Death, it's the earliest memory I have.
The smell of someone who lost their life still stains my nose. A man who had done the deed. His hand extended towards me to grab. Someone methodically put together his purple suit. His dark skin was smooth and hardly damaged. Red tips sat on top of his curly hair. The Sunglasses that he never took off and the scar that ran through the right side of his lips. I etched these details in my memory, but what stains them is none of these. What stains them are the words he had spoken to me.
"That is how we end those beneath us."
The lights of a car flash past through the night rain and illuminate the young man who sits in deep thought on the wet street. His red hair catches the rain drops and keeps his face as dry as it can. His red eyes hold a cold color of steely resolve as he stares at a building that many would see as abandoned, but he knew better. He reaches down to his lower back, where a sheathed dagger sits. He looks down at it and whispers. "Not tonight."
The young man then slowly walks towards the building, entering the front door. As he walks up the rotting and moldy stairs, he thinks. "How fitting that trash hold their meetings in a place like this."
His steps don't make a sound. If you were to watch his movements, it would be reminiscent of a lion on the hunt. As he ascends the stairs, he can hear chatter in the distance. As he approaches the top of the stairs, he can see a dirty black door, and below it, light shines from the crack. He slowly approaches and the faint chatter becomes a coherent conversation. "That's fifty thousand for the shipment of drugs. And thirty for each of these.... cough... volunteers."
The second voice scoffs, "Whatever your organization does with this many volunteers will always keep me up at night." Everyone in the room laughs. From the sound the young man can discern that they're five in total hostiles in the room.
The young man then lets out a loud laugh as he kicks the door open. "That is funny. It's so funny that I should reward you trash, for making me laugh!"
Everyone in the room quickly turns toward the young man, pulling out pistols and aiming them in his direction. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"
The young man looks around and scoffs. "I'm a janitor and your trash, simple right?"
One man inspects him, and in an instant, recognizes the young man in the doorway. "Wait, you're Ryan! THE HELL YOU DOING HERE?"
Ryan slowly looks around the room to see a large case of high-end drugs, and in the left corner of the room, he sees four homeless men, two elderly men, and women, and three young children tied up, muffled, and crying. Ryan's eyes glow red as he grits his teeth, and his right arm lights up in the same color, revealing a large tattoo that is reminiscent of a large circuit. "So this is where all the "volunteers" for those damned experiments come from."
One of the men screams. "DAMNIT HE'S A MIRACLE USER, KILL HIM!!!!!"
Before a single man could pull the trigger, wooden spikes appear from the floor cutting off all the men's arms. Everyone in the room screams in pain. "GOD DAMNIT MY ARMS!!!"
Ryan lets out an angry yet grotesque laugh. "God has nothing to do with what's about to happen to you!" Ryan raises his right hand. "This is how I end those beneath me."
The children tied up all close their eyes but the screams, and the piercing sound of flesh and blood splattering on the wooden floor, couldn't escape their ears. The worst noise the children heard wasn't the horrors of their captor's demise, it was the inhuman laugh of the young man delivering these horrors. After what felt like a lifetime, the laughs and cries stopped. Then a gentle and caring hand helped them free. As the children opened their eyes, they could see the soft smile of Ryan that was more haunting than reassuring, because of the blood that was splashed across his gentle face. "You guys and gals are safe now."
Then, without warning, four men rush through the door. The men were all wearing black coats with a gold cross on the back. The man in front had red hair and eyes like Ryan. His long hair accompanied by a fade off the side of his head caught Ryan's attention.
"More trash? Fine, I can clean you up too!" Ryan's eyes and arm glow as he prepared to attack the mysterious intruders.
The red-haired man in front glanced at Ryan before he raised his left hand. "Shut it you rabid dog." The man then simply flicks, and in an instant, it sent Ryan flying through the wall. Shocked and falling from the third floor of the building into the streets, Ryan tries to comprehend what had just happened.
'What was that? I saw it clearly. All that bastard did was flick. How was I blown away from that? This Bastard is strong!' Ryan's eyes and arm glow as he turns the surrounding rain into an ice platform that connects to the building he was just sent from. Ryan looks back up at the hole it sent him from and prepares to jump back up, however before he could, he hears a voice coming from beneath him.
"Impressive for a dog." Before Ryan can even look down, the sound of another flick snaps through the air. The ice platform Ryan created instantly gets obliterated. Ryan falls to the ground and, while rolling to catch his footing, he uses the street to send a concert of spikes toward the red-haired man. Instead of dodging, the man puts his hands into the pockets of his black coat and yawns. The biggest spike pierces right through his stomach. Ryan smiles and laughs. "How's that? Not so tough now, HUH!"
To Ryan's surprise, the man responds. "Ow, that kinda hurt a little."
Ryan's laugh of victory slows to a laugh of disbelief. "It kinda hurts?"
The man then takes his left hand from his pocket and raises it to the sky before calmly responding to Ryan. "Rapid dogs like you always think they're the shit because they're big fish in small ponds. Let me show you what actual strength looks like."
Ryan scoffs. "What am I? A fish or a dog? Make up your damn mind, old man!"
The man then clinches his fist. "You're weak, that's what you are." and with one swift strike, hammers down at the spike. On impact, the entire street gets engulfed in a storm of dust, and Ryan gets blown away. As the dust clears Ryan picks himself up and looks over toward where the man was and was left speechless.
The street where the man was standing was now replaced by a crater. Ryan, speechless, struggles to find words. "Who the hell are you?"
The man calmly walks out of the crater, his slicked-back hair now hanging on his face. The man stops and thinks about the question, before slicking his hair back in place. "Who am I? I'm the forsaken. The Black sheep. I am the Red Wolf Inquisitor. I am Loid Asher."
Ryan tries to get to his feet but is unable. "Why won't my legs work? A... am I too scared to get up? Ryan then yells at Loid.,"Why are you so freaking strong?!"
Loid's face had remained as calm and uncaring as it's been the entire time. "Because I'm an enormous fish in the ocean, we called the world." Loid then looks at Ryan's shocked face. "If you want to be as strong as me, then you have to leave your little pond and grow in the ocean. Right now you're a dog without a bone, without a means for you to get stronger because everyone around is weak."
Ryan looks down at the rain hitting the street. "Hey Red Wolf, I've heard of you guys. You're the Inquisitors. If I joined your little club, would I get stronger?"
Loid scratches his cheek, confused. "Probably..."
Ryan laughs and thinks to himself. 'If I can get as strong as him, then I could finally kill THAT man.' Ryan stands up, and the sky clears, revealing the rise of dawn. "Fine, Red Wolf, I wanna join you guys."
Loid stares blankly at Ryan. "Ummm, ok."
Two men under the same sun, in different places in the world, become intertwined as they both take steps toward the end of the world.