, the pause being heavily pregnant as she did so.

"No. Have the North York checkpoint get a drone in the air. Have a jump trooper unit get their gear on in case we need an intercept. I need eyes. ETA 25 minutes,"

"Yes, sir," replied Simms.

Whatever else Simms was speaking, it was drowned out in the rush of wind as the Daywalker fell into a dive, clicking a button just as he took his leap. The feeling of the air rushed against his skin, and made much more noise in his ears than his gear or his body as he got up to speed. Allowing his body to twist as he fell well over 60 stories, he reached out and placed his hand and foot on the side of the building so gently that it barely depressed the glass, breaking his fall five stories before he hit the pavement, and pressing off into a full diving flip as a black muscle car pulled up and roared.

[stormshadow]

Morbius


24 hours earlier:

A woman with the name of Jade notices her husband did not return from work in the lab owned by Dr. Micheal Morbius. She has not heard from him in the last two days. So, she contacts his friend and boss Micheal Morbius. "He is probably sick with something and was not doing well, didn't want to bring it home to you and your kid. I'm going to look into this Jade. Now hold off on calling any Law enforcement if your over concerned. I'm sending you Five thousand dollars, leave town with your kid for about a week until I contact you again. If you see your husband, do not let him in... no matter what he says until I say it is ok. He might be contagious; it is very important you follow my directions for now."

Now:

Arriving in Toronto, Ontario, Canada area a new year was upon us. He had no idea what he was walking into at his Lab. Judging by his initial video surveillance a group of possible local vampires moved in and took his research and his friend Glen. This week seemed like it couldn't get any crazier. Just recently in New York, he stumbled upon a vampire/demon like mutants similar to what he fought back when he was in a group called Midnight sons, he still has the brand on him from the Midnight sons group many years ago. He had a blood lust and went after Dr. Strange, the same feeling was creeping in all over as he entered his destroyed lab that something bad was going to happen.

Morbius had his research stolen and was hard pressed on finding out what happened to his friend. He investigated for about a hour. The room was splattered with crimson blood of his friend, but no body was found. He gathered some clues and a few scents that might led him somewhere. He then picked up a strange feeling about something happening, a disturbance of some kind. He proceeded to glide out a window heading towards the location of the disturbance.

[kingrico]

Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world.

-----------------------------------------

The area became a nerve-wracking silence as the screams went silent, and then the trees started to move the sounds of the Vampires on the ground and in the trees became louder as they got closer. The team quickly got into formation as Aperture started to hand out orders, “Sitoria give us Cover and take the left side, Iyana put up a spell to protect our rear while I take the center” Aperture would say before leaping into the air.

Sitoria nodded before looking up at the sky, her eyes turning glassy as a crack of thunder ran across the frigid night air, a thick lake effect snow flowed off the lake through the city into the park. She would take off through the snow sensing the Vampires, pulling out her lasso she lit it with hellfire before launching it through the fog. “Make this worth my time Vampire scum” Sitoria would say as she grabbed one wrapping the whip around him, the screams from the burns could be heard through the park. She would pull the whip back burning the man to ashes, as she continued walking she sensed something else besides vampires.

Meanwhile, Iyana was in a far greater mood to fight with her barrier up the Vampires were forced to come around and meet her head-on, raising her hand a large stellar light ball formed in her hand shining bright in the snow. She would separate it into 3 smaller balls of energy before running towards them leaping up and sending one ball of energy directly into a pair of vampires, she would land in the middle of several more pauses looking at them. “Hello, ” she would say as Iyana kicked one back into the nearby tree before blasting him with the ball of light. With the final one, she would infuse it with Hellfire before slamming it into the ground releasing a large energy blast sending the threats flying.

[Martyr]

wolfsbane
(rahne sinclair)

wolfform

Her senses were in overdrive in her wolf form. There was the unmistakable and always unpleasant stench of death, but she could place its source without some searching. There. Against the skip, was a man in a blood-stained business suit. His throat was mangled and torn apart. 

~Well, that explains the smell.~, she thought to herself.

This place was far too urban for it to be most types of wildlife. It must be man, or at least a monster passing himself off as one.

Rahne put her nose to the floor to try and find some clues. They came, but not from scent.

Suddenly she heard tires screech. She moved to investigate. Someone fell into the back of a car and was driving off. Maybe it was a robbery gone wrong? A disposed of witness?

Wolfsbane gave chase. She certainly couldn't tail it at highway speeds, but she was still far faster than a human would be in her wolf form. She snarled.

Template adapted from Silv.

[heroesdreamer]

Mercury watched as three ladies fought the vampires off, causing a lot of damage! She almost didn't want to disturb them, but then from behind she heard a growl and whipped around to find herself facing a young looking woman with fangs. "Hey, trying to sneak up on me?" she asked, chuckling as she lashed out with a punch, hardening her left fist to make it land heavier. The vampire growled again before moving extremely fast, ending up behind Mercury and attempting to bite her neck. "I don't think so" Mercury gasped, making her skin on her neck tough and yanking away.

She began moving closer to the other magical ladies, hoping that they could fight off these guys together, while throwing punches at the vampire following her. "Hey, you're gonna get killed if I make it to these guys" she warned, jumping back as the vampire lashed out at her again. "Besides, I don't have blood for you" she lied, seeing if she could get through to the person who was hopefully still in there, somewhere.

[webdevil]

The on ramp to the Gardiner Expressway was a cluster as usual, but thanks to SHIELD tech able to hack the traffic lights without so much as a blink, Blade was able to get onto it with much difficulty. The downside? Enhanced vampiric senses gifted to him from his nature as a Daywalker meant it didn't take long til he spotted trouble right on his tail.

Wolflike in appearance, it was definitely picking up considerable speed and attempting to give chase. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it was after him specifically. He flicked a switch on the dashboard

"Simms," he said in that same flat tone. Flicking a few more switches, he triggered a few sensors the car contained allowing him to have eyes on what the heck was after him. It definitely looked like a werewolf, at least from this far away.

"I see it. I don't recall there being reports of lycan activity in the area, sir, the vampire nation have been determined to maintain control over the city since before we got here. Ever since they left New York, actually,"

"So we got a nomad? Interesting..."

Blade accelerated and swerved around a few more cars to gain some speed. Lycans had no love for vampires, and if he hazarded a guess? This one likely could smell him and despite only being half-vampire, it might have been enough to trigger. Then after a moment, he changed lanes then glanced out the window. Overcast.

"What is the status of the moon?"

"Waning Gibbous. Hang on..."

"I'll get back to you," finished Blade and pulled open a small compartment to his right carrying a stubby shotgun that looked partially sawed off were it not for the two very big silver stakes underneath the barrel.

[stormshadow]

Morbius


"Oh, great another person or group making a huge mistake. Just recently, it was the Spider-man clone, now a bunch of magic user imposters. I almost killed another innocent man recently because of stuff like this. Where is Dr. Strange when I need him? Cause and effect some people do not know what they do. They seem to be handling themselves with the baby vamps. I'm not impressed. Have they lost their minds? Blade, maybe he can shed some light on this. They should leave this kind of stuff to Blade and I. Now the problem at hand is they're setting off my magic midnight sons tattoo now. Who are they awaking? Why do this? Not all vampires are bad. They apparently don't understand how vampires work. The plan was not thought out. What if Dracula or someone more powerful shows up? This is not good. Hopefully not any demons, other supernatural types or Lillith herself. The more powerful Vampires are sleeping or in some type of torpor, most likely not now."

Morbius waits to go in at a distance until he can find the biggest threat. He tries to stay hidden and watch while waiting "Good old Eric, what is a blood fest without a hunter or two. He is a teammate of mine for this kind of chaos. Blade is currently going in perhaps. Things other than undead out now. Now only a matter of time before Blade knows I'm here if he doesn't already. Soon even the vampires' familiars armed to the teeth will be showing up, great a whole bunch of humans also this is such a disaster in the making. Is that S.H.I.E.L.D. over there. Oh great whose side am I on then."

[jade]

Jade stood in the shadows. The very chaos happening around her was the reason she was drawn to this battle. It was clear she was late to the party, but there was the awful problem of having to get to Canada in the first place. Yes she could teleport, but she had to first understand why the universe wanted her here. Then when she arrived it all made sense innocent lives as risk and those who hunted swarmed all around as Jade and her soul reaver blades came upon the scene. The impression Jade got was everyone involved had no idea who was worth the hunt and kill and who wasn’t. She saw someone at least trying to convince the vampires they “didn’t have any blood” which made Jade believe maybe just maybe one was trying to decide the good camps vs the bad vamps. There was a difference the good ones had actually helped Jade back in New York find some human trafficking scum. The bad ones well…they were the human trafficking scum, aside from a few mislead and coerced into working for the scum. Jade set them free that night, not that it mattered any. No matter how many souls she saved and individuals she showed a better path it would never change what she did as Shadow.


Jade saw two other female sorcer type fighting off some vampire near a grove of trees. She was intrigued by their magic, it felt old world an ancient. The magic was almost relatable, but like Shadowking had told her Jades magic was young in comparison and she was young as well. How would her magic compare to those of ancient worlds.

Jade watched on as another Vampire entered the mix, but this one almost seeming to be more “one of the good guys”. She decided to help the one with the struggling vampire that almost appeared like she was trying to save it.

Jade entered the scene or at least attempted to, her black clad outfit shimmering up against the moon light. The Ninja mask she wore hiding her true identity. As the gold holster she carried her Katana’s in reflected off the moon light. Her obsidian handled Damascus style blades in sheaved as she approached the scene. A stoic female voice was heard as purple Aurora surrounded her. Jade then spotted an insignia on the women, an X symbol similar to that which Kurt, Jean, and Carol had explained to her.

“You trying to redeem this night walker or fight the ones who can’t be saved?”

With those words a vampire tried to attack Jade from behind, she thrusted her Katana backwards making direct contact with the vampires soft under belly. She twisted her blade and turned around. Jade remained calm and in control knowing full well, if she lost control of her ability here no one would benefit.

“I guess not all of you are going to be redeemed tonight.”