Recap

It’s been a month and a half now since I put on the mask and created this second life for myself. My girlfriend Jazmin wants to leave me cause I don’t seem to have any time for her lately and on top of that, the streets are still a mess. I’ve made moves against the street gangs, psychopaths and crime organizations that claim to own the night. But yet more crack houses and freaks pop-up in the hoods across Philly. The crime and political corruption that has taken the city under makes me wonder if any of what I’m out trying to do for the city at night will matter for anything at all. For a straight month I prowled the city beating up on the scum of the underworld for info that would lead me to Alex Smalls, the city’s crime lord who rose from low-level drug dealer to the city’s King Pin of crime. I followed Alex across Philly to all his major drug spots and drop off spots and seen that Alex has his hands in everything from the Philadelphia police force to the people making the major decisions in City Hall. It’s the people like Alex that keep me coming out at night and realizing that my actions against chaos is all the city’s citizens have for a sense of hope in the streets. But the moves I’ve made to get towards Alex have gotten me nowhere. Alex has ties with everyone in Philly and nobody wants to be the rat that snitched out Alex to the freak in the mask. So I see, to take this man down I must look beyond my own lust for action and seek a little help. The city is beginning to rot away and the only people able to do anything about it are on Alex’s payroll. MARCH 22ND, 2005. It was the 22nd of the month; I was taking a long shot this night heading towards the office of Lieutenant Roderick Henderson. I had gotten the chance to catch the news the other day and watched a special on the Lieutenant, and how he gives back to the community- it was amazing how this cop was walking the hoods of Philly and got mad love from everyone. It showed me that there was at least one good cop left in the city. Every hood spoke highly of the man, people believed in him because of how he would go out of his way to make sure they are as safe as they can be in Philadelphia. This was the man I needed to aid me in bringing down Alex and his crime empire. Watching that special on Lieutenant Roderick Henderson I could see that he was honored and dedicated to not just his work but helping others as well.

The Sewers.

The sewers, it’s a filthy beast with many faces. A cold and stranded section of the city that is filled with nothing but rot and insects scattering all over the place because of my being in their home. I could only imagine what other creatures of the night besides I was lurking beneath the streets, and I didn’t have time to search each dark corner to find out. One could get lost underground, it’s dark and moldy sections could lead a person anywhere or into anything. But it’s one of the quickest ways in or out of the city, and that’s only if you know the inns and out of the dark and gray tunnels that lead all over an under Philly and into different cities. Bridgeport was where I was heading, a city I knew little about and was being taken over by a mad man that blew away the city’s main bridges along with what looked like half the city within a blink of an eye. Along the way got a text from an associate of mine who calls himself, “The Stalker. A while back I chased a lead from some low life worker of Alex Smalls to Central city. The lead was supposed to be on a drop that our local crime lord Alex was having, but instead was nothin. The location was a dud, an abandon park, back then I was young and weak. I would take any piece of information as valid and run with it. But if I didn’t follow that bad tail I would have never stumbled on to Stalker’s field where he and I had a chance to dance with one another. He’s a good fighter with nice weaponry, and once I could tell him that and of my actions back in Philly during the fight, I convinced him to help me create the Disk Blades that I use in my own war before I fled his city and back to mine. I also remember him telling me of a group he once thought of putting together. A bunch of guys he knew of from different cities who were making the same moves in their city as I was in mine. Or at least trying to, teaming up was the last thing on my mind and still is. The night vision within my mask made it easy to notice the scratch marks and dried up blood that stained the walls, about a mile or two in and bones that looked like they had been chewed on started to made a trail into a big crack in the wall. As much as I would love to have been able to go down and take a peek around, I had more pressing issues. Then a very slow and dry growl came from inside the crack in the wall, the growl got closer and much stronger as I stepped back. What was left of then brick wall began to crumble as something was breaking through, it was big and tearing apart the brick wall like paper. It had been a while since I felt fear, but I couldn’t walk away, not with this coming at me. There was dust and dirt everywhere, in front of me was a giant beast with half a tire on its face as a mask. His skin was grey or it could have just been the filth that covers his body, then out of nowhere the sound of a chains snapping filled the air just before a man whole cover was thrown at me. It was way to slow and sloppy to hit a target like me, but the power behind it was massive, I was on the clock and didn’t want to waste time with this. Had to use the smoke from all the dust to hide within and get up close to him and gain contact. Some hits landed harder than others, but it was a disk blade across the face that sealed the deal. Its scream echoed the halls of the sewer as it backed off leaving me curious and angry at what’s been living under my streets. I can only hope nothing involving him happens while I’m away, a lose inn that I will tighten up once I get back.