6 years ago.

The city brimmed with life as night life started up, it was a special Friday night due to Halloween. Groups of people from all sorts of backgrounds came together to just let loose, all wearing costumes. Whether it was businessmen tired of their dead-end job, students who were celebrating graduation, or just friends having fun.

Yet, a single man walked between these groups, one who at first didn't stick out at all. Checking his watch, the hands neatly pointed at  2 am.

Walking inside one of the alleyways, a very quick change happened. The man walked out wearing a white mask, with a katana sheathed on his hip. Easily blending in with the rest of the groups, it was like he had done this many times before.

But on the contrary, this was his first time doing this. Flames were raging in his heart, he needed to do this job good. After all, there was only one chance, and absolutely no time to waste.

This would be the night where the vigilante known as Ray first became active.

Ray was going to expose the corrupt laundromat owner, Henry Jovial. The vigilante got his information through grit and beating up people related to him. People spill beans easily when they’re scared. The katana helped with that, and it was his good luck charm, reminding him of why he went down this path.

Having enough evidence, he knew it would ruin Henry if  all that information came out now. But a questioning was in order first, as there were still question marks floating inside him that needed an answer.

Ray knew that there were bigger heads behind this. Exposing Henry could cause a stir in the underworld, or so he thought. It would put targets on his back, but he didn’t care. It was safe to say he was on a war path.

Taking advantage of the city’s busyness, alongside the fact that he knew Henry’s habits and routine. Standing in front of his office, there were a lot of parked cars all across the large street.

“…I think someone is going in.” A man said, looking from his tinted car window.

“What’s he doing? So interesting” a woman replied in response.

“Your excitement is seeping from every word, you know that, right.”

“This is my first big criminal I’m arresting, but then an unknown acquaintance barges in the plan. It’s so fun, I have to think on the spot.”

“What shall we do?”

“Observe from the outside, if he doesn’t come out in the next half hour, we arrest them both.”

“You’re the boss, chief.”

The woman with bright green hair couldn’t contain her smile, nor her excitement. There was a glint in her eyes. The man sitting next to her was just awaiting more orders, not thinking much about the situation. They both had a patch with small bunny ears on their uniform.

Ray entered the unlocked building. It was dark, but a vinyl was playing from a specific room upstairs. Each step only made his heart beat quicker. Beneath the mask, a frown appeared more and more. Two guards stood in front of the door, noticing a silhouette in the hallway.

The guards had no guns, for them, it was just an ordinary night of protecting a well known person, they had no idea what monster was behind that door.

Ray quickly bolted towards them, grabbing the first guard and slamming them into the ground, knocking them out instantly. The other guard felt a chill running down his spine, one that couldn’t be described. Because of the slightest hesitation in grabbing his baton, the vigilante was already standing in front of him.

With another swift, but powerful throw, he was knocked out too. All that was left was the weapon dealer.

Opening the door, the vigilante is greeted by an office lit by moonlight, a man holding a glass of whiskey looking outside, before turning to his unexpected guest.

“I thought I heard a commotion.”

Gritting his teeth in anger, a sentence filled with hatred left the vigilante’s mouth

“Have you heard of the ones that cannot be seen, but they somehow see everything?”

This made the man’s eyebrow raise.

“Who are you?”

“Call me Ray. I know everything about you, Henry.”

“Do you, now?”

“How much money have you whitewashed? How many lives have you ruined? You know guns are a rarity in this country, yet you sell them anyway.”

“You seem well informed, in fact, you know a bit too much.”

Before he could even reach the inside of his pocket, the vigilante already stood behind him. Firmly grasping the mustached man’s arm.

“Any sudden moves and I break this. I have enough information to ruin your empire, the one you built on bodies.” Gripping his arm even more, his heartbeat rose.

Ruffling around in his pocket, a small paper was slammed on the table.

“I’ve gathered information on not only you, but your colleagues too. One of your own snitched on you all, you know. Now tell me, who do you work for?”

“I’m not scared of going to jail, you’re a fool to think I’d ever spend a night in a cell. But to play along with your little charade, let me help you with your upcoming funeral.”

The man headbutted the vigilante, causing him to stumble backwards. Throwing his glass at the vigilante afterwards. Ray dodged it, and a shatter was heard. There was no time to deal with this, he needed information now.

Running towards the man, Ray grabbed his left arm and slammed it against the table. Punching him in the face afterwards. He held his fist up afterwards, very clearly telling the man that he wasn’t going to stop at just one punch. Still refraining the use of his katana, though.

The laundromat owner now realized that his opponent was very serious about this, but he also knew that it wasn’t an assassin sent by the higher ups, otherwise his arm would’ve been cut off by now.

So very quickly, he hatched a plan. One that would dispose of this fool quickly. He couldn't help but remove the panic brewing inside him, though, because this still was an unknown madman  who god knows what he could do.

“A-Alright, I’ll tell you what I know. That list has some genuine names, like Shi. However, we all have a pact. There are people that we call the ‘gods of the city’. They are the ones who see everything, even telling you this has marked me for death.”

That was a lie, the man knew how important his role was for the gods, he was immune. But the vigilante wasn’t.

“What do you know about them. Where do they hide. Speak up!”

“Kid, you sound desperate. Are you doing this because they did something to you personally? Let me tell you, everyone has their beef with them, but when you cross them, you die. When you’re useless to them, you die. When you know too much about them, you die. Walk away now, and you can still live. I will not speak a word.”

“I.. can’t.  I need to find them, I need to…” he couldn’t finish his sentence, opting to switch to another question.

“Have you seen-“

The door is kicked open before he could finish his sentence, a tall man and a green haired woman walk inside.

“Police! You’re both under arrest.”

‘shit!’ Ray thought to himself, standing right next to the corrupt laundromat owner, who was chuckling to himself.

“You’re new, aren’t you. Wipe that stupid smirk of your face.”

“Silence!” The tall officer shouted.

Ray couldn’t let himself be caught now, so with a self-made smoke bomb, a quick exit had to be made. Dashing through the smoke, he narrowly avoided both police officers. Henry was a sitting duck, there wasn’t a chance that he could get out of this situation.

After a lot of coughing, the smoke settled. All the evidence that Ray had on him was on the table. Only the businessman remained, being promptly arrested afterwards.

Ray ran back to his apartment, making sure he wasn’t being followed, but Fari only had Rick with her, and they had their hands full.

Running into the bathroom, he ripped off his mask. His nose had gotten bloody, and his heart couldn’t stop beating loudly. Blinking for a second, there were 2 black lines under his eye, but they disappeared when he blinked again. He brushed it off as a hallucination afterwards.

Yet, even with all this, he couldn’t stop smiling. It felt euphoric, knowing that Henry was going behind bars. His research paid off, his justice was dealt. He even had some answers to his questions. But he couldn't stop thinking about what Henry said about knowing too much.  

Rummaging through his pockets, he realized his paper was also there. The names on it were mostly memorized, but now Fari had it too.

“You should check this out.” Rick said, picking up that piece of paper.

Reading the names on it out loud, some rang a bell, some didn’t.

“Shi, Rolento, Herald, Kane. What is this?”

“Maybe a hitlist for that vigilante. I don’t know all these names though, this might be super important!”

Fari always kept that piece of paper with her, being put away in one of her many files of the people she investigates. A fire burned in her heart too, wanting to catch that new vigilante. She saw this like a cat and mouse game.

While Henry was being taken to the car, he couldn’t stop sneering at both the officers, especially Rick.

“So, the bear has been tamed, I see. I was wondering if that little shit of a delinquent had died in a ditch somewhere, but here he is, reborn as a snake.”

Rick didn’t say anything back in response.

No one knew of what happened that night. The news of the laundromat owner’s arrest never made the news. A smirk was on his face the whole time, during interrogations, the man bribed his way into getting a telephone.

The beeping of a phone goes off while a man is sitting on a park bench.

“Henry?” The voice asks.

“Police got me, but it’s not important. Some stupid vigilante exposed me. Seems like someone snitched. Could you get rid of him, and also get me out of this shithole.”

Chuckling was heard from the other side. Henry’s facade slowly breaking.

“Sorry, Henry. You’re not of use to me anymore. I made a deal with you, and you ruined it, remember what the chief told us all? ‘Never make a deal that you would regret in the future.’”

“You son of a bitch! After all I did for you.”

“What, you mean all the flaunting you did? You did nothing for me, never helped in the business. I have clear cut rules, and you broke quite a few. Sooner or later, you were going to get caught.”

“Don’t do this to me! Remember what Archard told us all. We’re a family, right?”

“Don’t ever mutter his name again, scum.”

“DON’T YOU DARE, GET ME OUT OF HERE. I’M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO A KID LECTURE ME.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

beep.

The world of Henry shattered in pieces. He was jailed for multiple crimes.  Not even the gods batted an eye towards him, he wasn’t cleaned up, because the information he held was worthless. His immunity was a lie, and he felt the burn.

Fari and Rick had their eyes set on the vigilante Ray, the vigilante had his mind set on exposing more scum and getting answers, and a revolution was brewing in the underworld of the ever growing city, thanks to the betrayal of a fresh, young face.

The events that conspired that night would eventually just become a memory that never gets talked about. It was overshadowed by the death of Shi months later.

Going back to the current time, pieces of a puzzle were slowly falling into place. A week was about to start that would reveal a very ugly truth, one that was never meant to be unearthed.

-start of act 2-