Chapter 1: Gangsta's Paradise

3RD POV:

"These vagabond shoes"

Rows after rows of cars passing by.

"They are longing to stray"

People bickering at each other over the smallest of disturbances.

"Right through the very heart of it"

Musicians playing and singing while watching crowds of people moving in an endless loop.

"New York, New York"

The skies were pitch black, and the clock finally struck twelve.

"If I can't make it there"

It was midnight.

"You know I'll, make it anywhere"

Yet the city seemed full of energy with all the noise and flashing lights in the air.

"It's up to you"

This is "The City That Never Sleeps".

"New York, New York"

This is New York City.

In a corner of the city, one could see flashing lights and hear faint music coming out of a 3-story building.

Inside of a strip club, men were getting drunk while shamelessly watching women dancing on poles, showing off their luscious curves. Sometimes a man would take a dancer to the back of the club, only to come back a few tens poorer.

*BOOM*

All of a sudden, the doors to the entrance slammed open. Four men came in first, and each of them were loaded with arms. However, the people inside did not become alerted. They were used to gang activity in this corner of the city.

This is "Gangsta's Paradise", New York. Notoriously named for all the criminal incidents in the past two decades, since the major gangs started forming. This little corner has influenced the rest of the city, and crime has reached a level that no one could have ever expected.

The last one to enter is a man in a red fancy attire. Everyone could tell that he was the leader of the group by the way he carried himself. Another man from the back walks up to him.

"Welcome gentlemen, how's the weather outside tonight?"

"It's as hot as the flames of hell." The leader codes.

The man recognizes the coded phrase, and nods. He then leads the group to the lowest level of the building. Two men with military grade guns guard the entrance of the room on the farthest corner of the lower level. The guide leaves them, and the men let the group enter.

In the room, were 4 men guarding another seated male figure. All of them had on black demonic masks. The seated male was wearing a black suit, shirt, gloves, pants, and had black hair, to match the mask. His name was Xander Jones. (IMAGE)

Xander has lived in Gangsta's Paradise for all of his life. His childhood is a story that can break anyone.

Born in the darkest corner of the city, all Xander has known is violence. His father, an expert martial artist and the leader of the most dangerous gang at the time, trained him to be a cruel killing machine. However, his mother was the only thing keeping him human because she always showed that she loved and cared for him. His mother stayed with him at all times because his father would kill her if she left.

Day after day, Xander's hatred for his father would grow and grow. Then when he was 6, his own father killed his mother when Xander's baby sister was born, because she was no longer of use to him. That night, Xander swore that he would avenge his mother. When he looked into the innocent eyes of his sister, he promised her that he would do his best to protect her from the dangers of his father and the city.

Bella, like Xander, was also trained to be a killer by their father. She would sleep with new bruises every day but was always comforted by the embrace of her older brother. She looked up to him, and that warmed his heart.

When Xander was 15, he got a girlfriend named Angelina. On some nights, him and his sister would go over to Angelina's apartment to sleep and forget about their father. However, that all ended when his father found out a few weeks after they got together. His father barged into his room and nearly killed him in front of his sister the following day. When Xander asked him what he did to her, he claimed that he killed her and her parents. Xander, knowing his father's cruel ways, believed him. He dreamed of 12 different ways to kill his father with his bare hands right then and there, but he was too weak to fight back.

3 years later, Xander finally gathered the courage to kill his father. Xander caught him alone in their apartment one day and fought him. When his father was on the ground nearly bleeding to death, Bella walked in with groceries in her hands. In one last effort, his father grabbed a gun nearby on the ground and shot two times. Two shots to the chest, and she fell to the ground. Xander screamed and knelt next to her. Shock and pain were expressed on her face as her last feelings. He rocked her body between his arms and cried. He felt his heart burning as if it were blazing with the flames of hell.

This was it.

This was his breaking point.

When the last of his tears fell, he gently laid her motionless body back on the ground. He got up and turned around. He looked at his father with fire in his eyes.

That night was deafened with the bloodcurdling screams of his father.

Since then, he took over his father's gang and renamed it to "The Devil's Executioners". He rebuilt the entire structure of the gang from bottom to top. He set in morals for their activities, like no selling or kidnapping children anymore.

He knew that crime was impossible to completely stop, so instead he took over his father's gang to control it. Presently, the gang has taken over a little more than half of the city, and crime has started to drop.

Now the year is 2022.

Xander is 22.

"Speak your proposal." Xander talks.

"We better start selling kids to the buyers again. I mean look at Cobra's Venom. They are making nearly as much as us, and they aren't even half as big as us. I calculated the results and found out that we can make nearly twice as much as we currently make. Who fucking cares if it's wrong? This empire was BUILT on morally wrong!" Lucas claims.

Lucas was the leader of the visiting group, and Xander's father's righthand man. Unfortunately, Xander could not get rid of all of his father's pets. He has changed most of his gang's ways, but there will always be those who are too greedy for their own good.

"No." Xander responds.

"CAN'T YOU SEE HOW MUCH WE GAIN FROM THIS. I knew you were too weak for this position ever since you were a boy. YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE-"

"You are not fit to be alive." Xander responds coldly. "I try to save you from the temptations of the devil, yet you resist. Less and less children become corrupted because of what I do. I do this so that they don't have to go through what I went through. They become better men and women, and the world becomes a better place."

"What they become is not our business. Our business is what we make from it!" Lucas clenches his teeth angrily.

"Leave Lucas." Xander gets up from his seat.

"Your father knew what he was doing in everything except for you. He should have killed you when you were born. You were his only weakness. If you can't carry on his legacy...someone else will." Lucas' men start shooting at Xander.

He jumps back and takes cover from behind a couch. Just as his men were about to start firing back, one of them betrays Xander and shoots the others. When the dust settles, Lucas, his men, and the traitor are left standing.

"Your time has come to an end Xander. Stop hiding like a coward and accept your fa-"

Xander rises from behind the couch and unsheathes his sword. Before the others can register what was going on, Xander swings and decapitates the closest one, the traitor. The men start firing and Xander does his best to dodge. A bullet penetrates his leg, and he is forced to take cover behind a desk. While being covered, he throws his sword towards the group and pierces the heart of one. He jumps over the desk and sprints to the next one. The guard tries to butt him with a gun but Xander ducks. Another one shoots him and puts a bullet in his shoulder. Xander feels himself weakening. Without looking, he grabs a pen from the desk and stabs another one in the eye. Blood gushes out of his face.

3 down. 3 left.

He uses the body as a shield and picks up the sword from the other body on the ground. He throws the body at Lucas and the guard next to him, and sprints to the other guard. The guard dodges some swings and kicks him in his wounded leg. Xander winces hard but manages to still stand. He swings his sword at his legs and manages to get the guard off his feet. He kneels down and thrusts his sword through his head.

Blood coated the sword a glistening crimson color.

"Arghhhh"

He feels major pain soar through his hips. The last guard shot him from behind. He picks up the new body in front of him as another shield to hide behind.

"Fuuuuuckkk"

He gets shot in the other leg from the back of the room. Lucas comes out from behind the bookshelf.

"I told you your time had come."

The guard butts Xander with the rear of his gun, making him drop to the ground in a push-up position. He throws the sword at the guard and penetrates his side. The guard falls in pain.

"Ughhhhhhh"

When Xander tries to get up, Lucas stabs him in the chest with a knife.

"You could've led us to heights we could never have dreamed of."

"Ahhhhhhh"

Lucas grabs the sword and stabs him in the stomach.

"And now..."

The two men that were guarding the entrance come in and stand behind Lucas.

Lucas picks up his gun. He rests it between his fearless eyes.

"...I'll do just that."

*BANG*

*Thud*

Darkness.

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NEXT CHAPTER: THE ORIGINATOR