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Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild.
~Immanuel Kant

I grinned savagely, as I felt my nails tear through flesh, sending hot blood splashing over my face. The scream and the hissing curse that followed were music to my ears as I lunged behind me, kicking my next opponent square in the face. Feeling the satisfying crunch under my boot as the man’s nose -and possibly other parts of his skull- broke under my foot, I spun around and shoved both men away from me. They both fell to the ground, with the one whose face I’d clawed hitting his head against the brick wall of the enclosed space, and the sound echoed through the suddenly silent alleyway.
I looked around at the bodies of the five men that attacked me. Well… The bastards were still breathing, at least… As for whether or not they could get a date any time soon, well, that was a different story…
Shaking off my annoyance for the evening, I spun around on my heel and left the morons where they lay. If they were lucky, the cops would get to them before the rats did… I’m telling you, rats may be cute and all, but they’ll eat anything! It doesn’t matter if it’s still kickin'…
I sighed and stretched my arms over my head as I walked out of the alley on the corner of West Seymour Ave. and South Pacific Drive. Now I know, I left that somewhere around here… Ah! There it is!
Picking up my hat, I dusted the thing off and placed it back on my head. So hard to keep your hat on when getting jumped these days… Of course, it’s even harder when you’re trying to fight off a bunch of thugs in the process, unless you’re confident enough to take them one-handed... Of course that would require taking some damage on my part… Naw! I’d prefer my clothes stay intact, thank you very much!
I laughed under my breath at their stupidity and headed back down W. Seymour, in the direction of the intersection that ran downhill. It was a quieter part of town, at least until I got to where I was going. That place was just damn noisy!
Shadows drifted closely at my heels, like a writhing mist, a living thing all of its own… This was the living materialization of my soul, and my very being. For once the darkness grabs your soul, it wraps around you like a cloak, concealing all else, and never letting you go…
I sighed and a tendril of smoke slipped out of the corner of my mouth, disappearing into the winter air. The blood on my face was slowly disappearing as well, the darkness devouring all physical traces of my fight with the Bone Crackers, a street gang notorious in the area for mugging tourists. Heh, too bad for them, they thought I was a visitor… Humans… I just don’t get them…
I made it to the curb and looked around for passing cars, but as usual at this time of night, the streets were empty… Except for… Oh, ho ho! This is too good!
I couldn’t resist it. I mean, some idiot speeding downhill? There was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity like that!
I stood stock-still on the curb waiting until the last second in the vehicle’s decent, before stepping out into its path. Heh, I can only imagine what the driver must have seen at that point… A figure dressed in black, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, then slowly turning to face the driver… Its eyes burning red in the glow of the headlights from underneath a black hat…
The sound of screeching tires hit my ears as the driver desperately tried to stop the car in time, only to have the thing ram into me at full force, scattering my body into black smoke. I reformed immediately as soon as the car passed, watching the confused driver as the vehicle finally slammed to a halt. Once the car stopped, the driver shakily reached for his seatbelt and got out of the car. Well, at least the guy had the decency to make sure he hadn’t killed somebody…
One look at me though, was enough to send him scrambling back into his car and driving down the hill at lightning speed. Oh, and the look on his face?! I almost fell over, I was laughing so hard! That’ll teach that bastard to speed going downhill! Ha!
After the guy’s hasty departure, I returned to the sidewalk and continued down...