OOC: I'm going to try to start up a little thread here guys. I'm putting this in the threshold cause I want to try for a slightly more realistic background and setting. I want to see some good RPing here, and everyone that thinks they can join is invited to try it out.

Sitting on the coast of Maine was a small city called Blacktides. Along this city there are many different fishing harbors and they are the main backbone of this city. The population here has only two different economical standings. Poor and rich. There is little imbetween. The poor are the ones that end up doing the work down at the docks and the many industrial buildings in the city. The rich sit up in the corporate towers and watch over the city like chess players. The city is their playing field, and each person within it is their pawns.

The people within the city are rather unaware of any supernatural beings. The Technocratics that are the players behind the world take care of any other ideas besides that of the normal population. Demons, angels, vampires, shapechangers, and mages are all game for the Technocrats to hunt in the streets under a cloak of secrecy. The supernatural forces are very limited in this city with power and infulence. Any large stronghold that they create gets wipped out quickly by the Technocrats. The only way that they have managed to hang on for the many years is to go underground or into hiding. False ID's, fake names, and changing living arrangments ever week is an all to common thing that all supernatural beings have to do if they expect to live.

The city itself is cloaked in a thick smog that makes it appear to be twilight or night at most times. The sun only manages to break through on rare days where kids go out and play happily. The town has moderate summers and very cold winters. When the docks are shut down for the winter many people have to go and find jobs somewhere else, or live homeless intill the snow and cold dissapears. The city is a medium sized one with a population of 78 thousand. The nice parts of town normally keep hired guards to keep out the unwanted folks. And the rest of the city is almost all a giant slum, filled with run down buildings, apartments, gangs, and giant industrial complexes. The city has a small suburbish area where the tiny amount of middle class people live and work. Near there is a few large chain stores like Wal-Mart and others like it.

The season is fall and it is a cold one. The town is starting to shut down for the winter, the docks becoming abandoned and the workers finding other jobs. But this fall something dark has happened. The unfrozen waters of the ocean near here have become a dark black color, oozing with something that no one has been able to identify. The very old among the population say that its a bad omen saying of a winter of change and tribulation. Most people just laugh at this and figure that its some sort of oil spill or other enviromental problem that will soon be cleaned up. Fish caught from this water are horribly deformed, and people that have drunk it have soon been found bloated and dead. The mysteries surrounding this town are massive and so deep that it might take a lifetime to discover it all. But one thing is for shure, this winter, something might just change after all.

With a heavy stride Hiro turned down one street, seeming to flee, yet in a composed manner.

Far off in the hazy veil of smog voices leered and feet crashed into the hard stone; their din approaching ever nearer to Hiro's cloaked figure. All of his body was hidden in a dense ashen cloth, wrapped about him as if a homeless man.

As the voices were surely only a dozen or so feet from him he disappeared; pulled into a pit of shadows between the brick building and an ignited trash dumpster. A posse of men stopped outside, looked abuot, and then split down either adjacement alley. For now, they were gone. But they'd be back. They always came back.

The cloaked man now walked down the street agian, warming himself by the flames. Waiting.

Zeke Ravenfield walked through a dark alleyway, his stride quick and determined. He had heard of a rumor about a new guy in town, not quite a vampire but not quite anything else that people knew of. An enigma. A weird quark in the way of the city. Something that the Technocrats would want to destroy. And Zeke was determined to find him and get him into some sort of safe keeping untill more could be gathered to take the war back to the Technocrats the way they desirved.

Zeke walked the streets, his coat blowing in the wind. He knew that this man he was looking for could sense energy coming from people, or at least he hoped he could. Zeke would be taking a large risk, but he desperately needed to find this guy, no matter what.

Zeke stopped in the middle of the alleyway and looked behind and in front of him. Good, no one. Closing his eyes he concentraited and started to feel the energy and patterns of the world flow around him. He could almost see the patterns weaving together the world. On his body his amulet glowed a bright green from under his shirt. As he concentraited he started to change the patters around his body, sending out waves of his energy to attract supernatural perceptions. After a few seconds of acting like a homing beacon, he stopped and let reality flow like it normally should. As his eyes opened his amulet stopped glowing. He gritted together his teeth, knowing that the paradox backlash would be coming soon. As it hit him he felt an immense pain in his stomach and kneeled over holding his arms to his sides. Soon the pain faded away and he stood back up. Only a minor backlash thank god. He just hoped that the man he looked for would sense his energy and come to where he was.

Slowly a front of..something...surrounded and enveloped the very fabric of reality. All at once everything seemed different, altered, controlled, as if the paradox of time itself were being molded.

Then he sensed it; as if a tunnel had been made in time and space between himself and this other entity...a sign maybe? Or maybe a warning? Something, anyway. But anything would be better than this.

Hands shoved into his overcoat's pockets, Hiro walked down the steamy alleyway, not looking for anything in particular, but keeping his eyes wary for anything that may approach from any way. His mind reached out for nearly a mile...searching...sensing...understanding what was out there. Looking for that entity who sent him that...signal.

Of course, the great Fallen Hiro wasn't the only creature to sense this unusual disturbance.

Standing beside the same barrel as Hiro was Eden, warming himself by the fire. His face was illumined in a ghost-like shading, his jewelery reflecting the fire's light back to those who would see it. His youthful, sleek features lightened as he felt the strange surge; his shining eyes alighting, his lips curving into a delicate smile. But for now he would only wait; play the watcher. See what happened.

*Valron stood within one of the fishing factories, his hands covered in bloodly gloves and the bodies of the night guardsmen laying at his feet. Taking off the gloves carefully he threw them into the trashbucket and brought out another pair putting them on his hands. He moved to the main office speedily and kicked down the locked door. He started to slam through the desk and cabinets attempting to find some document. As he ripped open on last draw he found a paper with payments recived and sent out from the company, along with a name of bussinesses that this fishing factory had been doing bussiness with. He put that into his pocket and finished his search, finding nothing else to interest him.*

*Valron left the building as quickly as he had come. As he stood ontop of the roof across from it, the police sirens became heard off in the distance. A task force from the real masters of this city must already be near, Valron thought.*

*Suddenly his vision blurred and he sensed something twisting reality to its own whims. The energy was almost like a homing beacon to supernatural it seemed. Valron's vision soon came back and he looked in the direction of the source. It could be a trap, but anywhere is better than here he thought. Taking off in a run he started leaping from building to building heading towards the source of the disturbance.*

Hiro continued to follow the strange disturbance until a dark figure became noticable on the horizon; silhouetted against a fog of poisonous smog. Hiro stopped walking, his draped body seemingly shapelessagainst the dark of the night. His ancient, powerful voice sliced through the darkness: "You're the one who summoned me. If you are foe, you shouldn't have called for me." Nothing but his voice moved or created any noise.

Zeke had been sitting ontop of a closed dumpster, hoping that this stranger would find him first before anyone else. Zeke was well aware that a figure had entered the alley. But he made no effort to move his body. His head turned towards the man, his presence barely able to be felt at all.

"It is true that I have summoned someone. But if you are that person is yet to be known. You new to this city?"

As Zeke said those words he popped off of the dumpster quickly and stepped forwards a two steps and then stopped. Figuring that intill he was shure this man infront of him was an ally, that he should keep his distance.

Hiro lifted his hidden complexion and, for only an instant, the cloak parted and shown the grinning black-hued lips of Hiro; pulled-bakc in the atrocity called his smile. "You know the way of things. Alas, you keep adequate space between us lest I should attack. Wise." With that Hiro shook his head to each side only once; the hooded twirl falling to unveil his features; so sensually alluring, yet so screamed of his hidden enmity. His eyes, two pits of light-dark, betrayed this evil that now swelted within him as a massive sore. "You are the one who created that pulse, yes? Then it is you who summoned me, for I have heeded its call in curiosity. Now it is your turn to explain." He said. Hidden beneath the cloak Hiro gripped something long, sharp, and deadly.

"I had heard rumors of someone that was new to this city. Someone with some.....exciting possiblities. And I heard also that he was being relentlessly hunted by the powers that loom over this place. I was trying to find this person, so that I could bring them to safty, and perhaps get a nice talk in with them also."

Zeke knew that time was running short. The others that must have noticed his powers where soon to come within mere minutes. If this character that was down the alley from him wouldn't join him in escaping, then Zeke would be forced to leave him behind.

"Time is of the essence. Tell me now if you are the one that I am seeking, and if your not, then just stay far away from me as I leave."

Zeke slipped his hand under his coat and gripped the shotgun he had under there. If things got messy, he was shure that he was going to take the attackers down with him. If it got to that desperate of a situation.

Hiro nodded, taking notice of his hand slipping within his coat. "I am that man." He said. "Eden will come with us. But if conference is what you desire, I suggest we leave very quickly."

Zeke nodded. He had no idea who this Eden person was but that didn't matter. They had to leave as soon as possible. From his pocket Zeke pulled out two glowstick containers and closed his eyes.

Zeke concentraited and peered into the reality of the world. As he saw the patterns of the world forming, he quickly molded them to his will. His amulet was glowing brightly as he quickly worked his majik. Twisting the patterns of the glowsticks, he made them that so only Hiro and himself would be able to see them and they would each be able to find them from anywhere in the city. Even through buildings.

Zeke opened his eyes and the amulet stopped glowing. The outside appearance of the glowsticks hadn't changed at all. Zeke chucked one to Hiro and snapped his own on. Putting it around his neck on its chain he turned to start down the alley. As he took his first step the paradox effect hit him, causing him to double over. His insides felt like they where being gripped and twisted in a vice like hand. Turning to the side Zeke threw up the contents of his dinner, and slowly the pain started to lessen. Once he felt like he could stand he did so and turned back towards Hiro.

"Sorry about that. Now shall we?" he said as he wipped his mouth with the back of his hand and then wipped his hand on his coat.

Eden heard Hiro's words, and with them he obeyed. Quickly, but silently, he moved through the dirty streets until he was just behind Hiro. He dared not challenge his superiority by standing in front of the Angel.

In a blur Hiro caught the glowing item in one chained fist; pulling it within his palm.

He watched Zeke's movements. His majic was great...but it came at a great price, it seemed. Such could not be healthy for a being. He wondered what it must feel like to have enough power to warp reality.

With a brief glance at Eden Hiro spoke: "Lead to safety, then." He spoke. The rising voices of the Technocrats sang its first song in the far distance. "...and I suggest some haste."

High above the city streets and far from the bay docks, in a large corner office of a tall and dark sky scraper, Dias reclined in a heavy leather chair behind his desk, flipping through the pages of a report. He was one of the most powerful industrialists known to the world, at least his familiar was, unknown to the world was that the middle aged CEO of Nexus-Tech Industries was just a puppet, whose strings were pulled by an ancient vampire, the silent partner. Dias's eyebrow's furrowed slightly as he read the dossier's details, it was the R&D, financial, and future planning reports of his largest competitor, a company who for the last five years he had been engaged in a vicious corporate war with, a war which he had been winning. Flipping through the pages he scanned the schematic blueprints contained within, and then the financial statements. Reading the pages it was little wonder they were losing, the money they had spent on research was obscene, and always Nexus-Tech seemed to release superior products just days earlier, they had lost a hundred million in the last year, their stocks had crashed, leaving a net worth of zero. His competitors had often remarked that they could not understand how he managed to continually corner the advanced weaponry and defense market for the last twenty years. Dias discarded the report onto the desktop as he swivelled his chair to face the bay. He tapped his index finger on the arm of the chair as he thought about what to do. Turning around, the autodial function on his telephone activated, in particular the button which automatically phoned David Adams, the CEO of the company. Moments later a husky and obviously drowsy voice came onto the line.

Yes, David Adam's speaking, what is it?

[Color=sky blue]David, I have decided we shall acquire Neo-Tech, I shall send the necessary orders to the legal division so they can draw up the contract. Copies of all the necessary documents will be on your desk when you arrive at seven.[/color]

Dias reclined back again, the phone disconnecting by itself. Standing up he looked out over the bay once again, the flapping of a large banner upon the side of the building catching his attention momentarily before he turned to head home for the night. As he left his office he left two packages upon the desk of of his secretary, each with written instructions for their dispersal.

Dias moved gracefully and silently down the poorly lit hallways, the shadows seeming to envelope him, darkening further the tailored italian black silk suit with somewhat of a gothic cut to it that he wore. Dias entered the elevator and descended to the parking lot basement. Exiting the elevator he approached a long black limousine which seemed to be waiting in the parking lot specifically for him, as he approached, the rear door opened by itself. The engine started as soon as the door of the vehicle closed and slowly pulled towards the exit. As the security shutters rolled up Dias was struck by a strange wave of energy. Closing his eyes he focussed on the wave and found its source, a mortal mage. Without a word the limo began to drive towards the mage's location, all the while Dias maintained his focus upon the boy. The limousine moved quietly down the darkened streets. As he watched, two more entered the scene, a strange vampire thing and a lycanthrope, soon after they fled on foot through the alleyways. Extending his awareness, he encountered a group of mortals, all of whom were outfitted with highly advanced weaponry. Giving silent command to the driver, the limousine began to track the movement of the three.

Minutes later the limousine ghosted down an empty street towards the three's location.

Zeke quickly ran down alleyways filled with dumpsters and boxes. The alleyways where so cluttered that no car could, or even should, be able to navigate them. After ten minutes of a long, winding path they came up to a burned out firestation. Zeke stopped in front of a boarded up door. Looking around he smiled when he saw that they where alone in this alleyway.

"This door is a wonder. It is an item that has sat around one of our places of power and absorbed some of its power. This door has some magical effects. In fact they are much like the effects that the whole building has. Even though the place looks destroyed and blocked off, it truely isn't. Just a clever illiousion to keep mortal's away."

Zeke grabbed the door handle and swung it open. The door phased through the boards over it and opened up to a nicely furnished room. Zeke walked into the room and flipped a light switch, waiting for Hiro to enter also.

Eden glided through the streets, turns, and angles...always a few feet behind his Master, Hiro. Waiting what he should be bid do.

The limousine cruised around a corner and glided to a stop down the street from the entrance of an alleyway, the car sat silently and almost invisible in the poorly lit section of the city, the only light coming from a flickering streetlamp on the alley side of the street. Dias could hear the low distant echo of the mortal mage moving through the alleyways, the other two were far too skilled at moving silently to produce any noise. As he listened, Dias heard the mortal speak, describing the building. Steam rose in great clouds from the sewer vents, as plastic bags and trash were swept down the sidewalk by a gentle breeze. Slowly the rear window of the limousine slid down. Dias opened a small laptop and typed in the address of the city block beside the alleyway. Moments later the screen lit up as the searchengine produced information on the site, the current owner, all previous owners, a detailed blueprint schematic of the buildings and satellite photographs of the site. Dias analysed the data then turned and watched the alleyway in silence for a few long minutes, then the window rolled up again. In his mind Dias silently ran over the risks and rewards of the situation. Finally there was a dull click as the curbside door of the limo opened, and Dias stepped out, his italian leather shoes making a low click on the concrete. The door of the limo did not close, it just hung open to the sidewalk as Dias, his arms folded behind his back, walked up the street until he was standing opposite the alleyway. Pausing for a moment he glanced to either side then crossed the street and disappeared into the shadows of the alleyway.