• Shade picked up his jacket and ammo and slipped out the door in to the dawn.
    “I can’t believe I left them there, I’m such an idiot. Why is it always my best pair?” he enquired to himself. Nobody knew that Shade wasn’t a normal 14 year old boy, not even him. Shade broke in to a sprint, running as fast as he could.
    “My best guns and I left them at his house, why do I even bother?” he exclaimed. These particular guns were his favorite and best, they were Walther SP22s. They usually came with a 10 round clip, but Shade found a way to triple that. Instead of a single string of bullets it snaked back and fourth 3 times- now holding 30 rounds they were his favorite guns. They were as black as night and seemed to be bonded with his soul, a rather disturbing concept.
    Shade final arrived at Streak’s house, rather inner – city apartment, but it was still his home. Shade knocked quickly on the door, there was no answer. Without a second though he kicked the door down, following which he found a dazed Streak sitting on the couch listening to his headphones in his under wear.
    “Well hello there Shade, how’ve things been?”
    “Let’s skip the pleasantries Streak. Where are my guns?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You heard me, now where are they? Tell me!”
    “Alright, alright here take ‘em I don’t want ‘em.” Streak began to rummage around in side a couch cushion for a moment; he then removed Shade’s guns and threw them to him, Shade hooked the two guns through his back belt loop.
    “Go get dressed, were goin’ out tonight.”
    Streak retreated to his bed room for a moment; he returned wearing red jeans with a white crescent pattern down the legs and a white polo, his gold plated Desert Eagles hung from his far left and right belt loops.
    Shade gave himself a quick look over in Streak’s full length mirror. He was wearing black jeans a white t-shirt and a black zipper hoody; he also was wearing a black necklace.
    “Let’s roll,” said Shade.
    Streak and shade found that after a bit of walking they were in an urban street fair. There were stands of all kinds littering the side walks and road, it seemed as though the entire city was there. Streak and Shade wormed there way to the center of the festivities, when suddenly a large pillar leaped from the earth. Most of the stands and crowd were hurled sky ward, there were only three people left on the ground.
    Demons began to crawl from the great cracks the tower had just created; they were the foulest creatures ever encountered by men or beasts. They spewed forth bile and other excrements of unspeakable nature.
    Shade and Streak looked about at the demons with malice in their eyes, but also with grins spreading across their faces.
    “This is gonna’ be fun,” Streak laughed aloud, he loved to fight, nothing else made him happier.
    The third person left was standing with his hands behind his back; he seemed to be planning some thing extravagant, some thing that would rival every fire works show on planet earth. He whipped his hands out from behind his back, there was a black gripped platinum plated Jericho 41 in each hand. The person spun like a whirl wind popping off shots left and right. By the time he had stopped every demon within the confines of the street fair was decorating either the side walk or a wall. Streak and Shade looked at their possible kindred spirit with awe and amazement. They instantly knew that he was no regular mortal.
    “Now that’s what I call redecorating,” Shade said, looking around at all the new “décor” that surrounded him “and you didn’t even skin either of us!”
    “What’s your name buddy?” Streak asked eyeing the new redecorator oddly.
    “They call me Shatter, what do you two go by?” he asked.
    “I’m Shade, and that’s Streak. So what brought you out here any way?”
    “I live right around the corner, and I felt the disturbance, so I figured why the hell not.”
    “You’re pretty handy with those Jerichos there, where’d you get them?” Streak asked, raising Shatter’s arm to get a better look at one.
    “I bought them a couple of years ago. I just made a couple improvements here and there. I changed the firing pin, to take the strain, re-rifled the barrel, added a couple of inches to it. It isn’t anything that special.”
    “How’d you like to run with us for a while?” Shade asked, hopingly “It seems like we’d get along pretty well.”
    Shatter though for a moment. These guys seem pretty descent, why not; I could probably pick up a couple of skills. He had made his decision.
    “All right, why not, I’m pretty new around here and I’m looking for some fun. Got any thing to drink or kill, I’m thirsty.”
    “Sorry dude, we just killed our last Monster so, yea. What ever, let’s go; I think there are more important matters,” said Shade, looking around. There was enough tension in the air to rip through it with a feather.
    Streak and Shatter looked about as well, seeming to sense the same thing. The whole group looked to the south; which seemed to be the source of the disturbance. Every one began checking their weapons for signs of damage, gore, and cosmetic scratches.
    If you were going to do a dirty job, might as well look good doing it. Rain began to fall as the group gazed toward the southern skies. There was an invisible vortex in the clouds, not yet ready to truly open; but it still drew power from every thing around it.
    They all looked at one another knowingly, when Shade spoke.
    “Alright boys, clip up and roll out,” he said with a crooked smile “we’ve got work to do.”
    There was an affirming nod from the others as they cocked their pistols with a simultaneous Click-click. There wasn’t much left to do but start walking, and so they did.
    As they trekked the city the group talked amongst them selves about various things, nothing really important. The ground seemed to begin to incline beneath them, which was quite startling seeing as the entire city was lying on a hewn plateau atop a mountain. However that was the least of their problems, walls of bone had sprung up both in front and behind them.
    “Oh great,” Streak groaned, “more fun.”