In mortal life, once upon a time, Kadini was a fearsome warrior. One who served at the pleasure of Shaka, King of the Zulus, and the last ruler of the magnificent realm of pre-colonial Southern Africa. Kadini the Zulu warrior personally killed over a hundred white men when they came to pillage, rape and plunder his homeland. The Zulu warrior had sworn an oath that he would not rest until those who threatened his homeland were brought to justice.
Sadly, Kadini perished in battle in 1825 at his King Shaka's side. The King of the Zulus is noted as being one of the most formidable warriors and leaders across human history, and Kadini was his iron-willed right hand. It was a sad day for southern Africa. Without Kadini to plan his raids on his European enemies or lead his legions into battle, Shaka Zulu weakened, until he was slain by his political rivals and the Zulu Kingdom fell to the Europeans.
When Kadini's soul arrived in the Land of the Spirits, he expected to see the faces of his ancestors, but instead he faced the Judgement of the Damned. His actions during the wars were legendary even in Hell. For Kadini was the same man who once decapitated a European soldier, defecated on his corpse and fed it to the hyenas on the great plains of Southern Africa.
The brave Zulu warrior had indeed committed atrocities. Indeed, the Europeans feared the dark age of Kadini even more than the might of Shaka Zulu, for the King of the Zulus could never match his favorite soldier's wrath. Kadini wasn't always a raging madman hell bent on vengeance. Kadini was once a good man, a proud citizen of the Zulu Kingdom, as well as a loving husband and father. All was well in Kadini's world, until the day his world ended...
When the Europeans began incursions into the land of the Zulus, Kadini's village was one of the first settlements they attacked, and his wife and daughter perished. For this, Kadini hated the invaders and vowed to make them pay. Shaka the King of the Zulus fought bravely against the European invaders, and none of his warriors were fiercer than Kadini, the one whom they nicknamed the Bush Devil.
Death awaits all human beings, black or white, young or old, male or female, at the end of life's journey. Brave warriors like Kadini of Zulu are indeed no exceptions. During the Judgement of the Damned, Kadini argued that he was no monster, and that he was only doing what was necessary to save his people. The Judges heeded his pleas, and he was offered the choice of remaining on Earth to do the work of the damned, or ascending to the ethereal plane. Guess which one he chose?
"Kadini, you are to return to the mortal realm and work as a harbinger of souls, your task is to punish the wicked, to atone for your sins, should you fail you shall return to the land of the spirits and suffer eternal torment," said Bal, the Demon Overlord. Kadini the Zulu stood before Bal, who for the moment assumed the form of a towering, dark-skinned man with a horned head and flaming red eyes.
"How will I do such a thing, Overlord? Dead though I may be, I know nothing of magic," Kadini replied, fearlessly looking into the Demon Lord's flaming eyes. Even among the dead, the sons of the Zulu nation were stoic and fearless. Kadini was still shaking from the ordeal of his death, struck from behind like a coward by a European soldier. Before life left his body, however, Kadini had slain the soldier who wounded him with his spear. Only then did Kadini fall, having gained this final satisfaction from his enemy.
"You will gain the powers of a Demon, and thusly no mortal weapons will succeed against you, but should you fail to bring a thousand wicked souls to me, you will be sent to the worst part of Hell," Bal said, and Kadini nodded. The Demon Lord approached the soul of the slain Zulu warrior, and laid his hands on his shoulders. Crimson flames shot out of the Demon Lord's fingertips, seemingly consuming the dead man.
"What is happening to me?" Kadini screamed, even as the hellish flames entered his body, burning him from the inside out. When Kadini's screams subsided, he found himself...transformed. Kadini was flesh once more, flesh and blood, but far from human. Hellfire flowed through his veins in liquid form, granting him truly extraordinary powers. Kadini looked up at Bal, and the Demon Overlord smiled with satisfaction.
"Go forth, and fulfill your purpose," Bal shouted, and Kadini disappeared in a flash as a swirling vortex of bright red energy gripped him and carried him elsewhere. When Kadini came to, he found himself in a place which to his new gaze seemed stranger than both the Southern African plains in which he grew up and the nightmarish world he just left. The City of Boston, Massachusetts. A massive metropolis made of red brick and gleaming metal, where scores of humans of all hues lived.
"What is this place?" Kadini asked out loud, as he looked at the metallic metropolis from a sort of stone bridge. He didn't know it yet but he was standing on the Charles River Bridge. The resurrected and Demonically empowered Zulu began walking around the City of Boston, Massachusetts, wondering where in Hell the Demon Overlord sent him. Oh, and Kadini was also naked. Someone of course called the police about the six-foot-five, dark-skinned and muscular, very naked man walking on the bridge...
Boston Police patrolwoman Janice Browning was going on her first solo patrol when the radio chatter she heard in her patrol car made her shake her head. She'd been working for the Boston Police Department for a year, and as far as the brass were concerned, rookies weren't to be trusted on their own. Until last week, she'd been patrolling with Officers Dan Smites, Erica Gauthier and James Spiel. Three experienced officers who never hesitated to chew her up for minor stuff. It felt good to be on her own, sort of...
"Hey, buddy, get your hands in the air," Officer Janice Browning said to the tall, and very naked black guy who stood at the steps of the Charles River Bridge, oblivious to the crowd of on-lookers gawking at him. The man looked at her, and seemed quite puzzled. Look at his face, Janice reminded herself, even as the suspect's massive member swung between his legs.
"Who are you, woman?" Kadini asked, staring at the young African woman in the strange blue attire and the odd black piece of metal she kept aimed his way. Kadini tensed, for it reminded him of a pistol wielded by a European soldier he'd slain on a battle field a long time ago, on the plains of southern Africa. He didn't know the language she spoke, but for some reason, he was able to understand her...
"I'm the officer who's got a gun pointed at you, now put your hands up," Janice Browning retorted, and this time, the burly naked brother actually complied. She stepped forward carefully, about to grab her handcuffs and tell him to turn around. The man moved faster than she'd ever seen a human being move, and leapt into the air, clearly thirty meters in a couple of seconds. He headed straight for the water, dove in and took off.
"Strange world," Kadini thought to himself as he swam in the waters of the Charles River. A world where women who looked like his mother and sisters dressed like the whites and carried their strange weapons. When Kadini finally reached a distant shore, he came across a homeless person who loaned him a jacket and pants, and then took him to a nearby shelter. Kadini, hardened warrior though he once was, found himself touched by this man's generosity.
"Brother, you crawled naked out of the river, we figured you needed help," said Mr. Chan, the bald-headed, homeless Asian man who loaned his jacket to Kadini. The Zulu looked at him and smiled, then offered the man his hand to shake. Thus the two of them met. Perhaps not everyone is insane in this strange new world, Kadini thought morosely.
"Brother Chan, I am famished," Kadini said, wincing as he felt a great emptiness in his belly. He hadn't eaten in a long time. In fact, the Zulu couldn't remember the last time he age. Upon hearing the rumble of Kadini's stomach, Brother Chan grinned and brought him to the mess hall of a soup kitchen, where they ate some nice soup with orange juice and cheese bread.
"Eat your heart out, my friend," Brother Chan said, and Kadini took the strange utensils the foreign man offered, put them aside and picked up his soup bowl. Briefly sniffing the contents, Kadini gulped it all down, and then smiled with satisfaction. When Brother Chan looked at him strAngely, the Zulu, heartened, clapped his new friend on the shoulder.
"Thanks for your kindness, my friend, I am new to your world, and I must learn its ways," Kadini said, and Brother Chan nodded, thinking that the Zulu was a homeless immigrant type from Africa. He was only half right. Kadini was about to continue when suddenly he felt his blood boil, and his muscles tightened. Just then, a tall, well-dressed, dark-haired and bearded white man strode in, accompanied by a tall, slender, blonde-haired white woman. The two of them were flanked by a camera man.
"Welcome to the Mission House, Mr. Rodgers," said the woman accompanying the bearded man, and Brother Chan and everyone else in the mess hall clapped. Kadini, not wanting to stand out, did the same. As all eyes focused on the couple, Kadini watched them carefully. There was something unusual about these two, and he couldn't quite place his finger on the reason why...
"Thank you, Caitlin, the Rodgers Foundation is happy to donate and keep the shelter afloat, you really do great humanitarian work here," Mr. Rodgers said, and the woman, Caitlin, smiled and nodded. The man went on and on about humanitarian works, the beauty of Boston, and all that jazz, and the cameraman recorded his every word, and also filmed some of the shelter's residents.
