Darkest Knight:DC

I stared at the thrice damned black ring on my hand. If I wanted to use it, I had to use it with intent to provoke the emotions of someone. Presumably this somehow facilitated the ring's original mission of whatever it was the rings were after. All it did now was keep me from doing anything awesome… like flying. With no one around to "emotionally provoke" I was grounded.

So I walked.

Now I'm not an idiot, I walked the hell away from where the lightshow had been previously coming from. I'm not going to waltz into a group of trigger happy supers who just ended the apocalypse in my fancy zombie suit, with built in zombie logo, and snazzy zombie decoder ring. I'm going home to my apartment, I'm going to figure out this ring, and then I'm going to contact anyone I think can help over the phone so I have half a chance to explain myself before they kick in my door and vaporize me.

I was a little ticked off at the moment. Here I am, second chance at life, whole bunch of super powers at my fingertips, and I can't even use them without risking imminent re-death. Seriously, this was origin story stuff right here. If this were those fruity comics from the fifties I'd be costumed up as Deadman and fighting crime right now… too bad Deadman's already taken. That would be a sweet super hero name.

To try to cheer myself up, I tried to think of a super heroic alter ego. All the good names were taken. Specter? Taken. Shadow? Taken. Ghost? Taken. I am not calling myself Zombie Boy. Unless I thought of something massively better, I was probably stuck calling myself Black Lantern, which I was reluctant to do given the obvious connotations and history the name came with. I ended up in a worse mood then when I started, and I stopped trying to think of super hero names. I tried to focus on getting home unseen.

I stuck to the shadows and back allies as much as I could. Despite the fact that the world had been ending, there were still plenty of people hanging around. The world nearly comes to an end on a fairly regular basis. You get used to it. I didn't want to call attention to myself just yet. My plan was to lay low until I had a handle on the situation, then proceed with caution.

I should have known that the universe had other plans.

The first sign that something was off was the sound of breaking glass. It wasn't hard for me to figure out what was going on. Someone must have figured that since the world was coming to an end (again) that they could take advantage of the situation. Frankly, I was content to let them. I didn't really care. Just about everyone, myself included, carried insurance for this kind of situation, so whoever was getting robbed would be fine in the end.

Then I heard the screaming. So not an ordinary robbery. Fine. You want me to intervene universe? I'll intervene.

I was currently in an ally way, and the sound of glass breaking and screaming had come from around the corner. So I creeped around the corner with as much subtlety as I was capable of managing. The break in was occurring in what I assumed was a pawn shop. The fact that the sign above the door labeled it as such confirmed my suspicions. I looked inside and saw the source of the commotion. Two very suspicious looking thug like individuals were currently shoving assorted jewels and knick knacks into actual burlap sacks. Off in the corner was some poor girl huddled in the corner, a visible cut just above her left eye. It was hard to see though, since she seemed to be glowing yellow.

FEAR

"Seriously guys" I said as I walked into the store, "the world's ending again and everyone just goes nuts. You'd think people would be used to it by now." I tried to be calm and not panic anybody, but I couldn't just walk away now. The poor girl in the corner couldn't be older than 16, she just seemed to be manning the shop.

The two thugs dropped the bags and whirled around to face me, one unslinging a shotgun from behind his back and pointing it as me. Okay, I can still salvage the situation. I raised my right fist and pointed to my power ring with my left hand.

"No one needs to get hurt, just put the guns down and leave, I'm going to count to three. One…"

And my head exploded in a shower of bone and blood.

Losing your head and surviving the experience (for a given definition of surviving) is a rather novel experience. Finding out you don't even need your head to continue functioning really changes your perspective. I didn't seem to have a sense of touch to start with, so I was nearly insensate without my head. The only sense I seemed to retain was the ability to sense the emotions of the three nearby individuals.

FEAR

RAGE

FEAR

My body was lying on the ground, and I could feel new tissue growing from the stump where my head used to be. My lower jaw came into existence, and the rest of my head grew out of the top of that. My ears reformed next, and suddenly I could hear again.

"…gn on to kill people man! I just want to help my kid!"

My head finished reforming, and my eyes filled their sockets like someone pouring liquid jello into a mold.

I sat up, unnoticed, and was greeted with nothing less than the scene from a horror movie. The girl who had been unobtrusively hiding in the corner had been shot, and was currently bleeding from the stomach. She was crying silently, not even able to breath enough to make a sound.

"You didn't have to shoot the girl!"

"She saw our faces jackass! She was never going to live through this! Even more so since she saw us ice that lantern wannabe."

I crawled towards the girl, trying to avoid notice as they continued arguing. I was an idiot to think I could just walk in and solve this without violence. What was I thinking? The one guy seemed reasonable, but that other guy... I wasn't sure I could let him go after this.

"Ring" I whispered, "you said you can mimic blue right? Can you fix her?"

Affirmative

I flinched and looked towards the two criminals, but they didn't seem to hear the ring. That was good to know. I looked at the girl, and I focused on triggering an emotional response in her. I wanted her to hope.

"Everything's going to be alright." I whispered.

The ring took on a black glow, and a construct of shadow formed in front of the girl. A woman I didn't recognize held out her hand and cradled the girl's cheek in her palm. The girl's yellow aura faded but was still present, but was replaced by a beautiful azure light. Blue always was my favorite color.

Heart is ready for harvest.

"Shut up you stupid bloodthirsty thrice damned ring" I hissed.

"Did you hear that?" Rage thug asked.

"I didn't hear anything man… I… I can't do this. I need to…"

He was cut off by the retort of the shotgun.

"Chickenshit asshole… where'd that guy's body…"

"Two" I said as I stood up, resuming my count.

"You! I shot you in the head!" Rage was now mixed with fear.

I couldn't resist, I really couldn't. "I got better."

He fired again, and again, only for it to bounce off a hexagonal shield I'd manifested in front of me. So I was an anime fan, sue me.

RAGE

FEAR

His red aura was rapidly diminishing, and was flaring yellow. That yellow spiked as his gun clicked empty. Good.

I fired a pulse of kinetic energy from my ring, flinging him into the far wall. Bands of shadow wrapped around his wrists and waste and held him there. I looked down at the other robber, the one who'd been shot by his own partner. The one who was only here because he cared for his child.

FEAR

The man was even worse off than the girl had been, a ragged hole blown in the left side of his chest. It was clear he couldn't even breath.

I mimicked the light of hope again. This guy wasn't dying on my watch. The construct that appeared for him was that of a little girl, six maybe seven years old. He gurgled, reaching out to the construct as his flesh knitted itself back together.

HOPE

LOVE

"Amanda…" he muttered before losing consciousness.

That was it. I was al… intact. The girl was fine and unconscious, the other guy was fine and unconscious, and rage roid was thrashing against the bonds I'd restrained him with. His fear had once again been replaced by rage. I was beginning to think he was some kind of idiot.

I picked up the man I'd just healed in a fireman's carry, and Crazy McShotgun floated bound behind me. I got tired of his yelling and snarling, so I slapped a shadow gag over his mouth. I dropped the guy off who hadn't tried to kill me a few blocks away in a well-lit, nice looking part of town, and flew off with my captive.

He continued to struggle, and I saw tinges of yellow creep back into his aura. I think he began to suspect just what he'd gotten himself into. I continued to fly low to the ground, looking for something specific.

"Ring? Capacity" I said.

96.10%

I finally found what I was looking for. A pile of bodies strewn about the street, their hearts ripped out. I'd seen just what my fellow undead had been doing to my former fellows among the living, and I had come to a decision some point between healing the girl and hearing him shoot his own partner. It surprised me how quickly I'd gone from deciding I wasn't going to kill anyone to my current course of action, but this guy had made a very convincing case fore himself. I needed to keep my reserves up if I wanted to stay unliving, and this guy was not someone who needed to stay in the world.

I dropped him in the pile of bodies that had yet to be collected and landed next to him.

"You shot me. You shot a teenage girl. You shot your own partner!"

And I'd destroyed all evidence that he'd done so by healing his victims. It was their word against his in a court, and I couldn't take that chance. His eyes grew wide in realization, and then narrowed in anger.

FEAR

RAGE

Heart is ready for harvest.

I pulled back my hand, shadows forming above my fingers and sharpening into claws.

"I'd say I'm sorry, but I don't think I am… Three."

I reached into his chest. I tore out his red and yellow pulsing heart. I watched as the light drained from it and flowed into my ring.

Ring Capacity at 100.00%

I dropped the quickly cooling corpse into a pile of its fellows.

Then I walked home.