``I Won't Die of Deception, {Jax!} {Complete!}

[Jax]

Jax frowned she was right and he admitted he felt a bit better from talking about it. But who was he to talk to? His roommates were a hyperactive shapeshifter who had two modes. High speed and Off. The other one was a rarely seen alien who was up to who knows what. All in all his life didn't have many people he could open up to, people he could address things with. Sure his life was full of people he could do cathartic things with. Some were there to make things with, others were there to break their heads open, but not many he could just sit and talk to. He had... had people but they were all either gone, dead, or not talking to him anymore. He frowned at a few memories that flicked across his mind but didn't dwell on them. He let them flash across as he downed the rest of his beer. The cold beer pouring down his throat as he tilted his head back, and back, and back swallowing every drop that hit his lips. Finally he crushed the can and threw it aside. He didn't even watch as one of the humonculi dropped down and put the can in a large plastic garbage can. He turned away bitterly.

"Talk... Ya I can talk..."

Walking to the couch he flopped down hard the much abused second hand couch creaking beneath his weight.

"But what does it solve? Sure I might 'explode' but I explode everyday. Nothing new dere. The past... I try not ta explore it too much. Dere are dings in ma past... dings where dere is no reason ta go back. Evah."

Jax looked at his guest and motioned to the empty part of his couch as he rooted over the side and found a square of metal. He held it loosely as a rune flared on it and then began to fiddle with it. Carving something into it with his thumb nail. His bare unadorned human thumb nail.

"Fair's fair lady. Why don't ya tell me something about ya self. I have been listening too. Ya are used ta meta-humans but have never met a mage. Ya feel very comfy at at peace in ma den of sin. Ya were not comfortable dere but were na panicing like most and donna try ta tell ma I wouldn't believe it... I'm da mage here after all."

Holding up the piece of metal up to the light Jax grunted satisfied and tossed it to her. The card shaped piece of metal had been carved with his thumbnail, it was solid metal but he carved it like clay. The name "Jax Gardener" was carved in it as well as in rather impolite terms indicated that the holder should not be messed with on pain of... pain. It didn't use many words but was quite... direct. Jax pointed his chin at the card.

"Oh and by da way. Ya find ya self in dangerous country like ya did tonight in da city find da nearest gangsta's show dem dis card and tell dem Jax says if anyding happens ta ya I will get upset suddenly, and violently, and all over dah place. They will make sure nothing happens ta ya..."

He reclined a bit more and waved at Ruby in a circular motion.

"Go on din. What ya story?"

[Ruby]

She looked at him long and hard as he deliberately glazed over the subject of his past. Ruby didn't know much as far as details went when it came to Jax's past, but whatever it was that had happened to him that was practically making him cringe now - well, she could have just told him to face it. To stop pushing it away. But he clearly didn't want to do that...and was there really no reason to try to make him. Walking over to the couch and sitting down next to him, she shrugged. "So don't. Go back, I mean." There was a difference between running from your past and moving on. Moving on made you stronger. "The past is the past. But this mage stuff, this is happening to you now. So if you need to talk," She pauses for a moment, gave him a thoughtful look, and then finished casually, "You can talk to me. Don't they say something about strangers being easier to talk to?"

Of course, whoever had said that probably hadn't been counting on strangers like Ruby. But the wording wasn't worth dwelling on for long. At any rate, she was sufficiently distracted a moment later. Jax was beginning to ask questions of his own now, and all things considered she supposed he deserved an answer...the answer she'd prepared, at least. The demoness was silent, considering for a moment as he carved something into a small piece of metal he'd picked up. When he tossed it at her a moment later, Ruby caught it on reflex, blinked, and curiously gazed down at it. She scanned over the words etched into the 'card' briefly, and then looked up at Jax in mild surprise.

...Interesting. Of course, he had no way of knowing that there weren't many instances in which she actually needed protection - but this could come in handy if she was ever in a similar situation in which she needed to 'play it human'. And more than that, the gesture itself could only mean that things were going well so far. She brushed off the additional oddness of having someone care even a little about her safety and gave him the faintest hint of a smile. "Thanks." she acknowledged with a nod, slipping the card carefully into her purse. Ruby then turned back to face him, tapping a finger lightly against her arm as if deep in thought.

"I guess, after...everything, the least I can do is give you a straight answer." she told him finally. Jax did have a point: he'd just revealed to her that he was a mage; logically she'd have no reason to hide her occupation from him now. Her dark gaze redirected out across the room, her posture just slightly restless - as if this wasn't something she talked about very often. "The casual term for what I am would be a 'hunter', I guess." That was what the humans that went after these things - people like Sam and Dean - called themselves, anyway. She blinked once. "And not the conventional kind. Think demons, vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts..." That was probably enough to give him the idea.

Funnily enough, while Ruby was most certainly no longer allied with the Winchesters, hunting was still something of a habit of hers. Sure, most of the time she did it for information - or because some unlucky creature just happened to get in her way - but it was still, in essence, hunting. And ironically, it was something she was good at. "Not exactly what you'd call a safe occupation. You were pretty spot-on with the whole 'dangerous enemies' thing, but...it's not anything I'm not used to. Though I have to wonder what kind of creature of the night resorts to car sabotage." Her smirk returned here, though unknown to Jax it was more at the irony of her own words than anything else.

[Jax]

Jax sat still for a moment. Soaking it. Not trying to flip off the handle but signs began to appear. If he was a volcano villagers would start asking around about the marital status of their females and someone would be making sure the stair ways up to the volcano were clear. His fingers tapped the cheap material of the couch, his jaw clenched and his feet tapped on the concrete. The sound of metal ringing out from the metal shod boots with each tap. Finally he stood up suddenly exploding into motion. He screamed at the concrete beneath his feet threw his hands up in the air. He strode across the floor each step stomping down with a vengeance.

"WHY! WHY DID THINGS TURN OUT LIKE THIS!"

He slapped his own chest.

"NOT MA! DA WORLD! Why are people sa ^#&@ing STUPID! We live in a world with monstahs yet..."

He took a breath his rage simmering down to a boil for a moment. His body shaking with the restraint. Images starting flashing before his eyes again. Bloody scenes of carnage. Torn throats, claw marks on faces, burns where no fire was near, acid bubbling in wounds nothing human could make. Horrors from the streets of Gotham washed over him one after another hitting him like a hammer but grief did not come. He had buried that grief with the bodies but the rage... the anger the poured from him as he slammed his fist into a concrete wall and dragged it down to land on a pile of scrap. His power pulsed and the pile changed, shifted as Jax took hold of a metal handle that grew from nothing and swung screaming. Both hands ahold of the handle as a pickaxe head drove itself into the wall. He held it screaming for a moment and then pilled out the pickaxe and did it again. The swing, the scream, the swing, the scream. His knuckle bled freely from hitting the wall but he did not seem to notice it.

Finally he held his position, holding the handle as the pick hang from the wall. Slowly he released the handle leaving bloody palm prints where the unpolished metal and repeated impacts had torn his hands. He stood there for a moment his breath heaving his mouth still open from the last scream. His voice seemed to come from a long far away.

"And yet.... we tell da children dere is no such ding. We tell dem it is safe in da dark it is no more dangerious din da light... when it is #*@$ING @$$ BACKWARDS! DA LIGHT IS JUST AS DANGEROUS AS DA DARK! How many could have been saved if humanity didn't have it's heads up dere #^*@ @$$es! DEY ALL COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED! DEY DIDN'T HAVE TAH DIE!"

Slowly. As if that scream, as if that action had drained all energy from him in an instant Jax slumped a bit. Reaching out he effortlessly pulled the pickaxe out and threw it on a pile of scrap. The holes in the wall ignore as he looked up the 'hunter'. His eyes almost pleading.

"If I went out there. If I told dem dey were idiots. If I told dem why dey were idiots.... dey would lock ma up. Would shove ma in a padded room and shove pills in ma ta keep ma quiet."

He smiled bitterly.

"I guess dey are right... dah devil's greatest trick was convincing humanity he didn't exist. Isn't that how dah saying goes?"

Jax's eyes looked back at the pickaxe. It was an ugly weapon, as ugly as his mood had been. The rage had created something the seemed to cut as he lay there. Something that seemed to desire nothing more then to rip into something. It's rough surface, the serrated edges on the back of the head, a dagger spike on the pommel. Jax grunted.

"Guess I will melt dat down later... unless ya want it. You'll need ta wrap the handle but it should do something pretty awful ta anything ya hit with it, dat was good steel. Might ba a good hunter weapon..."

He paused as he looked at her.

"Ya said heroes get more den heartbreak. Sa I guess ya are doing dis in more din just a save da world capacity."

[Ruby]

Ruby liked to think she wasn't impulsive. She didn't go getting herself into situations where she was in way over her head. She thought things out, calculated every possible outcome of a situation - and she'd been fairly confident that she was pretty prepared walking into this one. But...admittedly, even she hadn't seen that sudden outburst coming. At the scream of pure rage that Jax suddenly emitted as he sprung off the couch, the demoness automatically tensed, her instincts half-convincing her that he was going to turn and attack her. Seconds later, she'd recovered from her momentary alarmed reaction...but her shock did not fade until several more moments had passed as she wordlessly watched the mage express his fury. Above all else, Ruby immediately registered one thing: Jax was very destructive when he was angry. That wall was certainly taking a beating, and she watched with a certain amount of admiration as he channeled his rage into its destruction.

It wasn't until she caught a flash of crimson that she realized he was bleeding, however, and it was that realization that finally prompted Ruby to spring to her feet as well. Property damage was one thing, but she couldn't have him hurting himself. Not just yet, anyway. Grabbing a towel off a nearby shelf, she quickly crossed to the sink, turned the water on, and ran the towel under it for a moment. All the while calmly listening to his continued ranting, she turned back to face him expressionlessly. Everything he was saying was, of course, true. Most humans, quite plainly, were idiots. Oblivious idiots caught up in their own happy little world of denial, living each and every day to its fullest - coming up with new ways to pollute the planet, new ways to kill each other and themselves - all while the creatures that weren't supposed to exist had to watch from the shadows.

She quickly stifled the resentment welling up inside her, however, and cautiously approached Jax again once he seemed to be calming down. "You're right," Ruby told him very quietly, leaving no room for protest as she took hold of his injured hand and began cleaning it with the wet towel, trying to focus on being gentle - it wasn't exactly second nature to her. "I wish I didn't have to tell you that, but you're right. Though on the flip side - well, think of it this way. The only reason we aren't currently engaged in a full-out war is because the monster want to keep things the way they are. If every human on this planet found out about the things that go bump in the night? There'd be nothing holding those monsters back anymore." Her words were bitter, grim, carefully constructed to only heighten Jax's own resentment. The rage he had just displayed had intrigued her more than anything else that had happened that night - and slowly but surely, she was going to feed its fuel.

Regarding the pickaxe with mild interest for a moment, she shrugged. Might be useful at some point - at least as a substitute until she got her demon-killer knife back from those damn...no, she couldn't keep thinking about them. At Jax's last comment, she paused in cleaning the blood away from his knuckles and gazed up at him steadily. "I'm not naive enough to think I can save the world just by offing a couple of demons," Ruby finally said, going back to her work. "But yeah. I have my reasons. They're probably a little different than most people's, but...that's a story for another time." If she was going to feed him the same 'demon looking for redemption' story she'd fed Sam, she was going to have to get to know him a little better first. "I don't think the reasons matter so much as the simple fact that there are people out there fighting, though. Because someone's got to." Stepping back, she placed the now-bloody towel in the sink and regarded his hands for a moment. "You might wanna get that bandaged up, by the way."

[Jax]

Jax didn't resist as she spoke. Just forced himself still as she talked and pulled his hand and gently washed it free of the blood as she spoke. He looked into her eyes and tried to ignore how warm her hand was, how gentle she was, how nice it felt to have someone touch him, how good that perfume she wore smelled. He shoved desire down he would have no part of round two of being played like a fool. If he felt desire he would purge it. He let her speak through muscles had tensed when she told him what the monsters wanted. He let her say her piece, let her say what she wanted. Maybe she would have a good point coming... he was disappointed.
He spook softly as he moved towards her. His eyes held her, rage gleaming once more in his eyes as sheer will kept him from exploding again.

"If dey don't want war, if dey want it quiet... din that is all dey more reason tah pill da lead if dere existance. They want ta hide in da dark well..."

Jax stood inches from her and barely breathed out the words.

"It is better ta light a flamethrower den fear da night."

He stomped from her, the metal on his feet actually bringing up sparks as he strode from her. His arms outstretched. A fire was raging in his guy and she had stroked it. She had added the fuel and sure enough he was off and running with it.

"Yes... Flamethrowers. Ya say if we shine them out of hiding it would lead ta war din FINE I SAY!"

He snapped his head over his shoulder and looked at the 'hunter' a feral grin coming with the motion, a mind seizing hold of the idea. A scene of fire and battle burning in his brain and he found it... pleasing as he looked over his workshop and saw a thousand possibility. A thousand weapons of devastation just waiting for him to build them. He saw solutions to a million children's nightmares in his eyes and liked it. He slowly turned back.

"If dey want ta hide dine we find dem, if dey want to fight din we killed dem. If they want to live in peace alright I can live wit dat. I can UNDERSTAND dat. But we are surrounded by monsters dat DON'T want dat and we are supposed ta just take dat? Ta let dem be? Da vamps are monstahs. Not misunderstood, not sparkly. Dey are soulless abominations. Lost... bodies walking. The world does not need dem. Dey are fast? Dey are strong? Let's see if they are fastah den incidinary bullets, if they can out fight a hundred men with flamethrowers. Twenty foot monstahs dat are bullet proof? FINE! Let's test dat theory! Let's see how dey react tah a full auto burst from a vulcan machine gun. Let's see how their 'bullet proof' flesh react tah a barrage of wine bottle sized depleted uranium tipped explosive rounds! If it doesn't work din we cut them down, we burn them down, we stab dem, freeze dem. We show dem. We show dem all da power of metal and fire, steel and savagery. We show dem why despite the generations of them being our nightmares they hide from US! Dey sneak around US! Dey might go bump in dey night... but it is US dey fear and fa good #&*(ing reason!"

Jax raised his arms above his head as he continued as the rage kept the fire in his belly going, as his vision of a future continued. He grinned and slowly the grin faded the glorious vision faded and he saw a world where anything different was burned where even the creatures that wanted to live in peace were hunted down one by one. Where people that were even just a bit different were questioned. His face fell and his arms fell.

"... It won't work will it? It will just go wrong. The zealots will use da war as an excuse. Dey will turn it into a purge of everyding different... even those dat are good... Not ma... I am na a good man. I know dat but there are those who are good. Truly good... and dey would die wouldn't dey?"

Jax looked at the sky blinking slowly and then walked to a counter and picked up a first aid kit that was lowered on some wire from the ceiling. He opened it up and took out some liquid bandage and began to blot his wounds. His jaw squared as he looked at the wall in front of him. The sadness wasn't back. A determination had washed over him. Thoughts were bouncing across his mind. He was a mage now. A powerful being blessed by the Earth. Chosen by the Earth. Maybe... maybe there was something he could do. Do with these powers rather then sitting in a garage. Maybe he should start actively learning, go the direction his powers were pulling him. To action rather then moping about a lost girl. Better then just fighting gang members... maybe he wasn't cut out to be a hero...

"But maybe... I can ba a solution... "

[Ruby]

It seemed that her words had done their intended job...and then some. Ruby met his enraged glare steadily, carefully disguising the prickle of satisfaction his gradually boiling rant was giving her. He was violent. He was beyond angry. And he was ready to go charging into an ultimately hopeless fight - hopeless because, as Ruby had long since learned, wherever there was something good? There was something bad waiting to stomp it right out. After awhile, you either wised up and took the winning side...or you died. Simple as that. But it was hardly the outcome of Jax's will to wage war against the supernatural world that she was concerned about now. She just wanted him to be willing to fight, period. And if he took down hordes of demons and vampires and...monsters of all sorts in the process, what did she care? Those unworthy, disloyal scumbags meant nothing to her - all she needed to know was that Jax's rage was exploitable. And, as was being made quite clear, it was. A person could lose themselves entirely in that kind of rage, if they weren't careful.

But then, slowly, confusion began to mingle with her satisfaction as she watched his grin fade. It seemed logic was finally catching up to him, though Ruby was a bit taken aback by his sudden second thoughts. What did he care if a few so-called 'good' creatures suffered in the long run? Humans already hated anything that was different from them anyway - she was surprised something like that held him back. But then, she reflected, Jax wasn't exactly a normal human himself. Maybe that explained it. Something in his demeanor had definitely changed even now. She could see it in him, practically feel it was she watched him begin to tend to his hand. Had he finally perhaps...been inspired to act?

That seemed to be what his words implied, and it was an excellent start. He had so much potential...maybe now he'd begin to acknowledge that at last. Still, Ruby kept her tone uncertain as she cautiously responded. "...You want to help?" She blinked. Considering what his words meant, wondering what he might have in mind. This sudden turn had certainly provoked Ruby's curiosity, but she wanted to confirm what she was hearing before she over-thought it too much. He'd already admitted that his desire for full-out war wouldn't end well - but now he seemed to have something else in mind. By now, she was starting to realize that where Jax was concerned, the surprises were just going to keep on coming. He definitely...wasn't one of those 'predictable' humans. But this, possibly, could lead to the alliance she'd been hoping to slowly build.

"I mean, not that I'm doubting you. With your abilities, you could send any vampire running for cover in five seconds flat - if they lasted that long." For a start. There were more creatures than just vampires who'd think twice about tangling with a mage with Jax's kind of power. She gave him a sort of approving look, but continued more seriously. "It's just, once you get involved with this whole thing...there's no backing out, you know? You'll never get any peace. You may end up endangering the people you care about. It...what I'm trying to say is, it really screws with your head sometimes." There. She'd given him fair warning, the way any decent hunter would have. Though honestly, she hardly expected him to actually back down now - the determination she'd just seen radiating from him was something Ruby was willing to bet on.

[Jax]

Jax smiled, that feral grin returned. The years in Gotham, the months in New York had stabilized Jax. He was an angry young man, if he lived long enough he would be an angry old man. Anger was as normal to his body as breathing. He couldn't imagine true happiness... and truth be told wouldn't be able to recognize it without a guide. But the thought of something to fight for, something to fight against.... New York was making him soft and he knew it. The gang's were not experienced against something like him. The gangs of Gotham... some were too insane to care what he was, some were too fearful of their own leaders... they attacked the 99th Street Kings again and again. They shattered against them. Sure the Kings took looses but they regathered forces again and again. But even the life with the Kings was softer then the life Jax had had on the road by himself. No back up, no permanent acquiesces. He had seen things on the road that had more then prepared him for Gotham. Jax the King had been softer then Jax the Wanderer and Jax the Yorker felt softer still... but beneath the layers of civilization the Wander still lived and his grin came forth when Jax smiled. A smile more beast then man. His voice echoed oddly off the metal rafters as he spoke slowly.

"Ma friends... dah can take care of demselves."

He thought on the few people he called friends and knew without a doubt he was right. A cop who could bend metal with a thought, a alien who could lift cars, a shapeshifter... not a large group but it was there and could protect itself.

Besides the blood was pounding in his ears. The injustice, the pain, the unaccountability. He was not a hero. He didn't want to save the day, to be praised, to ride in a parade but somethings to the core of his being he could not bear and as the old Jax rumbled his fists clenched till his knuckles turned white.

"As fa my head... I have had it mess with ba #^*@ing experts. Pain, fear, hate... I find dem preferable ta da company I used ta keep."

Jax remembered the boy that once was. A boy who wore a school tie, who combed his hair in the best fashions, who ironed his slacks and smiled his fake smile. Jax had buried him, buried that hated child and built upon his grave a life that even at it's darkest, worst, most painful moments there was part of him that grinned through blood soaked teeth. This was the part that controlled his face now, the part who looked out at nothing in rage there were things that could so easily take someones will, their soul. A bite from a vamp and everything you valued was cast aside. Turn them into a parody of what they were, a empty puppet of meat. How many... how many lost that way.

"Yeah I'll help. I'm na hero. Na a huntah either... but ya put a monstah in front of mah I'll da what I da. Show it da wrath of da bones of da earth."

[Ruby]

She nodded once in acceptance of his words. If he knew what it could potentially cost him, and he still wanted in...well, she most certainly wasn't going to question him twice. He wasn't some idiot kid who didn't know what he was getting into. He was a very powerful, very angry mage...who didn't know what he was getting into. Not fully, anyway. Jax had one thing going for him, though: he didn't seem to have any delusions of grandeur. He didn't want to play the hero, so at least she wasn't going to have to waste time talking him down from some high and mighty pedestal. Those perfect goody two-shoes hero types were really enough to make the demoness faintly ill..

But now wasn't the time to be sulking - back to business. "Then, if you're interested," Ruby began carefully, looking him up and down. "I think I know where to start." Reaching into her purse again, she pulled out a pen and a slip of paper. She folded the paper once, then ripped it along the crease - and on the first bit, scribbled down a number. "My cell," she explained before writing down something more on the next piece. "And this...is the address of a bar about ten minutes from here. Big supernatural hot spot - and most of the usuals aren't what you'd call friendly. It's where a lot of them go to make deals, recruit followers, talk business...whatever it is they do when they're not out terrorizing the innocent." Ruby handed both slips of paper to him. She didn't think she needed to explain why she was telling him all of this - he wanted a fight, and she was handing him an opportunity for one.

Of course, this would also serve as an interesting little experiment. A test, even. It was one thing to watch him send a couple of street thugs running with their tails between their legs, but it would be quite another to pursue something like this - if he indeed did decide to pursue it. After all, Jax had said he didn't want to be a hero, didn't want to be a hunter...but if he tried shutting down that bar, he'd still be finding himself face-to-face with one of the many controversial issues hunters dealt with on a regular basis. Because sure, it was easy enough to kill something like a vampire, or a skinwalker...a monster that found humans an appropriate source of food. But there were all kinds of monsters that Ruby had known to pass through that bar. What happened when things became a bit murkier? When you were face to face with something like a werewolf - something that was a normal human most days of the month, and couldn't control what it did when it wasn't?

Or maybe something like...a demon like Ruby herself, for example? Demons like her, well - they possessed people. If you took them down, you were also taking down a helpless, trapped, innocent person watching in the back of their mind. It was for that exact reason that Ruby had been persuaded by Sam to claim this particular vessel. This girl - she'd been...well, nobody. Jane Doe, found in critical condition, taken to the hospital, where it'd been proclaimed that she'd be braindead for the rest of her life. There was no...spirit sharing Ruby's mind, no terrified voice interjecting in her thoughts. No, this girl's soul had left the building long ago. Unfortunately, most demons didn't play that way...and she had to wonder what Jax's reaction might be when he confronted something like that. It was a convenient way of...gauging his morality. Deciding which way to push him. "I've been scoping the place out for a week or two." Ruby continued. "Most days it's pretty crowded - not a situation I'd want to tackle by myself. But...I can't see it giving you much of a problem. If you wanted to look into it."

[Jax]

Jax took the pieces of paper and took out his cellphone from his pocket. As he listened to her he copied down her cellphone number to his own cell. His thumb flying over the number pad without bothering to look at it. He didnt' need to. As long as he was touching it it was as if the information on it was displayed on the inside of his own head. He kept concentrating on breathing on the floor beneath his feet, the ache of his hands... anything to push back the rage deep within to chain it back down. By the time she was done so was he. He had chained it down tight... granted if he went there and found them like... eating a child they would probably need a shop vac to clean up the mess but other then that he could remain cool enough to not just kick the door in and set fire to the roof.

Grunting he walked to the side car of his motorcycle and taking out a set of wrenches quickly went about detaching it. His fingers down right flying as he pulled it free. Turning it he pushed it to it's usual place and then picked an empty leather golf bag off the floor and dragged it over to a wall covered in tools and pegboard. Grabbing a pair of hooks he pulled on the pegboard and moved it out of the way revealing a hollow carved in the wall out of the concrete. Hung in the hollow were another layer of tools only these tools had only one purpose. Death. A wall of knives and swords, axes and hammers, and weapons Jax himself had made and named. He looked over his shoulder as he browsed the wall.

"... See dis is da hardest part. Choosing. Had a friend told ma I should just get a van or something sa I didn't have ta choose but... eh. Na ma #*@#ing style ya know?

He paused for a moment picking up a machete that seems to be a swirl of various metals that had been thrown into the mix before the blade was made. This was tossed into the golfbag. An axe with a hammer head on the reverse side. A few knives were added to his belt and a pair of gauntlets were slipped over his fingers. Pausing again he added a few other things to his golf bag. Clubs, some things with edges and even a ball and chain and a couple of taser. The tasers were slipped to a pair holster that was strapped to his ankles. Grinning he held up his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart and a arc of blue electricity curled between them.

"People forget dat metal is more den just a hard metal. It conducts ta..."

Humming a harsh tone Jax picked up his coat and slid it on, the golf bag went on his shoulder the contents lightened by his power. He stopped and looked over at Ruby.

"So tell ma about this place. What should I expect. Warm welcome, Hot reception? Will dey ba eating babies or singing karoke?"

[Ruby]

...Wow. Jax was packing more weapons than most actual hunters she knew. With an arsenal like that, there weren't a lot of things out there that he wouldn't be able to...well, if not kill, then seriously dismember at least. A hint of morbid curiosity flickered in Ruby's eyes as she watched him select his weapon. The last time she'd seen this many sharp things in one place had been...well...hell itself. Right in Alastair's torture chamber. Not...that she really needed to think about that right now. Almost automatically, she blanked out - shut down her mind - until the memory had safely passed, and then refocused on what Jax was telling her. As the electricity sparked between his fingers, the demoness couldn't suppress a faint, darkly amused chuckle. "Looks like you're set," she commented with a cheeky smirk, looking him up and down. "And if I had to guess, I don't think you're going to have too much trouble." These creatures weren't expecting anyone to have the balls to burst into their bar, after all - and they were probably going to assume that Jax was just some hunter who'd stumbled across them. Wrong.

But he was right. It'd be a good idea to give him the lay of the land, just a brief idea of what to expect. "Well, first of all. Most of the things in that bar? They'll be able to sense that you're human - more or less - just about the second you walk in the door, so you're gonna have to be faster than they are." Not that Ruby was particularly worried about that. Again, Jax had the element of surprise here. "And incidentally - I don't think they're really the karaoke type, but you shouldn't stumble across anything too over-the-top. They're careful about that kind of thing - can't have too many disappearances traced to the establishment, and all that jazz. Once or twice I've seen a vamp try and drag a victim in there, but other than that..." She trailed off with a shrug. For a monster bar, it really wasn't all that violent a place...on a good day, at least. It was more...where New York's supernatural underworld went to plot in privacy than anything else.

So hopefully this would end relatively well. Thinning out the demonic population around here especially would be fairly beneficial to Ruby - unfortunately there were still quite a few of her 'demon pals' out there who were thoroughly convinced that she was a traitor. Not that she exactly did anything to prove them wrong, of course...but it got a bit irritating, having them constantly on her tail. "Oh," The thought had reminded her of something, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out - well, it didn't really look like much more than a string necklace with a sort of pentagram charm attached. Basic anti-possession charm. On the chance that Jax ended up hacking away at a few demons that were, well, like her. Because when a demon's meatsuit got mutilated enough, they tended to like to go and find a new 'host' body asap. Couldn't have that happening to her new friend here, could she?

"You might want to keep this on you." Ruby told him simply, and left it at that - wondering whether he would question it, just accept it, or perhaps even recognize the charm itself.

[Jax]

Jax held the necklace up to the light as he looked at it. He felt several pairs of eyes looking at him and knew the friends he had 'made' were looking down watching to see what happened next. As he looked several of them climbed down and started grabbing gas tanks and climbing onto the back of his bike. One walked by and held out a flare gun to the heavy metal Mage who stuck it down the back of his pants without taking his eyes off the pendant. Shrugging he pocketed it. She said to keep it on him not that he had to wear it. He was naturally suspicious of strange jewelery. He had heard... stories... of odd jewelry. Jewelry that summoned demons, took over your mind, made you the bride of the son of a musical number. All in all he was not in a hurry to put the necklace around his neck. He snapped his fingers loudly the sound like a thundercrack with his gauntlets on and the remaining humonculi ran over and opened the garage door. He climbed on his motorcycle and pointed at his guest as a trio of his little friends held gas cans while holding on with vice grip hands to the side of his bike.

"I'll meet ya dere. Donna ba late. Ya don't wanna miss da show lass."

The engine roared as he turned over his bike's engine and smiled as one of his 'friends' slapped his helmet on his head and then slapped the top of the dome of the helm before resuming it's position on the back. He shot out into the night as behind him the majority of his 'friends' that remained turned their gaze to his guest. One pointed at her and yelled out.

"01111001011011110111010100100000011000100110010101110100011101000110010101110010001000000110001001100101001000000110011101101111011011110110010000100000011101000110111100100000010010100110000101111000001000000110000101101110011001000010000001110010011001010110110101100101011011010110001001100101011100100010000001101001011001100010000001111001011011110111010100100000011011010110000101101011011001010010000001101111011101010111010000100000011011010110000101101011011001010010000001101000011010010110110100100000011101000110000101101011011001010010000001101111011101010111010000100000011101000110100001100101001000000110110001101001011100000010000001110010011010010110111001100111011100110010000001100110011010010111001001110011011101000010000001101001011101000010000001110111011010010110110001101100001000000111000001110010011011110110001001100001011000100110110001111001001000000110001001100101001000000110110101101111011100100110010100100000011001100111010101101110001000000111010001101000011000010111010000100000011101110110000101111001!"

Without taking a breath before walking to the kitchen with a group and starting to unpack the groceries.

Meanwhile Jax sped across the landscape of the city, feeling the wires hanging on telephone poles pulse to the beat of the city's heart, hearing the mumbled conversations in the copper veins of the city's backbone. He knew he could stop, fasten in on the conversations. listen in... but he was too busy. He had something to take care of. He made a note through to later take one of his six packs, go to the roof and skim the words that flowed. It... reaffirmed his opinion of humanity... as a disease most of the time but sometimes a wonderful disease too.

Pulling up to a parking space across the street from the bar Jax watched without speaking as his 'friends' darted into an alley and climbed up a building and across the electrical wires to the bar's roof. They held their gas cans up to show that they still had them and then settled down to wait as Jax did his final inventory, reaching into his pack, selecting a sledgehammer and started to walk to the bar whistling a jaunty tune. He didn't hurry, didn't rush, didn't run. He wanted them to see him coming and sure enough in one of the windows a 'man' blinked as he saw Jax walking towards the bar and turned to speak to another. He had their attention... Jax smiled at this.

[Ruby]

For a long moment, Ruby didn't move as she watched Jax roar off into the night on his motorcycle. It was only after the sound of the engine had faded away that she narrowed her eyes slightly, allowing a faint smirk to cross her features again. "No, I...definitely don't want to miss this." she murmured with a slight chuckle, finally turning to stroll across the garage - when she was suddenly confronted by one of Jax's remaining little pals - who she'd already developed a distinct irritation-bordering-on-dislike for. Wondering what it could possibly want now, the dark demoness paused and glared at the one that had just decided to point at her. A glare which...slowly turned into a look of disgruntled bewilderment as it blurted out a long stream of what sounded like gibbrish.

Okay. Well. Slowly recovering from her surprise, Ruby allowed some of the tension to melt from her shoulders and slowly shook her head, throwing in a snarky little eyeroll for good measure. "Got it. Thanks." she informed the bot dryly. If only she'd actually understood what had just been said - her reaction just might have been a tad more...violent? Oh well, everyone was probably better off this way. Without sparing the matter a second thought, Ruby made her way over to her car, opened the door, and slid into the driver's seat. The engine started relatively smoothly when she turned the key in the ignition - Jax really did know what he was doing, it seemed. If he could repair a little demonic sabotage, he could probably do just about anything as far as cars were concerned.

Her smirk widened a bit for just a moment - but as she drove off, her emotions slipped behind her carefully neutral mask once more. It was going to be interesting seeing how all of this would play out. That much was certain. Would she intervene? Ruby didn't really see much of a reason to; not unless Jax proved unable to handle himself - which she very much doubted would be the case. Besides, meddling with this would force her to reveal what she was capable of a little sooner than she would have liked. No, better to let Jax handle this one. It would be a valuable opportunity to...observe.

Ruby parked about a block down from the bar's location. A safe enough distance...she was hoping. Getting out and locking the door again, she silently prowled down the darkened street towards the bar. A glance across the street informed her of Jax's presence; his motorcycle was already parked in a nearby parking lot. A moment later she spotted him stalking across toward the bar's entrance, not so much as a trace of fear in his features - just lively defiance. It was admittedly, maybe a little stupid. But at the same time, she also found it a little admirable. And above all, she was very curious to see just what he had planned here. A direct approach was evidently the way he was choosing to go, sledgehammer in hand, but...how would this play out?

She was, of course, unaware that Jax was not alone here. Her dark gaze was firmly fixed on the mage himself, and she hadn't spotted the humonculi. Still, her interest had been sufficiently captured by the man before her. Ruby mostly kept to the shadows as she looked on from her position just across the street, not particularly wanting to be spotted by one of her fellow supernatural creatures who may or may not have been out for her her blood...the same way one of them had just spotted Jax through one of the bar windows. Ruby focused her gaze on him: a vampire, she could tell from here. The wonderful thing about vampires...the majority of them were so weak-minded.

Focusing her gaze on this one, she made sure to implant just a teeny telepathic 'suggestion' - not even a suggestion, really. More of an impulse - Human. Threat of exposure. Food? - Thoughts the bloodsucker had no doubt already been having. She was just helping to intensify them a little. Make 'em act more on instinct and less on reason. With any luck, that vamp'd probably be one of the first to foolishly spring into battle...

[Jax]

Jax was whistling as he came through the door. It was an old tone that had come to his mind, surprisingly not heavy metal but it formed an odd counter point the the music coming from the boom box. The music from the jikebox was an old country classic that was playing just for three seconds before Jax glared at the jukebox his smile dipping for a moment. As he glared the juke box stopped and began to play a different song. The cd running in the machine was still one of Garth Brook's 'greatest hits' but what was coming out was 'The God's Made Heavy Metal' by Manowar. This song wasn't even in the jukebox but the lyrics still spewed forth loudly from the old vintage speakers. Jax's eyes roamed over the inhabitants, the odd horn, scales, green skin. He sneered at the vamps and didn't move for a moment as the monsters looked at him and he looked at them. Way in the distance a very human barkeep managed the bar. His eyes looking at Jax annoyed.

"Look kid I don't know who you think you are but I think you should leave before things get ugly."

Jax's eyes were fixed on the vamps, that had resolved things for him. If his new friend had been wrong about this place the vamps wouldn't be there. Most demons have standards that don't include the wretched bloodsuckers whom they considered parasites at best but for the number gathered, the way they were sitting around the place, the lack of fear. They were not only welcome they were regulars.

"Ugly... I would say dis place got dat way looong before I got 'ere lad. But din again ya lot know dat ya see it everytime ya look in a #&*@Ing mirror don't ya. Well... some of ya...."

He looked meaningfully at the vamps as he said that. Knowing full well how sensitive some could be about the mirror weakness. Not being able to check yourself out in the mirror annoyed them to no end. Jax know that of course. Angering people was something he was very good at but despite this he was a bit surprised at the vamp that jumped at him from the window as a result he swung a bit harder then he meant to at it. The hammer head went weightless as he influenced it with his power and thus the long swing time normally needed for swinging a sledge wasn't there, at the moment before impact the hammer head increased DRASTICALLY in density and weight hitting the vamp in the face with the relative force of a school bus. The downward blow didn't so much as knock the vamp back as pulverize it's head in a splatter that instantly turned to a soft rain of ash. The crack of skull happened at the same time as the sound of the sledge's handle shattered from the impact. Jax loosely held the broken tool as some of the creatures in the bar looked at him with new respect. He hadn't hesitated, hadn't paused, he had just swung. The newcomer was smelling less like food by the minute and more like a hunter.

Jax sighing tossed the sledgehammer handle down irritably.

"Dis is why I $#&* hate wood handles nowadays. Ya find a decent one it lasts twenty... maybe thirty good swings and then someone shatters it with dere #&*#ing face. It really gets old... oh well if more modern doesn't want ta play nice..."

Jax reached up into the golf bag and pulled out something with a metal handle and a large spiked head. He smiled as he held it out.

"It's time ta get medevil. Dis was a real find. Got it from a collector who... didn't need it anymore... Tis from ta actually dark ages. Haven't gotten around ta playing with it. Dis seems like a good time ta ma. How about ya all?"

A few of them looked at the ash staining the floor. The barkeep looked a bit annoyed and pointed to Jax.

"Francis... Kill him."

By the bar something large stood while putting down a thing book. He was about ten feet tall and covered in black leather, long spikes of bones sprouted from his face. As he walked forward Jax tilted his head back to take in the details. The creature had eyes literally made of fire, as he peeled back chintious lips he revealed at least five rows of teeth, his black flesh shone in the cheap lighting. Jax looked up at him and frowned and then looked at his mace and back at the creature and then grinned savagely as he punched out with his empty hand.

There was quiet for a moment and then the screaming started. From outside the sound of several voices could be heard screaming over the pumping music. Flailing bodies could be seen through the window, the scene inside flashed blue a couple of times as a lightning bolt flew across the pane. There was a sickening thump and a object crashed through the window landing outside. It was Francis's head the eyes still burning for a while and then slowly a group of insectile legs grew out his neck and he began to speak to itself.

"Well I say that was just about the rudest young man I have met in my entire life and that is quite a while. That it indeed it. When the city comes to this it is time to leave. I am going back to Nebreska and join my brother's accounting firm. FIE ON THIS CITY!"

And it began to crawl off into the night while inside the bar was quiet. Figures lay sprawled over furniture. One 'man' had his upper body crammed into the jukebox but ignoring his intrusion it continued to pump heavy metal out. Jax stood looking at the wreakage, a cleaver stuck to the ceiling, Francis's body dissolving int he corner of the room and the barman just standing slack jawed a tiny bit of drool flowing out of his mouth. Jax looked around and then turned and walked towards the barman.

"Ya stood there and served drinks ta monstahs."

"Now wait... s.s.sir I."

Jax's steps carried him closer to the man, his rage broadcasting bigger by the second.

"Ya heard their plans and did nothing."

"Now wait..."

Jax's arm snaked out and grabbed the man by the throat, electricty shooting down his arm from his tasers as he screamed and the man convulsed.

"YA HIRED A #&@$ MONSTAH TA SERVE AS YA BODY GUARD! YA ARE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY $&*#ING DEATH AS SOME OF DIS CREATURES ARE!"

Jax was in full fury, his eyes practically glowed with rage and the jukeboxes volume blared louder as 'Get Ready to Die" poured forth. Jax held the man, unable to do anything but scream as the electricity flowed into his body and then abruptly he let go and started to walk away. The man fell on the bear, his body limp unable to even say ouch for a moment and then in front of the walking punk he saw something, a small mechanical humanoid with a gas can, it was pouring gas on the floor, his floor, across the doorway. His eyes darted around the room and he saw another at the winder, he saw another at the back door. He lifted his head as he looked around and as he moved his feet he felt a puddle beneath them. He looked up in horror at Jax as the small mechas ran to him and stood outside with him as he turned, his coat swirling at his ankles as reaching into the back of his coat he pulled out the flare gun and pointed it into the bar.

"Ya made deals with monstahs. So burn in dis life and continue burning in da next."

With a complete lack of expression he pulled the trigger and a red flare straight from the heart of a dying sun spewed out, to the man inside it was bigger then the world. He screamed at it through this did nothing. This was not something you could plead with, could make a deal with. It hit the floor and instantly flames crossed the floor, the walls, across the barback where bottles exploded, and as Jax glared into the bar a propane tank hooked up to a grill in the back room went off in the back of the bar. The man screaming went on for a while Jax ignored it as he threw the flare gun into the burning bar and turned spotting his shadow. He glared challenging her to tell him he went to far, that he was insane, that he was a monster himself.

[Ruby]

Once Jax had stepped into the bar - once she was fairly certain that everyone inside would be sufficiently ...preoccupied, Ruby slipped away from her post across the street and ventured a little closer to the premises. Really, this was such a satisfying way of hitting two birds with one stone: seeing if Jax's power really lived up to its reputation...and disposing of some of this city's vampiric scum along with several pathetic lower beings she was ashamed to call her kin at the same time. Her eyes gleamed as she got a bit closer, watching...waiting. Some of it she saw. Some of it she could only listen to, but...either way, she was certainly getting the general idea of what was going on in there. A small, cruel smirk played across her lips - and she didn't bother to hide it as...some demonic, disembodied head came flying out the window.

...And quickly scurried off into the night, muttering angrily. Well, that was different. Ruby didn't spend too much time wondering about it, though - there were other, more entertaining things going on at the moment. Jax wasn't hesitating. He wasn't stopping to think about the people still trapped inside some of those demons, and he wasn't showing any mercy to anything else either - though she had to wonder what his reaction would be to the undeniably very human bartender. This would be particularly interesting. She got a little closer, peering curiously through the now-broken window...and was greeted with the sight of Jax aggressively advancing on the man, still radiating fury. What happened next was probably the most intriguing thing next, Ruby decided as she watched electricity course through the man's body. This was a cold-blooded killing. The man had no way of defending himself - no way of escaping. And it told Ruby all she needed to know. Her smirk widened to a full-out grin as she slipped away from the window, more than confident that she could by now predict what was going to happen next - best put a bit of distance between this place and herself.

By the time the bar had gone up in flames and Jax had reemerged, Ruby's neutral demeanor had been locked into place once more. She studied his features - and was pleased to see that not so much as a speck of remorse was visible in them. She met his enraged gaze levelly as he glared at her, allowing him to see that she wasn't afraid - or shocked, or disgusted for that matter, either. After a moment, Ruby simply blinked at him - and broke the stony silence that had enveloped them at last.

"Jax," she began carefully, brushing some of her hair out of her face to look at him somberly. "Do you have any idea how many people could have done what you just did?" So maybe this wasn't the reaction he would have been expecting - but hell if she was going to waste any time chiding him just for the sake of seeming as if she had a heart. There was little room for mercy in situations like these, and Ruby had no problem showing him that she could be just as cold as he could. Keeping her tone earnest, she continued. "Not a lot. And I'm not talking about raw ability - there are some powerhouses in this city, but...I'm talking about people who don't waste time bottling up their emotions, who use their rage to give monsters like the ones you just dealt with...what they deserve. I know I'm pointing out the obvious here, but you've got a hell of a lot of potential." She paused briefly here, looking him up and down once more. "....I think it's time you started using it."

Ruby held his gaze seriously for a long moment after she'd spoken, before finally tearing her attention away to take in the state of what had formerly been the demon-bar. "But - might be a good idea to get away from the burning building for now. People might be asking questions. You know, just saying." She allowed another faint smirk at this.

[Jax]

Jax had been expecting alot... a grimace of pain at the man's fate, a lecture on ethics, talk of collateral damage... or perhaps her to whip off her cloths and dance around the fire naked roasted marshmallows... well he didn't really expect that but it seemed more likely then what happened next. What was the word? Value? Vallet?... Validation... he got validation instead. She seemed... proud of what he did, of what he had unleashed, of the fire behind him. Not repulsed, not revolted. Jax felt a bit confused. His blood had been up, he had been ready to fight, to argue to scream... instead she seemed to agree with him. With his unsaid angry words she was even praising his rage... his anger.

"Well... yeah... na point in putting a tool in a safe when ya can use it ya know."

He seemed a bit off, almost a bit bashful about what he had done. The man was dealing with monsters, making deals, helping them. He had deserved no mercy as Jax had seen it. Killing someone taught a person alot but at it's base it taught you if you would be able to sleep at night or not. Jax had killed a man at the age of sixteen. That night he had slept like a baby. He could more then live with himself. He regarded the fire and raised his hood up and pointed to her car.

"Yeah. Ya are right... better split up. I'll zip down some alleys, they evidence will burn good, finger prints ain't fireproof. A few zigzags and I am gone. Ya head home for naw... but... call ma sometime. We... we need ta talk some more about... potential. Maybe over... coffee?"

As he straddled the bike his last comment was an uncertain question. He just waited long enough for a response before hurling himself into the night.