"You don't want blood. It makes you dizzy and anemic all the time. Plus people are scared of you." she wanted to back away, but it would probably be faster the man to give her a lift anyway. He looked uncomfortable talking to her anyway. "Um, sure. I can move pretty fast too, but I don't know where everyone went." she took a step closer to the man. She took his hand, a little nervous. It was too late to back out now that she had taken his hand, but she still felt like slipping away and turning into blood. However, heroes don't do that. They take other people's hands and they race away into the crowd.

"No!" Scorn yelled throwing a shadow blast at the Syndicate guy but he was gone ",Damn it! I could of had him." She growled annoyed. What had started as a lovely day for her had changed for the worse. Not only wasn't sure allowed to dig her claws at the moment into the ex-conduit, now a norm, she missed an opportunity to get someone who was higher up in the chain of command of the syndicate. She grumbled to herself, cursing underneath her breath. At least on the good side she got to see some other conduits rather then having to seek them out. Some she even recognized as old Curdon Cay prisoners. There was the sand girl, she remembered her because it was one of the first faces she saw when Scorn had been taken to Curdon Cay as well as a few times when taken off to train and be experimented on by Augustine's scientists.
She also recognized the girl talking about blood, mostly the face but last time she saw her she seemed sickly pale in the prison and near death. She looked better now though. All those who had been in Curdon Cay seemed easy to recognize and she smiled to herself happily, her anger disappearing nearly instantly
Well at least today isn't a total loss, she thought to herself. Plus it was still morning, things could still get better. She quietly called up her gang telling them to meet her by the billboard that she had come across earlier in the day and be ready for her. She would return the billboard in a few hours, for now though it was time to mingle with her kind and enjoy herself a bit.

The tornado that Roman jumped into the center of to reach the conduit floating in the center, spun him around until the conduit inside was unable to control his power, a sudden bolt of lighting from an attacking conduit had not only blinded the man Roman was trying to render unconscious the lighting forced Romans eyes closed. Then amongst several peices was Roman blown through the air into the alleyway along with the conduit. He hit his back against the wall unconscious from the sudden blow.

Grease grimaced, as he turned to see the tornado was gone. It wasn't difficult to see that the other conduits were flocking towards where the Rogue had landed, all eager for the prize. He let out a sigh, knowing that it would be futile going there now. He let go of the girls hand severely disappointed. "Well, looks like that's that. Good job, team." He muttered, his voice low and silent. "Well, I'd better jet, I've got some steam to let off." He said, turning away.

He walked over to the edge of the building, spreading his arms as he let himself fall. in midair, he spun, going down fist first, his body straight and stiff. As his fist came into contact with the asphalt below, or what was left, anyways, it rippled, creating a soft (albeit sticky and warm) pit, cushioning his fall. He almost instantly sprung back out, the tar sliding cleanly off of his body and clothing. The asphalt hardened, creating multiple spikes in the road.

There were car lights off in the distance, perfect targets. Grease sped off, slamming into as many Blanks (What he called non-conduits) as he could, knocking them to the concrete sidewalks, targeting down the nearest vehicle. As he neared it, he leapt up, fist raised, as if to come down and punch the speeding automobile. However, at the last moment, he spread out, latching onto the roof of the car, then sliding down next to the drivers side, so he was running next to the car.

The driver was, needless to say, confused. Grease smiled, waved, then laughed as a spike of pavement came up, impaling the car, stabbing right through the engine, stopping just in front of the drivers throat. "You know, I was a little short on cash. You wouldn't happen to have any?" Grease asked the driver, grabbing the mans wallet. All the while, the man begged for mercy, stammering about how he had always supported conduits, on and on.

BOOM

A plume of fire and smoke engulfed the car, blasting Grease back a ways. It appeared some Blank with a gun had tried to be a good samaritan, but missed his shot, instead igniting some of the fuel that was dripping from the car. Grease laid on the ground, stunned for a moment, his ears ringing, his face smudged. For a moment he thought about the blood girl, felt bad for leaving her. What was he supposed to do, take her out for coffee? argued one part of his brain. He shook it all of, and stood up.

"I am most definitely not a people person." He muttered to himself, before he began to sprint back to his apartment. He knew that his little rampage back there was going to attract some attention, and he didn't want to be there for more conduits to get him. He sighed, running a lot slower than usual, his mind weighing him down. 'No. Don't think. Thinking slows you down. If you were faster, you could've helped tho- collected the reward money.' He scolded himself, having to correct an error he made. 'You're inFamous now, you can't go back." The voice in his mind muttered.

Ford stumbled into the alley with others. Its seems he had just missed the excitement. He didn't forget that he was the one that stopped the tornado. He pushed himself to the front of the line. Eager to see what damage had been done to his victim. It a very rare chance to see what that attack did to a person. Conduit or not he only ever used that when he had to, and never stuck around to see the after math.

However what he saw was more than a dissatisfaction. There was nothing, no damage, no blood or gore. He stared at the rouge conduit for a moment before kicking him in the chest. He rubbed his hand against his face and the anger started to show.

"I shot lighting at this that was at least twice as hot as the sun and all I did was what? Knock him out? Make him reel and stagger a little? Next thing you know is one od of you will me that I missed him completely and just blinded him.... Better be worth something." The frustration and anger on his face more a little apparent.

When Grease raced off, Sam was startled. It was so sudden, and she didn't really like the fact that there were others staring at her now. The one girl in the red hoodie unnerved her, and caused Sam to grab her hood and pull it down even farther. Why was everyone so scary here? It was like they could tell she accidentally did bad things. Her power just meant that murder was an inevitability, even if she tried really hard not to hurt anyone, it would happen anyway.

The lightning guy broke the silence, of which Sam was grateful. "Um, no offense... but who was that guy in the dumb mask from earlier? And... maybe we should get this man to a hospital?" she fussed with her hands again, wringing them and twisting her fingers. The pain helped her focus, and it helped her not pull the hood down even farther onto her face. She could only hope that wasn't going to be the next victim to get hurt in the alleyway.

"Holy shit..." Ellie muttered. "Please Tell me this isn't going to be like Seattle and Curdon Cay 2 years ago... is it?" She added, looking at the unconscious norm. This almost Frightened Ellie a little bit. Someone with the ability to remove a conduit's powers? Ellie didn't want to believe it, but it was already trapped in her mind. Ellie managed to rise up from her moment of thinking. "Who are the Syndicate exactly?" Ellie asked, awaiting an answer from whoever knew. "And how the hell can they have the ability to take away conduit powers..." Ellie added, looking back at the unconscious Norm.

Seeing the girl pull the hood over her hood only made Scorn smile. Ah yes, this girl has potential, she merely needs a shove in the right direction she thought to herself, and who better else then her to push her in that direction.
As for the rogue conduit, she shrugged when the hooded girl made the suggestion to take him to the hospital."He isn't our problem, he's just a simple norm now," she said turning her back on the rogue. Plus she would or rather have him killed for messing up her playground but she kept that to herself.
"She then turned to the other girl who spoke."It doesn't matter who they are, only that they learn they have made a grave mistake messing with us, someone needs to stand against them, and those someone's are coming sooner then you may think, good or bad, preferably bad though," she said with a laugh. Oh yes the Reapers were coming and she panned to drain the blood out of every one of those Syndicate freaks.
She passed by the girl with the hood and showed her face, painted black with a skull on top, her eyes the color of blood itself."You know you don't have to be afraid of me, we can always be friends, I'm nice once you get to know me. Here's an address to meet up at later if you want to talk some more," she said handing over a slip of paper with the address to the billboard she had been at earlier ",Like I said someone's going to need a make a stand and I figure why not start it ourselves I have a few others who wouldn't mind meeting a new friend. People like us."
She didn't wait for an answer and merely walked away smiling like a kid in a candy store, sure she might of only talked at one conduit at the moment but it was one potential recruit, one potential new friend and ally. She might of been a psychopath, she accepted that about herself, she was a broken person who enjoyed killing but if that's what she was then she would enjoy it and she did. Yet she still needed company and friends, she still was human. One down, several more to go, she thought to herself.

((She's speaking to Sam, just in case someone wondered.))

The psychic conduit laying in a unconscious state next to the alleyway had finally waking up to see that the conduit he was fighting earlier, still laid sprawled across the middle of the alleyway to the sound of someone saying "We should get this guy to the hospital." It wasn't long that he heard what else she was saying. He took a moment to see if the peices fit together. Maybe this Syndicate member sent that conduit to attack New York to make an example of all conduits.

How could they take away powers? And did they have a base of operations? One thing for sure the girl had a point someone had to make a stand. "The girls right, taking him to the hospital just might give us answers about the Syndicate."

"Well. Er.." Jen mumbled, looking down at the body of the rogue. "I don't think he'll be getting up for a while.." Jen glanced around. Oh. Her.. Jen thought, seeing the girl with the blood eyes. She recognized her, from Curdun Cay. She was an absolute psycho. Actually tried to kill one the DUP soldiers. Everyone knew it was right for her to be imprisoned. How Delsin Rowe let her go was beyond Jen.

The Syndicate's ability to take away powers was certainly a first. Before, no one could have ever even dreamt of such a thing taking place. Cole MacGrath and Delsin Rowe had never even come close to facing such a feat. However, most people and conduits were becoming more and more aware of how it happened, considering it had been nearly a year since the original footage had taken place. Since the original, over 50 conduits were taken by The Syndicate. Luckily, the conduit's numbers grow due to the spreading of the gene, but The Syndicate is catching up quickly. Most people know that taking away the power of a conduit is overwhelmingly traumatic for most. It could take days, even weeks before they awoke. Often it results in great bouts of depression. The original case, Harry Meadow, committed suicide the same day he got home.

"You know, I need to get this off of my mind." Jen said, turning away from the body. She pushed her way through the conduits, straightening her old baseball cap as she passed. "I'm heading to The Cinder." The Cinder was a pub located in the Conduit District of NYC. It was a popular place for most conduits to blow off some steam. Jen's figure disappeared, changing into a swirling vortex of sand, and it blew off through the bright blue skies. The stream of sand was heading to the Conduit District, one of the 5 districts of NYC.

Sam was sure that the girl with the blood red eyes was going to kill her, the way she looked at Sam was so unnerving. However, when she came close and handed her a piece of paper and an offer to help her take down the Syndicate, Sam glanced at the poor rogue ex-conduit. She didn't want to end up like that. It couldn't hurt to at least check it out. Sam thought, tucking the piece of paper into her pocket.

The large man spoke up, saying they did need to take the guy to the hospital. The sand girl left, so Sam guessed it was either help move this guy or to leave him to die. She couldn't leave him to die, so she nodded at the large man. "I'll help you, my name is Sam, by the way." she moved forward to give any help if he really needed it, but she hoped she wouldn't have to use her powers unless she absolutely had to. She didn't carry any diseases, but covering a guy in blood to carry him usually made things worse than they actually looked. The paramedics and doctors would not appreciate that in the least.

Ford kicked him again. A little harder this time. He was livid, first the Syndicate threatens him but then to add the insult to injury. They deny him of his bounty. He always had plenty of money since he never to worry about paying rent or bills of any sort. Yet it was the principal of the matter... Or so he told hmself. The day was still young and plenty of time for a rebound.

He did however heart the Starbucks girl mention The Cinder. He could use a drink right now. It wasn't even noon yet and he was well in his way to forgetting this day had ever happened. Not exactly the worst idea with a meryd of men out for your blood. All of them working for a creepy shadow organization bent in stealing the one thing he took great pride in. His powers as conduit.

"Well the girls got a point a drink would be lovey. I'm out of here before anyone shows up asking questions." Ford turned the corner and started looking for a suitable car hood that he borrow for ride. He loved the older vehicles most, the ones made from pure metal. It was much easier controling and the added weight meant he could be a little more careless while traveling at the ground level.

It was one of those days that most people would put on the label “great day!” in bright colours. It consisted of everything that would make most people’s morning just that much better: the sun was up, the air was warm and there wasn’t a single cloud on the sky over New York City - oh and the birds, let us not forget the birds: they sang the song of happiness that flew with the wind like its hosts. It was this song that was carried through her window by a weak breeze and woke up the girl within the room on the 7th floor in an ‘officially’ abandoned house that was positioned relatively close to South Street. The building was an old building that would have been torn down by the city council if it wasn’t for the fact that it was a popular residence for those that had no home, drug addicts and the poor. Among these different social groups there were of course also those that were on the edge with the law, and Evelyn Blackbourn - or ‘Eve’ as she went by in most circles - was just that kind of person: she was, in crude terms, a criminal. She didn’t have a job and barely did anything other than what she felt like - only robbing banks for the things she just couldn’t live without: sweets, coffee and liquor. Of course she could also steal these items without much trouble, but, at least for her beloved caffeine, you just couldn’t steal a proper Frappuccino - plus for some unknown reason Eve liked the interaction with the baristas, especially those at Starbucks.

It was this song of the birds that woke her up, the sun was blazing in through the half opened window and the sounds of life rushing by down in the streets were a soothing buzz that never died out in NYC. It took Eve a few seconds to realize where she was: it was bright, dry and she had a major hangover.

“Damnit!” She cried loudly, immediately regretting it as the echo of her own voice ricocheted back to her making her head throb even more that it had already been. “gaah…” she moaned, rocking back and forth on her bed with her hands rubbing her eye-sockets, “Why did I go to that club last night?” she groaned to herself, but soon it dawned on her: she had gotten so drunk with some people she met last night - and then went to a club with them.
Quickly she jumped up and tossed the rest of the blanket that covered her king-sized bed, a sigh of relief was the next thing that could be heard: she was alone.
“Well at least that is one good thing that went right” Eve laughed to herself, immediately regretting doing such a thing as the hammers inside of her head began working once again.
“Ahh… coffee” she moaned holding her head with her right hand, “...coffee and a bath”.

Because Eve really didn’t have anything to do that day - she had robbed a small bank on the other side of the harbor the day before, which was the reason why she had felt she deserved a fun night out last night - so she took her time. After an hour and a half she was strolling down the sidewalk of one of the busier streets, in her hand was a freshly made Frappuccino she had just gotten from a Starbucks that was well known among the conduits for being… ‘nicer’ towards them; even going as far as treating conduits as actual workers, and the sun had settled in nicely in the blue sky - even for someone that was so filled up with rage as Evelyn Blackbourn, this was indeed a nice day.

But as Eve had come to know so well from her own life, things rarely stays the same - and in just seconds after Eve had started whistling the tunes that flowed into her ears from a pair of earphones, the sound was pierced with the sound of an all too well known sound: the shrieking of the conduit siren. Most people - even conduits - had started to fear this sound; it welcomed in the event of a rogue conduit causing problems through the streets of New York City - however Eve hated it for another reason: It was the symbol of the suppression of conduits, it signalled the call for conduits to go against their own wills and fight against people of their own kind. “You have the obligation to take care of you own!” - was what the spokesperson had said, but what a sham it truly was; it was just excuses to get conduits to fight conduits.
“Conduits versus conduits - the perfect showdown, coming to you on channel 4!”
Eve could almost hear the excited broadcaster exclaim these words to the masses over the loud roars of the excited crowd. It made her feel like she was going to puke up that delicious Frappuccino she had just bought.
“If society had really accepted conduits they should let us live as free beings” Eve muttered to herself, but of course this wasn’t a popular belief, even among conduits: most of them would rather live peacefully than to extend their hand out to what was rightfully theirs. “Ugh,” Eve coughed, “just the thought is giving me a bad taste…”
Shaking her head lightly - and thanking the painkillers for dulling her headache - she looked up, in order to gain an idea where this rogue conduit was having all the fun. Quickly she located the dull sounds of what appeared to be cars being thrown through the air and crashing into the street. She began to take a step forward with her right foot, but before her feet landed on the street she had disappeared, instead planting her foot on the rooftop of a building overlooking the area of the alarm: A tornado hurled through the streets of New York, tearing up anything in its way - and the awesome conduit causing all this chaos would have had so much more success if the siren hadn’t brought in the bloody X-men: soft and weak-norm-loving conduits that fought with all their might in order to bring down the one conduit that had dared to reach his hand towards freedom. It would go without saying that Eve didn’t participate in the fight; she didn’t see the point in defending the one conduit, nor did she feel like rescuing the weak - and she could care less for the reward money, if she needed them she could just steal them from the government. So instead she quickly disappeared yet again, this time arriving closer to the situation, and just in time to see something you don’t often get a chance to observe: a lightning bolt shot through the air, sending the rogue conduit flying into a nearby alleyway.
“Well well,” Eve mumbled to herself, taking a loud sip of her drink, “looks like the X-men won”, but instead of running away as she would usually do this extreme showcase of power had peaked her curiosity: who were the people making up this team of crime-fighters? With these questions in mind she trailed after what was presumably a burnt corpse by now, and arrived at a rooftop a few floors above the alleyway that the conduit had fallen into.
When she got there it wasn’t the increasing crowd that the event had summoned, the X-men nor the burning corpse. No, it was the man wearing a clean suit and the mask of her enemy that she would never forget: The Syndicate.

“The Syndicate sends it’s regards.” He said.

It wasn’t until the voice penetrated the air that Eve came back to the real world, as soon as she had laid her eyes on the figure any conduit would have known, her mind went blank. It was a mixture of fear and revenge: she wanted to kill everything this single being stood for, yet she also feared what the man could do to her. Her ears ringed with the sound of excitement, but before she could have done anything too drastic the man was swallowed by the shadows and had escaped her.

With a sigh she sat down, letting her legs hang off the edge of the roof, taking another loud sip of her delicious Frappuccino she watched the X-men break up, watching them intently as they began to depart - she wasn’t sure if any of them had spotted her, but she sure did watch them intently.

“Well done X-men” she said with a big grin that would fit that of a hunter, “seems like you took down the big bad conduit, but I do wonder if you dare going against that monster…” she wondered to herself. That was the first time that she had seen The Syndicate with her own eyes - and they were just the monster she had thought they were.
"Now," she spoke a little louder, "I wonder what will happen at Cinder..."
With each word spoken, her grin grew bigger.

Well a drink wouldn't be too bad, Scorn thought when The Cinder was brought up by the sand girl, However I have a previous engagement I must get to first.
She wasn't sure if anyone even noticed but she slipped into the shadows and soon was running across rooftops once more heading back the billboard from earlier. Hopefully her gang would be there by now with the supplies to finally make her mark. The Reapers had lurked in the shadows far to long, now it was time to reveal themselves to the world once more and give the Syndicate hell.

When she arrived at the billboard she was happy to see her goons all ready there."Oh good boys, you brought the stuff," she said happily as she saw two bags laying on the the building where the billboard was standing on. One was full of the spray paint and other necessities to paint her wonderful work of art, the other was the body of the syndicate that she killed earlier that morning. She opened the bag with the body with a smile but then frown."Ah boys, he doesn't look like he's having fun," she pouted a bit but then smiled ",Well we are just going to have to make that frown go upside down ourselves."

With a clawed hand she started at one end of the mans mouth carving in a large scar that went from either end of his mouth ending both sides where the eyes lined up with it.

"There now he has a big happy grin that all the world shall see when my work of art is revealed," she laughed and zipped up the bag for the time. If that girl she gave the address to arrive she figured it would be best she didn't notice the body for the time until Scorn knew she could mold her to someone of use. She wasn't sure where the girls loyalty lie, either with those villains who thought norms were equal or the heroes of conduits who knew that they were the next step in the evoultionary process while the norms were inferior to them.

"All right boys lets get started with our art piece, maybe we'll get an offer to have it hung in a museum," she laughed grabbing a can of spray paint and began working on part of it while the others did the same, with one keeping look out, though Scorn doubted they would be bothered, most of the law enforcement by now probably would be working on damage control of that rogue conduit and those other conduits seemed preoccupied with going to The Cinder where Scorn planned to go once her artwork was done.

"F is for fire that burns down the whole town.
U is for unruliness that brings anarchy.
N is for No more norms.
That's what FUN is to me!"

While she painted this is what she sung to herself happily, as if it was some childhood song that she had always loved.

RainDash said
Sam was sure that the girl with the blood red eyes was going to kill her, the way she looked at Sam was so unnerving. However, when she came close and handed her a piece of paper and an offer to help her take down the Syndicate, Sam glanced at the poor rogue ex-conduit. She didn't want to end up like that. Sam thought, tucking the piece of paper into her pocket.The large man spoke up, saying they did need to take the guy to the hospital. The sand girl left, so Sam guessed it was either help move this guy or to leave him to die. She couldn't leave him to die, so she nodded at the large man. "I'll help you, my name is Sam, by the way." she moved forward to give any help if he really needed it, but she hoped she wouldn't have to use her powers unless she absolutely had to. She didn't carry any diseases, but covering a guy in blood to carry him usually made things worse than they actually looked. The paramedics and doctors would not appreciate that in the least.

Lifting the man up on his shoulders he responded "Alright Sam, I'm Roman. Interesting group of conduits we have here." He said looking at the crowd of conduits as they stepped to the side to let Roman and Sam pass. Walking passed them Roman grabbed the end Sam's hand and in a instant he teleported to the hospital, when he got there a nurse was walking passed him, "Excuse me, this guy on my shoulder could use your help." She nodded and called in the doctor to treat the conduit who turned out needing only a few hours of rest.

When the lady came back and informed them that the guy was fine the man walked out he had tried to use his ability but realized that he couldn't. "What the heck?" He asked outloud. "The Syndicate. They stole your power and probably would have sent you back to Curdon Cay if the rest of didn't show up. Do you know any of it's members? Or if they have a base?" The guy paused thinking for a moment if he knew any leads. "No but I do know of a guy who sold machines to help the Syndicate. He lives in New Marais. He goes by Antonio."

Sam barely had time to react before she was teleported to the nearest hospital. She felt sick, but since she really hadn't eaten anything yet this morning, it was just a feeling. This is the first time I'm glad I didn't eat anything this morning. she thought! sitting in the waiting room for the rogue conduit. Since he would be fine, Sam stood to leave. "I'm sorry, but I have to go somewhere. Tell the guy that I said hi, okay?"

With that Sam walked out the front door. She wasn't really interested in saving the guy as much as doing the moral thing of saving him. Sam shifted back up to the rooftops, where she felt the safest. She liked being high up, and far away from the crowds. Pulling out the piece of paper from her pocket yet again, she confirmed the address. It was a decent distance, but… if that girl from before could help her find other conduits and stop those Syndicate guys, she was all in. No one should have that kind of power, not norms, not conduits. She started plasma Shifting her way across the rooftops, pausing only a moment to take few steps to orient herself and shift on towards the billboard.

JUNE 16th, THURSDAY, 2018, 10:06 AM

---

A stream of sand arrived at The Cinder in the Conduit District of NYC. It formed a swirling vortex of grain before forming into a person. Jen stood in front of the double doors of the bar, her uniform ragged and her posture tired. It had only taken a couple of minutes to arrive, luckily. She might've passed out from the fatigue. Jen slowly pushed open the door. The pub was an old, creaky building where most conduits came to blow off some steam. Few conduits were in the pub. She recognized a few. There was Vernon, sipping coffee from a mug, drumming his fingers on the table. Several glass shards were surrounding him. And over in the corner was Tom, a light ember dancing around his nimble fingers as he bit into a sandwich. Jen pulled up a seat by the bar. The bartender was a middle-aged man with a beer belly. He wore a green coat and a white shirt with a set of dark shades over his eyes. He was clearing up a blurry glass with a wet tissue. The lamps hanging from the ceiling gave an orange lighting to the whole place, reflecting on the glasses in the back of the bar.

"Hey, Zeke." Jen said, sighing. She drummed her fingers on the hard wood table. The grain formed some interesting patterns.

"Hey, little miss." Zeke said, placing a hairy arm on the bar, placing the glass and the wet tissue aside. "How're things doing over at the Market District?"

"Oh. Okay, I suppose." Jen muttered absentmindedly. "I guess." She seemed pretty preoccupied with tracing the grain of the wood.

Zeke shook his head. "Don't look like that to me." Zeke said. He pointed a finger at the TV hanging on the wall. An anchorwoman stood with a clean suit at the alley she was just in. Several paramedics were in the background. A couple of conduits were still on the scene, walking about. "-report of another Syndicate attack-" Zeke nodded toward her.

"Oh. It's, uh.. just.." Jen said. "That was pretty messed up. Seeing that guy get his powers taken away. He was screaming so loud. And I'm pretty tired from that tornado. You see that? Just.. I need some rest."

"Hard to miss the tornado that completely wrecked that district." Zeke said before placing down the glass. "I'll get you a drink." Zeke balked off. "Don't give me the-" Jen sighed, watching him walk off into the back room. "He'd totally going to get me the strong stuff." Zeke. He was a pretty good bartender over at the Conduit District. He owned The Cinder. Apparently kept a pistol under the table for protection. He was a good man. She remembered hearing some stories about him. He was apparently best-friends with a conduit. Something along those lines. He absolutely loved to tell the story, but Jen never asked for it, so she didn't really know it. It was some far-fetched story about an electric conduit. He seemed pretty full of himself, so she doubted he actually did any of the things he told stories about. But he was a great bartender and spoke with his customers quite a bit. Most conduits liked him, and just about all of them would never think of killing the norm. He served some great stuff.

Zeke came back with a massive glass. Jen reluctantly took it. "And.. great. I know this is your most expensive stuff, Zeke.." She sighed, and sipped it. "Thanks, Zeke."

"No problemo." Zeke said, staring at the door for a customer.

Scorn kept eying her work, making sure that she got the logo just perfect, after all she wanted to leave a good first impression. When she felt it was perfect she shed a tear of blood in joy."Simple fabulous, let's see if after this day someone forgets who we are," she laughed happily. Then one of her norm goons tapped her on her shoulder and she sighed.
"What? I'm busy enjoying my masterpiece," she said slightly annoyed before she looked at one of the norm orange hooded Reapers. He pointed over to another building and she noticed someone coming this way, a conduit. She could only guess who it was and she smiled happily."Ah she did come, perfect, now boys be good or else," she said ",We may soon have another playmate for our group here so good behavior all of you or else you won't enjoy what I'll do to you."
She kept a happy smile as she waited for the person near the sign, the others were putting away the paint cans, throwing them back into the bag they were brought in and throwing that bag on top of the other to make it look like both bags were just full of empty cans that they had used.
"Also you two will put up the body on the billboard after me and this new conduit leave, I'm thinking of getting a drink at The Cinder after this so you boys do what you want once you finish here," she added, speaking two the two white hooded conduit Reapers, before looking at the three norm orange hooded Reapers ",as for you three, track down another one of those Syndicate members, those low ranking ones. Eventually we will get one to crack on the location of there group but my next idea is for a movie, to send another message to them if this next Syndicate member doesn't talk." She smiled evilly, oh how she was going to enjoy tormenting a new victim when they got there hands on one.
She played around with the shadows around the billboard as she waited for there guest to arrive at there location.

Sam stopped a few feet away from the billboard. As she stopped to catch her breath, she noticed the shadows moving. She was dealing with someone who had control over the shadows themselves. As if it wasn't ominous enough, the giant billboard had a skull on it and the girl was there at the center of the whole piece. A red streak was on her face, and Sam really, really hoped it was just paint.

She set her face into a neutral expression, something that she had worn when Augustine had ordered a special kind of torture that kept the temperature in her room bouncing up and down between hot and cold. She had simply sat down and waited, staring at her knees until it stopped. The feeling of being burned alive and freezing at the same time was what she felt now, being watched by the girl.

"You said you wanted to talk. To gather more conduits." Sam hoped that the girl couldn't sense the slight tremor in her voice. "You're going to stop the Syndicate, right?" she thought about the masked man she'd seen, how terrifying it was to watch him just absorb the guy's powers. She couldn't let that happen to her. As much as she hated blood powers, they were power all the same. This girl looked tough and at home in the street. If Sam wanted to get through this unscathed, she had to side with her. Her hands unconsciously tugged at each other, the only sign of her nervousness.

Ford walked into The Cinder his head held down. Still bothered by the mornings goings on. Still bothered by the fact that he missed but more so that The Syndicate was just around the corner, it always seem that they were just around the corner.

It was a slow morning but most mornings were slow. A fact that he always enjoyed, it made things easier. From doing business to whatever nefarious deals he had planned. It would be even more dreadful if anyone saw him doing something kind and or decent.

"Zeke, can a man get a drink. A Black Rat if you would be oh so kind." Ford said jovially. Doing his best to push the mornings events from his head.

"We're outta rum buddy." Zeke said rather plainly.

"Why is the rum gone?" Ford said with a smile and a chuckle. "Double of something strong Zeke." Ford put his hands together and bowed his head in a near pleading manner. His drink came and Zeke was gone.