CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Three Months Ago

Underneath a big full moon in the night sky, Jack Hanover watched from the shadows of the rooftops. He followed a trail he had spotted uptown. And now lay perch on this old-city building. The cement curves produced a protective shell of shadow for Jack to prepare his attack.

"And so, you have finally chosen the path of the hero..."

A voice stood out behind him. Jack snapped around and there was Sensei. He turned his back on his mentor; and refocuses on the gang banger that shot the innocent woman he could not heal on the street. Finally, he decided to speak.

"I have yet to decide. Is my training over?"

"I have no more to teach you."

"I am going to kill this man when I find him,” said Jack.

Sensei walked to the back edge and pulled something from the shadows. "Before you go, take this."

He brought a cloak over to Jack. "There is a darkness inside all of us. Most learn to keep it at bay their entire lives. This cloak brings the darkness down around you in the filter of fortune. In you military terms, it will protect you with dark camouflage." Sensei attached it to his jacket. The cloak blended into the jacket; fusing together with it, becoming one.

Jack felt a warmth over his shoulders, as the cape came over the jacket and the Kevlar vest it forged the three into an one uncanny suit. Like metal fusing together, the warmth became fire and too much to bear for Jack. He thought he was on fire but that is just how his basic human brain perceived it.

The spirit of the cloak had was passing into him, finding a home deep inside Jack's heart. The spirit in and of itself was not bad, but darkness cannot be restrained. And in that wildness lies an opportunity for evil. Sensei waited a long time for the right candidate.

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On one knee he fixed his newly forged super hero suit. Smoke billowed out from the cape as it finished fusing. He stood back up and stepped out of the shadows. Under the moonlight he was reborn.

Jack jumped off the rooftop. The cloak caught the air and restructured, becoming sturdy around the edges and parachuting in the middle. He landed off a five story jump with ease. The cape then restructured loose.

Sensei watched Jack go for the car parked in front of the hideout. The same car that the gang-bangers used. He hid around it and jumped the driver as he rounded the car's corner. Jack grabbed his head, turning his forward momentum down, thrashing the driver into the car door, snapping his neck. The poor dumb ass went for his gun instead of plying Jack's arms off his neck; a fatal mistake.

Jack pulled the pistol from him. It was a desert eagle .50 caliber silver finish with an ivory-white handle. Its clip was full. Jack checked the dead thug's belt. He had an ammo clip next to the holster for the gun. Jack stole the attachments for his own utility belt. He adjusted the holster on his hip. Ready for battle. Jack looked back down. The holster and the gun were now black, as if converted by the cape.

Jack kicked the door to the hideout in. Twenty men pulled on him from two open floors of warehouse. Jack turned into his cloak and vanished, teleporting into action. He appeared behind a guard in the corner of the second floor. Shooting him where the spine meets the hips, breaking him into halves. Jack put his pistol away and grabbed the AK in the dead gangster's hands. He unloaded over the railing, a hip-firing spray that demolished half the upstairs.

Jack dove behind a column and reloaded the AK with the dead man's ammo. He slid the black rifle over the top of the railing and peered behind it. Through the iron sights he couldn’t see anything without putting his head in danger of getting shot off. But when Jack closed his eyes, he was able to focus and use all his other senses to graph and track the remaining gangsters. He sprung up and like a vicious storm of shadow dispatched every single gangster on both floors.

Nothing but sounds next. The second wave were the top guns. An AK dropped on the floor. 2 Uzi's were swiped. A door opened on the first floor and a door closed on the second floor. Thunderous gunfire erupted through the warehouse. Jack teleported into the center of the floor. Bouncing erratically through the air, collecting all the gunfire but not letting any of it land. Instead the bullets keep traveling across the warehouse into the bodies of other enemies. They put themselves down like cattle. Jack stood there amongst the darkness with the Desert Eagle in his hand. Footsteps from a survivor caused Jack to pause. He looked back and then disappeared. Reappearing behind the last mercenary standing, and putting him down with a shot to the head.

Ridding the world of the Dec Dawgs, a gang of thieves, murderers, and drug dealers, Jack gathered what ammo he could, leaving the weapons that were already used, except for the Desert Eagle. He dragged a gallon of gasoline empty across the entire warehouse floor. Before he left he lit the gas with his Zippo and burned the hideout down. He walked out of the fiery wreckage unseen by any camera or witness, leaving no trace behind.