THREE WEEKS LATER…

Storm clouds filled the sky as the rain fell hard over Canterlot City, but the citizens felt safe, knowing that the Mystery Murders were finally over brought peace to the law-abiding citizens. However, there were some who were happy for the closing of the Mystery Murders for another reason.

Canterlot City, unfortunately, did have its fair share of organized crime. It wasn’t as bad as say Manehattan or Chicagcolt, but it provided opportunities for gangs from those cities and others to try and get a foothold and expand their operations. A sit down had been issued to the heads of the gangs that were currently operating in Canterlot City, and their heads, along with their bodyguards, were at the table.

Rat Fink, a skinny man, dressed in a sharp suit. He had slicked back black hair and beady green eyes, and purple skin tone. He was the head of the Italian mob in Canterlot, despite his name, he detested disloyalty, and made it a point to show what happens to those who showed such disloyalty to the family and the business.

Krasnyy Molot, a representative of the Russian mobs. His name, roughly translated, meant “Red Hammer”. He took that name literally, as he was known to kill rivals and anyone else who got in his way with a huge, custom made sledgehammer, something that he carried with him often. He had brown hair, wore a thick coat, and was white as a ghost.

The third in this triad, was named Young Blood. He was of a new gang that was forming in Canterlot, local guys, they had been fighting with the two organizations to try and keep them out, and so far, it had been a stalemate between the three of them. He had blonde hair, and blue skin, with equally icy blue eyes.

“So, you called us here, Fink, what do you want?” Young Blood asked.

“It’s no secret that our business, all our business, has taken a real hit these last three months, mostly due to those murders,” said Rat.

“Da, fuckin’ demons and shit, they’ve made it so that people are less likely to be out at night. That ‘sex cult’ made it hard for us to sell girls, no one’s going to pay for sex if they can get it for free,” said Krasnyy.

Young Blood nodded. “Well, drugs are on the rise, mostly because people are looking for some stress relief from all this. But we can’t sell as easily during the day as we can at night, and with the storms those things kicked up, it made it even harder.”

Rat nodded. “With that being the case, I propose we start taken up an armistice while we’re shoring up our resources. God knows our profits are hurting all ‘round.”

“Tch, and what guarantee do we have that you’ll honor this?” Krasnyy asked.

“I don’t go back on my word, actually, I’ve been talking with the heads of the Lupos family, and they believe that an alliance would be better for us than wasting our time fighting amongst ourselves. Split up Canterlot City,” said Rat.

Young Blood stood up and glared at the older men. “And why the hell would I agree to that?! This is our turf! We’ve had it long before you dickwads appeared and tried to muscle us out! Yet we’re still here! If we agree to this, we get a bigger portion of the city!”

Krasnyy, who had his hammer leaning against the table, placed his hand on the hilt. “Careful how you speak, boy. Respect your elders.”

“Ha, ha, ha! ‘Respect’, now there’s a funny word to come out of your mouth.”

All three men along with the bodyguards got on edge upon hearing the new voice. The room they were in was very large, like that of a warehouse. The only light was shining on the table, giving them a good eight-foot radius of light, the only other light was shining from the “exit” signs near the doors.

“Who the fuck is there?!” Rat demanded.

Footsteps echoed in the large room; the footsteps grew louder as they approached the table. The person who had addressed them finally stepped into the light and made himself known. His skin was ashen gray, his hair was long and jet black, eyes colored a bloody scarlet red. He wore a thick, black leather jacket, black pants and boots, and a gray dress shirt. The man looked to be about in his thirties, mid to late, he smiled at the assembled group, not batting an eye that he was in the presence of some of the most dangerous gangsters in the city.

“Son of a bitch…” Rat muttered.

“Who are you?” Krasnyy asked.

“My name’s Sombra King, the last of the King family. Thanks, in no small part, to you,” said Sombra as he pointed at Rat Fink.

Young Blood looked from Sombra and then back to Rat. “Rat, you know this guy?”

Rat Fink looked like he had just seen a ghost, his hands trembling in both fear and rage. Young Blood nodded to two of his men, and both of them walked up to Sombra, he placed his hands up and let them search him. The two guards found no weapons and returned to their spot beside their leader.

“Oh, Rat used to work for my family. You may’ve heard of us by our family’s street name, the ‘Obsidian Kings’.”

Krasnyy’s eyes widened. “Yes, I do know that name. The Kings were a very powerful crime family, with branches in almost every major city. The head of all of this was the King family, but I heard that they were all wiped out, slaughtered like animals.”

Sombra chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, it was much worse than that I’m afraid. You see, not only did they come to slaughter us, tortured every single member of the family. Men, women, children, even the fucking dogs, can you believe that shit?” Sombra moved closer to the table. “I was twenty-years-old at the time, my birthday was on that fateful day, and it was three minutes to midnight…”

Sombra walked even closer and pulled up a chair, he flipped it around and sat in it as he made eye contact with each person, noticing that the bodyguards had their hands on their pistols.

“My girlfriend, God rest her soul, her name was Radiant Hope, or just Ray. She loved me, god knows why she’d love a mobster son of a bitch like me, but she did. I killed, a lot, for the family, and I was very good at my job. I wanted to keep her far from it, but on that day, she insisted on coming with me to the family home to celebrate with me. I couldn’t say no to her, but dammit I wish I did. Because we walked into a fucking nightmare, I fought as long as I could to try and get us out, but in the end…”

Sombra clenched his fists as his brow furrowed.

“They put me on the ground, and her watch as they beat the shit out of me, making sure I was still conscious to watch her face turn from fear to worry. And then they had the audacity, to make her crawl towards me, and then shot her before she could even lay a hand on my face…fuckin’ animals.”

“Shit…” Young Blood whispered.

“I found out later, that it was good ol' Rat Fink who made sure that we were none the wiser about the Lupos family coming in with some thugs. Took me a while to find out who betrayed us that night, you’re a hard man to find Fink.”

“Fuck you! How I the hell are you alive?!” Rat demanded as he glared at Sombra.

Sombra went quiet for a moment. “A lot of weird shit’s been happening in this town. Demons and a half naked chick with swords, people talking shit about magic. Back in the day, I would’ve thought you were full it. But on that night, right at the stroke of midnight, I changed my tune.”

Sombra stood up from his chair and the thirty guards began to draw their guns. He backed up slowly and stood at the edge of the light, letting himself be cloaked in the shadows as he watched a couple of the guards stray out of the light and began to circle him.

“I wouldn’t stay out of the light, if I were you.”

Suddenly, the sounds of demonic giggling filled the room. Yellow dots like eyes appeared in different areas, there one minute and gone the next. The guards drew their guns, along with the leaders, all of them on edge. Two more guards left the light and were about to join the first two to surround Sombra, but without warning, one guard was jumped by something with yellow eyes. They could only make out the silhouette of what was attacking him, something small and humanoid, with a hunched back.

The guard screamed for a few seconds and thrashed around before he went silent, squelching sounds could be heard after that, followed by a thump. That same, beady, yellow eyed creature then tossed something at them. It rolled along the floor until it was in the light, and much to their horror, it was the man’s head.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Rat Fink shouted.

Three more guards screamed as they too were attacked by something similar, more squelching sounds followed along with thumps. Something else was thrown into the light, arms, legs, and…was that a dick?

“Oh, c’mon guys, seriously?” Sombra asked.

“What? They threw in all the other good parts, what else was I supposed to throw?”

“Next time fucking hurry up and tear something else off, like the heart, or spleen! Or intestines!”

“Nah, that shit takes too long. Heh-heh, get it, ‘long’, ‘cause that shit’s really long?! Seriously, how do you keep all that shit in there?”

More mischievous, demonic laughter filled the room and more beady yellow eyes could be seen. The guards began to open fire in all directions, trying to kill whatever it was that was out there.

“I know I said to stay in the light, but…I think it’s time for lights out.”

Something long, black and sharp shot towards the overhead lights and smashed them to pieces, snuffing out the only safe place they had.

“Back up boys, I want to have some fun now…”

Screams, pain filled screams echoed inside the room, along with the sounds of gunshots, and the sounds of tearing and bones breaking. Krasnyy swung wildly with his hammer, trying to hit whatever it was that was killing them, but something with narrowed, red eyes appeared before him. Something sharp sliced roughly through his right and, making him release his famed hammer.

“We had nothing to do with your family’s death! We had no part in it!” Krasnyy pleaded.

“You associate with the Lupos. That’s enough for me.”

Krasnyy spouted something in Russian before his head was smashed in with his own hammer. Soon the shooting was over, more so because most of them were dead. Rat Fink stood alone, trembling in fear in the dark, his eyes had finally adjusted enough to allow him a glimpse of Sombra, and it terrified him, the man wet himself when he saw Sombra walking towards him.

“No, Sombra, please, I’ll do anything! I’ll get you close to the Lupos family! I can do it, they trust me! They won’t see you coming! Please, please!!!” Rat begged.

Sombra stopped in his tracks. “Funny, that’s the same thing Ray said over and over again, ‘Please stop, stop hurting him’. Heh, she was a fucking saint. All she cared about was that they were kicking the crap out of me. No Fink, we made the mistake of trusting you, something that I won’t do.”

Suddenly, two tentacles rose from Sombra’s back, these tentacles had jagged spines, at the ends, red eyes shined. The ends of the tentacles opened up and revealed several rows of dagger teeth, the tentacle creatures hissed and snarled, snapping their jaws, showing their impatience.

Rat tried to make a break for it, but the right tentacle shot towards him, snapping at his right leg like a cobra. With a quick squelch and crunch, the tentacle ripped off his foot and ankle in one go. Rat fell to the ground, screaming in pain from his lost limb, but he still tried to run, resorting to crawling on the ground. The two tentacle creatures extended towards him, and then once again snapped straight for him. Their sharp teeth bit into his wrists and tore off his hands, making Rat fall onto his back as his screaming intensified. Blood poured from his wounds, and soon he’d die of blood loss.

Sombra stood over the man, looking down at Rat with his glowing red eyes. “Do you know how it felt when she died in front of me?” The left tentacle creature shot towards Rat, and pierced his ribcage in one go, it then retracted and ripped out his beating heart. Rat gasped as his eyes looked upon his still beating organ, and then saw the creature eat it in front of him, its eyes glowing as if doing so gave it power. That was the last thing Rat Fink saw before he died. “It felt like that.”

Young Blood had hidden under the table, he wasn’t stupid, he knew something was up, but he didn’t expect something like this. The young gang leader yelled as the table was flipped over, and now he looked upon Sombra, he was wearing something different, but he couldn’t make out what, but he could see the two tentacle monsters that seemed to be coming out of his back. Young Blood looked around and saw the creatures with the beady yellow eyes draw closer, he didn’t realize until just now that the shadows were filled with those eyes, and it seemed as if the shadows themselves were alive.

“Go.”

“W-W-What?” Young Blood asked.

“Tell the gangs of this city what happened here, tell everyone. Either they join me or die, and send this message.” Sombra knelt before Young Blood and looked him directly in the eyes. “Tell ‘em, Sombra King is here, and The Darkness is hungry.”

Author's Note

The Witchblade EqG: War of the Trinity