So it begins (Gabriel)

[Black Death]

(for Gabriel. Pm to join)

Another night of traveling back and forth from work as most found it. Though, the nearly silent atmosphere in the car which carrying its exhausted and ambitious cargo was abruptly changed. There was a loud and ear piercing scream as a woman voice shot through the lumbering vehicle. The people in the car turned to see what the issue was. Maybe another purse snatcher, or mugger or maybe a buzzard abnormality that seemed to swarm the city. But the passengers on the subway couldn’t see anything. The last several rows of seats were consumed in a growing, total pitch blackness and the people who were sitting could not be seen.

Rising up from their seats, the people moved forward towards the conductors section. There was blood creeping from behind the half wall and the hand dangling motionless. The man had been killed without a noise, he would not be able to help them or call for help. Another unearthly scream came from the darkness which caught their fear and attention. Rolling out from the darkness was a woman with lesions on her face and arms, who also laid their motionless now. The edges of the darkness could be seen, moving like torn cloth in a light wind. Not even the lights of the car would pierced into it unless it was broken. The darkness then began to moan like a fierce wind as it warped around into a spiral, taking on the looks of a black hole.

The dozen or so victims were not the first or the last he would take in the night. The sun was just setting over the silhouette of the city but deep under its skin it was dark, cold and unforgiving. The screams of the rails underneath were masked by their own, as short as they were. The people were lost in shear darkness and could not find their way out. The darkness settled and there was only a shape of something ghoulish as people in the cat ahead could now see him. He rose his hand up and darkness force swarmed out, it ripped apart the sliding door and then the one to the next car.

The car quickly filled with pitch blackness and screams of horror. The darkness swirled about the car and every so often a patch of light would be let in and the people would try to escape or grab hold of one another. It was terrifying, glimpses of light and dark, the panicked faces of people and the dead and dying. The darkness settled to one side of the car again and the figure pulled out of it and hovered in midair. He pointed to the people who he left alive and began to speak.

“Hear me well mortals of this plane, whom dwell and sin within She whose name is Gotham. Know that your time hath come and my scythe hath begun to swing. Take to the field, might you, yet you cannot escape that which has been written of you.” The cryptic harsh and breathy voice announced as he put his hand up. He was finished fooling around, his plot for the destruction of the city needed to commence. He had been made a fool of and the seriousness of what he was had being compromised by his encounters with Flameshadow.

Tendrils of shadow started grabbing people, pulling them into himself and behind him into the dark spiraling wall. It surrounded the whole car and for a minute or two they were surround and in hell and then he dispersed. There were bodies everywhere, some of which were dead some not. Soon people would wake up, afraid and feeling ill, and they would run in fear and it would begin. As Black Death had surrounded his victims in his force, he released viruses and deadly contagions onto them. Some were injected by small needles; others got puffs of the illness forced down their throats, and yet others he placed things on their person for later exposure.

Word had gotten out to the authorities that a dark creature was attacking and killing people on the train. The underlying issue was that if people started leaving the train with unknown seeds of sickness sown in, the city would be in danger. The entire city would need shut down its subways and halt traffic in order to contain the illnesses. But it was rush hour; everyone was pushing to get home. When word did get out it would be already at hand, panic would take over, hospitals would be filled and people would start to die.

[Gabriel]

The gang hadn't been hard to track down, not after the Bat had had a private talk with one of their member in another part of the underground. At first he'd been resolute but that defiance had evaporated very quickly, piece by piece as his fingers snapped in the gauntleted hands of the Gotham predator. in the end he'd broken down into a sobbing mess, screaming in pain and shouting out names, places, targets...anything he could think of to make it all stop. For his troubles it had ended quickly after that, the bullet passing through his forehead and scattering his brain matter over the wall of the subway. Messy but quick and no more than he deserved.

When it was all over the body count ran into double figures, the entire gang and associates wiped out in one fell swoop, the hideout painted in their fresh blood, a warning to anyone else that evil things prowled the dark parts of Gotham City. Focused charges took care of the shipments they had been collecting to sell on, the drugs going up in a toxic smoke, filling the confines of the tunnel as the Bat vanished into the darkness once more, leaving nothing but blood and bullet casings to give a hint of what had occurred.

He’d caught the rear of the train as it slowly pulled away from a stop, making the climb to the roof effortlessly, hunkering down till he decided it was time to leave the tracks and travel in search of more criminals to bring his brand of justice to. As the train rattled on the tracks, filled to the brims with people making their way home after a long day, the Bat checked his side where a bullet had grazed one of the weaker joints in his chest armour and left a nasty feeling bruise under his fingers. He wouldn’t know the extent of the damage till he got back to his lair and out of his armour, for now he simply pushed it to the back of his mind and ran through the mental maps and notes he’d made for tonight’s bloodbath. He ducked down close to the train’s roof as it turned a long corner.

And then all hell broke loose.

The grinding and screeching of metal being forced apart drowned out the repetitive rattle of the train running over the tracks, followed quickly by horrific screams of terror and anguish. In moments a thick inky black substance had surrounded one of the cars up ahead, practically swallowing it in shadow for several minutes. The Bat could only watch for those few minutes as the car vanished then reappeared more or less intact, the inky darkness retreating on itself and sliding back into the car.

With a strange grace he moved slowly forwards towards the scene, keeping low to the roof of the train, working his way forwards towards the car that seemed to be at the centre of the whole incident. In one fluid and silent movement he dropped down between the cars and braced himself against the side of the sliding door, one hand resting on the handle, the other sliding down to ease one of his pistols from its holster. Pushing the handle he spun round into the doorway and crouched down to reduce his presented target area, pistol sweeping the area as his hidden eyes scanned for the cause of the disturbance…

[Black Death]

The train now had an intruder and he would find it in awe; littered with those dead and dying. Those who where dead had an array of causes of death, as Black Death let his disturbing and gruesome creativity flow and spatter everywhere. Some of them were torn apart, others had broken bones, some were crushed with amazing force, some were beheaded, some he covered with maggots or flesh eating beetles, some hide in the corners, twitching, babbling, covered in blood and boils. One man hung from a belt from the ceiling and a woman was speared though the window.

People crawled screaming off the train when the darkness had moved to another car. As the doors were pushed open on the cars up front of him; Black Death whipped his shadowy tendrils after them, pulling some back. Most of those who he did escape where infected with different infectious diseases. Hovering there in the next car he came to an elderly man at the corner of the car, he was standing between the dark figure and his two young granddaughters. The feeble old man had tears in his eyes and wailed, falling to the floor at Black Death’s feet. He began begging for forgiveness to his wrong doings and begging the reaper.

“Please, I know I have done bad things in my life, But Please don’t take my grandchildren, my beautiful grand children! Please, I beg you dark angel, they are the only thing in this world I hold dear! Please take me, please take me instead and spare them!” The man fell to his face and could not move he was so overtaken.

Terry could not help but be struck by this, as he remembered his son and how he was murdered. At that moment he would have give his life for his son. His son was the only thing he really cared for the brief time he knew him, but once he was gone hate and bitterness consumed him. Sorrow and rage shook in Terry and he rose up his hand.

“Silents your tongue oh sinner! Spare the flesh and souls of your fowl seed, you say? What is the pleads of a withered old man to me? Spare them the quickness of death now or let them run the field when I come to harvest the rest of the crop?” The harsh ghoulish voice said and curled his cryptic fingers. The man was in anguish

“Nooo.... Please take me and spare them, I will be yours for eternity, I’ll do anything. You can have my soul. Take my life for them.” The old man gasped and held his chest; the whole incident was killing him now.

“Ah, a sacrificed soul, a greater trophy than one ripped from its screaming corpse. “ He replies and pointed to the man. “I will spare your children. Rise up, give thyself to me.” The man sobbed heavily and staggered up the side of the seat.

“Please, Let me say good bye. Let me hold them one more ti…” He turned to the children.Black Death put his hand up and darkness wrapped around the children.

“No. I have given you enough mercy this day!” The force scooped up the frightened little girls and placed them at the back of the subway wall by a bench. The children looked up as a sheet of darkness covered the doorway and he grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him up into the air.

“Look into the eyes of Death!” He said as he held the man up to his pale glowing green eyes. Blood began to drip down his open mouth and even though he was in great pain as the force broke into his ribcage, there was gladness in his eyes, and that very thing would haunt Terry the most. The man was laid down on the seat in a proper position, a red rose was placed on his chest.

The shadowy cover over the door faded and Black Death looked at the children who held each other crying for their grandfather. He then turned to see a figure standing in the doorway between cars. Had he been there this whole time? It was a Batman. His dark shadowy aura arose around the car and he bowed to him slightly.

“Guardian of the fallen City. Come have thy noble knight, to save the wretched woman from the dragon’s flame? Turn now, for She is not worth saving, it has been written and so it shall be done. Have thy know, Her blood will fall before you. Wither it be at your feet or at your festering remains, lain here, in the bowels of Her.” He addressed the hero, little did he know this person; this figure was not what he seemed. He was about to find out wither this person would be a enemy or a possible ally to him.

“I am the Black Death. And I have come to collect the souls of Gotham!”

[Gabriel]

The scene before him was like something out of a horror movie, a charnal house of the dead, the figure at the far end of the carriage the conductor of the whole sorry affair. The Bat hadn't moved through the whole scene, watching the inky blackness fade away, retreating back it to the man that had spawned it and allowing the full extent of the carnage in the train to be seen. Bodies lay strewn everywhere, blood and gore painted the windows, glass shards had torn some to pieces, others lay twisted at odd angles their bodies broken, no pattern, no motive, no bias, the same fate dished out to all on board no matter who they were and yet...the young girls had been spared for the life of an old man. It didn't make sense yet but it pointed to something that could think, something that wasn't simply driven by the need to kill aimlessly it seemed.

When it spoke to him the reaction was as one would expect from a Bat. Nothing. Silence greeted the man as he droned on,

“Guardian of the fallen City. Come have thy noble knight, to save the wretched woman from the dragon’s flame? Turn now, for She is not worth saving, it has been written and so it shall be done. Have thy know, Her blood will fall before you. Wither it be at your feet or at your festering remains, lain here, in the bowels of Her"

He could have chuckled at that moment as he listened, the armour of his cowl giving nothing away about his reaction or facial expression. Beneath the tinted glass lens his eyes flicked back and forth searching the car, checking for movements, for life for anything that would indicate the person wasn't alone. So far there was nothing but years of experience had taught him not to trust everything his eyes saw. His finger tightened on the trigger as he rose slowly to his feet, long cape covering him completely as his arm retracted and slid back into hiding. Once hidden his other hand slowly slipped the second pistol from its holster, readying it, finger flicking off the safety in a careful practised motion just in case.

“I am the Black Death. And I have come to collect the souls of Gotham!”

The cowl stared back at the figure at the rear of the train, every muscle ready to react, every sense open to the surroundings, his voice deep and gravely as it passed through the amplifier on the mask.

"Murder is murder no matter how you dress it up. You think pretending you have some great role to play makes you any better than the other scum out there?"

He shifted slightly, making sure the doorway was directly behind him,

"The mistake you made was being caught killing innocent people. There is only one way to deal with scum like you"

[Black Death]

Terry was annoyed already with this dark hero standing before him. Again he was singled out as just another piece of scum and because of this is why he was taking quicker action. After his encounters with Flameshadow he felt the way people looked at him was just that, another person out for innocent blood. No he didn’t want people thinking that he was merely human behind all of this. He had become more that that, it was going to his head but he couldn’t let it happen again. He wasn’t human, he wasn’t allowing such things as emotions and feelings get to him. And the action he just did, sparing those children shown that. But they were gone now, and most of the people on the train.

Black Death brought up a subtle swirl of shadow and his eyes grew brighter behind the sheet of darkness he covered himself with. He stared into the heroes glossy covered eyes and was unmoved by the weapon he held up. It seemed the two could stare at each other, trying to intimidate each other for a decade.

"Murder is murder no matter how you dress it up. You think pretending you have some great role to play makes you any better than the other scum out there?" The bat said.

“Place me not, before the echoes of the gavels’ judgment, mortal. For I am not of this world. Your commandments towards me mean nothing. Your attempts to halt what is written are nothing but a nuisance. This, I have lain upon the ears of those of your fellowship yet their ears have been filled with cotton from the field. You claim murder, yet you do not see the unlit surface of the moon’s narrow sliver.”

"The mistake you made was being caught killing innocent people. There is only one way to deal with scum like you" The bat said to him.

“Innocent? Can you not see into the very souls of these? That is why I am here. The festering of Gotham must be slain for the world itself is under the threat of contamination. I am the quarantine. And you are merely another mortal placed between my path. Your threats tremble me not. ” He replied and suddenly the door behind the Batman and the exits in the car slammed shut and the car began to crack and screech as his force began to crush the car from the inside like a tin can being squeezed.

[Gabriel]

(Apologies for the late reply)

Regardless of who was under the armour opposite him, the voice was beginning to grate on Gabriel's nerves. The way they spoke and their babbling about destinies and pre-ordained events was simply annoying after a long night. He shifted his weight slightly on his feet, hands grasping the handles of his pistols ready to end yet another lowlife who thought they could justify murder and killing with some 'I'm doing this for the good of the city' speech. At least he didn't try and pretend to himself what he did hadn't condemned him to whatever hell lay in wait at the end of his life, criminals deserved what he gave them but at the end of the day he still murdered them.

They gazed at each other across the blood splattered train carriage, glowing eyes against glowing eyes, neither mask giving away the slightest hint of what lay beneath. The swirl darkness that began to rise round the other figure as it spoke was the first indication that something was off about the whole stand-off. Caught off guard the Bat reacted a little to slowly as the whole carriage shook and the door behind him slammed shut even as he dived back, guns whipping out at the same moment, several high powered shots veering off into the swirling darkness that enveloped his target. The whole carriage groaned as the metal structure began to shudder and flex, as if some giant hand was trying to crush it.

The Bat's shoulders slammed into the closed door and a grunt escaped his mouth under the armoured cowl, hands quickly securing his side-arms under his cloak once more. No point in wasting ammo just yet he thought to himself as he found his footing once more and drove himself forwards through the train into the darkness, from memory aiming his shoulder at the mid-drift of the Black Death character who had killed all these people. It was better than waiting to be crushed and unless the person under that armour was a ghost he might reconsider crushing the carriage if he was still trapped inside it...

[Black Death]

The two seemed to be caught in the empty glowing eyes of each other and in a mist of oddity. Black Death had a spite of curiosity in this one, he seemed different but they were all the same, even if they expressed in difference natures. He had the same problem with Flameshadow, he got too interested rather than killing her.

That and he was tired of people thinking he was just a man behind a dark cloud; he had been ridiculed by those before this one and he was angrier by it. Even if it was so, he did not wish it to be so. He was the Black Death not a fool is a costume. His actions needed to speak for him; there was no more delay, no more mercy. No more promises he didn’t keep or speaking threats he failed to deliver. He was prepared this time.

The Bat took hold of weapons and Black Death began to crush the car they were in like a soda can in someone’s fist. The masked chiroptera let off bullets, firing it into the pitch darkness surrounding him. The bullets entered his very realm, some whizzed past him into the car wall, one which might be distinguish by sound struck the suit he wore. Other bullets he stopped with the force shot them back at the surrounding wall behind the Bat. He then held out his hazy hand holding one of the bullets before him. Small strands swirled around it, carving what looked like a skull into the bullet. He tilted his hand and it fell to the floor.

“Mortal weapons do not faze the dead.” He told him before floating back into the darkness. What the Bat did next was foolish, driving into the darkness, where he would see not even the slightest sparkle of light. The bat would feel a strong pulse of energy as he tried to slam into Terry’s suit. It would thrash him and sending through the other door into another car and out of the darkness back into the subway light.

He allowed the dull glowing eyes to show through the darkness as he turned to the next car. The car behind him could be heard crushing down to a fraction of its size as he moved into this one. He moved forward with a gust that rushed past the Bat and opened the door to the next car and those after it, creating a path.

“If you were wise, you would take up haste. Because, Hell herself is at your heels.” The shadowed figure announced and from the darkness rang several snarls and growls.

Arriving from the shadow in the car, pushed out from his darkness force was an array of mangy, bloody and dirty stray dogs. Their eyes were drooped heavily, blood shot and empty of reason and consciousness, they were rabid! The six feral beasts were hunched stiffly, snarling and snapping in their diluted state of awareness. Foam and saliva dripped from their jowls and horrific growls gurgling from their throats as they scrabbled towards the Batman with gaping jaws.

[Gabriel]

The car screeched and groaned as if grasped by a giant hand, the windows smashing as the metal of the train car begin to crumple inwards like some drunk crushing a beer car. At the same time the Bat launched himself backwards, pistols whipping out from beneath the black cape that shrouded his body and loosed off several rounds into the inky blackness that swirled round the other armored figure in the car. He could see what he'd hit but the variation in sound told him that not every shot had sped past its mark and struck the metal of the car, there was a low thunk as a round hit something denser, much sturdier than the sheet metal used for the train car. What surprised him was that he only registered a small number of the rounds making any sound at all...the others just vanished into the blackness.

His armored shoulders slammed into the car door that had moments before been open but was now locked shut, cutting of his first exit plan. The impact hadn't been enough to cause any real damage but it did shift his focus off of his target for a moment as he ran through his other options. He hadn't planned to fight the villain inside a train carriage, to small and to much that could get in the way, out on the tracks would have been better but that option was shut off to him quite literally now. The ricocheting bullets that hammered against the metal around him told the costumed vigilante exactly where his other rounds had ended up. They had definitely been more effective in the past.

With he car collapsing around him and no other real options, the caped figure dropped its shoulder and charged into the darkness aiming for where the figure had been last stood. On a good day he was certain it would have been a fine tackle, but today things just seemed to be going from bad to worse. It was like trying to run through water and then something inside the black depths grabbed him and before he could do much about it, The Bat found himself slammed through a thin steel door and left in a heap, rolling with the impact and coming back up into a crouch, pistols holstered firmly. The rush of wind and the opening doors turned his gaze to look down the cars as the one he'd just been forcefully ejected from collapsed behind them.

With an eerie silence The Bat drew two small spherical objects from a pouch at its waist and launched them down the cars towards the murky figure and the approaching dogs, dive rolling back behind some still standing seats as he did so, mentally counting down for the blast to shake the carriage, hunkered down, back against the seat, desert eagles grasped firmly now and ready for another volley...whoever this person was they weren't making things easy for him, who knew what else was coming his way...

[Black Death]

Barreling down the car: their claws scratched the floor, sliding as they forced their limbering, mangy bodies swiftly forward. One dog stopped to maul a man in the corner of the car who was gasping for help but didn’t for long as the creature tore his neck to shreds. One of the smaller dogs leaped onto the back of another dog, ripping and gnawing at the back of its head as it clung on. Despite their altered minds, the rest of the dogs chased their target still riding on the ideals of a hunting pack.

“I, tis unlikely these hell hounds will spare you mortal as they wish nothing more that to drag you to their lair in Hades.” As his opponent was playing with the pups, Black Death turned noticed he was caught in the wide glaze of the people outside the train on the platform. Gathering crowds watched in horror as the dead and dying lay around the train as it rocked back and forth being crushed and swarmed with dark clouds. Trying to push back the stunned and curious crowd were police officers who had shortly arrived to the gruesome scene. The Gotham City Law enforcement? Oh how the sight of them made Terry’s teeth clench.

The blackness burst out of the windows, peeling the side of the car off like the top of a sardine can and it was crushed, rolled up into a ball. The ball rose up above the train and Black Deaths hands rose as he hovered over on the edge of the floor. The darkness began to swirl around the platform.

“Guardians of Gotham: shall it once again be in my understanding that you command me that this on slaughter is to cease? Hath thy not taken to my woes and warnings; your mortal weapons can not obstruct the will of faaaa…” He began to say before there was a sudden explosion which took out the whole car, separating the train in two, forcing it several yards apart and off its track. Unaware of the explosive spheres, the blast had thrown Black Death clear into the crushed car behind him, pinning him in the narrow opening. The dark cloud around the train was blown away and all that was left of the car was fire, parts of animals and shrapnel of all sizes.

Inside the car Terry came to and pulled the burnt corpse of a dog off of him, and pulled himself up onto his side, taking a moment to regain himself. The force and suit gave him enough of a impact shield but it still took him by surprise and his heart and lungs raced. Terry took some deep breaths before consuming the black metal suit in darkness force. It grew around him, picking him off the floor before bursting outward violently, making room for himself. He narrowed his eyes, looking past the flames from his dark mass and scanned out towards the other half of the flaming train. His nemesis had just tried to blow him to smithereens and was unseen. Perhaps he blew himself up in the process? It was unlikely.

Terry decided to make himself ‘vanish,’ the darkness dissipated and sweeping him under the train, he was invisible in the shadows. Now he would wait, watch and try to regain and organize himself. He needed oxygen, the blast could have set off his lungs, they could stop working and he would go into shock and arrest like last time when he fought Flameshadow.

If that happened he would die for sure, easily taken down by this masked and dangerous renegade menace if he got the chance. The suit would help him breathe but he needed a moment to see if it was time to leave the scene. He would not die like this. He hoped the ‘hero’ would take interest in the welfare of the people. There were enough who needed to be rescued that was for sure. He would take a moment before coming up with a tactic to attack his nemesis with, but for the moment all was silent.

[Gabriel]

The Bat silently counted off the seconds in his head as he hunkered down behind the rows of chairs, listening as the screams filled the air along with the sound of flesh and bone tearing as the first of the hounds reached a fallen pasenger in the car. The whole side of the car suddenly crumbled and folded as though it were made of tinfoil, screeching with the sound of tearing metal, surprises screams and shouts coming from the crowd on the platform. Closing his eyes he counted off the final second, gritted his teeth and braced himself against the back of the bolted down seating.

The localised explosion ripped through the car, shredding exposed flesh in moments as the shards of metal tore through the air and incredible speeds, pushed outwards by the force of the blast from the micro grenade. Thankfully the cowl dampened out the worst of the noise but the shockwave still rolled through his gut as he steadied himself, hands still on his pistols, eyes flicking to an amazingly untarnished piece of metal that gave him fairly decent if somewhat curved view of the scene that had unfolded in the car. Smoking and charred formed littered the train car, while the person that had been hiding in the darkness was barely visible at the back of the compartment under dog corpses and broken metal.

The Bat took a few shallow breaths, working to calm himself again after the blast just moments before he saw the figure at the far end move, the darkness it controlled expanding outwards like a balloon and clearing a wide hole around it, freeing it to move again. Fingers on the triggers the Bat moved, sliding out from behind the seat, guns raised and aiming for the figure that just seemed to vanish into the inky blackness it commanded. Recalling what had happened only a few minutes before he drew back behind the seat again and eased off the triggers, not wanting to be on the receiving end of his own rounds. The guns slipped back into their holsters as he ignored the screams and calls for help from the platform. They wern't his concern, he was here for one thing alone and they wern't it. He needed a plan, he needed to know more about what he was up against,

"I'm starting to be impressed, most don't normally last this long"

He slipped from his cover and slid to the next seat along, making the most of what was left of them to edge forwards, for now keeping out of the blackness that had thrown him through the train compartment door a little earlier in their encounter. He needed to know he could get to his target before fully exposing himself,

"Most creeps tend to wet themselves and plead for mercy when they realise who's come for them..."

[Black Death]

There was an eerie subtleness from where the figure was last seen, it had seemed that Black Death had vanished but he was waiting right underneath the other half of the train, waiting and watching. He was sure his new enemy knew that he was still there. Yet it was hard to make out anything between the fire and the shadows which flicked about the disaster scene. Terry was buying time, making sure he was able to continue but also he had his eye him, trying to come up with some ideas.

Last time he last the fight, and he wouldn’t be taken down that easy, not again. Some deep breaths and a deeper focus at the track below him was enough to get him motivated again. Turning his head he studied a shape in the metal and wood track and his dark creative side began to take over. His darkness force took hold and carved into the rail, it was makeshift but it would do. His eyes glazed up as he heard the Bat speaking to him, Black Death was ready to take another swing at things. A wisp of darkness swept along the back wall of the subway shaft in plain sight.

“Impress you mortal? I am not one to be humored. Your pride will be the winds which sweep you from your foundation. Have you a high head upon thy shoulders, aye? Might this be an example of whom they should fear. I shall not give their tongues a chance to plead."

From behind the Batman then arose a dark pillar of darkness and large humps of darkness rolled across the area. Forming a pole and a sickle shape, a reaper scythe appeared in his cryptic hand which he had carved from the rail. It was clear what he was going to do. Sweeping down suddenly, Black Death swung the scythe towards the Batman, attempting to remove this head.

"And nor will yours!”