So this is a thing that just happened.

1.1 Sophia

"You're sure everything's ready to go?"

I rolled my eyes and snorted. Christ, for it being her idea Emma's being such a little bitch about the details. "Yes, I'm sure," I snapped. "I finished filling her locker with the crap over break so it's had plenty of time."

Clements giggled. "I can't wait to see her face! How'd you manage to get the stuff in there, anyway?"

"That's easy!" Emma laughed. "She just -"

"- Got the combo and shoved it in there," I interrupted the redhead fast, giving her a quick glare. Idiot, don't go blabbing everything. You want me getting in trouble with the fatty? "Now let's go, I don't want to be caught hanging around here."

"What-ever." With a wave of her hand, Clements dismissed my suggestion. "It's not like we'd get blamed for this. Nobody's dumb enough to snitch on us." She grinned. "Besides, who'd they believe? The trouble student or the three of us?" She batted her eyelashes.

I tried to keep the distaste that felt thick in my throat from showing on my face. She was useful for now, but I was going to need to get away from her sooner or later. She might think she's got power because she managed to suck up to us, but I can tell she's just prey deep down. Still, depending on how this thing with Hebert goes, I might let her stick around for a while longer - she's been helping keep the teachers off us. Not that I really need that, but it makes my life easier. "When is she getting here?" I sighed. "I'm getting bored."

"Useless no matter what," Emma giggled. A vibrating sound filled the air, and she whipped out her phone and studied it briefly before a wide grin stretched across her face. "She's here. Get ready."

I shrugged and gestured to them. "Stand back. Don't wanna be in the splash zone, right?"

"Eww!" Clements and Emma chorused in unison before taking a few steps away from Hebert's locker. I nodded and stepped back myself, waiting in hiding for our target to walk to her corner.

Before long, the pathetic loser walked around the corner and headed for her locker. Like always, she was walking hunched over slightly, a sight that never failed to make me want to hurt her. What a wimp - she can't even fight back. Maybe after today she'll just leave and not come back! Yeah, that would be the perfect ending to the whole thing, like a late Christmas present. But as for Hebert, I could tell she was prey just by looking at her. She was way too tall, too gangly, and always wore dark clothes that never revealed anything. Everything from the way she walked, eyes always darting around behind her glasses and back hunched slightly, to the way she looked just screamed at me to, well, prey on her. I smirked as she stopped in front of her locker, putting her backpack on the ground, and spun the dial, entering her combination before popping open the door.

The smell was the first thing to hit me - the rancid smell of old blood. Which makes sense, since I'd shoved three bins-full of used pads and tampons into there.

Hebert stumbled backwards and I moved forward; as she bent over to vomit, I held my breath and grabbed her by the hair hard and shoved her forward, forcing her into the locker. It was barely tall enough for her to fit, hunched over like she was, but she didn't even try to resist. As soon as I shoved her in there, I slammed the locker door shut and clicked the lock closed over it again. Turning around to glare at the students that had been present, I made sure to stare at every single one of them. They knew that if they told anyone they'd be the next ones in the line of fire, and they all looked away. Pathetic herd of cattle. Not a single real predator in the entire school aside from me.

Ignoring the banging from the locker behind me, I walked away to join up with Emma and Clements; we swept through the halls, the queen bees of the school. I snickered as the bell rang, marking the beginning of classes - there was nobody that would help her. If we got lucky, she'd be in there for a day or two - the perfect place for trash is with other trash, after all. And this one, nobody could even try to pin on us, since none of us know the combination to her lock. She could yelp all she'd like, but Hebert would never be able to prove we did this.

Halfway through the second class of the day - Mr. Gladly's class, Parahuman Studies or something stupid like that - my phone buzzed and I lifted my head from my desk. When the fuck did I fall asleep? Christ, that asshole's voice is more boring than I thought. I glanced at my phone; it was Clements asking if we shouldn't let Hebert out of the locker. Before I could more than snort dismissively, Emma replied, telling her to stop being a little bitch about it. Not literally, but then again Emma was slightly better at handling people than me. Mainly because I couldn't give two shits about the feelings of some idiot. I pocketed my phone, satisfied that Clements wouldn't lose her nerve and let Hebert out, and resumed listening to Mr. G, as he insisted we call him, ramble about parahumans and how they impacted society. Pfft, like I needed to pay attention; I could learn more about that in one night out on the town than I did all year in this class. Still, I had to at least try to pretend to care, or Piggy'd get on my case, and listening to her snort at me was so far down on my list of shit that I wanted to do that jumping in a fire ranked higher.

At the end of the period, I strode out of the classroom only to find that the halls were empty. The hell? Where was everyone? A pair of girls ran past, and I reached out to snag one of them. "Where's everyone?" I asked them. "What's going on?"

"Didn't you hear?" the girl said, glancing at me. "They found that Taylor Hebert girl locked in her locker! The janitor popped it open and she just came out of there snarling like a monster."

"Damn," I blinked. "That's messed up." They glanced at each other, and I deliberately tightened my grip on the girl's upper arm. She winced and looked at me with just a tiny shred of fear in her eyes, but that was enough for me. "Whoever did that might be listening right now, so you probably shouldn't talk about it loudly." So shut up about it and don't point any fingers, got it? I let go of her arm when she nodded quickly and the girls sped off, no doubt to go watch the show. I hesitated for only a second before following them, texting Emma and Clements as I went. They'd probably heard about it already, but better safe than sorry - I don't want this biting me in the ass because those two let something slip.

When I arrived at the scene, it was so crowded that I couldn't see past the mass of students. Shoving and pushing, I made my way to the front; I wanted to see Hebert lying on the ground like a pathetic victim with my own eyes, not just hear it second-hand. I reached the front of the circle to see several teachers trying desperately to keep order while a janitor worked on mopping up the crap that had spilled out of Hebert's locker onto the floor. It was a lot more liquid than I remembered, but that was probably from Hebert's puke. As for Hebert herself, she was pale and covered in vomit, lying on her hands and knees and staring at the floor. I felt a small thrill of victory at how pathetic she looked; with something like this, she shouldn't bother coming back.

Suddenly, Hebert stiffened and slowly turned her head to look at me. I blinked in surprise as she slowly pushed herself to her feet and lurched over to me, shuddering. A teacher told her to sit down to avoid hurting herself, but Hebert didn't listen. "You planned this," she whispered, before making a fist and slamming it into my chin. I wasn't exactly prepared for her to fight back, so I stumbled backwards before sitting down hard.

I stared up at her and rubbed at my aching jaw. "Damn, you hit hard for such a scrawny wimp," I jeered.

"I should..." she muttered, stepping toward me, and I felt a small shiver run down my back as she stared at me. "I should...kill..." Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Fuck. Who knew she had it in her? But that shiver... I knew a predator when I saw one, and when I looked into her eyes I'd seen the hard light of a fighter. Where the hell did that come from? And it might have just been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn that when I looking at her her eyes were red. Had she become a parahuman?

...Pfft, yeah, like that weakling would become a parahuman. Still, the look in her eyes was the same as mine. Guess there was a second predator at the school after all.

After the paramedics arrived and carted Taylor away, I made my appropriate excuses and slipped away to the nurse, ostensibly for some ice for my jaw. Taylor's punch had stung, yeah, but it looked worse than it actually was. The real reason I went to the nurse was so that I could meet up with Emma and Clements and talk to them.

"You're kidding, right? All that work, and you want us to back off?" Clements whined.

I glared at her. "Look, you weren't there, okay? Trust me when I say that backing off now is the best course of action. So go tell all your little groupies to leave off if or when she comes back to school."

"Fine," Clements sighed, flouncing away.

After the nurse's door closed behind her, I sat back and pressed the bag of ice against my jaw. Silently, Emma watched me. "Is she strong now?" she asked finally.

"Christ, Emma," I sighed. "Your lady-boner is showing."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I'm talking about. Did it work? Is she strong like me now?"

Not exactly like you. Taylor's actually strong, not just pretending. "Yeah," I told her. "Shit, you should have seen her eyes. Like she really did want to kill me."

Emma beamed. "I'm happy. Now Taylor can be our friend, like before."

I shrugged. "If she wants to be."

"Of course she will. I'm sure once I explain everything she'll be grateful!"

"Maybe give her some space for a bit," I said. "Seriously, you didn't see her eyes. Trust me on this one. People with eyes like that are usually bad news."

Emma frowned, before she nodded. "Your extracurricular activities?" she asked, using the phrase that we'd agreed on to keep things as secret as possible.

"Yeah. The big guys always have eyes like Taylor's were." I shrugged. "I don't fuckin' know. Maybe she'll thank you, maybe she'll try to stab you. Not my problem, really." Emma just laughed.

A week passed, and Taylor returned to school from the hospital - I'd heard they'd taken her to the psych ward to make sure she wasn't too messed up in the head. I was waiting for her by her locker - they'd actually replaced the entire thing, since I'm pretty sure they needed a hazmat team to clean the inside out. A new door and everything - and when she showed up I looked at her. She shrank back slightly, stopping a few feet away from me and doing her best not to look at me. I studied her for a few seconds, trying to figure out if I really had been imagining things when she'd been staring at me after punching me; after a few seconds, I snorted. "Whatever. See ya around, Hebert."

I'm not entirely sure what happened, but as I turned to walk away every instinct in my body screamed at me to get away; I stiffened, refusing to give in to my base urges and walked away. When I was a safer distance away, I looked back, glancing over my shoulder - to see that Taylor had been watching me the whole time, her eyes following me unerringly. Another shiver went down my spine and I smirked. Yeah... About time we had another powerful one here.

At lunchtime, Emma sighed and slumped into the seat across from me. "I don't get it..." she complained. "Taylor just seemed tired when I told her why we did what we did."

"Just tired? Nothing else?"

"No, just tired. She didn't seem to be holding a grudge or anything like that, though," Emma added almost as an afterthought. "She... I don't know, it's like she's kinda just humoring me. I thought she'd be grateful I made her strong!"

"Hi party people!" Clements chirped as she sat down beside Emma, putting her tray down. "What's happening?"

"Talking about Taylor," Emma replied.

"Why would you talk about her?"

Emma's eyes narrowed. "Because we were friends," the red-head hissed venomously. "And if everything works out we'll be friends again."

Clements blinked. "Oh. Um... Sorry?" Emma crossed her arms and glared at the smaller girl. "I said sorry!"

"Anyway," I said, "Madison, you told the other girls to stay away from Hebert from now on, right?"

"I did. A lot of them were just doing it because we were, so it wasn't too hard to tell them to stop." She shrugged. "There might be a few that keep trying."

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, make them stop trying, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed. "When I finish lunch." I exchanged a brief glance with Emma and the red-head just shrugged. Well, not much we can do about it anyway - if anything, it would probably be better to stay away from Taylor for the time being.

1.2 Klaus

"...and so she says, 'I'm Jewish!'"

Eli roared with laughter. "No fucking way, man. You're shitting me!"

"No way!" Nick grinned. "Hundred percent serious."

I chuckled. "You still finished, right?"

Nick rolled his eyes at me. "Duh, dumbass. What do I look like, you?"

"Very funny, ass." I grinned at him and pounded my fist into my palm. "Do I have to hurt you?"

He laughed. "Oh, spare me from your wrath!"

After a moment of further posturing, we all broke down and laughed. Nick and Eli were probably my best friends - we'd all grown up in the same neighborhood, gone to the same school, and joined the same gang. To be entirely fair, it was the only gang that made sense; nobody with any self-respect would join up with the Merchants, and the ABB only took Asian members. And since the three of us were white, we'd joined up with the Empire Eighty-Eight. They were actually doing something to clean up the streets, unlike the other gangs; I might not have bought into their rhetoric entirely, but that didn't change the fact that we were the only ones doing anything helpful. I mean, the ABB were a bunch of violent gangbangers, and the Merchants were, well... the Merchants. Even the PRT dogs, slaves to their public appearance, couldn't do anything. Only the E88 were acting to do anything; only we were actually helping clean up the city.

"Heads up boys," Eli said, staring down the street. "We've got one."

"Tch," Nick spat. "A nigger. Wonder if this one's got anything worth it." Unlike me, Nick bought into the dogma religiously. It had been a week before he started using the names; a week after that and he'd been actively looking for targets.

The three of us walked up and stopped in front of the black woman carrying a big purse. "Can I help you?" she asked archly.

"Yeah," Eli said. "Follow us and you might not get hurt. Don't say anything, don't look around, don't cry for help. If you do, well, I can't guarantee these two gentlemen won't take matters into their own hands." Nick and I cracked our knuckles, looming over his shoulders; at six feet tall, we were the muscles of the group.

The black woman was frightened, but followed us into the alley. "Now, give us the purse," Nick growled, holding out one meaty hand. "If you've got anything valuable in there, we might let you go." The woman hesitated, eyes darting between us - and then she swung the bag at his face, striking him on the side of his head. "Gah, fuck! The hell is in there, bricks?!" I didn't respond; I was too busy grabbing the woman and slamming her against the brick wall of the alley.

"That was dumb," I told her. Then I clenched a fist and drove it into her stomach. "Real dumb. Nick, you doing okay?"

"Fuck me, my eye's gonna be black and blue for a week," he grumbled.

"Good to know I can stand looking at you for that long, then."

"Go fuck yourself, Klaus." Face twisted in anger, he glowered at the woman; I let go of her coat and she slumped to the ground, gasping for air. He brought his leg back and kicked her in the ribs, and I'm pretty sure I heard something crack. Her ribs, if her whimper of pain was any indication. "Dirty nigger, think you can hurt me and get away with it? Huh?!"

"Dude, you better slow down," Eli cautioned him. "You -"

"Think it matters if she dies?" he snarled. "She's filth! Subhuman! Like all the rest of her disgusting kind." He punctuated his words with another kick to her ribs, and she curled up onto her side, crying. "Once she's dead we can -"

The sounds of footsteps made us all freeze and look for the source; the footsteps faltered and stopped, and we stared at the figure that had stumbled onto our alleyway mugging. It took me a second to realize that they were female; the only real clue I had was the long black hair that hung in long curls. Everything else about them was just... meh. Eli swore under his breath and reached a hand into his pocket. "Up against the wall," he ordered her, pulling out a pocket knife and flipping it open. "Now!" he roared when the girl stood there, frozen. He waved the knife at her and she moved, eyes wide in her pale face. "Christ..." Eli muttered, shaking his head. "This can't get any worse."

Savagely, Nick gave the woman another kick to the stomach, and she coughed in response, a wet burbling sound. She coughed again and then spat out blood; it was a crimson splatter. Not very much. Nick was looking at the woman and Eli was rummaging through her purse, so I was the only one to see how the girl's eyes snapped to the blood and were riveted there. She wasn't staring at us or the knife still gleaming in Eli's hand. Slowly, as though she was in a trance, she stumbled towards the woman, mouth hanging open. "Hey!" Eli snapped, looking over in time to see her leave the wall. "The hell you doing?" He swiped out with the knife, trying to get her to back off and go back to the wall, and the knife slashed open a gash on her forearm.

She froze entirely, as if her entire body was made of stone. Eli turned back to the purse, gesturing with his head at me to get the girl back against the wall. Shrugging, I approached her - and then froze as I reached out to grab her shoulder. Blood had started flowing from her wound and her eyes were locked on the small droplets. Slowly, she brought her arm up to her mouth and licked at the blood, leaving a red smear over her pale skin. Wincing at how gross what she'd just done was, I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Get against the wall," I told her. When she didn't move, I tightened my grip. "I said..." I tried to force her to move, but she didn't budge an inch.

Instead, she started laughing. "What was I so worried about?" she breathed. "This feeling..." She glanced at her arm again, and I followed her gaze to see that aside from the red streak of the drying blood there wasn't a scratch on her. "It's so wonderful!"

My world just shifted in the next second as I found myself flying through the air only to slam into the brick wall hard enough to crack several of them. I fell to the ground, groaning in agony. "Cape!" I managed to shout despite the lancing pain that went through my chest.

"Shit!" Eli swore, turning to look. The girl just laughed again, madness running through the sound, and moved forward far faster than the rest of us humans could. Eli slashed with the knife again and the girl effortlessly batted it aside; as blood sprayed from her palm, the blade of the knife snapped with a sickening crack. Eli dropped the knife with a scream, clutching at his hand, and I realized the crack had been his arm. "G-Get away!" he shouted, stumbling backwards. I watched with horror as the girl reached out and grabbed his face, slamming him against the wall with his feet dangling in the air. Eli screamed as she tightened her grip before opening her mouth and plunging her teeth into his throat. The scream turned into a terrifying gurgle as he flailed, trying to get away from her; still, the girl kept at it, her teeth buried in his flesh.

"Get away from him, bitch!" Nick shouted, leaving the black woman to fight off the cape. He punched her and she was knocked away from Eli; she hadn't let go of his throat, so his throat was torn out with a spray of blood that coated Nick's face. "Fucker!" I slowly started trying to push myself to my feet. The last time I'd felt like this was during the initiation... Fuck, probably got some broken ribs. Then Nick screamed in pain and I looked to see that the girl had literally torn his arm off, discarding it to the side. Nick shouted something incoherent and tried to turn to run; he made it two steps before tripping over garbage on the ground and crashing to the ground. Instantly, the girl had pounced and was at his throat, her teeth sunk deep in the flesh.

I took a step back, unable to tear my eyes away, and I kicked a can on the ground. Her head snapped up to stare at me, and I felt paralyzed. I couldn't do anything but stand there shuddering as she stood up, absently stepping on Nick's motionless body as she approached me, her eyes never leaving mine. Her red eyes were so beautiful, I couldn't look away. As she stopped in front of me, I couldn't even breathe. Her jaws cracked open, far wider than should be possible and filled with sharp pointed fangs.

I felt a sharp pain at my neck, and then nothing.

I just felt cold as darkness claimed me.

1.3 PHO

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Topic: Alley Cannibal?
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay Discussion
Ekul (Original Poster)
Posted On Jan 19th 2011:
So, there's been been these rumors going around that apparently there's some person going around and attacking people more or less at random.

Nobody's managed to see them, but it's always the same result in the end - an alley soaked in blood and a body (or bodies) that's been torn to shreds, usually in several pieces. Rumor has it that the bodies are missing huge chunks of flesh, like someone's been eating the kill.

I haven't managed to find any pictures of one of the crime scenes, though. Anyone else know anything?

(Showing page 1 of 45)

►ArchmageEin
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
Holy shit, is this for real?

►Alicornication (Verified Awesome)
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
This is kinda frightening... I hope that OP is just making things up to scare people. I don't want to think there's a cannibal roaming around in BB!

►Ekul (Original Poster)
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
Re:Alicornication
I'm not making this shit up! I know this guy in E88 (long story, don't ask :p) and he said that three of their dudes got hit like last week.

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
Fuck, first we have the parahumans, and now this? Is there any hope that this is just the work of that one dog cape?

►All_Seeing_Eye
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
Re:Brocktonite
Dog cape? I think you're referring to Bitch, the one that makes dogs grow into monsters.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain this has to be the work of some parahuman. I don't have any pictures, but I checked out one of the alleys (after the police left) and it was massively trashed. Almost reminded me of Collateral Damage Girl - the bricks were pulverized - but she at least turns in the bad guys.

►Ne1 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 19th 2011:
This is some serious shit if it's true. You think one of the capes from the Merchants or the ABB did this?

►White Fairy (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 20th 2011:
Re:Ne1
Nah, I doubt it, unless Lung got a craving for some meat! In all seriousness, though, if the wiki's right then none of the capes in BB could do this.

►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 21st 2011:
It must be a new cape!

►o realisticFantasy o (Verified Awesome)
Replied On Jan 21st 2011:
Oh man, wonder what their power is. Maybe we should call them Carnage! XD

►bothad
Replied On Jan 21st 2011:
Re:Realistic
Carnage sounds like a villain's name. What if the parahuman's a hero?

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 43, 44, 45

...

(Showing page 45 of 45)

►SpecificProtagonist
Replied On March 28th, 2011:
Re:Stalking_Tanuki
I've heard that Carnage wears a red coat! So don't wear one of those and stay away from alleys.

Edit: Oopsie! Red, not read!

►IscAAriot
Replied On March 29th, 2011:
Carnage is our sins made manifest! Repent, heretics, and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior! Carnage shall consume all who refuse, and I shall bear witness and assist in their righteous task!

This user has received an infraction for this post.
-Threats are not tolerated in this forum. Take a few days off to cool down. - Tin_Mother

►TheCrimsonFckr
Replied On April 2nd, 2011:
I saw Carnage! ...Or someone that's wearing a red coat, anyway :P

I still say Carnage is a fuck-mothering vampire!

►Stalking_Tanuki (Awesomest Writing-tan)
Replied On April 2nd, 2011:
Re:Crimson
Auuuuu~! Vampires are scary! Tanuki is shivering!

►Gallant(Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On April 3rd, 2011:
Vampire or not, it's still an abuse of parahuman powers. The Wards and the Protectorate are keeping an eye out for Carnage and are doing our best to keep the people of Brockton Bay safe.

If you see Carnage, please run.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 43, 44, 45

Author's note in final chapter.