"The President of the United States is dead?"Gabriel's head shot up from the table where he had been resting. Had he heard that right? No, no way. People always gossip in coffee shops. The fact that whoever had spoken was not speaking Japanese made him curious though. The Rippler didn't know Japanese but it wasn't hard to gather what people wanted and he didn't really talk much anyways.
"What? How can that be?" The second voice belonged to a woman with a thick accent. English was definitely not her first language.
"He was assassinated. Apparently he had some rare genetic disease that made him become a wolf or something like that.""Your kidding right?""Ashley, look right here. RIGHT HERE."Gabriel spotted the pair seated atop stools at the counter. The man was holding a newspaper. He watched as the girl scanned it with slowly widening eyes. Now Gabriel was becoming worried. He knew of werewolves and lycans, in fact he'd killed some and fought alongside others.
"Wow. Riots in the US huh?""This is crazy. My parents are back in the states. Read the rest. Do you think its bullshit?""..." There was a bit of silence as Ashley continued reading the article in the newspaper.
"No, they wouldn't print something like this if it wasn't true.""I refuse to believe that werewolves exist my dear.""I'm not sure what to think Martin." Ashley was rubbing her arm uncomfortably.
Breathing in deep, Gabriel stood up. He needed to view that newspaper and see for himself exactly what it said. If it so happened to be true that the president was supernatural and suffered assassination because of it, things would be changing very drastically very fast, Gabriel felt sure of that much. As he approached the couple at the cafe counter a brick smashed through one of the windows and the loud cacophany of sounds from outside poured in like a tsunami wave.
-
Wallace Porter's half shifted wolf form lay dead on the speech floor. Two large entry wounds poured blood from his marred face, the cause: silver bullets. The microphone atop the podium was eerily quiet for a moment before the chaos began. In a blur of movement nearly a quarter of congress was standing and.. changing. Animal morphs, vampires, hell even a few of them just looked like humans with horns, were now on their feet and throwing attacks. Punching, kicking, screeching, brawling. Blood soon coated the floor and before long the screams stopped too. What didn't stop was the live broadcast cameras covering the whole room for the State of the Union address.
It didn't take long for the rioting to start. Whether it was the supernatural that started it or just regular humans didn't seem to matter. People were being killed on both sides. Cities in the 'States were burning now. For some reason there were soon battles overseas as well. London and Tokyo were big hotspots for supernaturals and they didn't take kindly to a good man being shot on live television. So what if he was a werewolf, lycan, wolf-morph whatever?
-
Gabriel ducked reflexively, stumbling to the side when the brick flew past. He could hear yelling now and the smell of smoke was suddenly strong. How had he not heard it before? One glance outside told him what was going on. Rioting. A couple of men across the street were bashing on a car. He couldn't spot who had thrown the brick. Martin and Ashley were shocked and whitefaced. He eyed them for a moment.
"You two should go back to your house or apartment and bar the door. Make sure you have food and a way out incase of fire." They both gave him looks as if he was insane but he didn't see their faces. Gabriel was exiting the coffee shop now. It felt strange using the door while one of the large glass panes next to it was shattered to pieces.
He wasn't out in the open for five seconds before the men across the street spotted him and charged. They yelled obscenities at him, calling him a freak. He looked just like a human but they didn't care. One of them had a golf club, another held a bat. The third simply brandished his fists. Gabriel didn't want to fight them. For a second he just stood there dumbly, then the broken glass at his feet began to vibrate wildly. It stopped his attackers for a moment as they watched in awe and fear and anger. Then the shards flew in all directions as Gabriel exploded upwards in flight.
An uneasy shout escaped the usually calm Rippler. Flight might be nice if he could control it even a little. He continued upwards for a moment before suddenly banking sideways down the street. Gabriel tried not to flail too much but staying upright was extremely difficult. He lost his flight balance and then fell.
Crunch. It wasn't the crunch of bones. Nasty stench clouded Gabriel's nose and he whimpered a little from the pain of impact. He'd landed in a dumpster.
How convenient.Gabriel clambered out of the trash bin and dusted himself off. Once again it didn't take long for someone to spot him and begin yelling. Apparently they'd seen him flying. It was an old man, but he was brandishing a pistol. The Rippler glanced around for cover, not really thinking of the dumpster during the tense situation. The old man pointed it at Gabriel and shouted obscenely. He wasn't really making much sense. In a lightning quick movement he dove for the side of the dumpster and ducked behind it as a slew of bullets whizzed past. Heart beating at an insane rate, Gabe tried to think of what to do. He didn't want to kill innocent humans, but this guy was seeming less and less innocent.
