First Storms

Barry stared at the billboard, his spear leaning against the wall. Apparently a shop nearby was looking for new people to recruit, with an added bonus. He sighed, walking away, brushing shoulders with a man who had his ears covered by headphones. Most people wouldn't apply for that job anyway, and Barry knew it all too well. The pay was good, no two ways about it. But of late, Boston had become a breeding ground, a base for daemon to pick their meals and go. It was like applying to become an inquisitor.

Then again, being employed in a shop wasn't bad. One could meet so many faces, have a normal life, away from all the constant fears of death. Sure, you deal with weird personalities once or twice but then, at least those personalities were not trying to kill you.

Barry stopped abruptly. There was this something ominous in the air. A daemon. He looked around him, looking for clues. Sure enough he wasn't the only feeling it. There were other people in the crowd that felt the same way, but they were unsure of what it was.

Barry crossed the street, a spear in one hand and a cup of warm coffee in the other. He went straight ahead, not looking back, his senses concentrated straight ahead. He could sense a daemon close by. Very close. Like too close to be possibly hidden. The sewers didn't reach beyond this point of the town, so where could it possibly be?

Barry sighed. Hide and seek, huh? He couldn't help but smile. A daemon trying to bait him away from the street, so that its friends could feast on the poor innocents around. What a bother. Barry leaned against the wall of the building, looking straight down, sipping his coffee. Three minutes passed, without a sign of anything unusual. Five minutes, ten minutes. Thirty minutes.

"Bingo." Barry said with a smile. He drank the last of his coffee before tossing it in a nearby bin. Pointing his spear straight ahead, straight in the direction of the yellow eyes that peered from the dark alley. The people around him began to back away, aware of what his current demeanor meant, began to move away in a hurry, a few brave ones took out their phones to take videos of it to show off to the world.

Instantly, Barry sped towards the daemon, stabbing it. The daemon, foreseeing this moved its hand in the way to lessen the impact. To its horror, the blade never impaled him, rather performing an upward slash, slicing its arm clean of while leaving a long scar across its face. The daemon staggered backwards, trying to flee, only to have a red aura spear flung into its chest, missing its core by a few inches and pinning him to the ground. Barry walked up to the daemon, putting one foot on its chest, his spear pointing at the daemon's core. The aura spear dissipated into thin air.

[Trickery, huh?]

"I can't understand a word you're saying." Barry said, stabbing the daemon straight into its chest. The daemon cried out before dying, dissipating a few seconds later. Barry sighed, looking at the black blood on his spear. He walked out of the alley, ignoring the streamers who filmed him. Just when he expected today to be a normal day. He crossed the road but stopped midway.

"That's odd." Barry said under his breath, bending down. A car stopped abruptly in front of him.

"Hey!" The driver cried, stepping out of the vehicle. "You crazy or what?"

"Sorry, checking something over here." Barry said, pinning the spear into the ground. He removed the sewer cover, examining its surface.

"Dude, I've got a job to hurry up to."

"And I'm doing mine." Barry said, "You can always drive around me."

Barry looked at the claw marks on the cover's surface. Daemon only clawed the surrounding areas to find their way around. To indicate that they've been there or to group with other daemon. These marks showed that they were trying to get in.

"Hey," Barry called to the man. "Got a flash light?"

"Yeah?" The man said, going through his car and handing him an old flashlight. Barry took it and shone it into the dark sewer.

"Shit!" Barry exclaimed.

"What is it?" The man asked. Barry stood up and grabbed his spear.

"Daemons are under the city."

Barry jumped in, landing in the dirty water, disgusted by what was around him. He however could not afford to be disgusted right now.

The daemon aura was stronger down here. It was residual, but it was strong. They had been gathering, waiting in the dark. Patiently. And that fact alone was scary enough. The fact that they had intentionally starved themselves for a bumper harvest was weird. They'd only do that if a White daemon was in charge. Deep down he didn't want to admit it. If that was the case, then it was Martha's field now.

He took out a small device and pressed the black button on it. The button glowed green for a while then turned red. Good, Barry thought to himself, the signal had been sent. This way surrounding daemon will be alerted to his location.

In the dark waterway ahead, he could see the yellow eyes. Three pairs of them all watching. One was bad enough but three? It was like the very laws of nature were against him. Didn't help that they were fighting in a narrow enclosure with water that would slow his movements. But Barry smiled, in fact he laughed. He struck the water, splashing it in their faces. When the water finally settled, he was no more there. He was above them. He boosted himself downward, spinning round and beheading them. The third daemon tried to flail its long tentacles at him but Barry saw it coming. He went down to water struck at the tentacle daemon. Or so it seemed. The spear was rather driven through the chest of the second daemon, shattering its core while an aura spear embedded itself in the former. As for the first one, it had time to regenerate its head, only to be cut in half vertically, destroying its core. Barry sighed as he wiped the blood of his face, watching as the daemon dissipated.

A sudden cry made Barry look up. Then it dawned on Barry.

"Shit!" Barry cried, racing towards the entrance of the sewer. But the daemon were faster. Three of the zipped through the entrance in a flash just as Barry pinned one of them to wall with his spear. He produced two more daemon and drove them into another two daemon. Just as he was about to jump out, a daemon slammed him against the wall. Barry kicked it away only for it to be caught by two more of its brethren.

"Damnit." Barry said, as the daemon approached him, and as more of them escaped through the opening. He could already hear the screams of people above, and their screams were rage in him. Barry stretched out his hand, recalling his spear back into his hand, taking out one daemon and injuring another in the process. He rushed as he grabbed the spear, conjuring a red spear and throwing it at one of them. He snapped his fingers and immediately red sphere appeared all around him . The immediately formed into spear and shot up, breaking through the ground. Barry emerged from the rubble and threw his spear into the chest of a big daemon that had caught hold of a man. The spear pinned it to the wall and Barry rushed over to it, crushing its core with his elbow. He wiped the sweat and blood of his forehead and grinned.

"Now," He said, pulling the spear out of its chest, "Onto the next batch."

"So," Rachel said, "Enjoying your time at the Shield, Lukas."

"Yeah, you can say that."

"Yeah. Enjoy your time there."

"Enough." Aaron said. "Focus on patrolling the area. Your past is irrelevant." Aaron turned to Ross. By the way, we should split up. Being crowded will only limit our search."

"Agreed." Ross said, "But to make it interesting, let's split our guys up, shall we?"

Aaron turned to him. "Huh?"

"There are four of our guys, and four of yours. Two of my guys will be with you and two of yours will be me. Deal."

"Fine. But don't even try to recruit them. They won't budge."

"Yeah, but I get to choose." Ross said, pointing at Sarah and Blake. Aaron sighed, but nodded. "Whichever of your guys want to follow me, let them come. I don't really mind."

Felicity and Spen stepped forward. Spen turned to Blake with a gin, before leaving with Aaron, Brandon and Rachel. Blake looked at him in confusion but kept his thoughts to himself.

"Ah!" Ross said, "Just the four of us then."

"Hi," The silver haired girl said to Blake, "I'm Ekaterina. Look forward to working with you."

Blake nodded, shaking her outstretched hand. She shook Sarah's hand as well, before walking over to Ross' side. Shawn stepped forward.

"Shawn Hands." He said, "And you guys are…"

"I'm Sarah Stone and he's Blake Summers."

"Right, look forward to our little and brief collaboration."

Blake only nodded. But his mind and senses were not on them they were on the ominous feeling that seemed to lurk around them. It was very minute, like it was hidden too well. Blake sighed. This was going to be a tiresome scouting mission. But then again, considering all the stories he'd heard from his father and uncle, he was getting a far better end of the deal.

"Ok. Onwards." Ross bellowed.