• As Tharin dropped lightly on the ground, he looked at the gaping cave entrance that stood before him. Walking calmly inside, he heard his men shouting at each other from the many paths and rooms that the cave held. As he walked past a soldier taking stock of what was found in the dead clan's stronghold, he ripped the paper out of the man's hands and scanned over it.
    Growing increasingly frustrated as he went further down the list, he finally reached the end and let out a furious yell. “Where is it?! Where is the Satan Matrix? They were supposed to have it!” Tharin screamed in fury. As a sudden thought hit him, he stopped. “Wait... Perhaps we simply haven't found it yet? That could explain it. Everyone! Move towards the other sections of the caverns, we must find what we came here for.”
    As Tharin shouted his orders, a lone soldier came and bowed. “Sir, we have finished with the search of the caverns. All rooms have been cleared, and all valuables and supplies stocked. We have simply to wait her 'till sunrise. If I may sugge...”
    The soldier was unable to finish his sentence, as Tharin's fist came into contact with his head. Putting the force of his rage behind the blow, his hand broke through the soldier's skull, spraying blood along the cave walls. “What!? How can it not be here!? We were informed that they had it! That they had the next piece!”
    Breathing deeply, Tharin smashed his fist into a wall and left a large impression in the rock. “Dammit, it was supposed to be here! The next piece to the ultimate weapon. 94 years and we still only have a few pieces of it. We need some way of finding the pieces faster.”
    Without another word to the soldiers gathered around him, Tharin shot off, heedless of the oncoming sunlight. His anger fueling him, Tharin ran at inhuman speed towards the cliff he and his allies had come from earlier. Once he arrived at the base, he stopped instantly without regard to the forces of motion at work on hm. Shooting up into the air with a single leap, Tharin soared up past the edge of the cliff, and landed deep within the forest on top's depths. Spreading the wings on his back, Tharin flew between the trees, knocking the smaller one's from the ground in which their roots had locked. Looking up, Tharin saw the first rays of sunlight begin to peek through the treetops...

    Beep, beep, beep! The alarm clock shrieked next to the prone figure's head. From a mess of covers on a large hotel bed, a lone figure lazily stretched out an arm and hit the “off” button on the blaring alarm. Stretching, the shadow rose from the bed, heading off into the small bathroom at the side of the room.
    After having taken a quick shower, the man dressed into a simple pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Grabbing a leather jacket from a chair at the desk located next to the bed, the shadow slid it on, and opened the bedroom curtains. The darkness of night reigned outside, lit only by the bright neon and fluorescent lights of the bustling city below. Opening the window, Tharin stared down 34 stories at the plaza below the large hotel.
    Tharin had rented the hotel room a few months ago, paying for it each month like a rented home. Opening the rather large window, Tharin breathed deeply, smiling at the faint scent of blood wafting up from the humans below. Stepping up onto the sill, he had to crouch to fit. Taking one last look down, Tharin leaped from the window and plunged towards the ground below. Just before reaching a level at which the humans would see him, Tharin spread his wings. Picking up, he soared through the mountainous tops of the skyscrapers, his jacket billowing out behind him. His wings came out of the jacket from familiar holes, remnants of previous flights in the outfit.
    Pulling back around, Tharin spiraled up and around the hotel at which he was staying. A magnificent testament to human vanity and ignorance, it towered up to nearly 100 stories; not counting the 3 floor penthouse of course. Tharin took one last look back at the hotel before setting off further into the heart of the city.
    “From the dark ages all the way up to now, the 23rd century, and humans still control our lands. Pathetic. Century by century they have expanded: changing how they live, how they fight, everything. And yet they still wreck the planet with their filth.” Tharin pondered in disgust. Humanity no longer lived in extensive networks of cities all the way down to small farm towns. Almost 90% percent of the human population now lived in what few patches of the earth were still fit to populate. They had built giant cities in these places, filled to the brim with skyscrapers, many of which were even larger than the one's built in the 21st century.
    This had come about from enormous problems of pollution, poor waste disposal, and destruction of the ozone layer. The atmosphere hadn't been destroyed as many had expected. Rather than it all getting weaker little-by-little, enormous parts of it had simply... gone. It had left great patches upon the earth in which the ground dried up, and all life was burnt to death by the sun's radiation. In all, it had made poor living for all of the earth's creatures. But it was particularly bad for the vampires.
    Humanity was still unaware of their existence, that much was the same. But the rips in the ozone layer had caused problems for the vampires, with their aversion to the sun. Many were dying off, the sun's radiation spreading into the atmosphere, creating complications even at night. This was the world that humanity had thrown the rest of existence into.
    Landing in an alleyway, Tharin spotted a drug dealer standing around, waiting for his next customer. Moving silently, Tharin snuck up on the man and leaped on him. As Tharin ripped into the throat and bled the man dry, he prepared for tonight's search.