The Man Who Prays, The Man Who Hunts and The Man Who Kills
The air was still in the capitol, the temperature low and the threat of the next snowfall high. Children and parents walked through the streets, going in and out of shops to buy presents for the upcoming holiday. Everyone giddy in anticipation to see family, everyone waiting the one day off from work.
Everyone except Beta Hammer.
It has been two years since his family was destroyed, two years since his life was ruined and his name tarnished.
Two years he has been alone.
With a hefty sigh Beta walked through the streets, barely noticing the bright lights and warm colors of the stores that drew people in. Dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans, dark blue, opened hooded jacket, and black t-shirt, Beta trudged through the crowd. The cold didn’t bother him, not anymore at least, his mind just couldn’t focus on his surroundings. He could be freezing or burning, either way he would still walk on while his mind drifted to empty thought, randomness enraptured his mind while strangers greeted him happy holidays.
How long have I’ve been walking? He thought during his journey, but suddenly he was thrown back into reality as the smell of blood hit his nose. He stopped for a moment and looked down the alley way, seeing guards surround a figure on the ground, yellow tape labeled ‘DO NOT CROSS’ surround the area while camera flashes lit the dim space. Beta walked down to the crime scene, wanting some answers and immediately he was confronted by a guard.
“Beta?” the grey guard asked. He wore his mandatory gold armor with two grey wings coming from his back. “Is that you?”
“Hey Steel Wing” Beta greeted as his co-worker approached him.
“Are you working right now?” He asked, obviously trying to make sure the public didn’t see them. Someone gets killed and the best they’re doing is covering it up? Beta thought.
“Yeah. What happened?” Beta asked as Steel Wing looked at him confused.
“If you’re working, where’s your armor?”
“I don’t like wearing it, too itchy. Plus it draws unwanted attention” Beta said dully. “So what happened?”
Steel Wing stepped back to reveal the rest of the crime scene, the body under a cloak with multiple guards watching the only entrance of the alley way. They approached the unfortunate victim, removing most of the tarp over the body to see the injury while keeping the face covered.
“Female, around 24, unicorn” Steel Wing stated bluntly. Looking over the injury, Beta was at a loss of words. Deep gashes along the left arm of the woman with a large puncture right where the heart was.
“What the hell could have done this?” Beta said in disgusted.
“Not sure. A Manticore? Timber wolf?” Steel Wing guessed, trying to find an answer.
Footsteps could be heard down the alley, alerting Beta to the new presence. A navy blue unicorn, standing the same height as Beta wearing a cream trench coat and a red tie, smoking, walked past the guards near the entrance and slowly made his way to the body. His hair was slicked back with a single red line going along the length of the hair, he took one last drag as he put out the cigarette and crouched down to examine the victim his gold eyes scanning over her, trying to piece together the crime, drawing out an ‘annoying’ trait from Beta.
“This was done by no animal or normal monster” he announced, rising from his examination.
“I agree” Beta spoke as he approached the man. “Nice to meet you, my name is-“
“Beta Hammer, yes I know. You’re the convicted murderer aren’t you?” the man said with a small smirk.
“Convicted, yes. Murderer, no” Beta said with a smirk of his own. During the royal wedding, Beta’s parents were killed in battle, leaving Beta alone in despair, but the public did not care. The citizens of Canterlot wanted someone to blame for the attack seeing how the changelings were gone. So they saw that a soldier was found with two dead bodies and began creating lies of what happened. Eventually Beta was tried for the murder of his parents and, thanks for Princess Celestia’s defending him, was sentenced to five months house arrest along with multiple court mandatory psychiatrists.
He wasn’t even allowed to go to the funeral.
“True. I suppose you aren’t a criminal” the man said back.
“And your name is?” Steel Wing said, trying to steer the conversation away from anything violent.
“Detective Cobalt Chaser” he said coldly to the nervous guard.
“What did this?” Beta said, looking back at the body.
“The correct question is who” Cobalt said, taking out another cigarette. Before he could even put it to his mouth, Beta knocked it straight out of his hand, crushing it under his foot.
“Payback for the murderer crack” Beta said with an evil grin.
“Alright, I deserved that” Cobalt said with a grin, returning to his explanation. “No creature could make it this far into the capital without being noticed; on top of that these wounds were made by a blade, some sort of a cleaver or scythe”
“She was attacked in the street, but the trail can’t be seen with the new layer of snow and ice” Beta said as he leaned against the wall, drawing the others attention.
“What lead you to this?”
“Why clip something you can kill so easily?” Beta responded, pointing to the injury on her arm.
“True” Cobalt commented. “But the question of the hour is who did this?”
“I believe you already have an answer to that Mr. Chaser” Beta replied.
“Yes I do. We believe that this is the work of Jack the Ripper” Cobalt said with a frown.
“Jack the Ripper? You know he’s long dead and buried” Beta asked with confusion.
“That’s the beauty of magic, nothing stays dead for long. The first victim we found was one Pulse Meter, a mortician at Canterlot Hospital. When we found him in his house, he was completely mutilated, and his house was covered in satanic bullshit that would make even heavy metal artists puke” Cobalt explained.
“But why Jack?” Steel Wing asked.
“We don’t know, but we have to stop him now” Cobalt said, taking out another cigarette.
“Last time I checked, Jack used a knife, not whatever this is” Beta said while scanning the wounds once more.
“I never said he came back human” Cobalt said, lighting up the cigarette in his mouth. He turned to leave but continued his explanation. “We haven’t seen him yet but we’re certain that he’s some sort of monster”
“Well that just makes thing more interesting” Beta said, following the detective out.
“What are you doing?” Cobalt asked after a drag.
“You need back up for this, so since I don’t have anything better to do, I’m in” Beta said with a smile.
“Fine, but I need to grab someone else first” Cobalt said leading the way to the next destination.
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The two made their way to Lower Canterlot. In the less crowded part of the city, Cobalt and Beta made their way to the Saints Church of God, a small church that preached the word of God to those who believed in a higher power than Celestia. After knocking on the door the two were asked to wait as the boy went to retrieve the next ally.
“I didn’t even know this place was still standing” Beta said during their wait.
“It’s taken a lot to keep this placed running, even though I don’t practice this religion, I still admire the dedication and hard work that’s went into this place” Cobalt said taking one last drag from his cigarette.
“So why aren’t you with family or something?” Beta asked.
“I could ask the same from you” Chaser said, putting out the cigarette.
“You’re right. Well….Luke and Flight went to visit their parents, and Quick is probably getting drunk at a bar somewhere out of town” Beta put bluntly. “And you?”
“Let’s just say we don’t talk anymore” Cobalt said not amused.
“Fine”
The two sat in silence for several moments until the door to the church opened for them. As they entered they were greeted by a white man with gold hair wear a traditional black button down with the white collar. Guiding the two to a back room, they sat down and began to explain the situation.
“That’s why we need your help Father David” Cobalt said once he concluded.
“We need to stop him tonight. He is a spawn from the very depths of hell, a soul that dark and corrupt brought back from his eternity of torture would bring mayhem to the capitol. I will not allow that to happen” he said firmly with his Irish accent.
“So far the victims have been three unicorn males and two unicorn females. None of the victims had anything to do with one another nor were they found killed in any similar manner other than gruesome” Cobalt explained.
“Then let’s go find him and kill him again!” Beta said with a menacing smile.
“We have ta do more than that ya idiot. He was brought back from Hell through dark magic so we have to send ‘em back through the same channels!” Father David shouted at Beta, which quickly made him sink back in his seat.
“How do we do that?” Cobalt asked, trying to calm do the religious man.
“We have enough supplies here in the church, but it’ll take some time before everything is ready. If I close early tonight then I should have the ritual done by midnight” he said with a sigh.
“Then we will go find him, rough him up a bit, and drag his sorry ass back here so you can send him back to Hell” Beta said, getting a little bit excited.
“Ay and you gotta make sure he doesn’t kill anyone else” he said looking Cobalt straight in the eye.
“Will do” Cobalt said. With that the two left the church to search the town.
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“So how do you know that guy?” Beta asked as they walked through the back alleys of Lower Canterlot. Night had come to the capitol, most people retired to their homes as the few people left out were finishing their work days.
“He’s sort of my cousin” Cobalt said while scratching the back of his head.
“What do you mean by cousin?”
“We aren’t related by blood, we’ve known each other since we were little. My family used to go to that church every Sunday and eventually we became friends. After my falling out with my parents and his moving away, we became the closest thing to family we had” Cobalt explained.
“Is that why you and your parents don’t talk? You stop believing in the same religion?” Beta asked.
“…Yeah….” Cobalt said quietly. “We should split up to cover more ground while finding Jack. Here” Cobalt said while handing Beta a radio.
“Cool. I’ll fly over-head, call as soon as you find him” Beta said, unfolding his blue wings from his jacket and began to take off.
“Wouldn’t that attract attention?”
“How would anyone see a royal blue Pegasus in the middle of the night?” Beta said with a smile.
“Cause of your stupid red hair” Cobalt said bluntly.
“Don’t mock the hair” Beta said, running his fingers through his hair. “Plus it’s also why they invented hoodies”
“Fair enough, now get going!” Cobalt said while turning to continue his search. With that Beta flew off into the night sky, searching for the lunatic zombie gone wild.
Cobalt continued down the alleyway, lighting up a new cigarette and taking a deep drag. Gold light streaming from his horn, he broadened his search method by using magic to pick up on movement. Across the labyrinth like system of Lower Canterlot Cobalt continued into the darkness. Unaware of the red eyes that bore down on him.
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Up in the sky Beta scanned the alleyways below, hopeful that he could stop the bastard before he could strike again. The more he thought about the crimes, the angrier he became.
The creep thinks he can come back from the dead and start kill random people? We’ll just see about that! He thought as he found himself halfway past Lower Canterlot without finding a thing. Crap
“Thinking about it now, Jack really only attacked secluded people. Now he’s really doesn’t have a pattern” Beta said slowing down. “Really the only people he’s kill were unicorns…….”
Beta completely stopped mid-air, putting together two and two for the first time.
I'm an idiot
“Cobalt! Do you hear me?!” Beta screamed into the radio. After no reply, Beta double-backed to the alley where he and Cobalt separated, racing as fast as he could to get to him before Jack did.
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Cobalt found his way to a large lot, probably were a new building should have been. The only light that was available for him was the full moon overhead. The cold, still air of the night brought absolute silence for the detective, closing his eyes the only sound heard was his breath after taking another drag.
Time seemed to slow as Cobalt released the smoke within his lungs.
In a fluid motion, Cobalt raised his right arm to his left pocket underneath his jacket, slowly bringing out a gun, a Colt 1911 with cold clean metal around the barrel, and pointed the weapon towards the shadows towards his right side. In a flash, the gun fired into the darkness, the bullet landing on its target just a few inches away from Cobalt’s hand.
The gruesome howls of pain that came from the monstrosity were music to Cobalt’s ears. The bullet had directly pierced through his skull and was lodged into what was left of its brain. The creature writhed on the ground in front of Cobalt, sounds of metal continuously hitting the ground as the monster tried to recompose itself. As the noises died, the creature rose from the ground, staring straight at the detective with blood red eyes. Under the moonlight the creature was revealed, a horrible grey body held together by metal bars and hooks as a misshaped masked covered its face, a mask that had a new hole in it thanks to Cobalt. Its hands were missing, other than a few bits of bone and flesh that remained, but in place of fingers held large, curved blades stained in dried blood. The murder filled beast glared at Cobalt, a wicked smile plastered over his face as its long, black tongue licked over its lips. In a quick stance, the beast raised its claws and readied to attack. Cobalt took noticed in how slow the creature was moving and raised his gun in return, for in an instant two more shots rang out in the cold winter air.
Jack fell once more, both bullets piercing through his knees to topple him over. Cobalt finished his cigarette and lowered his gun when his radio sparked to life.
“Cobalt! Do you hear me?!” Beta said through the device. Cobalt smirked as his ally raced to him, knowing that he would be here soon to see that he had already killed Jack.
As if spurred by the sounds, Jack stood back up, shocking Cobalt with his determination to kill. With an unearthly roar Jack charged at Cobalt, his blades aiming straight for his chest. Cobalt was frozen; fear grabbed him as the creature he believed dead was now moments from ending him.
In an instant everything had ended.
A blue blur smashed right into Jack’s face, hurling him to the right side of the lot. Beta flew into the scene at top speed, hitting Jack with an improvised dive kick with enough force for him to remain where he arrived.
“Sorry for being late, had to run home and grab this” Beta said pointing to his back. Adorning it was a long staff hammer; the face of the tool was large and held a symbol of an anvil with wings surrounding it. “This was made by a good friend of mine, Luke Forge”
“Looks good, now can we get back to business?” Cobalt said pointing his gun lazily at the temporarily downed Jack.
“Right, how many bullets do you have left?” Beta asked.
“Three”
“Alright, let’s rough him up and drag him back to the church!” Beta said, removing the hammer on his back.
Jack rose from the ground once more and glared at Beta and with a roar, resumed his attack. Beta mimicked Jack’s charge, bearing his hammer to counter Jack’s clawed hands. Knocking away each swipe, Beta countered with a heavy strike against Jack’s head, hearing gruesome cracks and breaks of the monster’s skull and neck. With a smile Beta looked back at his opponent, thinking he was dead. Jack turned his twisted face back at Beta in with an evil grin and with his right claw, he pierced through Beta’s left shoulder then threw him away like garbage to go after Cobalt next.
Beta hit the ground hard; pain racked his brain as a pool of blood lay beneath him. He looked up to Cobalt to see him fire another bullet into Jack, only to delay the monster a few seconds more. With all the strength he could gather, Beta stood up and called for Jack.
“Hey freak!” He shouted, grabbing the monsters attention. “Here’s an early present from me to you!”
With that Beta hurled his hammer at the fiend, knocking him back to the ground. Jack was sent flying with the full weight of the weapon and hit the wall opposite of Beta.
“Cobalt, run!” Beta shouted.
Cobalt was stunned for a moment but understood his friend’s intentions. Firing once more into the creatures arm, Cobalt began to run towards the church, leaving Beta to his plan.
Beta stood back up, walking over to where his hammer lay and proceeded to taunt the monster once more.
“Come and get me ugly” Beta said with a smirk, bashing the creature once more before turning to fly away. Right before however, Jack reached out and tore through Beta’s left wing, causing Beta to tumble over.
“FUCK!” Beta shouted as he gathered to his feet, sprinting out of the alley and towards the church, opposite way to where Cobalt was running. Jack followed closely behind Beta, continuously swiping at Beta mere inches away.
Beta could see the church ahead of him, Cobalt standing at the entrance ushering Beta inside while aim his gun once more at Jack. A second bullet pierced his skull, causing Jack to tumble his way through the doors of the church. Jack skin hissed and smoked inside the holy walls of the church, writhing in pain, Jack cried out and began crawling absent mindedly towards the center of the room.
“Now!” Father David shouted. Cobalt concentrated his magic on the encrypted circle Jack was over. In a bright golden light the spell began as Father David made his way inside the ritual.
“It’s time for you to go back to your Hell, Jack!” He said, pulling out four iron spike from behind him. While drawing out his arms and legs, David stabbed through Jack’s limbs and impaled into the ground. A monster scream came from Jack as the light began to envelope him, drawing out his soul. David stepped out of the ritual to watch the monster’s ‘soul’ go back to the fiery torture it came from.
“You lived ya life destroyin’ the lives of innocent people and were punished for it. Now ya were brought back to life as ya soul wanted to be, a complete monstrosity to mankind. If ya soul were to have learned from ya punishment, maybe ya could have lived again as a good man, but instead ya’re going to suffer twice as much now. May ya rot in Hell” David said with a disgusted look.
“Amen asswipe” Cobalt said as he looked upon the monster’s fading life. Jack struggled for a few more moments as the light became stronger and stronger. In a bright flash it was over. Jack’s body lay limp nailed to the ground.
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“Ouch!” Beta said as Father David applied the disinfectant. Most of Beta’s wounds had been patched up; all that was left to do was fix his wing.
“If ya were a little more responsible, ya wouldn’t be so banged up!” David said irritated.
“Whatever” Beta said as David resumed his medical treatment. Cobalt stood outside smoking, waiting for the two to be done. They had spent the last few hours cleaning up the mess and reburying Jack.
“Done ya idiot” David said, cleaning up his supplies.
Beta looked at his wing; while the injury was shallow the fear of his wing being permanently still lingered.
“Go to the hospital tomorrow and get that checked out” Cobalt said, reentering the church.
“Oy! Put that thing out while ya in here!” David shouted at the detective. Cobalt raised an eyebrow at the Father, but decided to step out the cigarette. “Not in here ya dumbass!”
“Sorry” Cobalt said, sitting down next to Beta. “Thanks for saving me”
“Eh, we needed to activate the ritual” Beta said turning away.
“Yeah, but you gave me a head start so thank you”
“You’re welcome, but if you want to make it up to me you gotta do something first” Beta said with a smile.
“What’s that?” Cobalt said wondering or not he should run.
“Be my friend” Beta said, widening his smile.
“Deal” said smiling back at his new friend.
“Ugh” David groaned. “If ya gonna be so happy ya could at least get drunk while doin’ it” David said pulling out some scotch and glasses.
“Now that sounds like a good idea” Beta said taking a glass, drinking the strong alcohol.
“Eh, why not?” Cobalt said taking the other glass. The three enjoyed the stories one another had getting absolutely hammered while doing so. Night so turned to morning and the three where barely done with the second bottle.
“Ahahaha! Happy Heart’s Warming!” Beta called out stumbling to the ground.