Babylon

Babylon is a major city in the Dominion of Keter. Less well off than the neighboring capital city of Nazareth, and quite new compared to the Golden City. Known for being notably more dangerous than other cities, but over time slowly getting better and better in terms of crime. Reasons for this are under large amounts of controversy. The city is known for its large amount of sky scrapers. Not only this, but the city of Babylon is known for having the largest tower out of all the nations cities, extremely old and the cities most recognizable monument.

The city has had large amounts of criminal organizations running the streets in the past, with a large of them suddenly fading away from the city in more recent times. The population has grown and crime rate has gone down significantly, with no explanation. Its very common for people from Babylon to resent people from other cities, especially people from Nazareth.

Babylon is known for its gigantic system of monorails that run across the entire city through the sky scrapers, gaining the title of "Citadel of Sound" due to the loud sound the monorails make when they are approaching. These bring in countless tourists, with tourism being a major source of income for the city.

## RP Area

### Ground Level

#### Midnight Phantom

In the outer limits of Babylon's lower city, loud noises can be heard from a dimly lit house, until finally a man is sent flying out of the door, the man responsible is a shaggy blond haired man with a wild anger in his eyes.

"I told you all to clear out and leave me be! I want nothing to do with you anymore!" The man barks at the man sprawled on the ground.

With a cry of panic, the other man scampers off in fear into the streets, and the blonde man scowls at any onlookers who bother to stare before slamming the door shut.

"Idiots. I told them never to come back." He growls, before sitting down in an old, worn out chair.

*Just one more night of odd jobs and I'll be home free. ...It's already close to time to start looking around. Maybe the pub nearby will have something?*

Sakael was checking his notes on his phone, reading off one that has said to investigate a peculiar man that was known for residing in the area, taking multiple glances at the description and background history before looking up as he hears yelling and spots a man being sent flying out of a door, putting his phone away as the man responsible slams the door shut. He slips into a nearby alley and climbs up a building unseen, moving farther away to watch the house the man is in. "And now, I wait."

After packing up some of his favorite 'defensive' weapons, the man quietly opens up the backdoor repurposed as a secret door made to look like brick, and slides out on his way to the bar.

*Keep cool and don't get any more trouble tonight, you'll get that pay and you'll be out of here,*The man thinks to himself, anxious. He trails along the least traversed roads and darkest alleys he knows in an attempt to remain hidden and unnoticed, both by enforcement and former crime allies.

Sakeal was diligently watching every aspect of the house, even making sure to notice whether the man would take any secret exits or not. Hes does this before many times afterall. He trails the man from the roofs, attempting to be as quiet as possible, trying to figure out where he could be headed with a few ideas in mind.

The man by this point has reached a local bar and walks toward the entrance, but notably stops and begins scanning the area before going in, with a rather keen eye.

Sakael quickly hides out of sight of the man, simply laying down on a roof, listening for any audio cues such as footsteps and a door opening to see if the man has stopped looking.

The only sound he hears initally is an odd jingling of some kind of metal, before finally the man silently moves inside.

Sakael gets up and climbs down the building and lands quietly, walking nto the bar a few minutes after the man walks in, and takes afew glances around as he moves to take a seat.

The blonde man appears to be conversing with the bar tender, they seem to be deep in conversation.

Sakael gets out his phone again and starts adding to his notes, specifically what the man had said when he kicked out the other man. He occasionally glances back to the man. "*Wonder if hes just gonna drink the night away.*"

At this point, the two shake hands, and what looks like chains with a small arrow like blade on their ends slip from the blonde man's sleeves, he then walks toward the entrance and trades places with a man who had inspected Sakael briefly before allowing him in, who is seen walking out. While standing at the entrance, he is also surveying the building's interior, rather like a bouncer.

Sakael continues writing things down on what has just happened, and when finished he sighs. He continues sitting down for a while, paying little attention to the man to avoid suspicion, but waits for something else to happen before making a move.

For a while things are peaceful, but then Sakael notices a man pulling out a knife to stab a woman in the neck, but the blonde man seems to have caught him first, and the chain whips out and can be seen with a shadowy aura, as soon as it wraps around the man's neck, he disappears, and with a flick of the second chain, is mere seconds rather reappeared and flung out of the bar at high speed as if physically thrown by the chains instead.

The blonde man seems to grumble as he recoils the chains, the bar has fallen silent at the scene, but the lively air eventually returns. Nothing else seems to happen for the next few hours, aside from the blonde man turning down a few individuals from the bar, until finally the bartender closes up shop and give the blonde man thanks, before handing him some significant currency, seemingly pay.

Soon after the blonde man makes his way out of the bar, seemingly relaxed for the present moment.

Sakael after exiting the bar and watching the whole fiasco goes down, gets an idea of how to deal with the man and puts his phone away, trailing after the bar and calls out to him when he gets close enough. "Oi. Im gonna take an educated guess and assume you're the guy known as Esper, am I right?"

The man seems to pause, then silently turns around. "A couple of years ago, you'd be right. You're not privvy to my name regardless. What do you want?" The man has a very ridged gaze.

"I've been in the buisness long enough to know if I've been followed or not so you're not fooling me."

"Still fun to see if you are were Esper or not. If you didn't notice you wouldn't be who I'm looking for. To be fair I really don't care about whether you were Esper, or if you still are Esper. To quite a few you can't leave what you did in the past behind. Hell I should know. But a lot of people want you back. A lot of people want you alive. And a lot of people want you dead. Depending on how this goes, we can see which group gets their wish."

"...What kind of bullshit is that?" Esper says in a low growl, a lot darker than Sakael expected a man to make. "I have no interest in entertaining you." His fists are tightened, but his posture has almost gone into a peculiar slouch.

"It means im here to either help you, or help the people who want you back, if you want me to be blunt. Fucking hell didnt think id have to say it outright. But if you just want to be an asshole and disregard me, someone in a similar situation as you are im sure people are fine with you dissapearing. But ill ask one more time. How fo you want this to go?"

"I just want to be left alone. I don't need or want help, this was my last job before I got out of this damned city. How the hell is some random bloke gonna 'help' me?"

Sakael crosses his arms. "You want to be left alone when your name was known widely in Babylon? You think you can just leave that behind you without clean up duty? The fuck are you thinking? Its taking me forever to clean up just a few blocks, you wont make it alone. If you expect to leave everything behind and think its all gonna be fine I dont think you deserve your recognition. I already know a few of the gangs that are after you. If you help me I can find out the rest and we can take them down." Sakael takes a few steps closer. "Together."

Esper gives Sakael a flat look. "Half those guys are... ...uuuuughh. Not out here. Come on." He turns and starts stomping off in the direction of his house, clearly not continuing the discussion out in the street.

Sakael nods and follows after Esper.*"That went better than expected."*

Esper quietly makes his way to the house, entering without a word.

Sakael enters the house behind him, unsure of what to say to break the silence. "Might as well tell you my name. Its Sakael. If you watch the news ever you should bear the occasional coverage on some hooded vigilante. That'd be me."

"I'm only interested in starting over. I've been taxing my buttocks over the past few months and years dodging trouble since my last run in with the law. Prison isn't a fun experience..." He largely grumbles.

"I finally got the money I need to make a one way trip to Nazareth and now I'm being told to go fight some blokes who are delusioned freaks? Have you not heard about the gangs disappearing?"

"The gangs may be dissapearing but the culture isnt. Theres still a lot of nervous hostility in the air in Babylon and its bound to cause even worse groups to pop up. Especially if the ones that still remain arent taken down. As long as Babylon has nothing to look up to and everything to fear nothing is going to change, is it? If anything you"re contributing to the problem. You're leaving everything behind and just hoping Babylon fixes itself on its own. Ive done my best to help this damned city even when im not usually around and I expect some help once in a while."

Esper gives him a quizzical look. "...You're... ...strange. ...But even if I was interested in serving others, there's not a chance in hell with the way these guys are just dropping off the map. I love a fight and all, but it's not something I want to be involved in. The last thing I want is to disappear like the rest."

Sakael scoffs. "If you didnt want to dissapear, you wouldnt be abandoning this city. You wont be serving anyone anyway, its all for mutual gain. We're both well rquipped, and ive done this before. I know what to do if things go wrong, which they won't. Once all of this is over and everyone is off your back, thats when you can safely leave. You already know how determined Babylonians can be."

Esper gives him a stupefied look. "...And what if I just want to leave...?" He has a borderline defeated air about him.

"Then I leak your information to the people looking for you. Any info on you is worth a lot of money, I'm missing out on a lot here. But since I'm not a total asshole I'm at least willing to give you a helping hand."

"*Kill the bastard, fuck it, kill the bastard, fuck it..."* He mutters under his breath for a moment, before sighing. "Fine. You rat me out later, and you will be a fucking dead man."

"Ive heard that too many times to take it seriously now. But cross my heart and swear to die I wont rat you out. Besides I can always get the money later by other means." Sakael extends his hand. "Do we have a deal, then?"

"Fine." He takes it, with far too much strength than nessisary. "So then. Tell ol' Esper what eager beaver Sakael wants to do first."

"Right. So I have a few locations of the various gangs affer you, but one of them seems to be taking the charge of gathering a little witch hunt for you. Funny enough its the same gang offering money for information on you so while we're there we can make a withdrawal. If we're capable of taking out that outpost their plans will be ruined without a main group organizing it all. What we'll do however is make it seem like the work of a rival gang which has a temporary truce with the main gang organizing it all. They way we can do this is that I've collected a few specific weapons that gang is well known for using, one of them being some weird serrated machete, looks intimidating but does fuck all. After we take out most of the people in tha place, we might have to mark up the bodies with said weapon. After that it should cause a large ruckus within certain allied gangs, taking heat off you and me if we play our cards right. Got it?"

"...Uhhh... ...sure." He clearly seems lost but is not going to bother pursuing. "So just kill more people, right?"

Sakael gives a blank expression. "Yes. Just kill more people."

"Right... ...you go ahead and deal with getting set up. I'll just be here... ...wishing I could be out of this dump already."

"We were born in this dump, don't forget that." Sakael takes out his phone and reads through his notes once more, before writing even more. "So what exactly is your Spark anyway? Never really looked into that."

"We aren't friends. I reckon you've seen it already since you were tailing me from the bar."

"Just because you see something that doesn't mean you'll completely understand it. That's just stupid."

"What kind of 'Esper the Phantom' would I be if you understood me?"

"You're an old phantom, and the new ones, like me, need to know everything about the old ones to do better. Cant blame me for being curious."

"Hmmph. Even blokes I knew my whole life I don't tell nuthin about that side of me. My 'workmates' probably knew the least. Ain't gonna tell someone I met borderline threatening me a moment ago anything. Sides. You learn more by watching than asking."

"That was when you were still in your line of work. Now, you're supposedly retired and dont have as much reason to be so secretive with things. Well, you'll have less reason to be secretive when we're done."

"Kind of hard to be retired when you are forced into murder. Get going already."

"This'll be your last time murdering, promise. Then you can go to Nazareth and be happy. Follow me." Sakael heads out of the house and into an alleyway, cutting through various corridors before he begins to climb a building.

Esper lazily follows, but is still easily able to keep up.

"Mind the birds at the top. They can get a bit teritorrial and peck out your eye." They soon reach the top where Sakael gets a good view of the area, before spotting and pointing out a certain building. "There. Thats where we're going to make a scene."

"...Hurray." Esper responds dully.

Sakael sighs. "Could at least pretend to sound happy. We're gonna have to be more careful. Im going to assume theres going to be a lot of security before we even get there." Sakael starts making his way towards where he pointed.

Esper shadows him, almost in a literal sense, appearing translucent.

As they make their way to the building and eventually go back to the ground level, Sakael takes out two oddly shaped blades. "These were the weapons I mentioned before. You'll have to either use them to take out some of them, or mark their bodies after they're dead, whichever works for you." Sakael hands him one.

Esper takes the blades, with almost a familiar grip. "Whatever."

Sakael gives him a look, but says nothing. "Its best to go at this stealthily at first, hopefully cause panic before we make a full entrance." Sakael quietly sneaks past a few guards and goes to the side of the building, which has a fire escape. He leaps up and grabs onto it, climbing up and going up the stairs.

Esper walks straight in the front entrance, though no one notices him somehow, and he walks toward one particular room in the building.

Sakael enters the building through a window that has a guard infront of it and kills the guard by slashing at their neck with the weapon, catching them and putting them down slowly before they hit the floor. He makes his way through the building as quietly as possible, takining out easier guards while sneaking past and hiding from the more armed ones.

Suddenly the lights are killed, and in the darkness Esper begins hacking at various enemies in the dark, moving silently through the halls and hiding the evidence from the blinded eyes around him as he goes.

Sakael scoffs under his breath. "*Talk about being overdra-fucking-matic.*" Sakael keeps making his way through the building and after some time, nearly half of the security has been taken down in the building. "*Right, think its time to start getting loud. Where the fuck is Esper?*"

A thug who was about to slash at his back makes a bloody croaking sound as Esper stabs them in the neck and then slashes them repeatedly until they're down.

"Right behind you," He intones. He hears Esper start to walk off again, rather at home in the dark.

"Stop being such a fucking creep. You're a phantom, I get it. Lay off with the ghost shit."

"No can do!" He calls out as screams ring out but are shortly silenced.

Sakael smacks his head against the wall as he makes his way through the building once more, instead taking a more loud and violent approach, using the weapon he distrubuted earlier to kill gang members.

Not long after, Esper twirls the blades as he stands over the last victim.

"Hmm. No wonder they were so willing to give away coin- -dirt cheap fighters the lot of em'."

The last victim suddenly finds the weapon thrown directly into the side of his head, done by Sakael who is walking up. "Seems we're done here. I left a few extra calling cards and made the break in look unprofessional as well. We should be covered."

"Hrmm." Esper only grunts.

Sakael sneers a bit. "I said we're done here. Meaning you should I dont know, maybe seem a tad happy for once? If all goes according to plan there should be some heat off your back." Sakael puts his hood up. "And mine."

Esper rolls his shoulders, walking toward the exit. "I have a feeling things are never that easy. Ever. Which is why I save celebrating until I'm far far far far away drinking a martini."

"Alcohol isn't everything, you know. Despite you being Awakened that shit can kill you. But whatever, celebrate in whichever way you want. Also in case we ever need to get in touch again, i'll be looking around for you in that bar. Course you dont have to talk to me ever again but like you said, things are never this easy." Sakael begins to walk out of a different exit.

"Ever heard of a joke, motherfucker?" Esper mutters. He walks out into the streets, and disappears in the shadows.

Sakael can't help but laugh as he leaves the building.

Quite sometime later, he reaches his home in Nazareth, flopping down on his bed and sleeping for sometime before getting a call.