Jack stood there among the crowd of people, all of them transfixed by the towering deep blue wall of fire that seemed to reach the stars. It lit up the faces of every insignificant soul wandering the streets and bathed DJ in a sea of blue light.

" Hang in there, the cavalry's on its way." DJ's voice boomed over the radio. DJ turned towards Jack, " Time to keep the peace." Jack nodded. Still, the same gameplan, except somehow these thugs have access to magic. And they had used it to modify some weapons to turn them into weapons of mass destruction. Of course they had to wait till it was his first week on the job right?

DJ took shoved his way through the crowd as it twisted and warped unpredictably around him. People yelling. People running. Looks like the panic had set in. Jack stuck to DJ's wake as the hulking armored man cut a path for him. Jack snuck his hand into his jacket and pulled out his weapon of choice, the Equalizer. This thing would be overkill vs any average Joe. Hell, it was already overkill vs anything that had access to the world of magic. Jack looked it over in his hand, the faint green tint hummed back at him.

" What are we dealing with Canary?" asked DJ calmly.

The sound of bullets whizzing and the crackling of energy returned from the radio. The battlefield ambiance was broken up by Canary," Looks like there's 20 guys here, some of them are packing some new toys. Watch out one of them has a modified grenade launcher that caused the fireworks show earlier." She paused. "Can't wait to find out where they got them."

The two rounded a corner and Jack was face to face with the offending building. Well, he still had DJ blocking most of his view, but he could see the blue light escaping from both the windows and the newly constructed cost-effective windows, also known as holes.

DJ reached down and plucked the hilt from his side and in one fluid motion and steadied it towards the building. The empty hilt stayed there for a brief second as a cool breeze swept down the streets. Then a great valiant orange blade erupted from the hilt. The great blade seemed to absorb all the tiny bit of light that was provided by the stars and the streetlights. The blade was massive, it even made DJ look small as he raised the solid and sturdy looking blade.

For Jack, this what expected to say the least. He looked at his own sidearm with a diminutive look.

" Took this from some Wizard during the war. It's gotten the job done ever since."

The orange blade seemed to pulsate and surge as he brought it high up in the air.

" That's some trophy," said Jack. In truth, he was wondering where he could get one of them, but hey color me impressed.

" Trophy implies that I won, I'd say it's more of a reminder." DJ brought up his left arm and a large deep blue shield materialized in his hand. " Let's go crash this party."

DJ barreled forward and crashed into the unfinished building. Jack stuck to his earlier plan and followed behind DJ. The sound of gunfire ricocheted in his head as Jack leaped behind DJ with his shield outstretched.

" Ah shit it's not just that spook bitch anymore, back up's here." An unfamiliar voice rang through the halls as DJ advanced, his shield outstretched. Jack scanned the room. His eyes strained every detail as they moved forward. The building was just an empty shell. It was all open space on the inside littered with scaffolding and other tools. There wasn't much that separated them from the open air.

WHIIZZ. Trailed tinted in blue connected with DJ's shield from the corner of the room

" Finally something I can see!" The shouts came from both the side of the building. Jack saw the shooter. He saw the smile wipe off his face as he stared at the hulking man before him. The man looked down at his gun and raised it again, firing a hail of bullets that rocked the room as they connected with DJ's shield and exploded in a blue flash. DJ charged at the man, The flashes of the muzzle showed every soul-crushing expression on the man's face as the hulking armored man closed the gap with every step. Jack turned away, this guy was not a monster. Not in the literal sense. Jack was alone in the center of the open area now. Not the best place here Jack let's find our way out of this one. Jack darted to the side and took cover behind a pillar. The exposed wire and steel jutted out from the pillar wildly. A rumbling came from upstairs as several men tumbled down the stairs. Jack heard them yelling, " I can't fucking see her even with these goggles. Screw this. It's time to get the hell out of here."

Jack's grip on the Equalizer tightened. They needed a few of them for questioning right? Could be this guy's lucky day. Now what to say...

Jack emerged from behind the pillar with his arm outstretched. He delivered the most intimidating line he could think of.

" Move and I shoot."

The cluster of three men froze. Not bad Jack, not bad. Before Jack could pat himself on the back. One of the men raised his rifle and fired off a few purplish hue rounds. They blew past Jack's head and rumbled through the pillar.

" Holy fuck." yelled Jack as he dove back behind the pillar.

" Hey asshole, what the fuck was that?"

Jack heard the man turn to his other men," That'll keep him busy. Let's go." The men darted across the floor of the building, aiming towards the exit.

That should keep him busy? He missed... Jack felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. A real sinking feeling, the kind the people on the Titanic must have felt. His head snapped around as he retraced the path of the bullets. They lead him to the earlier explosion that had produced a solid hole right to the sky. And highlighted in front of the moon were several published tinted objects that seemed to be getting bigger. Yeah, those were the bullets. They were coming back.

Jack leaped out of the way of the pillar as the bullets crashed through it before burrowing into the ground. So what are these boomerang bullets? Jack looked at the purplish bullets embedded in the ground. They were quivering. Desperately trying to free themselves so they could take another pass at him. Jack lifted the largest chunk of debris he could find and hastily dropped it on top of the quivering bullets.

The building was shaking and rumbling, and the fact that Jack could see the night sky had Jack worried about the structural stability of the building. He touched his hand behind his ear. " Building's not looking too hot guys. Is it time to go?"

" You're still inside?" came back Canary's voice. Jack's stomach dropped again.

" Just messing with ya kid I'm wrapping up with my friend here, get out of there." She barked. Orders are orders. Jack moved to put the Equalizer away when he was assaulted by the sound of slow footsteps. Jack was face to face with a young man with brilliant blue eyes, some of the best Jack had ever seen. The only thing drawing away from his eyes was the gun in his hands. The gun was emitting a faint blue glow near the barrel, you could see where a part had been welded and modified.

" Think it's time to give up," Jack said, his eyes narrowed. " It's to pick your battle, and this isn't one you want to fight."

They stood there, only interrupted by the rumbling from deep within the structure of the building and the wailing of the sirens outside. The blue-eyed man's gaze darted towards one of the holes in the wall, towards the back and away from the sirens. Was he even a man? He looked more like a kid if anything.

" Drop the gun. It's time to go."

" I can't. This is my ticket out of here. People will pay a lot of money for something like this. With this, I'm out of this half-finished rat ass part of town. It's all I've got know."

Jack held firm. Seconds passed by. With every tick and tock, it grew more obvious. Jack wasn't going to do it. The boy looked him in the eyes and turned away, the rifle slung over his back. He darted towards the hole in the wall, all that Jack could see was the blue hue coming from the rifle. The young man was almost there. Jack watched as the night sky looked like it would swallow him up among the stars and the moon. The only thing ruining the scene was the blue hue. Jack squeezed the trigger. The green trail tore through the man and the hole. The young man collapsed to his knees and fell with a silent thud. The Equalizer lowered slowly lowered in Jack's hands as he walked over. He slid the rifle off of the young man's body and left him to lie face down. He didn't want to look at that face now, he was sure he would be seeing it very soon. Jack walked out of the hole and followed the sounds of the sirens.

Jack stared down at the man in the center of the road, bathed in red and blue light.

" Where did you get them?" Canary asked as she crouched down low over the battered and bleeding man. The man's eyes and expression when blank when she asked the question. He seemed to drift off in slumber before answer." I don't know." " His memory has been wiped. Just the important bits by the look of it." DJ chimed in.

" Could still be something in there that's useful. Sometimes they don't wipe the whole thing." Canary prodded the man in the shoulder. " Time to wake up."

The man snapped back to reality and took in his surroundings. He weakly pointed at Canary." You... you're that monster that was hiding in the shadows."

Canary laughed. "Monster? Does a monster leave its victims alive? I had a lot of questions to ask so I had to be careful."

The man spoke again. " You turned us against each other I heard their voices... but it wasn't them. You were everywhere." He looked around. " I should be dead."

" Well, you're not. You're just lucky you didn't shoot at my big friend here he's not a big fan of the man part of from monster and men."

" From monster and men?" the man groggily asked.

" That's the official slogan of the Spectral Investigators, we protect from monsters and men. It's always disappointing when we get the men though."

The man laughed, a slow wheezing laugh. He winced with each breath. " With the way you fought, you might want to look under that mask for a monster." He said with his eyes filled with a mixture of raw fear and bitterness.

DJ moved forward from the side but Canary motioned for him to stop. She reached up towards her neck and pulled her helmet. The helmet jerked off her head to reveal a pair of steely blue eyes and short dirty blonde hair. Her face seemed both old and young, what was she in her late thirties now? A long and thin black device wrapped around her throat like a half-snake, it was only present on the right side of her neck. She placed the helmet on the ground and simply said. " So does the monster live up to your expectations?"

The man was silent.

" I've seen worse." He said defiantly.

A small light shone brightly for a brief moment from the device around her neck. She opened her mouth to speak.

" I've seen much, much, worse too." When she opened her mouth to speak it wasn't the same old usual Canary voice that sang out. It was the voice of the man.