becuz aya told me to name it this...
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ROLEPLAY: Fantasy
plot: you can be either willing or not willing, but it is slowly happening. The merging between two worlds, the worlds that hold the fears and beliefs of humans, and the world that consists of the creatures' stories. There is too much to believe in, everyone is oblivious, but how can one be oblivious to something real? There can never be something false in something that is true. The bringing of these worlds together by unknown happenings is gradually getting greater and greater, humans becoming beasts of great power, and beasts inquiring how their own kind are becoming the fabled humans. What will is there to hope that these worlds should remain separate?

ooc: <---:'D i suppose, since it was requested, i will go first =3="

Rain danced on the pavement, the solid shadow of a young girl flickered on the ground. The scene was dark, gray, it was rather sullen. Cars drove by on the street, their headlights on, shining like white on black. There was a silence, the girl looked rather quirky, she stood out from the picture as she pranced along the sidewalk, listening to her uppity music through a small earpiece. In her hand she held a white bag of groceries, which were filled with miscellaneous contents of crimson meat. Her short black hair layered over her head like a thin, sloppy mop. In her mouth was the artificially flavored grape lollipop. She seemed to not mind the rain, which evidently made her gray jacket sodden to an even darker tone, and her black and white striped shirt cold with joy. She wore dark skinny jeans as if they were air; she flounced about freely, uncaring about her surroundings. She made her way into a small apartment, hidden in the array of cubicle-like rooms on the third floor. " Keisho!" her voice rang like a bell summoning a servant. From the void of the dark singled out room, a black cat appeared. One white stripe started from the tip of his nose, down his spine, and ended at the tip of his tail. Of which three more white stripes crossed on its back, committing a transversal diagram upon his spine.

The door to her apartment opened without much fanfare, admitting a tall woman with red hair that had fallen out of her ponytail gradually through out the day. She slid inside with a grumble and huffed a particularly ill-placed strand out of the way while she bumped the door shut and began to stride across the room with obvious fatigue.

"It's good to be home." She muttered half heartedly, letting her backpack drop on the short wooden table with a thunk and flicking her shoes off as she walked towards the kitchen. The apartment was fairly well kept, if a bit messy - articles of clothing strewn about without much care in where they fell and the occasional can of soda or juice standing half-empty on a table or lampstand.

The Kitchen wasn't in expressly better shape either. The sink had a stack of dishes waiting to be washed in it, next to it was a drying rack half filled with clean plates and bowls that had yet to be put away. The woman glanced at it with a wry expression and mentally made a note that she should probably get around to finishing the dishes some time soon.

she opened the refridgerator and pushed aside a To-Go box that contained last night's dinner so she could withdraw a can of blackcherry soda that, by the crisp feeling of the can, had been in the freezer for at least a day or two.

With caffeine in hand and shoes off, the red haired girl meandered over to the window that provided a view of the world outside: Buildings in every direction, a street down below and a menagerie of steel grays and reflective silvers that composed the towering faces of her home.

Sure, there was a park about twenty minutes drive away - But when did she have time for that?

She slid her headphones back, letting them fall at an unkempt angle around her neck as she popped the tab of the soda in her hand and gulped down the refreshing liquid, blue eyes reflecting in her own window as she passively stared out into the concrete jungle of her home.

--'Resha? Would you be okay picking up a shift tomorrow? We need someone to help cover the workload and Veronica called in sick, we'd be really'--

The answering machine, Resha belatedly realized, had been sounding off about something or another while she had zoned out. She sighed and flicked her eyes away from the window and towards the living room - She'd call back later, her couch had been neglected lately.

All the while, phantoms of legend floated by without notice - And one pair of eyes stared into the windows in which it had seen an apparition of mankind that faded away without a word.

This city thrived onward, but the times of change had begun - The revolution began then, even if the wars would begin later.

Looking at her watch, which was now dappled with the water stains of the Earth, the little girl sat down. She had unraveled the packages of meat and had lay them on the floor for Keisho to eat. The black and white cat bounded over, first taking a careful sniff, then indulging himself with the flesh of animals. " Your meat here tastes good, it doesn't compare to the ones in my world, but it sure has a different..." he trailed off, too hungry to even be conscious of what he was saying. Then he padded over to the girl, in his mouth was a slab of meat. " Humans eat, don't they?"
" Yes, but i don't eat stolen food, because it is bad." she flicked the slab away from her, Keisho darted to retrieve it once more.
" Oh dear, you stole this?" he prodded the meat that lay disheveled on the carpet. " You didn't have to steal it now, did you?"
" yes, Keisho, i stole the meat. But i stole it because you were hungry, right? So it cancels itself out, because it was for a right cause." She closed her eyes, slowly drifting to a still slumber. The cat spiked his fur, then watching as the corrupt child lay tired on the couch, he began to finish his dinner.

The morning was no less, the girl had eaten her instant ramen for breakfast, showing no signs of great hunger from the night before. She looked up, spying at Keisho who lay hiding beneath the plastic table, fur fluffed into a great fear.
" Keisho," she started. " What in the world ARE you doing?" she clicked her chopsticks at him, but he seemed to not notice. His ballad green eyes were foretelling something painful.
" It appears," he said acknowledging his fear, " That our worlds are colliding." Keisho licked his fur, trying to make it lie flat against his terror. Then he turned to the girl and ordered in a passive voice, " Noemi, we should get going." He fled to the door, the girl left her breakfast, uncaring, as if it never had existed.
" Let us 'save' as many as we can today." she said mockingly, Keisho hissed at her statement, and the two were off...

"Oh, it's raining," the youth proclaimed. "That's stupid."

He turned his head back down from looking skyward, adjusting his dark brown fedora.
"I should have brought an umbrella" he spoke aloud, as if to someone else, as he cracked his knuckles habitually under his tattered, fingerless leather gloves.

Nobody was around to hear him talk to himself like some schizophrenic, fortunately. The streets had begun to empty due to the rain, aside from a handful of people - a businessman in a suit, running late; a couple flirting under an umbrella; a young girl, striding to the tempo of the music from her headphones.

He continued to walk, an expression of annoyance and juvenile rebellion plastered on his face. His arrogant attempt to carry the appearance of a “tough-guy” was hampered by his smaller stature – in fact, this image almost seemed to be compensation.
His clothes were all heavy-set, as if to compensate for bulk.
A heavy coat, worn unbuttoned “because it looks cool”, that reached to his knees, combat boots “because they’re awesome”, gloves “in case I wanna pick a fight” – even his firey orange hair was thick and unkempt, a ponytail reaching down to almost the middle of his back “because cutting it is a pain in the ass.”

Indeed, he looked quite ridiculous, as if forcing the delinquent appearance.

Sighing in resignation, he pushed his thick jacket back and put his hands in his pants pockets. He looked up again, less bothered by the rain than he let on.

But he stopped walking.
“That’s weird.” he declared, focusing on something unseen, obscured by the rain clouds.

"Rain? How appropriate..." In the back alleys behind some crooked meat shop in a bad neighborhood the local roughs were at it again. "It" meaning the usual fist fights, brawls, gambling, drug deals and a general disregard for the law.

One young man sitting by the wall, taking extra care not to get too wet by the rain, was spending another night thinking to himself and being generally unsocial. Staring at his company, he wonders for the thousandth time what the hell he is doing in a place like this. Why didn't he finish school? Why couldn't he he just behave himself for just once in his life? Was this fated to happen from the beginning?

no, you are meant for much greater things...

"I can do better then this..." he mutters to himself under his breath as he looks down at the rain dancing on the puddles. He couldn't help but notice some blood in the water. It looks like the current fight was over, and the guy he was betting on just one. "heh, guess i should collect my winnings, then i can start getting my shit together."

"Sorry Alex... sometimes this sort of thing happens," says the young man will a sullen look. Alex knew that if he was going to start turning his life around it would have to start now, so he wasn't going to let these punks weasel away with his money like they do with everyone else's.
"Not tonight," Alex softly declares as he walks up to the self proclaimed King of Fools, the man wrongfully claiming everyones money for his own. "If power is the law here, then i'll surpass the king and become a god."
"Dude, what are you saying?" the young man from earlier asked as he chased after Alex, "Don't do anything stupid!"
"Actions aren't stupid. All that is important is consequences. You can decide what you think of me after I've finished."
"Damn it Alex, quit acting so smart on us! i just don't want you screwing this place up for everyone!"
"This place is a shit hole!" Alex shouts back at his tag along. He was not going to stop now. Before he knew it he was already in there king's face, ready to start as much trouble as he needed.
"What the fuck do you want?" he said looking down at Alex. G was what he went by. He was a lot older then most of the people here, a mountain of a man, and was always surrounded by his own personal goon squad. He may be an opposing figure, but Alex knew he was a coward. He knew when it came down to it, most people were.
"I want my money," Alex says calmly after sizing him up. "And since I know your not going to comply with just words, how about I play you for it," he offers, pointing to the fighting circle that was still fresh with blood. "That is, unless your not a proud king, but a pussy instead?"
G was furious. He had planned to just let his goons take care of this upstart, but if he did that, his image would be ruined, and more upstarts would be sure to come. "You want me to rearrange your face personally? Fine!"
Stepping into the ring, Alex took off his sweater and shirt, emptied his pockets, tied his hair back and took his pose. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he had to fight him alone and knew exactly how to arrange that, he knew that if he didn't finish this for good now, he would be killed on his way back home, and he knew that the only way to do that was to kill G here and win the respect of these outcasts. He didn't know where such dark thoughts were coming from, but as long as it got him what he wanted, he didn't care. He knew how to fight dirty, and he did. He knew where to strike to cause the most crippling pain, so he did that too. And when the time came for him to finish the fight, he knew exactly how to smash G's head against the cold, wet, bloody floor. Towering over his victory, Alex released a victory cry that could be heard across the city. Then, with as much confidence as any god, he made his first proclamation to his new people, "I am Alexander, and I have killed your king! I am now your god, and if anyone has anything to say against that, step forward!"

No one present had anything other to say. They only cheered.

He was coming home one day. The tired look on his face suggests a hard day in school.
“Hey I’m home!” the youth exclaimed.

The moment he said those three words, he paused. His face full of tiredness, yet looking very happy turned into an expression full of sadness. He dragged his body to the kitchen, getting himself a drink. He walked towards his room, drinking his soda. He sat down on his chair, near the window. He slowly took out his homework and pencil.

“Ugh, math, my worst enemy. Ax + By = C. Need to remember that,” he muttered.

Twirling his pencil, he looks outside the window. Seeing the kids, full of joy playing out side, he gives the look of disdain. He then turns attention to the sky.

“The sky is beautiful. Endless sea, that hold so many truths,” He said calmly and apathetically. “Hmmm.”

He glances at something quickly. He sees something akin to a small rip in a cloth. He then gives a look of surprised. ‘How is there a rip in the sky?’ he thinks to himself. ‘Its … its unfathomable.’

But … as he looks away, the rip releases shadowy, phantom like creatures out. What is happening to this world? And … to the world beyond?

She started on her way back to her house from the park. With umbrella in hand, she began to step in shallow puddles with her knee-high black converse.

She loved the rain. It soothed her with it's sound. To her, it was music that washed away pain and sadness. She listened to the sound of the rain and her music from her earphones in one ear.

She twirled her umbrella and jumped in a deeper puddle making her converse wet up to the ankles. She only smiled and continued on her way. She wasn't quite ready to go home yet because she knew it was probably empty since her parents were away for business trips and whatnot.

Loneliness. It something she knew quite well, even though she had plenty of friends, she was home alone a lot except for a workers there who worked there. She was quite close with her butler and maid because they took care of her more than her own parents, but she didn't care. At least she knew there was someone there for her, but they weren't there often.

While, she walked, well more like hopped, home she didn't notice the shadows moving about around her.

She finally arrived home after half an hour and dropped down her bag full of school things. She closed her umbrella and put it on the porch outside to let it dry. She hurriedly took off her converse and picked up her damp bag and raced to the living room.

She had forgotten that her parents got her a puppy to ease the loneliness she supposed. "Zeke! Where are you?" she said which echoed throughout the lonely house. She listened closely and heard a bark which came rushing right at her.

"Here boy!" she said with a light smile, which was something she didn't do quite often unless there was something worth being happy about. "Are you hungry, boy?" she asked as the puppy barked happily in response.

She walked to the kitchen with Zeke close behind. She took out some dog food and began to prepare it while Zeke jumped up and down awaiting his food. She looked at him and shook her head. 'How can such a small creature have so much energy?' she thought to herself. She put down the bowl of dog food on the ground and opened the blinds and window slightly to let some light and fresh air in. She sighed and looked outside wondering if her life could get some excitement.

Drop by drop rain fell from the melancholy clouds. A gray blanket blocked the sun out from the seemingly empty city. One young girl trotted home from the market where she had bought a cookie to satisfy her grumbling stomach.

She hopped from puddle to puddle, not caring that the water soaking her to the bone threatened to bring her some form of sickness sooner or later. Ponytail bouncing up and down and polka-dotted rain boots clacking against the uneven sidewalk, the little girl sloshed her way to the location of her dinky appartment complex found at the very end of the road.

Minutes passed and she finally reached the pitiful building. The girl permitted herself entrance and trodded up the stairs to the gloomy-as-ever second floor. Gray walls and doors were countered by her bright pink raincoat that only barely fit her tiny frame.

As she neared the door to her very home on the left, the screams of her parents floated in the air and met her ears like a greeting from a dear friend. She had gotten used to it by now... her parents' quarrels. They seemed to be happening more and more often nowadays.

Putting on her mask of happiness, she turned her key in the door's lock and peered inside the messy foyer. Wine bottles and beer cans lay strewn across the floor, and trash from Lord-knows-where covered every inch of the appartment.

"I told you already! I don't want to put up with this any more!" It was her mother.

"Shut up! You don't know anything!" The sound of a bottle shattering pireced the air after the man's slurred statements and a cry rang out from the woman who had been arguing with him. The girl was surprised; never once had her father dared to hurt her mother... but today was different. Today it went farther than usual.

"Mother!" She hadn't seen exactly what had transpired in that living room no more than a few seconds ago, but she knew that it was probably bad. Running into the room,she saw that her mother had been wacked over the head with a lingering wine bottle, and was now laying prostate on the cold ground... blood dripping from her forhead.

A strong hand captured the girl in its clutches before she could reach her injured parent and threw her against the wall, producing a loud thump. Tears fell from the girl's olive green eyes, expressing her grief grown from her father's actions. "How dare you interrupt?! You are no more than a child! Don't interfere!" The girl's tears flowed more swiflty and the man yelled again, "Arietta! Listen to me when I speak!"

A hand flew in the direction of Arietta's cheek, connected with her soft skin, and left a red mark upon contact. When she gave no reaction to the beating, her father scowled and darted to the foyer where he picked up his coat, opened the door Arietta had left ajar, and stormed out of his home.

Arietta sighed and gazed out the window parallel to her. She scanned the sky in hopes that someday someone would come and save her and her family from their misery. Just as the thought passed her mind, something glistened in the sky and caught her eye. Though surely not the sun, since this glimmer appeared as with purple-red hue... but then... what?

" Noemi!" Keisho bounded from the roof of a small building. His fur was glossy with the abnormal sheen that only animals consisted of. " I've spotted one," he called out, " that should be good to talk to." He landed softly on his padded paws, making a slight thud as if an angel had fell from the heavens onto a cloud of fluff. " Follow me." it was no longer rainy, but drizzled slightly from the misty clouds above. Noemi grunted her approval, dashing after the departing cat. This was their everyday duty, ridding the human world of all unknown creatures possible. Keisho had taken his leap of faith, found himself a companion that disliked the human race as well. He despised how the humans had begun their merging into his world, causing corruption between the beasts. Keisho was a demon, sealed into the corpse of a cat. To him, he felt as if he were doing a good deed to his world, though there were many who would beg to differ. He, resisting his distaste for humans, had made a contract with the girl who tread after him. She wanted the normal life as well, no abnormal beings coming from random resources. Things should be as they should, not by circumstance.
" Who do we got today?" She asked, her hands in her pockets, the same song repeated through her headphones.
" We have several choices, so far i've spotted six people. Three girls and three males." he responded.
" Let's go one girl, one guy." Noemi suggested.
" Heff..." the cat took a sudden turn into an ally. It was darkened, their was a loud commotion about. " Here is the closest male." He shuffled up into Noemi's jacket. She zipped up the piece of clothing, and scrabbled on clumsily. Then picking up her pace with a bounce, reached the area. There were multiple people about, blood stained the sodden floor. A young man stay towering over another, who's head was presently being pressed to the cold, pale concrete. She heard his jeer, then stepped up.
" Oh say!" She shouted, waving an extended hand in the air as if greeting a common friend. " Nice meeting you here! I would love to make petty contact with you, fellow abom--" she was cut off, Keisho clawed at her flat chest.
" Idiot, they are your own kind, dont talk to them as if they are dogs." he ordered. Noemi made a slight movement, showing that she had heard and understood.
" Ahem, i would like to take up an offer?" she suggested.

“Hmm, I wonder what was that strange rip?” pondered the young boy. As he went to sleep he shrugged it off.

As he went into his dreams, the horrors had begun. Many various creatures and monsters appeared surrounding him. The boy ran in fear.

“Why is this happening, why?!!” he screamed, at the top of his lungs

But just then a creature, glowing in gold, appeared. It seemed dangerous, snarling. Flames coming out from its mouth, it declared, “Attack this boy and face my wrath! You sinful beasts shall pay for your crimes!”

The boy, in shock and awe at the creature’s actions and words, shivered. He wondered, ‘Why is this happening, why is this monster protecting me?’

As the demonic looking creatures attack the golden creature, it exclaimed, “ I AM KIRIN, I WILL DESTROY ALL SINFUL MONSTERS HERE!!” As it roared out those words, it pounced onto one of the monsters. One of the others tried to attack it, but was quickly disposed of.

The boy couldn’t believe how flawlessly and quickly the golden creature, the Kirin, was dispatching all the scary demonic creatures. It’s so magnificent how this monster’s defeating all the others, thought the young boy.

“Its time to finish this” said the Kirin calmly. As it said those words, it powered up this powerful attack. Opening its mouth fire gathered into it, the flames forming a sphere. After all the flames formed into a sphere it turned golden. Shooting the golden sphere, it hit one beasts. But the sphere exploded into a firey explosion, finishing off all the shadow creatures.

The boy couldn’t believe his eyes. He tried to speak, but was too in awe of what had transpired. He saw the creature panting heavily. He tried to go near it but couldn’t, his body paralyzed. But what made his body paralyzed? Next thing the boy knew, he was slowly closing his eyes. The creature slowly dissipated as the boy closed his eyes, and the next thing he knew the boy woke up.

“What’s … Going on here…”

From the moment Noemi made her opposition, Keisho bounded out of her jacket, which had by then swallowed him up into a deep doze.
" Noemi, we must leave immediately, there is a human in my world." He hissed.
" Ah," She acknowledged the cat, he was already bounding away, then she turned to the group, " I suppose i'll see you again sometime!" She waved off the mysteriuos glowers that shook her mind, they are just people, she reminded herself, nothing dangerous about them. She leaped after Keisho, her bumpy step bringing her close behind him. Uttering quietly, she mouthed a a pagan line, then, with Keisho now stopped and extending his nose towards her, she placed her palm on the ground. The floor quaked, but the beings in her world seemed not to notice. Immediately the floor was swallowed into a deep forest. Noemi saw a young boy, standing in shock and awe at the claws of a large beast.
" Kirin!" She called after it, involuntarily stalking his way. " Well it's certainly now a pleasure to see you getting along with humans," she snorted with disdain, there was contempt in her voice. Keisho padded alongside her, giving a grin of disposition.
" Don't harm his reputation, Noemi, he's a beast of much power, remember?"
" The power to shoot rainbow flames from his tonsils," Noemi burst out in laughter, Keisho too. There was a deep silence.

The rain had started coming down harder after Resha had gotten home, it brought a smirk to her face as she realized she had beaten the rain home - A small, personal victory that she happily chalked up to her side.

The TV was playing some type of relaxing festive music that she had slipped into the gaming console shortly after getting home - It was irony that she hadn't actually used the TV to watch television in years. In matter of fact, it existed almost entirely just to be a display screen for her games, and recently, the internet.

Resha had almost drifted off into a well deserved (in her mind) sleep after a hard day's work when she was rudely dragged out of her stupor by the heart stopping sound of crunching metal outside her window.

Living in the city it was almost a given that wrecks would happen, however no one ever really grew accustomed to the horrible sound that the cars made when they were forcibly compacted into each other... Nor could they ignore what it inevitably associated itself with - The people trapped inside the metal cages.

Resha was off the couch almost immediately, the sound forcing her body to react long before her conscious mind ever realized what had happened, as she crossed her room rapidly and threw open the window to look outside in the pouring rain. The wreck wasn't far from her apartment, only a few hundred yards down the road - It looked like the street had simply developed a giant sinkhole without much warning.

Simply wasn't really a good term for it - Sinkholes could be horrible in the city, especially if it destabilized the ground and foundations of the buildings around it. However, at least sinkholes meant there hadn't been any severe accidents, so the odds of wreck related injuries were rather low.

Just as she was about to go back to minding her own business, something odd caught Resha's attention out of the corner of her eye - The center of the sinkhole, to be specific. There was nothing inside it, or rather, no cars inside it.

What -was- inside it was a hulking form that seemed more akin to a bag of bulging muscles nearly as large as a volkswagen. It was even stranger to realize that no one seemed to realize it was there, one man even walked through it as he was climbing out of the sinkhole.

It wasn't natural, and before she realized what was happening, their eyes met and she could feel it - Whatever it was had noticed her above all else. She didn't stay to see what would happen, for the moment that realization shot down her spine she had withdrawn back into her room and left her apartment in a rush.
=========

The common populace ignored it's existence, they were unable to perceive it right now anyway... In a similar way, it couldn't perceive them. No, it was confused and lost - But there was something it could see.

Whatever it was, it had looked to be fleeing. There was no choice, with little regard to the environment around it - The hulking brute of a creature began to crush it's way after the unknown figure composed of shadows.

Each step crushed cars, created cracks in the road and caused a stir in the general populace - Even if only a select few could perceive it, and vice versa, it could obviously affect this world's physical plane.

In the wake of it's rush, damage was done and the people were left to panic about the sudden fraility of their city.

Kirin was panting heavily from that attack. As he turned about he notices the two cats. “Well if it isn’t Noemi and Keisho. What are you two doing here? And how long have you been watching me fight I wonder” said the tired beast Kirin.

After a short small talk explaining everything, Kirin and the two cat pairs went their separate ways. Kirin went to the temple palace to rest up. He began to ponder, is that boy really going to merge with me? Hmm impossible … yet I sense a connection between him and me. Maybe …

Rain and clouds fill the sky. Running quickly to home, the boy is ran into a girl. “Ugh ouch. Oh sorry. Oh hey Jessie.” Jessie is a neighbor to the boy.

“Huh. OH HAI RUI!! … That’s your name right? Rui Murasaki?” said the girl, very stupidly. Rui thought, ughh she’s pretty ditzy. Ah well can’t help that can we?

After a small chitchat they rushingly went their separate ways. After about 10 minutes, Rui finally made it to his house. As he went to his room, he begins to ponder about what happened last night.

“I wonder… if it’ll happen again tonight. I’m not gonna lie, if it does happen I won’t be afraid this time. It’s interesting now that I realize it. Maybe… it’s what I need to help my dull life. Heh” said the boy with a renewed outlook on the situation.

" Appears he left by his own will." Keisho stated the obvious, obliviuos that Noemi had noticed as well.
" It always amuses me how silly humans react to such petty things. If a creature protects you, then why so surprised? It is as if they have never seen a gaurd dog." She stood mystified by the shadows of the trees. " Well, even if he left by his own will, we have our own duties, Keisho." She reminded the cat as he padded by her side.
" Yes, yes, i know. When will we start?"
" I say nightmare gateway number seven would work quite well, its best to keep them apart, isn't it?" she placed a hand over her heat as if making sure it was still beating with the blood that kept her alive.

--continued for donut---

The sun had begun to set in the world they now inhabited. " Let's get out of here, it won't do my reputation any good if someone sees me with a human." Keisho suggested, more implying a demand. Noemi nodded. They walked off into the sunset, the quietness was broken as she made a quiet comment, " Did you see the way he thought i was a cat? Made him look like he'd never seen a human before..."
the silence grew greater, then Keisho added sparingly, " He IS a human."

The girl sighed and closed her eyes. She was beginning to doze off due to the pattering of the rain against the windows and house. As soon as her eyes were closed, she started to see a figure sitting up on a bed.

'Who's that?' she wondered and landed her dream body near the figure. It was girl about her age staring out the window with her eyes bandaged. She reached her hand out to touch when some weird looking doctors came in. They began talking about things she couldn't quite understand, but did hear that the girl has some sort of disease and not much time to live.

The doctors left as soon as they gave her some medicine in some weirdly shaped bottle. 'What a weird dream this is,' she thought. Then the girl spoke.

"You can see me?" asked the girl. She jumped back slightly, but regained her composure and answered her with a yes. "Thank goodness. I've been looking for someone all this time. I have a favor to ask of you. I know it's a lot to ask for since we've just met, but I need your help with something." the girl pleaded.

"What is this favor you speak of?" she asked hesitantly. "Well as you can see I don't have much time left. I want to ask to..." the girl began, but the sound of barking was waking her from the dream and she could no longer hear what the girl was saying except the words "I need you to continue my life."

Her eyes fled open and she saw Zeke running around the kitchen excitedly. She shook her head and looked at the puppy. "Stay! she commanded and the puppy stopped looking at her innocently. She got up slowly and made her way towards the refrigerator. There was a note posted up saying the usual
"Dear Kanade,
Sorry but we are unable to stay home and eat dinner with you tonight due to unexpected changes to our schedules.
Sincerely,
Mom and Dad"
She shrugged and ignored the note. She opened up the refrigerator and took out a small bottle of water. Now that she thought about it, she has been having weird dreams as of lately so maybe she dreamed another one of those again.

She finished her water and threw the empty bottle in the recycling. "C'mon Zeke. Let's go out for a walk since you have so much energy." she said to the puppy. Zeke barked and ran to get his leash. She walked to the doorway and put on her converse once again. They were dry again.

She opened the door and sighed. The puppy arrived with his collar, but she put on his little raincoat before clicking on his leash. She locked the door with her keys and stepped into the rain once again. With her umbrella in one hand and leash on the other, she set out. The puppy was a few feet ahead of her and sniffing everything it could possibly find.

She smiled lightly and felt the rain dampen her light brown hair as the wind blew. It was these kind of days she and her indifferent self liked.

What the hell was that?
He stopped in his tracks again.
Earthquake...?
There was no sign of anything in the immediate area, but something had caused the boy to turn his head.
I was sure the ground just...ah, damnit.
"Damnit!" he exclaimed to nobody in particular, running in the direction of his instinct. Something a few blocks down?
He cut through a back alley into the next street. The sounds of sirens and some commotion could now be heard faintly in the distance.
I knew something happened...

He ran across the street to the next alleyway--
"Hey, you!" a voice called from inside the alley.
"Yeah, you, you're the guy who tried to pick a fight with us yesterday, right?"

Ahh, fuck.
He had the worst luck. Of course the guy he knocked out yesterday had friends, they always have god damned friends.

Of course, yesterday he had a bat.

"Look, guy, can we do this some other time?" he negotiated.
"Nah, why don't we do this now?" the thug retorted, shoving him backwards.

He regained his footing.
Lie?
"You must have me mistaken, pal."
his attempts at diplomacy were met with a second shove that sent him back a couple more steps.

Bluff?
"if ya don't move, I'm gonna have to hurt you."
"Go ahead." A third shove.

The feeling hit him again. The Earth is quaking again...!
"Didn't you feel that?!"
"Don't try and change the subject!" the thug exclaimed, throwing a punch that landed directly in the boy's chest.

But he didn't recoil, this time.
He had moved back a couple inches, but his legs hadn't moved - the ground had marks where he slid.
Huh. he thought.
"Lucky!" he grinned, throwing his weight into a counter punch that sent the man reeling, slamming against the wall before slumping unconscious.

"That was nifty." he said plainly, shaking his wrist.
Remembering the tremors only he seemed to feel, apparently, he sprinted off again towards the site, wondering what was so urgent in the first place.

The ground he stood on after the punch was left cracked and jagged.

Moving swiftly wasn't something Resha had ever really prided herself on. To be completely honest, she favored the idea of moving very little and being brutally efficient. It was a philosophy she liked, it was a philosophy she lived by.

And now, running frantically for no conceivable reason aside from there having been an odd looking shadow and freaky feeling down her back, it was a philosophy that was not serving her well.

She bit down a curse as the ground shook around her, she didn't dare look back to confirm that these constant tremors were proof that whatever she had seen was in fact following her.

Bare feet padded heavily on the wet concrete as the red haired girl made a short hop into the air during her sprint to avoid losing her balance due to the shaking ground. She must have been quite the sight, soaked in rain without any shoes or a coat, running flat-out from some invisible boogey man...

The crunch of a car behind her rather rudely informed the girl that she was failing in her attempts to escape. Her decision was abrupt, the main street wasn't getting her anywhere - Maybe the alleys would be too narrow for it to follow? Or at least give her a better chance at getting away.

Resha dove to the side and into one of said alleys as a foreign instinct flared in warning, just barely avoiding the tree that had been uprooted and thrown at her.

"A Tree!?" She knew stating the obvious was a terrible use of her time right now but, "A goddamn tree!?" She scrambled to her feet, some wet grime from the rain and city floor dirtying her side, and resumed her frantic dash.

"Can't keep running girl, got to think of something...."

"Home sweet home," Alex says to himself shutting the front door behind him as he walks into his dimly lit messy apartment. "Man, I'm exhausted..." He whines with a long exhale as he throws his warm night clothing, a warm dark blue jacket, a black long sleeved shirt, and black, bloodstained boots and jeans aside to take a quick hot shower to wash any blood he still had on his body off before he went to bed.
While letting the water run down his back, he let his mind wonder. He killed a man tonight. He had kind of known it may of happened sooner or later when he started hanging with that bad crowed, but he never thought he would feel so indifferent about it. IT was like he was another person for a little while there. "Theres no going back now Alex," he mutters to himself under his breath while he turns off the shower and steps out into his bedroom. "This is the first step on my path to making something of myself." With that he puts on a pair of sweats and gets into his disheveled bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

wake up... wake up... i have much to discuss with you, my new client...

Alex sprang up into a sitting position in his bed, his body covered in a cold sweat. "Who is there!" he shouted into the blackness of his room, "I know i heard you this time! Show yourself!"

quiet boy! shouting to the shadows like a paranoid fool! you will need to learn how to maintain a better self image lest your subjects believe you a babbling loon... if the voice inside your head is too much for you to bear, then i shall accommodate myself for you...

From out of the darkness steps a tall, well dressed man. Just as he appeared, the voices in Alex's head stopped. the man was bald, and seemed to be wearing black eye make up. His body seemed to flicker like shadows by a lit candle, and his voice was otherworldly. "Just who the fuck are you!" shouts Alex as he reaches for a knife next to his bed.
"Settle down boy, i mean you no harm. I only wish for an opportunity to explain our current situation."
"Our situation?! I have nothing to do with you!"
"I will explain myself even if i have to hold your tongue myself my dear boy, now listen!" Alex suddenly felt no need to speak, as though it was by his own will, "I am bound to you, just like you are bound to me. We are essentially the same being now, so we will both need to look out for one another. I have no reason to harm you."
Alex felt like he understood the man and knew he was being sincere. "Yeah, but why is this happening?"
"That is something that you cannot understand just yet. All i can do is offer you with my usual assistance. Since your soul is essentially mine, i will consider it payment and make your dreams come true. In fact, i have already begun to work my magic on your life."
"Thanks for that, but could you tell me who you are at least?"
The tall man smiled a smile that stretched from temple to temple, "So you are one who seeks knowledge? Very well. I am known as Mephistopheles, but you can just call me whatever you like. Names have no meaning to me."

The boy clutched his chest involuntarily. A delayed response, but that punch still kind of hurt.

He made his way out of the alley, and looked around this street. Nothing here, either, but the sounds were definitely getting louder and more violent--
Is that a tree?

A tree flew through the next alleyway down, landing on and totaling a parked car on the side of the street. Suddenly it didn't seem like a good idea to proceed, but he felt the urge to look anyway. Was it curiosity? Some supernatural force? Or maybe stupidity?
As he approached the alleyway, a lady, red hair and panic-stricken face, sprinted into the street, nearly knocking him over as she flew passed.
Before he could retort, he looked into the alleyway: it was nearly collapsing as a huge, indistinct figure barreled its way through.
Definitely stupidity.

He backed of slowly, getting ready to run as well.
Don't run.
"Huh?"
He stopped backing off.
Why would I...
He couldn't will his body to move, though.
He couldn't will anything at all.
His consciousness started to fade as his body stood its ground..
=======================================

The surroundings changed.
The earth looked gray and black, but level.
Large gray monoliths lay in straight lines.
In front, danger.

He took a step. Something was off. He had less mass than usual.
His body was soft, thin, small.

Without much thought for the situation or his current appearance, Kuldr thought it best to handle the task at hand.
The beast approaching had to be dealt with.

He drudged forward a few steps as the monster rapidly approached. Facing the nearest monolith, he lifted his right foot and slammed it into the ground. A fissure raced through the ground and up the construct, causing part of it to collapse in front of the beast before it could make its way through.

Not as effective as planned. This body was weak.
It is not dead.
He took a step forward to finish the job--
=======================================

His surroundings faded back into view.
“What the hell…?”
A wall of stone now blocked the alleyway, and part of the building seemed to have collapsed.
How did…

The wall rumbled.
I guess it’s still there, huh.
“Fff—“ he trailed off, turning to run again, this time with more success.

Arietta wiped cold tears from her battered and bruised cheeks before she made her way to the window. Innocent eyes laid sight on the peculiar object in the sky. What could it possibly be? And why, for whatever reason, did she feel so... attatched... to it?

A groan from behind her pulled Arietta out of her trance. She turned to see dearest Mother pulling herself up, rubbing her bloodied head as she went. When she fell back over, Arietta ran to give her any assistane needed. With a scowl and a gesture close to one a person might make shooing off a bug, Arietta was pushed aside, her mother not wanting help.

"If only you hadn't been born..." Arietta's mother sighed and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye. She looked up at her only child and began in a wavering voice, "Why can't you just go away?" Arietta stumbled back, shocked at the words of her parent, "Just go!"

The girl moved backwards slowly, then faster until she was sprinting out the door with nothing about her person except the backpack she had sported ever since the moment she walked into the appartment.

Nearly tripping herself when running down the front stairs, she pushed forward into the more central parts of town. Her heavy boots only seemed to slow her down, and the clouds continued with their crying. Suddenly, the earth shook beneath her and an unlucky stretch of uneven pavement caught one of those heavy boots, lurching her forward and slamming her against the sidewalk's cold and wet surface.

A delinquent passed her as she fell, giving her a kick and telling her to watch where she stepped. Arietta winced, then looked up. What she saw made her do a double take before she was conviced that she must have passed out... or something.

Laying in a white room, her surroundings had completely changed within a matter of seconds. Above her still hung the red-violet star, but that was it. Pulling at her clothes and pinching her skin, she tried to tell herself to wake up. Then she realized: This is reality... but what kind of a reality consists of not much more than a white room?

“… I’m … back here again? How … I wonder,” pondered Rui, who magically came back to the creature world. He wasn’t at the same place as last time. The surroundings are different. The surrounding gives off an eery, yet safe presence. It looks like a temple or palace from the building, the walls, everything actually.

Rui looks around the place, amazed at the architecture of the palace. But that amazement soon turned into horror as he gazes at the visibly damaged Kirin.

“KIRIN!” Rui shouted in a worried tone. “Please, you have to be alright. Kirin!!”
As Rui goes nearer Kirin, a glow appears from Kirin. The glow gets brighter as Rui goes nearer and nearer to Kirin.

Kirin finally opens his eyes, to his surprise, seeing Rui back. He wonders, What is he doing back.

Rui pets Kirin, and as soon as he touches Kirin, Kirin disappears instantaneously. Rui’s face looked shocked. He wondered what had happen to Kirin. But as soon as that thought came into mind, Rui came back to his room. He thought to himself, What the hell happened? Why did Kirin disappear?

Suddenly, the earth shook. Rui’s whole house shook violently. ‘What was going, this is all too weird’ raced through Rui’s mind.

Then suddenly a voice told Rui, “We must act quickly. I’ll tell you where the earthquake is happening, and on the way I’ll explain everything.”

Not a single sound other than the clacking of Arietta's rainboots came from any direction in the white emptiness. As she walked, she gazed up at the mysterious star-like object. Even though she was in an unfamiliar place, the object above somehow gave her a sense of comfort.

Seeing as the scenery never changed nor faltered, walking on and on, she thought, wasn't going to get her anywhere. Plopping herself down on the white gound, she felt as if she could be sitting on air. Nothing above, below, in front of or behind her had any sort of texture... an odd location indeed.

Then, unexpectedly, a sweet tinkling came from out of nowhere. The noise came from no particular direction, but was extremely distinct and resonated throughout the entire space. A couple minutes passed, then it came again. "Hello?" Arietta called out to the noise.

It chimed again... but now it seemed closer. She turned her head this way and that, but still saw nothing but the star above her head, teasing her with its flickering light. Once again, she called out, "Hello? Anyone?" In an instant, a deep black shadow began to soak up the 'room's' white purity, starting at the star and moving downward to Arietta's position.

She watched the darkness nonchalantly, just as if it was an everyday experience for her. Then, once it had swallowed her up whole, she stood. At this point, it was as is she were deep in a dark cave. Her body wasn't visible, and neither was anything else.

However, the second her legs had straightened completely, she was spit out, miraculously, back into her own world. The blackness dissolved, even though the star remained in the sad sky of gray desperation and tears.

More alert now, she checked her surroundings. At the moment, she was standing at the corner of an unfamiliar street in an unfamiliar plaza... and all of hell was breaking loose.

Grasping the ground for balance as the earth trembled beneath her, she continued to survey the scene. Dark shadows roamed the streets, creating heaps of debris everywhere they stepped. Holes opened up in the ground as if they were pits of death, releasing more and more of the shadows. And, what was more, every passer-by was completely oblivious to the chaotic mess. Not a single one turned to run or hide... only went on with their daily lives. Just what was going on here?!

The rain was still falling, but had become a little lighter than before. Zeke was still ahead and he looked like he was ready to pounce and jump on everything he could see. Suddenly she felt the entire ground shaking underneath her.

She gasped as her legs nearly gave away, but she held her ground while Zeke, who also quite shocked and surprised of the shaking, was running around barking angrily trying protect his master. 'What in the world is happening?' she wondered. "Could it be an earthquake?" she asked to herself, but she knew that there weren't many faults nearby to trigger the earthquake that lasted more than a minute.

She let out a shrug and sighed. At least she and her puppy weren't hurt. She reached down for the puppy and picked him up. "It's ok, Zeke. Everything's alright now. Calm down." she said with a soothing voice. The puppy relaxed and stopped barking.

"Good boy!" she said while patting it on the head. She continued on her way, but then saw a big mess in an alleyway they were passing by. "Woah!" she said while raising an eyebrow wondering what could've done that, but remembered the earthquake.

Then suddenly she saw a shadow move towards her. She heard a low growl but it wasn't from her puppy. Zeke barked at the shadow standing guard in front of his master, ready to take the shadow on. Even though the shadow was moving moving closer and closer slowly, she didn't move an inch.

She didn't feel scared or afraid at all, but she didn't know why. Kanade. What are you doing?' she asked herself, but didn't know the answer to that.

Suddenly she heard a voice. It was one she recognized. The girl. "My time is running out. It's about time I give you what you need, so can continue this life of mine." said the mysterious girl. "My will become part of yours, but remember it is still you life. I just need you to carry on my soul!" said the girl.

Suddenly she felt some cooling sensation in her mind and her soul. Somehow she felt a bit more powerful. "I only gave you part of it to aid you." said the girl. "What is your name?" asked Kanade. "It is Komoriuta." said the girl. "I will help you again and when the time is near. I'll tell you more."

The voice faded away and the shadow was only a few feet away from her. She didn't know what to do. Should she trust the girl? But then again she already did the soul fusing, so it was up her to do what she think was to be done.

Without thinking, she rushed towards the shadow. "Sonic blade." was all she said when some blades came out of nowhere from her wrists and she stabbed the shadow.

Then there was a suddenly weird wailing noise and the shadow slowly dissolved away. Then her common sense came back. "W-What just happened?" she asked while her legs gave away. Thoughts began to circle around her head. Who and what that girl? What's happening to her and her city?' she pondered but shook her head.

What happened has happened. She couldn't change it. She looked into a puddle and saw her eye color had changed. It used to be a light brown color. Not it was gray with hints of purple and blue mixed up with it.

She slowly got up and picked her umbrella and leash of Zeke. She was now soaked, but not entirely.

She slowly walked back the way she came. Shadows were lurking ever so closer to her but kept a good distance away after witnessing her act upon one of their kind. What would be come of her and this fair city?

"Rain.. perfect... Just the kind of cover I need." thought the young girl as she walked through a bustling town.

She let the rain fall on her, unimpeded. She was used to the rain, as she had performed many jobs under its cover.

"People are staring at me." she thought as she looked around at the crowd that surrounded her..

Her outfit would have been considered odd by any normal person. She wore a tight black top, covered with a black trench-coat, a short black skirt, with pair of black pantyhose underneath, and a matching pair of black leather gloves and thick-soled boots. Her straight brown hair fell past her shoulders and to the middle of her back, with a characteristic strand of hair on her face. To top it off, she carried two swords, one katana, and one nodachi.

Needless to say, her very presence made the crowd uneasy, a fact evidenced by the way they tilted their umbrellas towards her in an effort to hide her form and the 2 foot radius that they distanced themselves from her. The crowd's uneasiness didn't bother the girl. In her mind, it made getting through the crowd much easier and quicker.

After about 5 minutes of walking, she reached her destination: a huge mansion in the center of the town, obviously inhabited by someone with too much money.

"Finally, im here," she thought as she approached the open gates to the mansion. "Okay, this should be easy. In and out. 5 minutes, tops."

She entered the mansion and made her way to the central bedchamber, where her target lay sleeping, unaware of the danger that approached.

Utilizing all of her skills, the girl slipped past guard after guard until she made it to the bedchamber. Laying before her was her mark, a man in his late 30's whose gambling addiction had won him many enemies. Enemies which contracted a certain young girl to end his life.

In a moment of lapsed thought, she closed the door without any attempt to do so quietly. Her confidence had gotten the better of her, again. The man woke up at the sound and looked wildly throughout the room, finally resting his eyes on the assassin standing before him.

"Oh, shi--" exclaimed the man as the girl rushed at him, swords drawn.

"Thats right, Count Remington, it's time to die." she growled at the man as she raised her swords in a finishing blow. Suddenly, a pain shot through her back, not unlike the feeling of being stabbed. She looked down at her torso to find a curious blackness flowing out of a nonexistent wound.

"What the...?" she wondered aloud as the blackness spread across her entire body, consuming it. Feeling herself losing consciousness, the girl swung her sword at the Count in a last attempt at making good on her contract, but discovered that her sword had also been consumed by the blackness. As it passed through the Count, she could feel his energy passing through his body, through the sword, and into her. It felt strangely pleasant, like a sip of a hot beverage on a cold day.

The Count collapsed, dead.

The girl, still engulfed in the blackness, fell beside him, unconscious.

" Lookie, lookie," Noemi pleaded out of the shadows of the room, which she was awkwardly hiding in beneath a corner of a white wall. It seemed as if she were talking to no one, then Keisho spat out from under a couch. " It's mr. magicman!" The two let out another bout of reckless laughter. She stared out at the two figures who stood in the room. One was dressed well, a little too well in fact, which caused him to stand out from the rest of the scene. The other lay in bed, the precipitation upon his brow was still fresh and was sprinkled in droplets on his fair haired head. " I had some extra time, actually. So i decided to pay a nice visit to you, you little murderer, you." she tiptoed over to his bedside, popping a finger out from under her black sleeves and poking him in the nose. " You two are so silly! Why, to not even run from the law after killing a man in front of so many witnesses, and," she turned to the tall, lithe figure who stood shaded in the moonlight. " coming out willingly to an ignorant folly of the night, already knowing what to say and introducing yourself?" She shook her finger at the two.
" Foolish, Mephistopheles," Keisho continued. " It is certainly not a surprise to see you coming for aid to humans, or is it...the other way around?" he began to groom himself, licking his paw and curving around his ear.
" Keisho!" Noemi bounced up, as if suddenly surprised by something. Her hair bobbed around her perfectly shaped face.
" I don't know if this is what you feel, but i suppose i should say it how you do?" she spied at the little tom and spoke the words he had so often spoke to her, " I feel a disturbance in my world." Her eyes were round and widened. The words did not seem to fit her as much as they did Keisho, he burst out into laughter. He was so amused, that if cats had tears like that of humans, he would have cried too many that he would have none left for a funeral. " Ah. let us leave, then, young master." he addressed her. Noemi turned back to the two in the room.
" I have to go, but i will be popping in every now and then to see your progress." she said the statement with a rather happy tone, though her heart showed otherwise.

The crash was something worth turning for, seeing a diminuitive kid punch the wall and all but close off the alleyway and smash the shadow thing into bits? That was definitely worth stopping for.

Except for when the kid quite suddenly decided it was time to run. Resha reached out to grab him as he passed, but a rumbling from the closed in debris made her think twice - Maybe she could just hunt him down?

Her decision to turn and run after him turned out to be the correct one when the debris behind her exploded outward with a groan and whatever it was started chasing after her again, just this time it seemed to be pissed.

"Hey kid, the hell did you do!?" The perks of being tall was that she didn't really need to work as hard to match his pace, as a result she was simply taking long strides at a jogging pace.

The richocheting sound of a trash can hitting the walls and crashing into the ground behind them, possibly because it wasn't used to aiming in enclosed spaces, reaffirmed Resha's belief that what ever it was - It was decidedly not happy.

"Me?! You think I.."
..his protests were cut off as he flinched at the sound of a thrown trash can.
"What the hell is that thing anyway, and why is it following--"
--cut off again by another crash. He gripped his hat on his head to prevent it from falling, not bothering to turn around.
The lady didn't seem to know anyway.

What is that thing?
How did that building collapse? How did I survive?
Who is this girl?

He had to pick something to think about to not give into terror.
"Lady, who are ya anyway??"
They were approaching a second alleyway.
We have to lose it somehow...

ooc: yush 29 was me, i just forgot something so:

" D-D-D-D---" the trashcan tipped over. Keisho tumbled out, covered with the miscellaneous litter over his geometric fur. Noemi stood above him, her hands extended as if she had tried to save the trash can from falling, though her foot showed the opposite, leaning on her heel, as if she had kicked it on purpose.
" Idiot human!" Keisho hissed at her. " How are you supposed to be careful? This was the worst disguise ever." Then his eyes widened as if he had just realized what her previous joke had meant. " I.am.not." he countered. " a filthy cat." Noemi seemed to ignore his statement, she turned to the woman and the child in the alley.
" Well, hello there? Fancy meeting you here!" She said awkwardly. The silence grew thicker. THen she turned to Keisho.
" I told you I don't like you." The cat hissed and gave an outcry of disgust, muttering curses under his breath.

Resha and the boy had long since rushed past the odd girl, "Resha, now what the hell is going on?" She may not have been exerting as much energy to keep up with him, but he was still fresh - She had been running for a while now, this wasn't something she was accustomed to.

The creature behind them took up almost an entire story of height and appeared to be able to compact itself into following them - If at first it was chasing after the only thing it could see, now it clearly saw two things before it.

One, the creature that had been escaping it since it came here. The other? The creature that had the gall to try and fight it.

It reached out and smashed it's pulsing muscle bound shadowy fingers into the building next to it, flexing its impressive figure and ripping out a large chunk of concrete that it spared no time in sending flying down the narrow alleyway. However it didn't stop there, multiple appendages snapping out from it's massive wall-like body and snapping up various loose items such as trashcans and dumpsters to toss at them while it continued to barrel forward.

The odd girl who had shown up had the misfortune of being to close to one of said items, resulting in the creature grabbing her viciously and tossing her through the air with the can itself - The cat was too small, but may very well have been trampled underfoot by the monstrous creature rampaging after it's prey.

" HOLY MUTHAH SHI--"

“So you mean to tell me … that the creature world and the human world are merging?,” asked Rui calmly, trying to reaffirm what Kirin said.

“For the last time, YES. Jeez you’re slow for a human. Actually, maybe all humans are this dumb. Anyways. The reason why I’m currently merged with you is because we are kindred spirits. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean all merges are like that. But what it does mean is that we can change our forms quicker and easier, as well as having a small increase in my form. Now that I’ve caught you up in our current situation, turn right by the way, do you acc-”

“Hell yes! This is what I’ve needed in my life. Oh look, are we there? There seems to be a huge fight with things flying about,” said Rui, interrupted Kirin, full of spirit.

“sigh, yeah we’re here. Hmm, some humans are here also. A red hair human. Along with another punk looking one. And also … those two cats,” said Kirin just as they arrived to their destination.

“It’s … a shadow …” said Kirin, sounding surprised as he sees the destruction between them.

" I AM NOT A CAT!" Noemi crowed from her deadlock. She wriggled free, attempting to go for the suicidal fall. Keisho leaped up, his paws beating off the walls, propelling his small body into the air.
" Human!" he called, Noemi spared a daring glance, the cat had turned ablaze into a ball of pure demon. His frame was still small compared to that of the beast's, but he held his confidence. Ripping the grasp of the creature loose enough for his human companion to slip through. She fell, plummeting with an ease of confided joy. " Stupid!" He called, diving after her, bringing himself to close his flamed jaws over her jacket hood. They passed over onto the roof of a hindering building.
" You don't react with happiness, you could've died. Don't you know the meaing of life?" he hissed, his grasp still tight with fear.
" Haha! Life? What we are living is just death, we have never lived life yet." she responded quirkly. She pulled herself away from the demon as he regained his form. Her jacket had been singed, and her skin burned from his true image.

While all these stories were going on, someone looked silently. His story would soon be told.

Did I just see a flaming cat.
The boy wasn't keen on trusting his senses at this point.
"Now what the hell is going on?" the redhead, Resha, asked exasperatedly.

"I'm fairly sure I just asked you that, woman!"
The creature threw something else at them, missing only by a couple feet this time.
"Whatever it is, we can't run like this forever..."
He turned behind him, still running, to look around.
Come on, something to slow him down, anything...
All nearby rubble was being plowed out of the way though.

A memory surged back to him - his feet when he punched the thug earlier; his legs when he stopped in front of the beast. They hadn't just been still, they were rooted.

Why are you running.

What? Because there's a big fucking monster chasing me that's why--

Stand your ground.

I...

He stopped running and turned around.
He didn't lose consciousness this time - in fact, his conscious was twice as active as before, literally.

The ground.
He knelt down and touched the ground with the palms of his hands.
Lift it.

He couldn't believe it or deny it. His muscles seemed to work on their own as the thoughts entered his mind.
He gripped a solid chunk of the pavement, then with great effort, stood up, lifting a large, jagged wall of concrete out of the ground seconds before the beast reached him.

Control returned to him as the realization of the immediate danger set in once more.
The second consciousness seemed to be placated.
"I...I don't know what the hell I just did, but it should buy some time, lady!" he yelled after Resha, who was several yards away already.

Just what the hell IS going on?! He thought, feeling both awesome and terrified.

"Ugh.... where am I?" moaned the girl as she came to.

crack

The girl spun around to face the direction of the sound to find that everything behind her was laid to waste. Every building lay in ruin, every person lay slain on the ground, every animal turned to stone, a look of terror on their faces.

"This cant be real. What the hell happened here?" she wondered as she looked in horror upon her surroundings. "This is a dream. It has to be."
"I'm afraid not, my dear Keiko." whispered an unknown voice.
Spinning around in terror, Keiko frantically looked for the source of the voice only to realize that it was coming from inside her. Inside her mind.
"Oh? It seems that you've found me. Nice to meet you... partner." murmured the voice. "Now, tell me my name."
"Your name? How the hell am I supposed to know that? I don't even know what it is that you are." replied Keiko with a hint of fear in her voice.
"We have a bond, you and I. As you can probably guess, I'm not human."
"That much is obvious. What are you then?" replied Keiko calmly, her natural confidence rushing back.
"I'm one of the Enchanted. I am you. You are me. We are one."
"Could you be any more vague?"
"Some Humans have Enchanted counterparts. You are one of those humans. Our worlds are colliding, and our beings are being merged together."
"And If I don't want to be merged with you?"
"It's not as if you have a choice. In either case, its better for both of us this way."
"And why is that?"
"We both benefit. I get a body, and you get my powers. Oh, and we can fend off The Fallen."
"What powers? And what are The Fallen?"
"You have to find out about the powers yourself. I've lost parts of my memory, and I cant quite remember. And to answer your question, The Fallen were once Enchanted. They fell from grace and became abominations... they live to destroy things. Quite dangerous folk, if you ask me.. "

As Keiko mulled things over, she noticed ...things... moving in the distance. Huge, hairy, disgusting monsters, systematically wreaking havoc upon the surroundings. She realized, that, to have any hope of fighting these "Fallen", she would have to embrace the spirits powers.

"Alright," she sighed. "How do we merge?"
"We already did. When you were killing the Count and stealing his soul." replied the still unknown voice.
"Wait, what?? I stole his soul? Was that what I felt back then? That warm sensation?" exclaimed Keiko, astonished at her newfound power.
"Yes, that was when you stole his soul. I don't know what the point of it is yet, so don't ask."
"I see. Well then, I guess its time to start training!" she said with a tinge of excitement as she stripped off her weighted jacket.
"Training? For what?"
"How else are we going to learn about our powers? I want figure out what that blackness that consumed me was... I felt so... powerful. Well then, shall we, Korosu?"
"Ah! my name! You remembered it!" exclaimed Korosu, ecstatic about the bond that he and Keiko had already started to form.

Seeing as the punk boy just threw a wall of concrete, Rui decided to make his move. “Kirin, we’re going in there to fight.” Those words amazed Kirin, who then thought back to the scared boy he saw a few days ago.

“Alright. But first, we must merge,” Kirin told Rui. As soon as Kirin uttered those words, they both glowed. An explosion erupted from them. A pillar of golden light shone. After a few minutes passed, a claw struck out of the pillar, as if tearing it off. Another claw struck out to help tearing it out. Ripping the pillar, the merged form of Kirin and Rui emerged. Long green hair, from the waist down there was fur engulfing him. His hands now rough looking. His nails, now elongated, exactly like claws. His feet, bear footed and also the nails there are also elongated.

As soon as the merge completed, he jumped right in to the fight. Pouncing upon the damaged shadow creature, he knocks it down. Rui is soon met with a powerful punch as a massive fist knocks him to nearby buildings. Visibly hurt, Kirin suggests to Rui, “Let me take over for a bit. I know my attacks better than you.” Rui agreed and gave Kirin control.

The beast took the advantage of the momentary silence and rushed towards Kirin. But Kirin’s incredulous speed managed to dodge it. Then Kirin attacks the shadow beast with a quick slash. The beast didn’t seem stagger at all, even though there was a visible slash on its stomach. Kirin then had a look of surprise, not noticing the shadow beast charging forward and knocking him out.

Resha stopped and looked back at the impossible feat that had just been pulled off by the boy, "You're just made of miracles, aren't you?" She queeried with habitual sarcasm, however her tone didn't carry through to her thoughtful and impressed expression as she stared up at the huge wall that had been created just moments ago.

The moment lasted just long enough for what appeared to be a green and gray monster to be tackled through the wall completely and go skidding across the ground, the monster behind the wall using the hole as a porthole and tearing apart the impromptu barrier with increasing rage.

It had been knocked around, led on a chase in some god forsaken place, and now some odd looking creature dared to cut it's skin? Worst. Day. Ever.

The wall shook briefly, spiderweb cracks crawling up the side of it and sections of the buildings on either side being dislodged from the force being exerted. The fire escape attached to one side of the building let loose a wretched scream of metal being torn and crunched apart... All of this was meaningless in the face of what had actually happened.

The earth wall, along with parts of the walls around it, had been uplifted, held with a visible strain over the shadowy creature's head as it sought it's targets.

"...Fucking hell." Resha muttered, too shocked to respond physically at the feat of strength it had managed - Something completely outside of her scope of understanding.

The ground beneath her shook once again. Arietta fell to her knees and debris fell all around her. From behind she could hear a faint roar. "What's happening?" Arietta thought to herself.

After a minute or two, the trembles stopped, but the roaring grew loader. With the shadows still popping up out of nowhere and reaking havoc in her particular location, she decided that, if she could just found some people who were seeing what she was seeing... then maybe...

Her thoughts trailed off as she heard people yelling at one another a few alleyways down. As fast as her little legs could carry her, she ran towards the voices. her hopes were set on them and them alone. Unfortuneately, the second before she reached her destination, the 'earthquakes' popped up again and she was sent sprawling across the cold and jagged pavemet.

And... just in front of her... was a bulging and fearsome monster... ono

From above, Noemi stood with Keisho, giving an almight laugh, half filled with terror. " Ah, shid, it appears we're too late. we might as well try to end this now," she armed herself ready to take the lives of the people beneath her. Her face twisted into a crooked smile which cursed the graceful joy of her apparel. Keisho looked on, he cackled and scratched at the ground. His back seized into an arch of fur and bone, hebecame his half demon-possesed self, the body of the cat engulfed in flames of hell. " We must silence this disturbance to both our worlds!" he hissed powerfully. The leaped down, Noemi holding a still grasp on her partner.

ooc: lawlz double post. o-o yeah im doing this in the dark and on muh mobile couldnt resist staying up....ok ill go to bed xD

As Keiko unsheathed her swords, she concentrated her mind on bringing back the darkness that had engulfed her body earlier. After a little while of this, it became apparent that she wasn't going to achieve that heightened form just by thinking about it: she had to do something.. After a few hours of trying randomly swinging her swords around and screaming, she had still achieved nothing but a state of extreme tiredness.

"What am I doing wrong?!" she sighed in frustration.
"Embrace the darkness within you. You're trying to hide your true self because you know I'm here. You forget that I know everything that is going on with you." replied Korosu.
"Darkness? I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not hiding anything."
"Yes you are. I can feel the darkness I felt about you when we first merged buried beneath layers of denial. You enjoy killing. Face the facts."
"No, I don't. That's insane."
"Liar."

Faced with his words, Keiko realized that she couldnt hide anything from Korosu and that it was pointless to try to do so. She let go, and let the darkness that once filled her well up and consume her. As she did this, she felt her skin turning into the darkness that had consumed her when she killed the Count.

"Finally!" She triumphantly exclaimed as she examined her body. "It doesnt hurt anymore! I'm not losing consciousness!"
"I told you." replied Korosu.

Ignoring Korosu's comment, Keiko rushed the nearest "Fallen", and readied herself for a strike. The creature, which Korosu had proclaimed to be extremely powerful, was sliced clean in half with one stroke, it's soul creeping out of its body and into Keiko's.

"Ahahaha! I feel it! The soul! It's giving me strength! And what were you saying about them being so powerful? I just killed that one with one stroke!" exclaimed Keiko excitedly.
"Yes, you did. and I give you props for that, but..." said Korosu.
"But what?"
"That was a small child."
"Oh.... Fuuu--." replied Keiko as she was hit by the mother of the child she had just slain. She flew at least 20 feet, landing face first in the rubble of a building. "Shit.. This is going to be tough" she moaned as she checked out her opponent.

I guess explanations can come later.
Any ideas, oh voice in my head?
The deep rumble of a voice he heard up until now was conveniently absent.
That's cool. You go ahead and stop helping, you bastard.

"Well I'm outta ideas, dollface. Not that I had many to begin with. You got some crazy magic shit up yer sleeve too, now's a good time to break it out."

They were a fair distance from the creature, that wall and that other... thing helped to slow its advance momentarily. Unless they found a place to hide, or maybe a decoy...
It's a longshot, this thing looks fairly unintelligent, yes?
He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a glass ball filled with some liquid.
"I lied, got one more idea."
He tossed it over his shoulder, and it shattered - a white smokescreen quickly filled the air behind them as they finally exited the alleyway.
But would it be enough...?

Noemi cursed under her breath as the two landed softly on the ground. The punk kid (o-o?) had caused an arousing smoke to rise in the air. " Keisho!" she ordered, " i suppose its better if they get singled out anyways, find him." she tumbled alongside ignoring the other humans who stood in her way. The black and white tom fled, skirting behind the two with his tail up.

As Rui comes to, out of his merged form, he notices smoke coming out. He wonders why the hell is there smoke. “Ugh, if only we could transform again,” Rui lamented.

“Hmm, lets see what those humans do first. We shall follow suit. Besides, it’ll recover … soon. Hopefully.”

Rui responds, “ … HOPEFULLY??? What the hell? Don’t you know what goes on with this transformation?? Damn you so much. Anyways, fine. We’ll cooperate with them. My initial plan was to take out that shadow in one fell swoop. Ah well.”

“Okay, it’s agreed. Anyways, I know my form better than you,” Kirin told Rui. “Hmm, I think I shall rest to hastily make this form available again. I doubt it’d be as powerful as I would want it to be, but it’s something, okay.”

Rui agreed. He then lets Kirin rest inside his body and watched silently as the punk kid and red headed female made their move.

It couldn't see, it was tired and it was angry. With a great heave, the beast's muscles uncoiled with a roar that shook and reverberated down the alleway as it threw the massive chunk of ground and wall in its hands forward.

The wall crashed through building and ground without regard to inhabitants, its targets however had just managed to escape the alleyway and get to one side of the building to avoid the massive projectile that proceeded to hit the ground and careen out of control across the street. It crushed the cars in it's way with a sickening crunch without so much as slowing down before tearing a hole in the buildings on the other side.

What came next was chaos. The destroyed buildings began to cave in on themselves, falling forward onto the panicking crowd in front of the deathtrap that the structures had become.

In light of it all, the alley behind them shook with the fury of a blinded creature as it smashed against the walls and slowly felt it's way after it's prey.
---------

Resha didn't even truly have time to rest, the moment she had escaped the alleyway with the kid she had been blown to her side by the impact of the wall-projectile it had thrown.

Falling buildings, cars crashing and swerving wildly, this was not a good day. Without a second thought she scrambled to her feet and dragged the Miracle Boy behind her as she made a flat-out sprint out of the way - Muscles protesting and adrenaline flooding her system.

Bad day. Shitty day. "No magic, just run!"

Arietta pulled herself up from the ground and gently brushed off the dirt that had soiled her coat. The she refocused on the monster before her. A large one... very different from the shadows, and very real.

She stood in amazement at the green-ish gray figure terrorizing the city. Just inside the alley were a group of people fighting off the bulging creature. One punk kid, a disheveled woman with blazing auburn hair, and a boy standing with another interesting animal-creature if sorts.

Once again, she focused her attention on the great beast. Looking up, she could do absolutely nothing. Not only was she shorter than most, but she was dwarfed in size by this... this thing. What could someone as insignifigant as herself do? Then, of all the things that could have happened that moment, the beast stepped backwards. For that second in time, the clock moved slower. Every detail of the underside of the monster's foot, every blemish in his claw... Arietta saw it all... just as it is said 'one's life flashing before their eyes.'

Then, as if by some miracle, she was recapurted into the white room. Saved once again... and aparently separated from reality...

Dazed, Keiko lay in the rubble of the building she was just thrown into. With a great deal of effort, she lifted herself up and out of the rubble only to find herself face to face with the beast itself. Frantically, she looked around for someplace to hide, someplace safe. She saw a plume of smoke rising in the distance, followed by a series of loud, earthshaking "thumps".

Determined to get away, she lunged at the monster's head, slashing wildly, hoping to at least damage its thick flesh in some way. She succeeded, catching one of the monster's eyes with the tip of her blade. Seeing her chance, she thrust the blade in as deep as she could, gouging out the beast's eyes. The monster let out a terrible scream, the kind that can be heard for miles on end.

Jumping down from the monster's face, Korosu tells Keiko that he remembers seeing a motorcycle nearby, and that they can outrun the monster on it. After about 5-10 seconds of looking, Keiko finds the bike, mounts it and decides that she should go to where she heard the 'thumps' and saw the smoke. She had a feeling that she just couldn't shake.. like there was someone waiting for her there.

Without another moment's hesitation, she drove off towards the smoke, leaving the monster in the dust, wailing in pain from it's lost eye.

-----------------------------------------

As she entered the city limits, She saw the head of what looked like a bigger version of the monster she had just faced surrounded in destruction and seemingly blinded with smoke.

"Why the hell did I come here?" She thought aloud.

Apparently, this monster had amazing hearing, for as soon as the words left her mouth, the monster turned toward her and hurled one of the rocks that it had been hoarding directly at her. Not having enough time to dodge the projectile, she did what came into her head first : block with her sword. The rock impacted the sword, and was split in two, but one of the halves ricocheted of the ground it landed on and onto her foot, rendering her helpless. At a loss as to what to do, she called out for help, hoping that there was someone nearby that could assist her before the monster threw another rock.

When he sees the pair running for their lives, Rui can’t help but think them as cowardly. But he then thought about it. Retreating now instead uselessly fighting off the beast is a good plan. He then followed the pair to try and team up with them.

He then catches a glimpse of the massive beast following the pair. “Shit, we got no time to waste. Kirin, you done resting?”

“I’m half way there, Rui. Why do you ask?” responded Kirin calmly. Shit, was the first word that came to his mind. Fine then. If the monster catches up, I’ll have to buy time until Kirin’s power reaches full and I’ll end it then and there!

Rui continues following the pair’s trail, into the unknown, hoping to reach a teamup to save his town from being destroyed.

Back in the white room, Arietta had, once again, been cut off from the real world. The red-violet star that had once settled itself in the empty white space had now turned a deep blue intertwined with streams of gold.

Arietta stood with settled nerves and continued to stare at the odd star. Then, suddenly, out of it, instead of darkness this time, came a small bird. Not like any one she had ever seen before, but definitely, at the very least, a flying creature.

As it neared her, she could see that it was a rather larger bird, probably about the size of an eagle. Its color matched that of the star, and long elegant wings graced its sides. Staring in awe, she didn't know quite what to make of its beauty. In no time at all, it reached Arietta's height and seemed to float parallel to her head.

Neither of the two made a single sound for minutes until Arietta found her witts and asked a simple question, "Who are you?"
"Do you now remember the chimes?" Although the bird didn't open or close it's long beak, Arietta knew it was he... or she... that was speaking.
"Mhmm.. i remember... that was you?"
The bird dipped its head, then continued, "At the time, your heart had not yet been softened, so i was rendered speechless... down to where i could only speak through chimes."
"My... heart?" Of course it was odd that she was having a conversation with this... thing, but she also felt strangely comfortable...
"You went through a great deal of trauma, did you not? The star you see is a reflection of the state of your heart. This place," the bird motioned to the great emptiness, " is my home. But is also the home of your heart... your true soul in which i live. Before, your heart was hardened and unwilling to accept me, but is now ready. And... now... i can speak."

Arietta gazed into the birds eyes. Keeper of her soul. "What is your name?"
"You may call me Teofila, Arietta. Now, introductions are over. We need to get you back. I'll explain the rest as we go along... just have faith in me."
Arietta's eyes sparkled with excitement as she nodded and the white world slowly began to crumble away.

As she walked back the other way, she heard another loud noise. One after the the other. They just wouldn't end. These things are destroying the city.

Her indifferent expression didn't change, but on the inside she was quite shocked. Zeke was starting to act up again. He was barking and snarling at the loud noises like he was trying to make Kanade feel safer.

"Thank you, Zeke." she said and hugged the dog as the raincoat dampened her light brown hair more. She could feel everything around her changing. The shadows were increasing within every minute. Meanwhile, some people were just walking by like there was nothing there.

What was happening? Who could see these things? she thought in her head. When she thought she was safe enough, a brave shadow charged at her, making her lose the leash and her umbrella.

Her head went smack against a wall. She was beginning to lose consciousness and the last thing she heard was Zeke barking at the shadow. Then she slipped into unconsciousness. She opened her eyes and was surrounded by darkness. She flew her dream body around looking for an exit.

Suddenly Komoriuta's voice echoed throughout the darkness. "Come here. I have something to give you." said Komoriuta. Kanade followed the voice and ended up at the room again.

"Komoriuta." she called. Komoriuta turned her head towards her. "Oh yes. Here." Komoriuta said while raising her hand causing a scythe to come towards them. "This scythe. It shall aid in your battles to come." she said with certainty in her voice. Kanade reached for the scythe and held it. "How will this help me?" she asked.

Komoriuta smiled and let out a small sigh. "If you summon it, it will come to you at your command and no one else may touch it or it will disappear in an instant." she explained. Kanade nodded in response and swung it around. It was a bit difficult.

"Guess I’ll need some kind of trainer." she said with a slight laugh. Komoriuta smiled back and looked outside the window. “Yes, you’ll need some training and I know someone who can help you. But….” She said. Kanade stared at her and asked, “But what?”

“You have to complete fuse with my soul.” she said with a serious expression. Kanade wasn’t so sure about this but she knew what she needed to do. If she was going to survive for what was to come she would need to do this. “Alright.” She answered with a serious nod. Komoriuta looked back at her. “Don’t worry even if my body is gone. My spirit which is in my soul will help you.” she reassured.

"Time to act," these words echoed through Alex's head as he stood down the street from what appeared to be a giant harassing several people. "If what the devil said was true, I will need an ally or two. Too many people threaten my existence. I hope this works..."

Alex darted down the road to where a young punk not unlike himself and a red haired women were struggling to get away from the giant. "Great, who the hell are you!?" the red haired women shouts when Alex steps between them and the giant, now rampaging towards them.
"I heard the commotion and thought i might help out. Plus i need to try something out. Haven't tried to swallow anything that big yet..."
"Swallow? What the hell are you talking about!?" the young punk shouts, but then falls silent when he notices the shadows along the walls are starting to move, as if they are alive.
Alex looks back and smiles at the two, "Just watch would you?"
with that he raises his right hand, and with it raised, multiple arms sprout out from the shadows in the ally. No, not just hands, eyes and mouths are also visible, though they are distributed about the darkness so randomly that its hard to tell if they belong to one, or a thousand faces.
"What the...," a voice trails off form behind Alex, though he was to focused to care who it was from. He lowered his arm, and as if strangling the beast from afar, shaped his hand as such. Following his lead, the shadow hands grabbed and restrained the creature, and despite its roars and bellows, it was rendered helpless.
"To The Pit with you!" Alex commands, and the shadows in the alley comply. A huge, terrible and wicked smile appears beneath the giant. It grins at its new meal, then opens wide to reveal an abyss of teeth and blood. A horrendous stench waved out of it, causing Alex's company to step back. Alex opens his hand, as if releasing his grasp, and, like expected, the shadow hands comply by dropping the giant into the hole of teeth. The mouth closes, smiles, and vanishes along with all the other unworldly mouths and eyes and hands.
"Damn..."
"Haha, that was a lot harder then he made it look..." Alex says while catching his breath. "You guys ok?"

Noemi stood in the clearing, armed with the pistol of life and death. She let loose a cry of disgust, adding to it, " Keisho! Magic man and murderous fool have---" she was cut off as Keisho came running back, his form the vivid soul of a demon.
" You yelled so loud I left this wrld's body still running after the others, " he grumbled. " What in the world?" he shouted when he had finally noticed that the beastly creature was gone. Then both's fears were evaporate, Noemi looked at Alex, " Well, congratz, you've surpassed quicker than any other, I'll see you around some other time," then she turned to the others, " Hello creatures of this world, creatures of Keisho's world....nice to meet you, well i suppose since theres nothing to distract you with, i should be going!" she took off with ease, walking as she felt the stares of the others on her back. Keisho parted the other way in search for his body.

ooc: WHAT the FFFFFFFFfffffffff?????? yeab my post was supposed to be before king's and yunie's but i think the lagballs flew out of chat or something o-o

It all started when I found that sword. That day I disappeared. Not completely, otherwise I wouldn't be telling you this story. Although for the rest of the world I dissapeared for good. I was pronounced dead in a matter of days. The woman I loved accepted my "death" really fast and continued with her life. And when I say fast I mean REALLY FAST. Three days and she was already with another guy in the bed. I guess she didn't love as much as she was saying.

Everything started a day when I was finishing my shift at work. I was leaving when I saw a girl passing by. And after her there was a strange shadow. She was listening music and wasn't aware something was following her. I went to see what . But as soon as she crossed the corner, I hurried up to catch her up. But guess what? There was nobody. The street was completely empty. "Damn I must be imagining things," I thought. As I turned to leave, I was involved in a strange light so intense it forced me to close my eyes, when I opened. I found myself in a room all white and almost empty, except for a black sword with dragons carved into its sheath. It was in one of the corners in the room. Out of curiosity (or stupidity) I grab it and I immediately were take out of the room, and apperead appeared in the exact same spot in which I was a few minutes ago. "What an illusion. Huh, I shouldn't eat that burger in that restaurant run by hippies for lunch" I thought.

I continued my way home as usual, only to find it empty. There wasn't been minutes that passed, but a whole week! Obviously I was freak out!. I triedto talk to George, the neighbor of the appartement crossing the hallway, but it was totally useless. It was as if I was not there! The panic came over me even more than before. I decided to calm down and find out what the hell was going on. I decided go to my parents place, only to find my mother crying with one of my photos. I was officially
declared dead. "Damn, I'm a fucking ghost" was what I thought at that time. "No, you're not" said a strange voice to me.

INTERMISSION----------------------------------------
ooc: omgosh gaiz, you are so good x3 aya might kill me for pausing like this, but now it seems like its getting interesting and quick and snappy and etcetcetc. and tense o-o so im putting a quick intermission to elude us from becoming LEVEL 3 INTENSE RPERS. :D
" Isn't it funny, how no one seems to know where we come from?" Noemi queried, popping a few piece of candy into her mouth. Keisho did not respond, he lashed his tail, but there was nothing else. " Weird, but i like how we do this, it's like we can teleport, i mean, we just appear there and no one believes us to be stalkers yet. huh? Well, we DID end up first in an alleyway, then into someone's 'dream', then in a shadow of a man's room while he was sleeping, and last of all behind--"
" in..."
" ----and in, a trashcan. I think it's quite strange, and they greet us like we were never there." she gave a queer look to Keisho, he opened his soft muzzle and spoke.
" Ever feel like we're just being teleported by a mysterious person who just seems to be writing out our story? What if they ARE? You know, just writing a biography or something about us."
" ..."

As Rui watches a mysterious man, actually EATING the giant monster he then thought Wow that guys is so fucking weird.

“That guy … took my prey. WHY?! I really wanted to kill it!! And now here comes some dude, EATING the darn monster! UGHHHH,” complained Rui.

“Now now Rui. We’ll get another chance to fight later. Besides, I’m only at 50% strength. What help would I do for you in defeating it. Also, we would’ve wasted this energy on something needless like trying and most likely failing at defeating it. Next time, do try and use your brain will you?” Kirin told Rui, lecturing him.

“Fine fine, you do have a point Kirin. Next time we’ll do it. Now I guess we’ll just go over there and meet those strange people hehe.

Resha stared up at where the creature that had been terrorizing her for the last thirty minutes or so had just apparently been eaten by... Something. She didn't know what, she didn't want to know what, but between this new guy and Miracle Boy next to her?

"God. Damn." A combination of a sigh and an overall summary of her thoughts as her stare drifted back to the new comer. She took the moment to steady herself, idly taking in the surroundings...

The alleyway they had been in was completely totaled, the street looked as if someone had haphazardly thrown explosives onto it, and... "Mother of fuck." Resha cursed at seeing what had happened to the buildings across the ruined street; reduced to crumbling shambles even now, falling apart at the seams with a familiar chunk of earth standing precariously on it's tip and lodged inside the buildings.

Her senses started to return to the fore-front as she took the time to calm down and look around. First was sound. There was screaming, panic and chaos - It sounded like it was coming from every direction at once, probably a result of the damage done by the creature.

Second came smell. Gas and dust was heavy in the air - Both from the cars and the buildings themselves. The rich coppery tang that filtered just barely through the combined forces of destruction and... sausage?

Scanning eyes took in the site of what looked to be a biker trapped under some debris some ways behind them - Since crossing the street was a bad idea and there wouldn't be any getting across to the other side of the alleyway due to fallen structures and uprooted cement. If she had been less overwhelmed, helping said person would be her first course of action... As it stood, that to could wait.

"Alright." Right, time to retake control of the situation now that she wasn't being chased by a shadowy abomination. She needed information before anything else happened. "Freaky Eldritch Abomination," she pointed at the new comer, "and Miracle Boy," she shifted her gaze at the punk kid next to her.

"What. The. Fuck."

This is ridiculous.
The boy panned his view around the aftermath of that creature's rampage.
The amount of strength it had to lift a wall like that... The amount of force required to completely collapse an entire block of buildings made of solid concrete... And then those shadows.
What kind of hell--

His attention shifted to the exasperated comments made by the redhead.
"Hey, look lady, I'm just as lost as you are, if not moreso!
I was just going home, and I... heard some noise over here and it turns out YOU were bein chased by that whatever the fuck it was. Don't you ask ME a god damned thing!
As for... What was it you called him - eldritch guy here, he looks like he's got a better grasp on things here!"
He stopped pointing fingers and backed up a little.
"And it's Kane, not 'Miracle Boy', ya got that? I don't even know how I did that thing with the wall back there."
He refrained from mentioning the voices in his head. He didn't want to seem like a mad man in front of his new "friends."

"Bullshit!" Resha snapped back irritably, "You did the wall thing twice, and what was with the magic smoke?!" Once she could feasibly accept right now - After what happened? Sure.

Twice? No. Fuck that. "What the hell was that thing and why was it after me?"

Hm. I definitely only did it once.
"What the hell are you talking about! Twice, my ass!
And it wasn't magic smoke, you dumbass, it was just glyc--
It was a smoke bomb, alright?"
Though I can't blame her for thinking it magic after what just happened.

Having had enough of arguing with her, he turned to the newcomer.
"So what's YOUR story, freak?"

"Freak? I'm hurt. I come by and save your asses and I get treated as a freak?" Alex closes his eyes and shakes his head as if just witnessing a rude child, just with a big grin on his face.
"Look you two," Alex look at the two behind him,"I may not have all the answers, but i do know yelling out here in the middle of the street is a bad idea. I have a safe house near by... how about i explain everything there. Who knows, we may even avoid being thought of as crazy over there."

"Anywhere is better than here." Resha muttered, "So long as I get some damn answers out of this ordeal." She turned and pointed back towards the pinned biker girl some ways off.

"I hope your path takes us that way, because the street looks like it's about to cave in, the other side of the street is probably good for being smashed by falling buildings, and the alleyway we came out of is utterly trashed."

She stopped for a moment, sniffing the air. "And I think a gas main got hit."

"Gas is bad, i didn't come out tonight wanting to get blown up. I also don't want to have to "deal" with any policemen. I'm exhausted after getting rid of your giant, so i don't think i'm up for it. Since we are all in agreement, i'll show you to my safe house. Lets go."
Alex leads his new allies down the street, but stop next to a girl buried in ruble. "Sucks to be her," Alex comments as he walks by. "I'm much too exhausted to play hero again tonight."

"Sucks to be who.."
Kane looked by his feet at a pile of rubble, a girl dressed in black underneath.
"Hey, this girl-" but the shadow-man was already walking on.

Kane stopped and looked over at her. She had a very long sword in one hand, the bottom half of her body underneath the rubble. Her chest was rising and falling slowly.
Still alive!
Looking up, the man had already walked a good distance away.
He had to help, if he could.

He placed his hand on some of the rocks - a startling sensation filled his thoughts, and he could feel the debris underneath as well.
You gonna help? he thought sarcastically.
No reply.
But at least he knew how she was trapped.

"Hey, can someone help me lift this?" He said, tugging on the slab of concrete holding together the girl's prison.

Resha glanced down at the girl, moving with a mechanical lack of thought as she bent down beside the sarcastically dubbed 'Miracle Boy' as she reached out to help lift the stone trapping the broken girl before them. She hadn't really thought about what they would do with the girl afterwards... Drag her with them and get her wrapped up in this mess to? She'd think about it later, her fingers already beginning to graze the rock in preparation to help lift-

Why?

Resha blinked and her hands stopped moving. What had she been about to do? There wasn't any point in saving a-

Broken.

The sound of Miracle Boy straining beside her brought Resha back to the present, shaking off her earlier pause she began to help lift the rock off the girl. It was moving, thankfully - It shouldn't be too hard to get off of her.

"I'll hold the rock up, you drag her out. Got it, Miracle Boy?" The red head grunted, using her larger frame and propping the rock up with a strained groan. This hadn't been her day, with thoughts swirling in her head from the encounter before and what was to come, Resha was now left with an unsettling feeling of confusion at her own actions.

She looked at Komoriuta with a emotionless expression. “Fuse? Like last time?” she asked.
“Yes, like last time except this time it will be complete.” Komoriuta explained. Kanade nodded without considering the consequences, but Komoriuta didn’t want her to get into this business without knowing what was to come.

“Do you understand the risks of doing this?” she asked. Kanade merely shook her head and shrugged. “You have to understand that with this power that I give you. People will be coming after you, but don’t worry the shadows will be sure to stay away unless there are one of the more courageous ones out there.” She told her. Kanade nodded her head. “I know. I’ve already been attacked and passed out! I don’t want to be weak and hurt so easily.” She said to Komoriuta. She wasn’t sure what she was getting into but as long as she could protect herself and home, it was enough.

She had a lot of memories in there, even if her parents weren’t home often; they made many happy memories in there. They treated her well while they were home during Christmas and Thanksgiving, but were those her real reasons or were they just excuses?

Komoriuta understood that she wouldn’t back down. “You humans say that it’s for someone els, but most of the time it’s for yourself you know?” Komoriuta asked. She looked at her and nodded. “Yes I know. I know it’s for my own selfish wants. I don’t even know why I want this but I just do.” She said with a sigh.

Komoriuta nodded and closed her eyes. “Anima Iunctura.” She chanted. A bright light surrounded them as Kanade closed her eyes. “Ad spiritum mundi” were the last words she heard.She opened her eyes but all she saw were the buildings and the city again. “What the?” she blurted out loud. The shadow that attacked her was gone and Zeke was no where to be seen.

“Where am I?” she asked and then she heard a soft voice in her mind. “Do not worry. I just took us to the spirit side of the world. Nothing can hurt you here. We are only here to help you train your skill.” She clarified. Kanade looked around. Everything was quiet and there was plenty of space. “Let’s do this.” She said.

“Close your eyes. And think of the scythe to summon it.” She said giving directions to Kanade. Kanade did as she was told and the scythe appeared in her head. “I did it!” she said happily. Then Komoriuta’s body appeared in the form of a ghost like creature. “Good job. But I’m afraid time is up. I have ran out of time in the world. I can no longer train you.” She said in a serious tone.

Kanade faced her and nodded. “I see. You did warn me, but I don’t know about my other powers.” She reminded her. Komoriuta had a shocked expression on her face and remembered. “Oh yes. I nearly forgotten.” Komoriuta said with a nervous chuckle. “Since you fused with my soul, you now have my powers and have inherited some of my traits such as my eyes.” She informed her.

“You will eventually develop clear angel-like wings that are clear and have a crystal like structure. They are known as my spirit wings. They allow you to fly, yet they pass through things like ghosts. Don’t worry though, normal humans cannot see them.” Komoriuta said and continued, “Your right has an aura flame that allows to see the weak points of your enemy and boosts your attack somewhat , but remember it doesn’t work on humans or animals. It does have its limits. And last but not least your move called Sonic Blade. It comes out your wrists, but it’s another spirit type weapon. As you mature and gain new experiences, the blade will evolve and have new versions.”

Kanade was taking mental notes in her head to remember all this, while Komoriuta talked. “Now as you can see, I’m what you might call a spirit type. Most of the things I do are with spirits and souls.” She explained. Suddenly the buildings around her were starting to crumble and fall. “Not good. I’m running out of power and can’t keep us here any longer.” She yelled and disappeared while Kanade fell into the darkness below. After a while, she opened her eyes to see Zeke on the ground whimpering as the shadow loomed over her. Suddenly a big blue flame engulfed the shadow. “Oh my goodness!” she yelled getting up. She looked down on the ground and gasped. Zeke was no longer a dog. He was a dragon. “What the heck?!” she said in a whisper like voice. She was almost speechless. “Don’t panic. It was the work of me. I used the last of my power to switch his body and fuse his soul with a dragon’s.” she said with small breaths in between, “Goodbye Kanade. Good luck….”

Then poof. She was gone. Kanade looked up at the sky as the rain was still falling. Now she was on her own with all these new powers that she hasn’t mastered and not quite sure to use. “What will become of me?” she said quietly to herself as Zeke who was no a dragon got up.

With scythe in hand, she began walking with no destination with Zeke right behind.

Standing up to appease a crowd Keisho grumbled loudly, " Everyone please calm down, the humans are harmless. They are only brought here by those who want them."
" then we should get rid of the ones who want them! They are polluting are world," a rioteer called angrily.
" they stink up our homes with their putrid odors!"
" and they treat us like dirt, as if we are just dogs, in our own land!"
" So we prove to them that we are more than just dirty dogs." Keisho replied to the jeers.
" Why are we following YOU, if you yourself live with a human?" someone challenged from amidst the crowd.
" She hates humans as well, but she hates how humans are seeing our world as a cover up, a proxy when they are in need. she says that humans are too dependable and cant rely on themselves."
" But she is a human as well! She is too dependable! You cant rely on her!" they retorted.
" cant i hate my kind as well, since you hate your people who bring humans into the world." The voice came from behind Keisho, Noemi stepped out. The crowd spring back in fear, a human had just witnessed their council. " Idiots! ive seen your meetings thousands of times before, dont act as if i havent!" The creatures were still scared, only a few had taken their places back.

"I told you, redhead," he said with a grunt, pulling the girl free from the rubble. "I have a name."

"So what are we supposed to do with her now?" He asked, as if he wasn't the one suggesting they do anything in the first place. Tough guy persona or not, he didn't want to just let someone die like that - especially because the concrete wall was his doing in the first place.

It wasn't the only thing on his mind though.
The voice residing in his head was still his primary concern. What was it, anyway? Was it linked to what was happening? Why did he have super strength for an instant back in the alleyway?

That was me.
Kane twitched, startled, almost dropping the girl. The voice was back again.

You, huh. And who might that be?

I am me. Where is here, small one?

Small..! Can you just answer my question?

Strange place. Dark ground.

Hm. Should my question instead be, what are you?

Earth.

The monosyllabic responses were beginning to frustrate the impatient small one.

What am I supposed to call you, then?

Kuldr.

He obviously wasn't going to get a whole lot out of his mental roommate. Back to reality.

Lifting the unconscious girl onto his shoulders, he answered his own previous question.
"I guess I'll carry her until she regains consciousness.
Let's catch up with Sir Darkness over there, my feet are killing me..."

Resha grunted in response, stepping away from the rock and letting it fall with a crash as she lengthened her stride and matched pace with Miracle Boy and the Eldritch Abomination.

Maybe today would make more sense after he explained whatever it was he was going to explain.

“Uhm, I can explain everything,” Rui said, making his appearance to the three. "I’ll let Kirin do the talking if you will. Kirin, go ahead.”

Kirin appears, seemingly out of nowhere, poofing out. “Hey guys, I’m Kirin, from the ‘creature world’ as you humans might call it. I don’t think you all would want the long version, so I’ll give a long story short one. Long story short, the barrier separating the creature world and the human world is slowly breaking. Right now isn’t the worst of it. Anyways, ‘shadows’ as you may call them are slowly coming out. One by one if they are the giants that you all fought just moments before, and in a mass force if they are small. That’s basically what’s going on, and actually everything that I know of at the moment. Now if you don't believe me I understand, some may think it's all fake or whatever. But do believe, this is real. And the two worlds will die if we don't stop this."

" Our reason of teaming up is not solely just to be a abominations as the others, but rather to be as spies. I help rid her world of our creatures, she helps rid our world of her creatures. We want our homes back, and back in tact at that, so don't think less of her." The crowd was still disgruntled, unsure and evasive of all thoughts. Keisho narrowed his eyes. Then he truned to his human companion, " Please, descend from us, I shall meet you at your home as usual." Noemi nodded, acknowledging the demon's request, then disappeared as quickly as she had entered.
Now she remained alone, walking on the sidewalk once again, the drizzle had gone dim and rare to the sky. Placing in her earphones into her ears, but not playing her usual music, she skipped as if she was though. Pausing by the calamity that had presently happened before. Time was slow in this world, time in Keisho's...she hated the urge of wanting to go back to Keisho's world where every being hated humans like her, or at least most.
" The weak are those who submit." she told herself. Then she shoved the feeling away. She stared inquiringly by the side of a broken building, spying on the humans that had assembled together in meeting mythical beings. " Such follies that God has created, oblivious, yet they can see such things..."

"Hey, Kirin was it?" Alex says while pointing at the golden beast in front of him, "I don't know if you understand how this world works, but do you smell that? Thats gas. It explodes. If we don't get out of here, this place is going to light up like, well, you." Alex takes a second to giggle at his own joke, then looks back at Kirin. "Damn your bright. i feel like i'm going to get irradiated or something..." Alex squints at the beast, looking irritated. "You got an off switch for your dog kid? Cause if not..." a twisted smile appears on Alex's face as those shadowy hands, eyes and mouths appear around him, in front of him, and making there way to Kirin. "Night night pooch!" Alex shouts, but stops as his face twists in pain. The shadows retreat while he clutches at his chest, "Damn... must be too soon..." A sickening series of coughs and gasps escape his mouth as he looks to his feet, "Guess i'll have to be diplomatic..."

When she had been released back into her own world, she was still in the same spot... but something was different. She looked up and down the alley, scanned the streets, then realized that the huge monster that had nearly crushed her was gone. Nowhere in sight. Just like it had... well... disappeared.

Puzzled, she sought out her new friend, Teofila. "Um..." she said aloud,"What... what eactly happened?"

As the voice of reason, Teofila responded, "That's irrelevant. At the moment, we need to find some people. Anyone will do... i just don't feel comfortable having you wonder around by yourself when everything is... like this."

Arietta stared at the damaged and fallen buildings scattered around as no more than piles of debris. Cars were crushed under huge pieces of concrete, and blood-wrenching voices cried for help in every direction. "Where do i go...?" Overwhelmed, she had no idea what to do...

"Try starting down the street to the left, my intuition tells me that you can find help there... or at least more protection than i can offer you at the moment."Once again, Teofila spoke in a calm voice, relaxing Arietta to the point where she could think again.

Arietta took off down the street, her load loosened since she lost her backpack after almost being smushed. Once she got going, she could go pretty fast. Within no time at all, she spotted the same group of people she had seen in the alley. Seeing that they were arguing too away a bit of her motivation, but she kept running out of pure excitement.

As she neared the small mass, the irritation, and was that confusion?, in the air could have been cut with a knife... Yet, focusing on this rather than where she was going, Arietta tripped over a random block of concrete and went flying. "Be careful!!" Teofila's warning came too late, and before she knew it, Arietta had landed face down, AGAIN on the cracked and dirtied cement... smack in the middle of their little circle.

Noemi, finally returning to her reality, that she was a human and humans belonged in the human world, had overheard the murderer man. Her face brightened up, then, involuntarily stepping out from her place into the light of the alley, crowed impulsively, " FALSE! You're not Alex! Alex is a murderer, and real men don't giggle at their own jokes! Which either means Alex is an abominable naynay, or a gay masochist and overdid the guy I saw in the alley, earlier!" She pointed at the man, her eyes sparkled with the clear but lost confidence.

Kirin growls at the strange shadow man, as his pride has been hurt by the man’s insults. “Boy, don’t mess with me. I will end you in an instant if I wanted to,” Kirin viciously told Alex.

“Kirin calm down. He’s not our enemy. Not yet anyways. Don’t let him get to you like that. Kirin be more calmer, like you always tell me hehe,” Rui told to Kirin. Kirin rolled his eyes. “Anyhoo, you guys wanna team up? We can’t stop whatever’s doing this on our own,” Rui said, extending his arm for a handshake.

Two worlds...what does he mean? Monsters?
Further explanation was cut off by shadow-freak.
While the two bickered, Kane started thinking again, knowing Kuldr would hear his thoughts.
Creature world, he says? Could that be what he meant...

The scent of gasoline filled his senses again.
"Hey, if you two are done having your lover's quarrel, can we--"
His statement was interrupted by an accusatory girl, pointing at the shadow man and making a generally obnoxious scene.
Before Kane could express his annoyance, in front of the group landed a second young girl, faceplanting into the pavement.

Frustration welling up, the girl on his shoulders getting heavy, and the possible gas explosion began to chafe at Kane's patience.
"Look, I'm glad we all got new friends now, but I'd like to remind everyone that we're not exactly in a bomb shelter here!"

No sooner had Kane spoken that the explosions started - A ground shaking concussive force that destroyed the ruined buildings on the otherside and triggered what would swiftly become a chain of explosions that fed into each other near indefinitely.

If they were going to escape the fate of being charcoaled, it was time to move.

" Or are you? Rather it is to be in a bomb shell than to--" she paused, confusing herself with her own words. Keisho appeared from a portal which opened in a cloud, descending with speed upon the group. Then as if he had sprouted wings, he landed lightly upon his paws.
" What is this horrid stench?"
" oh, why that's gas." Noemi replied nonchalantly. Keisho spiked his fur in dismay.
" You truly have no conscience do you?"

"Shit," exclaimed Rui. "Well lets merge again Kirin." Kirin agreed and they transformed.

"Catch you all later I hope." With that statement, Rui used his speed to run away from the place, back to his house. "I hope we really do meet those people again. They're interesting. Anyways, I remembered I had homework to do!! FML."

Rui transformed back and proceeded to walk into his house and do his homework.

" We should be going then, these foolish humans are more than just simpleton's talk back home," Keisho ordered. Noemi nodded, leaving this time without a good-bye.
" And the world continues, seeming to lack the understanding of my mind."
" Everyone lacks the understanding of your mind."
" I find that offensive, trashcat." Noemi strode ahead, leaving without haste, now with the music in her ears and the candy from her pockets in her mouth once again. Keisho lingered behind her without worries of this world, but only of his own.

"Time for sprinting!" Alex starts off as fast as he can away from the explosion, and without thinking, the others followed him. Even the girl that was flat on her face was now running with them like it was some kind of twisted marathon. The broken shapes of what remained of the buildings and the alleyway they make up could not stand the force of the gas explosion and collapsed behind our runners. They continued to run, following Alex to a part of the city he was familiar with. Even though they where all safe from the explosion, they're still filled with adrenaline. Alex comes to a stop and leans against a wall while trying to catch his breath. "Whew, that was crazy," he breathes heavily, "Oh... looks like we have an extra person with us..." he says looking over at the girl who's face was still red from when she fell on it earlier.

"Night night, pooch!" shouted an obnoxiously loud and overconfident man, rousing the sleeping Keiko.

Where am I?

She had woken up with her head in some random person's hat.

Why am I on this person's back with my head in his hat? Am I being taken prisoner?

She decided to risk taking a peek from her perch, and saw a man with shadows dancing around him, an ordinary looking man, a woman with red hair and a... golden, flaming, thing.

What kind of a circus is this?

Suddenly, an overly excited girl came running up, not paying any attention to what was happening, and tripped over a piece of rubble, landing face-first into the middle of the crowd.

This has got to be the most fu--

Her thought was cut off by yet another arrival, who said something seemingly insulting to the shadowman, whose eyes had narrowed into slits.

This has got to be a dream. I'm going back to sleep

As she tried to go back to sleep, she noticed that Hatman was trying to warn the others about some kind of danger, but kept getting interrupted by Shadowman and the normal person.

{BOOM}

An explosion shook the ground, the crazy girl said something incoherent, the golden firey thing disappeared into the normal boy, making him look.. different, and a cat came out of freaking nowhere and took the crazy girl away.

This isn't a dream, this is real. What happened to this place?
These people.. They're not bad.. They... saved me?

"Time for sprinting!" shouted the Shadowman as he started to run away, causing everyone, even the klutzy girl, to get up and follow suit.

Hatman, obviously exhausted from having to carry Keiko's limp body all this while, was falling behind the pack quickly.

"Hey, Hatman!" Keiko exclaimed. "You can let me down now."

Obviously startled to hear her voice, Hatman whipped around to look at the now awakened Keiko and glanced at her legs, which had previously been covered in blood and were probably broken, to find that they were partially healed up, with only a few cuts to show.

Keiko jumped down from Hatman's back, and looked at her savior.

"Thanks for carrying me all that way, I'm sure that I must've been a great burden on you," said Keiko gratefully. "Here, you must be tired, let me return the favor."

Keiko picked up the obviously fatigued man, and ran to catch up with the others.

"The fuck--"
The roles had reversed quicker than he could think about it.
"Down, toots."
He was tired, but not about to let fatigue stand in the way of his pride.
With a jerk, he freed himself from her hold.
"Just worry about yerself, don't touch me." he said flustered, landing on the ground feet-first.
His boots left cracks where he fell.
I didn't land that hard..

---------------------------------
As they finally arrived at their destination, he examined his boots.
They were scuffed pretty bad, torn at places other than the bottom.
His legs were starting to feel heavy from running.

As he started to remove them, he took notice of the group of people, surveying them closely for the first time.
The redhead, Resha, the one who was first being chased, was very tall. She seemed to be completely out of breath, and was barefoot for some reason. The event probably took her by surprise while she was indoors.
The other woman, the one who was under the rubble was opposite in composure. She appeared hardened and unphased by the action that had taken place, if not somewhat taken aback. She was dressed in all black and carried two huge, sheathed swords on her back. She may have been some sort of assassin, or a ninja. It was hard to tell, and Kane was willing to believe anything at this point.
Then there was the shadow man. He couldn't quite read his motives. He seemed very laid back after the events that just took place as well as his own otherworldly actions. Kane had a strange feeling about him, but he wasn't sure if it was a dark intention or just plain arrogance.
Then there was the new girl. Other than the red mark on her face from falling, she already looked pretty frail and beat up. The expression on her face was one of insecurity, like a sheep that had just walked into a den of sleeping wolves.

Well, he figured, he said he would explain the situation, so I might as well catch my breath and hear him out.

Without looking, he tossed his boots to the side and planted his now stone feet on the ground.

Resha was supposed to be half asleep on her couch with music playing and a strawberry milkshake next to her. She was supposed to be complaining about having nothing to do, wishing a friend would call, and then finally settling down to play a video game for the night because they still hadn't gotten around to fixing her internet - Which she would then spare a moment to sigh over, as by that time she would have been too distracted to really be upset about it.

As she looked around at the errant crowd that had gathered once they had finally made it to wherever the Eldritch Abomination considered safe, she once again found no other reaction to take than a large mental sigh.

She was tired, her feet hurt and she was pretty certain they were bleeding due to running through that insanity without shoes on. She was soaked in rain, out of breath, her muscles protested at her even standing and she was...!

Actually, she was calm. She should have been panicking or excited or something, but she felt more like her brain had just shifted from back from Drive to Neutral and was perfectly content staying there.

Another sigh, at least they were in doors now. She turned to the Eldritch Abomination from earlier and unconsciously sharpened her eyes as she started trying to coerce herself into "planning" mode.

"Alright, we're here - Now what's going on?"

She sighed and wasn't sure where to go. Komoriuta was gone now. "She's not as nice as I thought her to be. She just threw out here in the middle of a giant world merging process here!" she muttered.

She didn't quite understand the process of Zeke turning into this dragon like creature and these powers. 'What the heck happened?' she screamed in her mind. She must have been crazy when she accepted the offer or out of it. Either way, there was no way out of this mess now.

Suddenly she heard a string of explosions, one after another. She turned her head back and the other side of the city was collapsing. "Woah..." she said amazed. She never thought this could happen to the city.

Zeke let out a low growl. "What is it boy?" she asked and looked at her hand. The leash was still around his neck. She mentally facepalmed and took it off. "Sorry about that." she said with a nervous laugh, but he wasn't growling at her or the leash.

Suddenly a few people turn a corner from an alleyway, sprinting like crazy. 'What in the world is happening over there?' she thought while tilting her head.

She shook her head and started to walk the way they were running. She didn't want to get involved with anymore troublesome things after being tricked by Komoriuta into fusing their souls together. It was a stupid move.

She shouldn't have accepted it but regardless of what she regrets now, it won't change anything. Suddenly the fame in her eye started to flicker. She covered her eye with one of her hands. "You've got to be kidding me. Of all the times..." she said, "I can't control my powers yet....and now they're going all loco on me!"

She continued to walk, but she released her scythe. "How troublesome." she said with an indifferent tone now. Her indifference towards things was starting to come back.

After leading his new allies into his safe house, Alex took a seat on an old recliner that probably didn't recline anymore. His so called "safe house" looked more like a den for hobos. The only light came from a couple scattered candles and an old, black and white television that someone left on. Nosferatu was playing on it, and it seemed strangely appropriate considering all thats happened. There was a hallway behind where Alex as sitting with several rooms down it, probably bunks for anyone staying the night. A kitchen was to Alex's left with an old fridge humming just enough not to be distracting. It was a pretty sanitary looking kitchen considering the rest of the building.

"Welcome to one of my many safe houses. This one is called Alexandria, just like all the others," again, he laughs quietly to himself at his own joke, "I decided to give them all names since I came to power, but thats neither here nor there. Let me introduce you all to a friend of mine..."

From down the hall walks a tall, well dressed man with no hair and what seemed to be shadows around his mouth and eyes. "Hello, I am Mephistopheles."

"Just like the sparkling furry has his dog lamp, I have Mephistopheles here. I'm not going to say he is the most trust worthy individual out there, but from what i understand, he has no choice but to do whatever he can to benefit me, and thats because we will soon be one and the same."

A deep otherworldly laugh escapes the devil's mouth, "You sound like you still don't trust me Alex, even after all that knowledge I shared with you."

"I only trust you because you are bound to me. I wouldn't leave you alone with anyone else, thats for sure. I know all about the famous devil who grants humans their greatest desires, just to laugh at them as you drag them and everyone they love to hell."

"Ah, a seem to forget how knowledgeable you are Alex. Though can you blame me? You don't carry yourself as such a man."

"Yeah yeah, enough with the two-sided compliments, lets clear somethings up for my confused friends here."

"Ah, I assume you mean the business of merging? Very well," Mephistopheles looks over at Alex's guests to continue, "You see, whats happening is not just a scattered event. It should be considered one event. The monsters, the strange happenings in the sky, and the humans gaining counter parts. They are all just side effects from our worlds coming into contact with each other. If you have notice one of these side effects, then you should expect the others to follow. That is a guarantee."

Alex interrupts with a raised voice, "But this is in no way a bad thing! All this means is that we where chosen to survive the coming catastrophe. Consider it like natural selection. There is some bumps ahead though, thats why I have gathered you all here. We will all need alleys if we want to survive."

Resha quirked her eye, partly in amusement and part in disbelief.

"It took you twenty minutes of posturing and theatrics to tell us that some worlds are colliding and all the crap we've been through is because of that?" She paused to let that sink in before continuing, "What the hell do you mean by 'worlds' anyway? What worlds are 'colliding' and what exactly does any of this have to do with giant shadow things blowing shit up today?"

"I give you the gift of knowledge and you greedily ask for more?" Mephistopheles begins, but pauses to let loose another deep, dark laugh, "Sometimes I swear you humans will destroy yourselves before i get the chance to work my magic."A dark grin appears over his face as he steps towards Resha, "But you are brave to demand things from me knowing what i can do, so you shall be rewarded girl. To answer your first question, when i say worlds, i my home and your home. They exist in separate dimensions, you see. Now for your second request. Normally they would stay separate, and only a few can travel back and forth, but for some reason, be it a natural occurrence or not, my entire dimension is melding with only a small portion of yours. This city and its countryside are all of your dimension that seems to be effected." While the devil is speaking to Resha, Alex gets up and moves down the hall without a word, "The monsters from earlier, Kirin, and myself are all inhabitants of the same dimension, but unlike Kirin and myself, the giant seemed lost and confused. That seems to be the fate for those not blessed with survival. It seems there will be a great number of casualties on both sides. All those without a counterpart are most likely to die in the oncoming chaos. You see, they are scared, and what do scared things do? They panic. That is most likely why that beast was rampaging through the streets. You really should consider yourself luck though young lady," the smile on his face grew til it seemed to reach up past where his ears should be, "since you witnessed the creatures, you are one of the few blessed with survival. Your counterpart should make itself known to you soon."

Alex returns from down the hall with a bath robe and a pair of slippers. "Here," he hands the clothes to Resha, "You'll get sick if you stay in those soaked PJs. You can pick something out of the closet that suits you taste more later."

Resha rocked back on her heels as she thought on what had just been explained. "So that thing from before, and the dog thing..." She narrowed her eyes, something didn't add up.

"Confusion, huh?" her red hair was weighted down and darkened from the rain, glanced at Alex in a manner that would have left him with stab wounds if it were possible. Now that she wasn't being chased by a giant street destroying monster or running from explosions, Resha was slowly started to get her balance again - And swiftly discovering she didn't like the situation she was in.

At least she had information now. That was nice.

"So your saying," she absently took the clothes and placed them on a piece of furniture near by, "That because I didn't die some horrible death, I'm apparently going to be part of your little freakshow?"

"Not quite," Alex began to speak while taking off his coat and hanging it on a hat rack in the corner, "you see, the fact that you are part of the freakshow is why you didn't die a horrible death." Alex returns to what seems to be his favorite chair, sitting in it while he continued, "If you didn't go outside, if you didn't notice the giant, you would of likely died in your sleep. You did live around that area right? The place that went "boom"?"

"If I am no longer needed Alex, I think it would be wise for me to return to surveillance duties," the devil looked as Alex, even though he said he was an equal to the young man, his advice sounded more like an order, "Considering you have yet to practice surveillance yourself, it would be most wise that I continue until you have mastered the technique."

"Alright, sounds good. Be sure to report to me if anything urgent happens," Alex wave the demon away while he speaks, then turns his attention back to Resha as Mephistopheles melts into darkness, "Where were we? Oh right," Alex sits forward to address the women further, "Your choices in this matter are limited. You can either be a part of my freakshow or go solo, but your life will never be the same either way. Let me ask you now though before you make your decision, do you think you have what it takes to survive whats to come alone, or is staying close to people who can help you your best bet?"

She didn't like it, but what he said made sense. If she hadn't ran like she had, then she would most likely be dead by now. If another one of those shadow things showed up, she certainly couldn't throw Miracles out of her sleeves like the rest of these people apparently could. In the end, whether she liked it or not it seemed she nee-

Why?

"I don't need or want your help." Her response came automatically, a part of her only detachedly realizing what she was saying - And disagreeing with it. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't have any business with you or the rest of this insanity." She bowed minutely to show her sincerity before turning and walking away - Presumably to leave the safehouse.
-------------

"This is madness" she muttered, walking through the rain with the sirens of amublances, firetrucks and police still audible from the disaster not terribly far away. She stopped there in the rain and stared up into the light gray clouds, droplets falling down and drowning out the background noises.

She felt empty. Overwhelmed and empty. Closing her eyes and standing alone in the rain for seconds that stretched on to what could have feasibly been an eternity to her.

"Auuugh..." halfway between an exhale and a moan, she tried to figure out what to do next. Her apartment was out of the question, she didn't have any money for a hotel... "This day..." she groaned, a peal of laughter burbling up inside of her as the events finally started setting in.

"Ah... Ha. Haha. Hahahaha..." She couldn't help it, it was absurd, it was outlandish, it defied human logic and she couldn't bring herself to just disbelieve it - Not anymore.

Why
"Why."

The silence was her only answer. That only served to aggrivate her.

"Why!?" No answer. She didn't expect one. She didn't need one.

Her eyes sharpened and she resumed walking, no destination or goal in mind. She felt better moving. It felt correct to move. More so than to stand still. As long as she was moving, that feeling of neutrality wouldn't assert itself.

"Feh."

Her rain soaked form vanished into the city as night began to fall. She needed time to sort her self out before she did anything else.

Keiko sat in a dark corner in the "Safe House", listening in on the discussion taking place before her and sharpening her sword, which had lost its edge when she tried to block the rock from hitting her.

Ugh, tell me something new, please.
Give it time.. they know more than they seem to
I'll never get used to you talking to me like this, Korosu.. Anyways, where have you been?
I have been watching everything passively.
Yeah, they are pretty interesting.. especially Shadowman over there

"I don't need or want your help." said the Redhead as she turned away and left the safehouse.

"Not right now you dont, but you will soon enough" replied Keiko too late;she was already gone.

She's going to get killed if more of those monsters come..
I'm surprised you care.
I enjoy killing, yes, but only if the person rightfully deserves it. She... She's innocent.
Aren't you such a nice person?

Ignoring Korosu's sarcastic comment, Keiko started looking around the room. Her eye's rested on the mirror and, noticing her appearance, she let out a loud gasp.

She had no where to go, but home. But then again, no one was ever there in the first place. The rain probably stopped the maids and butlers from coming before. She wondered what happened to them.

Now there were these loud noises like "Kaboom!" happening on the other side of time. She was glad, for once; she lived in the suburban area of the town.

The park was nearby, should she stop there? It didn't matter whether she did or not, so she stopped at the park and sat on the top of the slide. Normally people would sit on the swings in these kinds of "thinking" situations wouldn't they? She didn't dislike the swings.

They were fun and all, but if she sat on it she would feel so cliche even though stopping at a park was cliche already. She slid down the side and let out a cough when her feet hit the sand.

She was completely soaked now. Her converse were covered in water, complete with sand and dirt now them. Her clothes were soaking wet from the rain and sliding down the slide too.

Suddenly she got the urge to sneeze. She opened her mouth to let it out, but it just wouldn't come out.

' I hate when this happens!' she thought. Her nose felt ticklish, but was too tired to do anything about it. Actually, she felt too tired and lazy to do anything about her situations.

What if she was to let everything play out by itself without doing anything. What would happen to her? Will she live or die? All of that came to chance she supposed.

Fate was not something she believed in. If everything played out by itself without having to do anything, that would be a boring life. Everything depended on the person, what they did and how they acted would affect their so-called fate.

She laid down and stared at the gloomy sky. She closed her eyes and felt the rain droplets hit her body. She felt clam and clean again...and cleansed?

For now, she'll stop making her own fate and let the chances play out by themselves. Until she felt the need to get up again that is.

Keiko gasped as she saw her reflection in the mirror. Her light brown eyes had changed color. They had grown darker, with a noticible red tint peeking out from behind her pupil.

What? You thought that merging with me would leave you physically the same?
Yes, actually, I did. You neglected to tell me about that part. What else did you change??
I did not change a thing, but it seems that your eyes are the only thing different about you. For now..

"Oh, she left in a hurry," Alex said while standing up, then turned to address his other guests, "Oh well. I'll keep an eye on her, so don't worry too much. She'll be back, and in one piece too."

Alex walks into the kitchen, opens the fridge, and retrieves a red apple out of the box, "Well unless anyone has something else they'd like to ask me, i think i'm going to call it a night. Feel free to use any room you'd like as long as the door is open. Each comes standard with a bed, lamp, and a bathrobe. You can hang your close to dry in the bathroom as well," Alex points to the end of the hall, "The room in the back is mine, but don't feel shy about paying me a late night visit, whether its to ask me anything else that crosses your mind or if you just get an urge to thank me for my generosity," the perverted smile that appeared across his face left a clear impression of what he meant, but cleared up when he remembered something important, "Oh, and lock your doors. The boys that come through here aren't exactly the star citizens."

Standing in front of the hall, he smiles, "Alright, i'm off for real now. Feel free to help yourself to the fridge too. And i promise you, the meat isn't dog meat, the juice is fruit juice and not beetle juice, the apples," he pauses to take a bite, chews and swallows, "Mmm, are definitely not poisonous, none of the cans have worms in them, and that stuff that looks like soylent green is not made of people." After a quick chuckle at his own joke, Alex turns and make his way for his room.

After listening to the entire explanation, Kane squinted.

This guy's a jerk. He thought silently, having no real reason to think such a thing of the man.
I dislike his attitude.
Dangerous.
Ohoh, he speaks! Were you listening?
Yes.
So my guess is you're the one I'm magically "linked" to, is that it?
Yes.
Why aren't you manifesting as some grand apparition of nightmares on our inferior plane then, Kuldr?
Don't know.
His wit was lost on this guy.
Then what DO you know?
...
Why did you decide to invade my mind, creature?
I did not. You invade mine.
Confusion. This world was definitely the one being invaded.
This occurrence, then - it's a mutual event?
Yes.
I see.
...Changes are happening to Kuldr, too.
You don't say.

At least he wasn't paired up with a jackass arrogant shadow creature. They both seemed to be like that though, so maybe likeminded people paired up?
...No. Kane wasn't as simple as this creature.
You mock me.
I can't help it if you read my thoughts!

His thoughts returned to the present.
“…don’t have any business with you or the rest of this insanity.” Resha announced, parting with a flourish.
“Not right now you don’t, but you will soon enough.” The ninjagirl retorted, a moment too late.

Shadow guy – Alex, was it? – presented his outward hospitality towards the group and walked off into a hallway.
Three of them left in the room – the ninja and the sheep girl.

“Well then, you two,” Kane began loudly, as if to assert his presence. “Got not much else to do for now, right. What’re your stories?” He hopped on a crate for a seat, ignoring the crunching sound and dust cloud it made as he landed.
Am I gaining weight or something?

She had been silent ever since she had appeared to the group, and still didn't feel much like talking... After they had run like maniacs from the explosion in the main center of the city, everyone had followed a man named... Alex?... to his, er, hideout, she guessed it would be called.

Arietta, once inside, took a seat in the corner of the room and rested her legs. The whole situation was explained to them and the red-headed woman, Resha, seemed to have gotten frustrated and stormed out, refusing to stay at the safehouse. Alex, as far as Arietta could see, was, although hospitable, a little egotistical and self-centered. After giving his spiel on where to sleep and what to eat, he left for bed.

Silence fell over Arietta and the other two in the room until the remaining boy spoke, asking about 'their stories,' meaning her and the other girl. Though surprised, she looked up as the boy placed himself on a crate in the opposite corner. With his words, everything that had happened to her that day sunk in. Kicked out of her home, she ran away, and was later saved and comforted by Teofila, who hadn't said a word to her since the explosion.

The thought of her mother's hatred towards her filled her soul with pain. A cold tear slipped down her cheek, but was quickly wiped away with the back of her hand. Slowly, she turned her face towards the boy and smiled cautiously, mostly seeking approval and acceptance... so that she wouldn't be thrown out of this 'home' too.

That was her story; that summed it up. And that was all she said, "I was kicked out of my home. And then Teofila saved me... which led me here." It was a vague answer and she knew it... but she just wasn't feeling comfortable enough to say any more at that moment.

She gave the boy another small sheepish smile, then diverted her attention to the dirtied carpet beneath her polka-dotted rainboots instead of the conversation at hand.

"Alex?"

"Damn, it really bothers me that I'm getting used to you talking to me inside of my head, what do you want" Alex thought as he was laying in bed. A candle was lit on the nightstand and the shadows playing across the walls were the only source of movement in the room.

"Its time for some more practice. I am to be merged with you, that is fate, but i will not be made weaker by this. I would sooner feed both of us to The Pit."

"Really? Damn, you mean business don't you?" Alex thought while still appearing asleep. In his mind he could see Mephistopheles standing in front of him, addressing him as usual. "Didn't you say it was like hell in there?"

Mephistopheles laughs a laugh that echoed though Alex's mind, "What better place for a devil to call home? It is only as bad as you make it down there, but since all humans carry guilt in there hearts, you would feel as if you where being devoured over and over again by some terrible beast for eternity, never knowing the sweet release of death as a watch and laugh at your self-imposed misery. That is the alternative way to making you a stronger man."

"I'd rather avoid that, thank you very much"

"Then let me teach you your next ability. It involves looking through the shadowy eyes to see all that they see"

"Really? Is that how you keep tabs on everything and everyone?"

"It is. Now..." the devil in Alex's mind reaches out and touches his forehead, sending a pulse though his body, "Do you understand now?"

"Yeah, i think i got it. I'm going to try it out."

"Only check around the safe house for now boy, I don't want you straining our eyes."

"Alright, alright," In all the corners of the building, all throughout the safe house, the shadow eyes open to take in all they can see. "Wow, i'm surprised i can make sense of all this at once. I figured it would give me a headache."

"Its because we are becoming closer to becoming one. I have been resisting so to teach you all you need to know, but even i cant fight fate forever"

"You've been resisting? Wow, lucky me to have such a formidable counterpart"

"Yes, lucky you. You seem more willful than the average human, so I should count myself lucky as well. But enough flattery, there is one more thing you must know"

"Oh yeah, whats that?"

"Its about the shadows in peoples hearts. Remember how I said every human has guilt in their heart? That guilt stems from the shadows in their hearts. This is how I would devise the best ways to tempt them and ultimately destroy them before I made any contract with them"

"Haha, this devil doesn't roll the dice it would seem. You only play on sure things?"

"Yes, and I suggest you do the same. I wont have you gambling away our existences. Now, try and look into the hearts of your new comrades."

"Alright," with no problem, Alex opened the eyes in the hearts of his new allies, "Wow, you where right, everyone does have their problems. That Klutzy girls seems to be having a lot of problems at home. The perfect void to fill with our own brand of acceptance. That biker girl seems to enjoy killing. A lot. And the punk kid sure is arrogant and prideful. Whats that they say? Pride comes before the fall?"

"Yes, very good. You can now use any of these shadows to your advantage if you feel the need to. You can also use the shadow mouths to speak to them if you wish to further corrupt them or sway their opinion"

"Hmm, then i think i'm going to give that red head a peek." Again, without much effort, he opens the shadow eye inside of Resha's heart. "It seems she has trouble trusting people. I dont think i needed the eyes to tell me that. Nothing else too major. Maybe i can convince her to come back." Alex begins whispering to Resha. He whispers words of doubt, telling her she stands no chance of surviving by herself and should return to the safe house as soon as possible where she can be protected by the others. "I hope this works, its a bad neighborhood..."

'You don't stand a chance out here, you know that. Look around you, do you even know where you are? You just left safety and got into this god awful situation by yourself. What if you get attacked by those creatures again? Can you defend yourself? Even from normal human beings? This plac-'

Why
-------

Unexpectedly, Alex actually got a response to his queries.

It was softly spoken, like the owner of the voice had never used it before. The response was sparse, neutral and precise.
-----

Resha stared at the shadows cast by the street lamps as she walked, maybe leaving had been a bad idea. She really didn't know where this place was, and she couldn't remember why she had decided to leave in the first place.

Why was she having second thoughts now? Damn it... If she went back now she'd be a coward, but it was the safest thing to do...
---------

Enemy

The voice wasn't expelled so much as Alex himself was quite suddenly assaulted with the feeling of someone taking a knife and thrusting it directly into his eye.

the sensastion... intricately his eye bending in from the blade, it's watery surface being puncture by the blade, the incison slicing open forcefully with every moment.

Nerve endings set aflame, like each individual receptor was being peeled apart layer by layer at an agonizingly dull pace that insured there would be no refuge in a sudden burst of pain that blanked the victim's mind and then...

Again. With no time inbetween, it was as if the process had started over again from the beginning.
---------

Resha sighed, the rain matting down her head. "Guess I should head back. Appearances won't mean much if I get attacked by some thugs out here."

She sighed, the doubts had left her a few moments ago in a flash, but in hindsight she couldn't think of a logical reason for why she had refused the offer - She started retracing her path, this time there was nothing that occured to change her mind.

"THAT FUCKING BITCH!!!!" Alex roars out of extreme pain and discomfort. No doubt the people in the other rooms, hell, maybe even the other buildings heard him. He jumps out of bed and rushes to a mirror to check on his eye. It was fine, but the pain was almost unbearable. "WHAT THE FUCK DOES SHE THINK SHE IS DOING!!!"

"I don't believe she did that intentionally," Mephistopheles tries to calm down Alex by speaking to him though his mind, "It is very likely her counterpart has begun to awaken."

Alex breaths heavily as he begins to calm down, "Yeah, I think your right. She didn't seem to be aware of what was happening", the pain in his eye started to flair up again, "AHHHAAAG, GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!!!" His body begins to waver and flicker like the rest of the shadows in the room. It grew and flickered until he seemed at home in the darkness, "I'm starting to wonder if manipulating them is worth it."

"Its a double edged sword. Soon, all will at least be half human, so everything will be corruptible. They may be a little harder to drag to hell now, but I've been needing a challenge."

"Ha, it will be no challenge at all." Alex was now as tall as the room. His body was dark and ephemeral. "It seems this form can be reached with a great deal of negative thoughts," he was one with the rest of the shadows in the room, and soon the eyes, mouths and hands appeared too, all over the shadows, including the shadow that was his body.

"Ah, yes this form can be very helpful. You cant harm something ephemeral like a shadow, and you will also revert to this form if you need healing. Shadows cant be harmed, so it will return you to full health."

"Interesting..." Alex pulls himself together and returns to his flesh and blood self, "I am really liking these changes in my life. Seems i will finally be able to make something of my life," Alex face now wears a toothy grin as he looks at the candle on his nightstand, "Everything will belong to me."

With the unwanted presence gone, the presence that had so viciously lashed out at it reverted to a calm state of neutrality and resting. It felt no need to chase after it, nor was it even remotely concerned with who or what the thing had been - It was an enemy, it was dispatched, and now it was not here.

Nothing else mattered.
----------

Resha returned to the house in after several hours of wandering around somewhat lost, making her arrival occur rather early in the morning. Standing outside the door she could only hope this was the right place - It wasn't like she had taken a good look when she left, after all.

She sighed and lifted her hand with resignation to knock on the door. She had come back this far, might as well keep going.

Rui pants as he begins firing multiple fireballs on the surrounding area. Trees begin to fall down. The mountains have craters small craters in them. “One … more … TIME!” Rui shouted as he begins to succumb to the effects of having the transformation exceeded the time limit of an hour. As he shouted those words, a massive golden fireball was created from the merged Kirin/Rui’s mouth. He fired it epically towards the small mountain crater, making it vastly giant.

“Good, good. That’s enough for today Rui. You’ve done well,” Kirin said, congratulating Rui on a hard day of training. “We shall rest for the day. You’re getting better than I expected. I’m proud.” They both changed back to separate beings.

“It’s all thanks to you. Besides, I never would’ve thought to train in this empty forest, away from the city. It’s peaceful, empty and the creatures can’t go here instantly right?” Rui said.

“Yeah. And you aren’t busy with those human works that keep you busy all the time, seeing as this is a ‘weekend’ as they call it.”

As they rest, Rui begins to think back to the day the ‘incident’ began. The day Rui and Kirin met the others who have merged or begun merging.

---------

“Heh, these people. They’re interesting. I wonder who they are. I hope I get to meat up with them again. But … that Mephistopheles and his human merger Alex. Something is off about them. I wonder why. Hey Kirin, do you trust him?”

“No. There’s something wrong, no evil, about that pair. We can’t trust him, no matter what okay.”

They went back into the house discussing whom they should or should not trust. Who was a danger to everyone or not. Kirin and Rui both agreed, Alex and Mephistopheles.

----------

“Alright, it’s time to start training again!” exclaimed Rui, merging back with Kirin. They again started their training regimen, attacking with fireballs and practicing on increasing their speed.

"Tch. How boring a tale."
Kane felt genuine sympathy for the young, sheepish girl. Not only were these horrific events being thrust upon her so suddenly, she had already been thrown out of her home.
You lie?
It's not lying. And stop cutting into my thoughts.
His stoic voice-in-his-head was right though, it probably wasn't the nicest thing to say.
Seeing her automatic reaction to his statement, he quickly added, "so who's this Teofila then, where she at now?"

"...fucking bitch!!!"
They all turned their heads towards the hallway Alex walked down a few minutes ago.
The sudden noise caused Kane to flinch, so he smirked. "Sounds like our 'fearless leader' just lost his cool. Maybe he stubbed his toe."

He pushed himself off the crate and landed on the floor. Or rather, through the floor. Both his legs cracked through the floorboards as he landed. "What the.."
He looked at his feet, which looked extremely dry and coarse, cracks running across parts of them. They were still moveable, but they were rock solid.
What the hell is going on? Kuldr, what is this?
Your feet.
You're funny, asshole. Why are they so hard now?
Changes.
You are the worst help.
Maybe these were the changes Kuldr was talking about - it didn't occur to Kane at the time that this would eventually affect him as well.
But it wasn't time to lose his cool as well.

"Ahh, this shack's such a dump," he sighed, pulling his legs out of the cracked wood. He quickly grabbed his boots and put them back on, inconspicuously. "I'll go see what that jerk's yellin' about I guess." He walked towards the hallway.

He spoke loudly as he walked. "Ey, Alex, ya got a problem in there??"

She put her arms over her eyes. The blue fame was still glowing brightly. What could she do to make it go away? She knew it wasn't viewable to all but what about the people who see it? Would think that she was a freak or think it was cool?

Zeke laid next to her. He was curled up in a ball. A dragon. That was what he was now. It was kind hard to accept. 'Oh well.' she thought. She didn't really care. The world seemed like it was ending anyways. There were these weird shadow things and apparently, her soul has merged with another person's.

The blue flame was starting to fade now. She let out a sigh and shook her head. If she was going to stay like she, she had to at least know how to use and control her powers. But who would she learn it from. That Komoriuta was useless and hasty and didn't even teach her the basics of everything.

She sighed. At least that Komoriuta with her black hair and white dress wasn't going to appear in her dreams anymore. It was weird with her bandages around her eyes and chain around her neck. It finally sparked her interest.

What kind of diseases did magically beings like her have? It was a bit late to wonder about those things though. She let out an indifferent sigh and shrugged as she got up. If she couldn't get any answers why think about it. That was her philosophy.

The blue flame was finally gone. But who could she learn from on how to use these powers? It wasn't like she knew everything about her powers. She wasn't even given a through explanation let alone instructions.

As she was starting to feel frustrated over her lack of knowledge, she kicked a rock a little too hard. In return the rock bounced off the seesaw and flew right at her.

All of a sudden, like a reflex, her eye burst into a blue flame and smashed the rock. "Woah." she said and blinked a couple of times. As she relaxed, the flame disappeared. "Well at least I know how to use this blue flame." she said with a slight shrug.

She figured out that the blue flame is used when she feels the need to attack something dangerous, like flying rocks and shadows, with great power. Although she figured out how to use one of her new powers, it seemed like it would take a while to master because when she tried to use it again, it didn't work.

"Ah. Great." she said as her left shoulder started to itch badly. There was a big red mark when she checked. "I got hit by something?" she asked raising an eyebrow, but it wasn't much of surprise seeing as she was attacked plenty of times now.

Little did she know, the mark wasn't there because of an attack or mosquito bite. A red patch started to form on her triceps on her right arm too, but she didn't notice that one yet.

"Tch. How boring a tale." The boy replied to her story in a way that told her he didn't really care so much about her problems... maybe, Arietta thought, she shouldn't have told him anything at all. Her regret filled her and a hurt look spread over her face when she looked up at him...

For a moment, he looked slightly surprised, but it disappeared as he asked her who Teofila was. Hesitating, Arietta lifted her hand so she could put it over her heart, but was interrupted when the boy hopped off the crate he had been perched on.

Instantaneously, his feet plunged through the the floor and left a gaping hole where he had landed. Arietta's eyes widened and she looked from the edge of the hole to his feet, then back again. Cracked skin creeped it's way up the boy's leg, but before anyone could make a comment about it, a stream of curses escaped from Alex's room.

The boy put his shoes on and went to inspect the situation. Arietta moved to stand up, but Teofila, unexpectedly, spoke to her, warning her, "Don't move. Stay where you are. I have a bad feeling about this Alex and his counterpart... I put you with these people so that you would have someone to look after you until i am strong enough to do so myself. This-"

Arietta nodded her head and interrupted Teofila, "It's okay. I won't go. I trust you, so i'll stay with these people... however much i might not like it." She smiled to herself and Teofila sighed inside of her.

"All right... just... just be careful, okay? If you ever need to be around Alex, make sure that you have someone wlse there with you. Don't go places by yourself..."

"You sound like my mother, Teofila. It'll be okay," Arietta's soul brightened, "I'll be okay." Saying this, she was more convincing herself rather than her friend inside of her, but it was enough to clear her head of negative thoughts towards the people she was with and temporarily leave behind her own issues... sealed up in her heart.

This is so damn uncomfortable

She tossed and turned on the bed that Alex had provided for her, plagued by the feeling that there were thousands of ants crawling all over her.

That's it. I'm going out for a while

She got out of bed and changed out of the nightclothes that she had been provided with and into her normal outfit.

Keiko creeped out of the 'safe'house, making sure that nobody heard her leave, half as a training exercise, half because she didn't want to explain herself.

She slipped past Hatman, who seemed to be interrogating the little one, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was hurting her with his questions.

"THAT FUCKING BITCH!!!"

Alex's pained voice rang out from his room.

Maybe someone stabbed him? *sigh* I'm just getting my hopes up.
Maybe you should?
Nah, we still need him. He's the only one that seems like he can lead us. Plus, I think that someone else will before I have the chance to.

Utilizing the cover given to her by Alex's scream, she opened the front door and left.

Fresh air. Nice. Okay Korosu, what should I do to train?
I'd assume you need to use your powers.
Oh, like that wasn't obvious? I meant, do I need to meditate or do something random like that?
Just do something. Standing here isn't helping you any.

Keiko started to walk towards the city that lay mostly in ruins. If she was going to have to train while using her powers, she may as well complete some of her contracts.

Ah, the feeling of being on the hunt.. How I missed it

A smile formed on Keiko's face as she thought about what she was about to do. This would be fun.

" Well, I figure, their lives don't affect me, right? So i can live mine the way i want."
" Untrue Noemi, those useless pieces of shrubbery would affect your life just as much. They are like trash that no one throws away, sooner or later it hurts the world with the non-biodegradableness. Is that how you would stand? Just waiting here till your world is consumed by people who aren't important that suddenly appear important in the end? You must rid them, they are in my world, the creatures are complaining to me." Noemi sat on the couch, her fingers twirled about a straw that staggered around in her soda can. She muttered a few things under her breath, then looked up.
" Then what are we doing here?" she got up, putting her dark gray jacket over her shoulders, " Let's go, puss." Keisho nodded, departing from the soft comfort of the pillow to follow his companion out the door.

“Good Rui. Well done. It’s amazing how far you’ve gone. I can say you’re good enough. Now the rest will be through actual battle experience.”

“Thanks Kirin. That means a lot. I have worked non-stop for about 3 days and nights here. Hmm the day after next is the anniversary. We made it just in time, thank god.”

“Hmm? What’s the anniversary?”

“Well … it’s the day my parents died. Three years ago …” as Rui said those words his normal look changed into an expression off sorrow. “Anyways, we’ll go there and I can introduce you to them.” Rui’s expression seemingly turned into one of happiness.

A figure cloaked in darkness spying on them. It grins as it moves out.

The anniversary date had come and Rui walks to the graveyard. “Ahh Mom, Dad, meet Kirin.” Kirin pops up and says hello to Rui’s parents. They spend a 10 minutes in the graveyard as Rui reminisces to Kirin about his family. “My family … they were great. I mean we argued sometimes, but it was just small family arguings, nothing special. When they died, it killed me so much. So fucking much. I don’t really blame myself, but still.”

Just then a grinning creature comes out. The creature, tall and lanky, grunts. As he grunted, green strings came out of his hands. Those strings connected itself to the graves of Rui’s parents. Just then, Rui’s parents came out of the grave, raised from the dead. They were mere skeletons, decayed after years. It jumped to the creature’s side.

“That must be a corpse puppeteer, from the creature world. We’ve got to be careful, Rui. This creature’s tricky,” Kirin warned Rui. But as Kirin glanced at Rui, he saw rage in his eyes. The need to kill, the vengeful hate. Kirin had seen so many times in corrupt humans and even other creatures. “Rui … No …”

Rui screamed in anger, wanting to kill the Corpse puppeteer for what he did to Rui’s parents. As he screamed at the top of his lungs, he glowed, battle readied. “I’m … GOING TO END YOU!!” Rui shouted to the heavens. Rui transformed quickly and began to attack with great speed.

A knock at the door made Kane look over his shoulder.
"Hey, creepy, someone's here to see you!"
No response came from the room.
Must've been busy talking to that devil.
"Sure thing, I'll get it, you lazy bastard.." he muttered.

He walked back into the main room, glancing at the ever-sheepish little girl and the other girl clad in ninja--
Wait. Where's ninja girl?
There was no sign of her. Was she hiding? When did she manage to slip away?
He decided it was of little consequence.
She was a jerk anyway.

"I guess I'll get the door then," he said, opening the door to find...

"Resha? That was fast." He smirked at the once-again soaked redhead. "Alex said you would be back. Why'd you have to prove that bastard right?"

"Can it, Miracle Boy." She grumbled with a half lidded stare, water dripping down miserably from her hair. "You guys have the freakshow powers, not me. Whatever the hell that thing was, if another one shows up I'll be better off throwing you at it than trying to out run it."

She moved past him and into the room, grabbing the clothes she had thrown to the side earlier and burying her face in the dry shirt, using it as a makeshift towel. She was wet, she was cold, her feet were numb and she was tired.

"Today sucked." she grumbled aloud, idly contemplating how likely it would be her co-workers would think she was dead if she just laid low. Impromptu vacation? Yes please. Not too long though, or they might hire someone else to replace her - Being out of a job while her apartment was totalled was a bad idea.

Yeah. Her apartment was currently a pile of rubble, along with everything in it. "Damn it." She sighed and hung the damp shirt over her shoulder, setting back against the wall with a long suffering sigh.

"So, Miracle Boy." Stupid shadow thingies destroying her life and forcing her to hang around with these freaks in a part of town most likely to kill her and loot the corpse, "What did I miss?"

She stopped, blinked, then waved her hand airily, "Like plans or ideas for what to do next."

His smirk from earlier returned to an annoyed expression at the constant utterance of his apparent nickname.
"Didn't miss much, lady. Alex was yellin' about some shit and apparently ninja girl is gone. As for plans," he shrugged. "Our 'fearless leader' didn't say anything about it."

Sharpening his expression a bit and taking a step back in the conversation, he retorted belatedly, "And don't start with that miracle shit. Even if you don't know why that monster was after you, or what the hell it was, doesn't mean I know much more than you." He glanced at his boots. "I don't know what to do."

His temperament shifted again.
"Seems somewhat reasonable to stick with this guy for now, though, doesn't it? Like you said, you have no chance against things like that, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Freakshow in the back," he motioned to the hallway, "seems to have a handle on things for now, right?"

"You may not know what's going on, Miracle Boy." She replied, deliberately adding his unwanted nickname this time, "But you don't see me making giant earth walls and exploding buildings."

She shuddered briefly, "Or creepy shadow stuff. Or whatever the hell that dog...goat.. kid thing was."

A knock interrupted the boy's questioning. Arietta looked up from her corner and, once the flustered boy had answered the door, she saw that red-headed lady, Resha she heard them call her, had come back. She was soaking wet, and Arietta felt bad and wanted to get her a towel or soemthing, but she was too nervous to get up, since she didn't exactly know where to look for something like that, and, adding to that, she didn't want to do something someone didn't ask her to do, because it might be wrong. Maybe these people were independent and didn't want help from someone like her, she couldn't tell... So she sat in her corner, listening to the two of them argue.

For a while, she fiddled with her coat sleeve and brushed remaining drops of water off her tiny rainboots. Minutes passed and the boy and Resha continued talking... now about Alex. She studied their faces, but was soon interrupted by her hungry stomach, crying to her for food. That's right. She hadn't eaten anything since her snack from the convenience store.

Timidly, trying her best to not be noticed, she snuck around the two bodies standing at center-room over to where the fridge was, as pointed out by their... leader? Or at least that's what Arietta figured he must be. The loud creaking that escaped from the worn fridge made Arietta jump. She sighed, then smiled seeing food. There wasn't much... and she didn't want to take much just so that there would be enough for everyone.

Examining the ingredients... she thought that she might be able to make some sort of dish if she tried hard enough... She glanced at her companions, then back at the fridge, and back at the boy and Resha. A minute or two passed and Resha turned her head towards Arietta, giving her an opportunity to make her statement. Quickly, she gathered her courage, telling herself, "This is my way to say thank you. If i ask, they can still say no. So... So it'll be okay."

Opening her mouth, Arietta spoke softly, and stuttered a bit, but was finally able to get the full sentence out, "I... D-Do you want... Do you want me to make you g-guys something to eat?" The moment she had gotten the question out, her cheeks filled with a bright pink hue, and she darted her eyes to the floor... waiting for their reply.

Their bickering was cut short by the small girl by the fridge.
His eye twitched inadvertantly at her statement.
"Make us somethin'?"
This girl shouldn't be here... hell, I don't even know why I'm still here.
"I don't need you to-" remembering his earlier statements, he rephrased, "I'm.. not hungry."
I'm starving. I'll get food later.
Many lies, you speak.
Shut your... mind. Shut up.
Strange, small creatures.

"Maybe you're right redhead - maybe we shouldn't be stayin' here. But isn't it more interesting?
You don't have anything special goin' on, maybe, but Alex decided to let you stay anyway. Iunno. Maybe he likes you or somethin'."
Don't want her to leave?
And leave me with sheepy and creepy? Of course not. I'd deal with sarcasm over little girls and horror any day.
And why do you care?
...
and you call me strange.

He sighed. "Do what you want," he said to both Resha and Kuldr.
He slumped back down on the crate with a "crack".
"What's in the fridge, anyway, kiddo?"

Resha 'hmph'd at the argumentative little punk across the room, "Interesting. Sure, getting killed by nightmarish shadow things is certainly interesting."

With a sigh she stood up off the wall she had been leaning against, striding across the darkened room towards the little girl and kneeling down so she could reach eye level with the shy girl. Resha's scowl shifted into a contemplative stare into the fridge for a moment before she smiled at the little girl next to her.

"How about I help you make something?" She asked with mildly forced cheer, "Nothing big though, it's pretty late and you shouldn't eat a lot before bed. Okay, sweetie?"

When the boy said that he wasn't hungry, she felt a little bad for not asking that first. After everything that had happened in the last few hours, Arietta could understand that not many people would be hungry... She glanced back in the fridge to examine the ingredients. Maybe... she could make something big enough for everyone... and they could just have it whenever they wanted food?

Suddenly, Teofila spoke up. "You're just trying to be polite. It's okay. You don't need to be ashamed." With her soul dweller's encouraging words, Arietta lifted her head just in time to see Resha walking towards her. The woman bent down on her knees and spoke softly, much different from the tone in her voice from when she was talking to the boy.

"...Okay, sweetie?" Arietta hesitated for a moment... thinking that she shouldn't let the person she's trying to do a favor for help her. The thought rolled around her mind as time passed, and she eventually gave the woman a soft smile. Her head hung down, but she looked up at Resha, "Okay."

She felt that these people were at least willing to tolerate her, and she was grateful. And... for the next half hour or so, Arietta and Resha worked on compiling something edible together from the scarce amount food that was available to them.

Rui begins pummeling on the Corpse Puppeteer, but the Puppeteer manages to either dodge it or using the enhanced skeletons of Rui’s mother and father to defend. As Rui begins to give into his rage, Kirin begins to fade deep into the darkness.

“Rui … I … had hopes …” Kirin said silently going into the darkness that was Rui’s rage. Rui continued his mad assault. Pummeling the Puppeteer while it just laughs and dodges, Rui began to use the fireballs within his arsenal of attacks. “Shit, I can’t just shoot aimlessly and risk destroying all of these graves. I gotta move away,” Rui said to himself.

Rui speeds himself and tackles the Puppeteer but misses. Then Rui turns around and shoots fireballs at the Puppeteer relentlessly and then tackles him again. That tackle sent them away from the graveyard. “Now, lets finish this you bastard,” Rui said menacingly. Rui charges his fists and the fists glow bright red/orange. He then charges towards the Corpse Puppeteer again, now punching away.

The punches broke away the protection from the strings erected. Little by little, the punches broke the strings, until finally from the father the shield broke away.
I’m Sorry Father. One last hit obliterated the skeleton of his father, tears running down as he heads for his mother next. And again the sequence repeated. The Corpse Puppeteer just smiling at the anguish Rui is facing, not even being surprised at having his skeleton puppets being destroyed. Then finally demolishing his mother’s skeleton Rui screamed in rage “ARRGH I’M GONNA KILL YOU, DESTROY YOU COMPLETELY!”

Rui then tackles the Puppeteer to the ground, punching him many times. “I’m gonna finish you,” Rui said to the Puppeteer. Just then, Kirin shouted a violent NO to Rui. Stopping dead in his tracks, Rui listened while still holding down his enemy. “Finish… me! You… Weakling!” Corpse puppeteer said, trying to egg Rui on. “Give into darkness!”

“Rui, don’t listen to him. You are pure, Rui! Do not give in! I believe in you.”

Rui screamed in rage but he transformed back. “You’re not worth killing anymore. I’m going to go.” Corpse Puppeteer, looking delighted at the turn of events, jumped off. “I’m sorry Kirin,” Rui apologized. “I was just so… mad. I couldn’t contain it. But… I promise you I’ll listen next time. I won’t let that happen again. Never again.” Kirin, hearing those words, happily smiled and said “Splendid.

Corpse Puppeteer appeared in a well-lit room bowing down to some unknown man. “Good job Puppeteer. You’ve done well.”

Keiko ran towards her destination, the house of a man who had killed her client's wife in a robbery. She felt strangely light as she ran, making it easier for her to run faster for a longer period of time without getting overly tired.

As she ran, she became filled with euphoria because she was back where she belonged: on the hunt. With every step towards her destination, she became happier and happier, until the events that tore the city to shreds only a little while ago were gone from her mind.

As she neared her destination, she was delighted to find that the block that her mark's apartment was located in was untouched by the monsters that had wreaked havoc on the rest of the city and that the room that he was supposed to reside in had lights on. She could still carry out her job.

She entered the apartment building, and made her way up the stairs to the third floor, changing to her dark form on the way. A quick and easy kill, thats what she was hoping for. She reached the door, finding it unlocked, with people yelling behind it.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN STEAL FROM US?!"
Sounds of violence ensued, followed by the sound of a chair falling to the ground.
"THINK AGAIN, BITCH!"
More sounds of violence. A muffled scream.

Keiko opened the door cautiously, drawing her katana in the process. She saw 5 men, 4 of which were surrounding the fifth, who was gagged and bound to a chair.

Hearing something, one of the men slowly stared to turn around, earning himself a quick death. Hearing their comrade collapse to the floor, the rest of the men turned around, and with only a moment's hesitation, charged the young girl, weapons still drawn from the beating they were giving her mark.

They have bad form

Seeing openings in each of their attacks, Keiko dodged their attacks and dispatched of them easily. Suddenly, she noticed a sixth man standing in the doorway of what was most likely a restroom, pointing a gun at her. Not wasting any time, Keiko threw her sword at the man and missed.

Interesting.. the darkness, it didnt go away when I released the sword..

Wanting to test her new idea, Keiko ignored the man who was now trying to shoot her with his gun, and picked up a stress ball she found on a nearby table. She willed her dark flames to engulf the ball, and proceeded to throw it at the trigger-happy man. The ball passed easily through the man's chest, killing him instantly.

I wonder...

Keiko picked up the man's gun and engulfed it in her dark flames. She shot her mark in the head with a bullet that had become engulfed in the flame.

I could use this...

Pocketing the gun, she left the apartment and headed back to the "safehouse."

She didn't know where else to go except home. At least no one was going to be there. She headed towards her house. Zeke was following close behind. Was she the only one?

Probably not. She was pretty sure there were others, but she hasn't seen them at all yet. After a few short minutes, she arrived home. She was soaking wet from the rain.

She slowly opened the door. Of course no one was there. Without bothering to take off her shoes, she walked inside and plopped down on the floor. All she did was stare blankly at the ceiling.

It wasn't like she had anything better to do. With all the destruction around the city, they probably all fled for safety. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly. 'What a day.' she thought without caring what was happening around her.

'I know, right?' said a voice of a woman. "What?" she said while her eyes fluttered open. Silly child. Do you have any idea what has happened to you?" asked the voice with a slight hint of irritably. Kanade merely shrugged with disinterest. "You ignorant girl! That Komoriuta is not who she seems. She's not dead or gone, in face she's very much alive." said the voice. That comment caught her attention. "Tell me more." she said emotionless. "My my, finally got your attention." said the voice with slight amusement.

Suddenly the space around her disappeared and random subway materialized. She walked inside and heard a quiet roar. Zeke was already inside somehow. As soon as she entered through the doors, they shut close and the subway zoomed off.

Why did she enter without knowing what the subway was and where it led? Even she didn't know the answer. It was barely three minutes before the subway stopped and opened its doors revealing a cafe. The place felt nostalgic to her but that was probably because Komoriuta has been here before.

She walked into the cafe without knowledge about it. It was weird. People looked weird. Some had pointy ears other had unique colored skin among other things. Her instinct told her to go all the way the back where a balcony was.

There was a young woman there, probably in her mid-twenties. She turned around and looked at Kanade with a smile. "I've been waiting for you, Kanade." she said while gesturing to a chair on the opposite side of the table.

Kanade sat down while Zeke sat on the ground. "What is it?" she asked. "A little impatient aren't we?" she said shaking her head with a smile. "I've called you here so I can help you while you do the same for me. It's what you humans call a win-win situation." she explained.

"You see, I know a lot about Komoriuta. Good child she was until she found out about her massive power and sought more, I know because I was her mentor " she said while letting out a sigh, "She hurt millions and terrorized the land until they caught her and used diseases as a weapon against since even she was still mortal, but they couldn't damage her soul."

Kanade tilted her head and remembered how Komoriuta did have a hard time walking with her and had bandages around her eyes. And the chain around her that kept from leaving. "So am I her new vessel or something?" she asked with little to no emotion in her voice. "You are correct, but you still have the power your body, but who knows when she'll take over. Now straight to the point, I gave you a deal. I'll help teach you everything I know and in return you'll become strong enough to overcome her soul's hold on yours." she offered.

Kanade looked blankly at her and nodded. After all, it was her body. There was no reason for her to give it away to anyone. "I accept your offer, there's no way I'm willingly going to let her take my body." she said seriously. The women smirked and laughed. "We have a deal. I'm Fitonie." she said raising her hand for a handshake. Kanade shook Fitonie's hand and summoned her scythe without much difficulty. My, my you're a fast learned aren't you? No wonder Komo only taught you the basics and nothing more." she said quite impressed.

"Now let's time to go train." she said with a smirk. Fitonie's jet black hair blew in the wind and her gray eyes sparkled in the sun. Without a word, they got on the subway with Zeke close behind. "Why was Zeke turned into a dragon?" she asked to break the silence. "Oh. Didn't she tell you? She had a dragon with her. She must have saved its soul waiting for a moment like this." Fitonie said with a shrug.

When they got off, there was a big marketplace. The crowd was loud and people who running back and forth. "Welcome to the biggest marketplace in our fair world! Take this. You'll need it from now on. It's called a Prowarp." Fitonie said while tossing a animal shaped backpack at Kanade.

Kanade caught the bag and looked at it. It looked like one of those useless cute animal backpacks girls bought from Japantown, a Japanese based section of the city which sold Japanese goods.

"What the fudge?" she asked while raising an eyebrow at Fitonie. She opened and put her hand in, but it seemed like there was no bottom. "See girl. I wouldn't give you something so useless as those regular ones. It's a bottomless bag to hold all your things. It has many functions. For example, you ask for a specific item and it'll appear near the top for you to grab at ease. If you don't remember what the specific item was then describe it or say what type of object it was then it'll show a projection of the items that fit the description." Fitonie explained .Kanade nodded with slight amazement.

"Let the shopping begin! Don't worry. I'll cover the costs, but you have to bring me a few items from your world here for me!" she said with a wink. Then they were off looking for items that were going to be useful for Kanade's training among other things.

"I smell something cooking," Alex states as he walks out of his room and into the lounge with everyone else. He didn't bother to get dresses, since he felt comfortable in his own skin in his own safe house. He just threw on his expensive looking black robe over the boxer-breifs he was sleeping in.

"Oh, Resha is back? Good," he says as he looks into the kitchen, spotting the two girls cooking away, "and the ninja is gone... Oh well, she'll be back."

"This place hasn't had a womens touch in a long time. It would be nice to actually eat a meal for once..."

Resha looked up from what they had ending up making, a pitiful cobbling together canned tuna and some other ingredients to make what could possibly pass for tuna salad. Maybe.

If Tuna salad was gray and goopy looking. She wasn't even entirely sure what the hell it was, but Arietta had worked hard with her for the past thirty minutes to make it - So it was good enough. She laid a hand on Arietta's had comfortingly as she stepped back.

"Good job, kiddo. We didn't have much to work with, but this should work." It was just lip-service, Resha didn't think she would be able to choke down the god awful thing that had been made. Not for lack of trying mind you, but... What the hell did this guy subsist off of?

She patted Arietta on the shoulder briefly as she turned and strode out to come face to face with the lavishly adorned bane of her night. Instantly, any kind of amiable demeanor she had presented when interacting with Arietta melted away to be replaced by a stressed, demanding and calculating persona.

"Alright, Eldritch boy. Since you had us follow you, how about you tell us what exactly our reason for humoring you is?" One of her arms propped itself upon her hip as habit took over and she started to slip into a 'acquire information' role. "We're here, big shadowy things are out there, and aside from some nonsense about magic worlds from your butler, we still don't know what the hell is going on or what to do - So spill."

"Well my lovely soaking wet guest, you should be more specific. What exactly do you want to know? I told everyone that if they had any more questions, they could just talk to me." He looks at Resha again and shakes his head, "And didn't i tell you to change, your going to get sick..."

Alex sits at the bar and puts together a thin tuna salad sandwich, "May I?" he asks Resha's small friend, but before the gets an answer the starts eating.

Resha quirked an eye as Alex took a bite, "Enjoying the raw horse radish?" Her moment of black humor was short lived however as she quickly got back to trying to drag information out of the annoying guy in front of her.

"I want to know how you were able to do whatever the hell you did, why those things were coming after us in the first place and what the hell you have planned for us to do now." She laid out the terms in flat and simple terms that left no room for misunderstanding, however her self control was teetering towards a precipitous edge already.

"What the fuck is going on?" The meaning behind the statement was blatant. What happened, and what is going to happen now.

Alex swallows the food he had in his mouth and smiles, "I have acquired the powers of the devil thanks to our being merged. Its happening all around us, and it will happen to you too." He laughs to himself, "Maybe your a late bloomer?" He looks her up and down, "Well, at least life is fair and you developed plenty in other areas," Alex says with a smile and a laugh before hoping off the bar stool and walking into the kitchen.

He pats Arietta on the head, "Your not such a bad cook you know? I don't understand how that mean lady can call this anything but gourmet." His face then turns stern as he looks towards Resha, "And as for my intentions, well, I intent for us to survive. And I plan on doing that by making comrades and taking out anything in our way. You should count yourself lucky to have been picked up by me. You now have a sure thing to a position of power in the new world."

Resha scowls and makes a point of crossing her arms over her chest, "New world? So we're starting a revolution using magic powers granted by the devil now?" Her skepticism was clear, but she sighs and looks away with a grunt.

"Fine, my apartment is totalled right now. As far as anyone knows, I'm probably dead right now." She smirked ruefully, more to herself than anyone else as an amusing thought cropped up. "I'll humor you and play your game for a while, I can afford to be dead for a few days anyway."

Resha grabs the somewhat dry clothes from earlier, obviously preparing to end the night - It was sometime early in the AM, anyway. "Come on, kiddo." She mumbled, motioning for Arietta to follow her, "It's past our bedtime and I'm not letting you sleep alone."

She cut an accusing stare at Alex before walking down the hall.

A snicker emanated from the other side of the room.
"Ya sure are good with the ladies, Alex." Kane stretched as he stood up from the crate again. "The powers of the devil, positions of power, a new world? Don't you sound like a god damned hero?"
He walked over and made a sandwich like Alex had.
"I don' no what you've got planned. Ya don't talk about a new world order if yer only worried about survival. You're pretty freaky," He lifted the sandwich, and paused before biting, "but it doesn't mean I'm leavin'. Just sayin', I hope ya know what you're doing."
He bit the sandwich, and his eye twitched a little.
Tastes like shit...flaming shit..!

With a facade intended to look satisfied and smug about his monologue, he walked towards the hallway. "Goin' to sleep."

----------
Somewhere, in some world, a rock opened its eyes for the first time.

"She'll come around. Sooner or later she will realize that getting along is the best way to get though this," Alex says coming out of the kitchen and finishing the rest of his sandwich.

Kane makes a sarcastic comment about Alex's virtues, then says that he must be up to more than survival and that he doesn't trust, but reassures him that he is staying for the time being.

"History will decide how heroic I am. If all goes well I'll be remembered as the great warrior who made order from this chaos, and how it was done will be seen as a necessary act. Some may even say i sacrificed my morality for the good of the others." Alex smiled at the idea of his future fame as he stood in the lounge talking with Kane. His obsession with glory was as obvious as Kane's arrogance. "And dont forget, this situation happened to all of us. me making the best out of it IS surviving. Just count yourself lucky you weren't left alone on the streets."

Arietta, surprised at Resha's words, just stared blankly until the woman was already halfway down the hall. After coming to her senses, she skipped over to the hallway, saying her goodights to the boy and Alex (though she was almost positive they couldn't hear her anyways).

They reached their destination almost all the way at the end of the hall. A worn door stood between them and what would be their room. Arietta reached out her pale hand and tentatively grabbed a fist full of Resha's wet shirt. The door creaked open, and a large bed came into view, followed by a sink in the corner, as well as a mirror and a couple small cabinets (among some other furniture). Mostly eveything was covered in a distinct layer of dust from lack of use... Alex evidently didn't get much company very often.

While Resha set her clothes down and tried brushing some of the dirtied furniture off, Arietta removed her heavy boots and raincoat, revealing underneath a pair of denim shorts and a loose, peach colored blouse.

Wanting to wash her hands and face, she headed towards the sink... but was hindered when she stubbed her toe on the edge of the bed. At this, Teofila spoke up, scolding Arietta, "Please try and be more careful... you'll really get hurt someday if you keep going on like this."

Arietta smiled to herself as she turned on the water and smooth streams ran their way over her hands, "I promise to be more careful, 'kay?" Drying her hands with a nearby towel, she walked back to the bed and sat down... As she yawned, she remembered once again the events of her day and tears slipped from her eyes. She quickly wiped them away... telling herself that she had to be strong... she couldn't cry now. Resting her head on the wall, she tried to think of Teofila and her motherly nature, and how kind Resha had been to her despite the rough day. Gratefullness sunk in as her eyes slowly flutted shut, and she fell into that white room again... rejuvenating her soul as she slept against the hard and soiled wall.

Resha stared down at Arietta after she had fallen asleep; despite her intention to sleep, her mind was still a blur with worries.

In one day her entire life had ended, her apartment, her job, pretty much everything she owned was most likely totalled from the mayhem that the shadow beast had caused in its rampage...

She had her chance to leave and she threw it away, she came back, this was her choice. She could have just kept walking, she could have gotten in contact with someone - Anyone that she knew. She could have avoided this entire ordeal.

But she came back. Why in the hell did she come back? She didn't want any part of this. She didn't need thi-

Purpose.

-s was exactly what she needed. There was no other choice to make, this was her 'war' to fight. A revolution? A new world? How could she live with herself if she refused to take full front in this? This was....

She blinked, eyes suddenly seeing Arietta in astounding clarity - As if the full moon had suddenly shown down directly onto her. The little girl laid sleeping in a somewhat peaceful tone already, yet Resha herself hadn't even moved from her spot leaning against the wall.

"..." This girl was... Relevant.

Master?
Restraint?
Enemy?
Target?

Resha's eyes refocused, the room growing darker as she found herself poised directly above Arietta's sleeping body - Her hand curled in a claw like fashion and hovering no more than a breadth above Arietta's neck.

The red head breathed out slowly, releasing a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding before letting herself drop lifelessly onto the bed next to Arietta.

Sleep claimed her moments later, confusion and frustration giving out to exhuastion.

Night, night was something dark, mysterious. Absolutely formless, whether it as scary and chilling as a psychopath with blood on his knife, or romantic and hopeful, shining bright with stars and a full moon. This night was something else, the clouds of an ominous future covered the bright radiance of the cosmos beyound the stratosphere. Unsure of what to make of the events, rogue government assassin, Matthew Kichi, sat in an abandoned warehouse, alone for the most part. Having broken from the line of duty, to his former employers, he was only an untamed weapon.

"So Matt, what'cha thinking?", him being alone, was a lie. His counterpart, which appeared to him just a few days prior to the present, was with him. She called herself Inari, unwillingly at one time, he'd merged with her, finding himself in possession of the ability to shapeshift. Such a talent made it easy for him to slip away from his pursuers, almost effortlessly, his training as one who can blend, kill and fight at beyond the level of any Spec Ops operative, was beaten into him for a majority of his life.

"I'm thinking... What to make of what's happening...", beyond that he knew Inari was his counterpart, he was wondering. It was very likely that others had gained similar things too. The lascivously styled counterpart of his... The very meaning of counterpart, meant... She was him in some way? Seems impossible... Either way, what is, is what it is.

"Anyway, I'm safe for the time being. I'm going to get some rest, I'll need to start investigating beginning an hour before dawn", with that, Matthew sat back, leaning on a wall in an enclosed, hidden from view area.

"Ehhh... That's no fun",

"Now's not the time for fun. I may be safe now, but if I let my guard down, those guys'll find me", he replied. His counterpart was... Rather interesting, a carefree spirit, made him wonder what he would've been like had he not been trained an assassin.

"Fine, but you're going to have to treat me some time after this", she stated, leaning forward, in her materialised state. Her chest mostly bare for all to see.

"Whatever... I need some sleep, dawn's in about five hours...", with that, the fox counterpart took a seat right next to him, before disappearing from sight.

It was her face he would see first; freckles spattered across her strong face in silent testimony to days spent unladylike in the sun, brown hair striped gold for the same, and her eyes kept him still. She stared at the crack. He could see her freckles, her hair streaked with gold and shining like a halo of curls.

A picture flashes into Ariel’s mind. “The rod and cross flew onto the ground.”

Softly, Ariel heard him whisper, "I-I'm…s-sorry."

<“I'm being delusional. That's the only answer.” Ariel whispers.
A shadow slammed head on into Ariel, nearly knocking the wind out of her. The lone shadow speeded at her; even faster than before if that was possible. I desperately lashed out with one arm trying to knock him off course, but I only managed a scratch on his arm. Ariel starred dead ahead, unmoving and unblinking, while the enemy was circling in for another attack.

His confidence faltered, she could see it.

That's weird…is someone calling for me?

A seraph angel swooped in like some mythical bird, driving away the attacker and probably saved her life.

He cradles Ariel gently. “Are you hurt somewhere, Ariel?" he spoke with extraordinary soothing voice.

He shakes his head and clutches Ariel harder.

"W-what are you?" Ariel splutters and winces away from him.
“I-I’m your companion, P-pleased to meet you.” He looked slightly flustered, tousling his spiky red hair with his right hand. The whiteness glows.

She sees the whiteness around her whole torso, like bandages. Then the whiteness is ripped apart.

A high pitched, unnatural laughter. Ariel screams.

Her scream dies down; His whiteness is now a fence around them. She sees the grey sky; she sees a blackened shadow; she sees the ruins of the city.

She just stared blankly at him.

“I-I’m Seraph Sealtiel” Said the most glorious angel she ever seen in her entire life.

"Ariel Scarsdale," She says, her long dress fanning out behind her as she approaches her glorious Sealtiel, who glances up at the sound of her voice. “Are you my guardian angel?” Her eyes darted behind him, seeing something but it’s not there yet.

“Somet-t-hing l-like that.” He spoke quietly.
Ariel snuggled up closer to the angel holding her. Angel's arm instinctively tightened around her, as if he somehow knew that she needed comfort. She whimpered softly as her mind continued to hold her hostage with horrific memories of her childhood.

The view of that strange world began to fade. The boy had begun to slumber - Kuldr's thoughts were his own again.
A sensation flooded into his being - images, light, color. He experienced this before, when he first saw the strange, gray world. The boy's memory informed him...

"Sight."

Kuldr never had vision - sensory depended on contact with the earth and nothing more. He took in his surroundings - trees; mountains. He was seeing them for the first time.

"Hm."

He never was a romanticist.

The world around him felt different, even before he gained the ability to perceive his surroundings in detail. It hadn't even bothered him until very recently. What made him care? Curiosity was not a part of his vocabulary.
The large creature lifted himself off the ground with a great heave - and stumbled backwards a little.

"Light..."

Did he not know his own strength? Impossible - he was ancient, his strength was well known by now.
He felt tremors all around him, at varying distances. Strange things were happening to this world. Strange things were happening to him.

I felt them.
He thought about everyone around him since he inhabited Kane's mind. Kane was unable to feel it, but he was familiar with the presence.
The demon. The bird. The light one. The dark one. The spirit...
He was aware of who all of them were. He was aware of most things that had crossed the earth. Until now, it had been meaningless.

But did it have a meaning now?
None of them are in this world...their world.
On an impulse - what is an impulse? - the great stone creature left his mountain for the first time in ages, lumbering towards the nearest tremor.
A city.

Quiet.

Keiko walked through the unlocked front door of the safehouse and was greeted by silence. Everyone was either sleeping, or dead. Probably the former, unless Alex's creepy butler decided to go psycho on everyone. She didnt trust him. She didnt think anyone trusted him.

It was dark in the safehouse. Dark enough that any normal person would be stumbling around and crashing into things, but, for some reason, Keiko could see things. Nothing very distinct, but she could see in the dark even when she wasnt in her dark form.. Curious, she transformed, hoping that she would be able to see more than just a mere three feet in front of her. She was disappointed: She saw less than when she was just plain old Keiko.

A wave of extreme tiredness suddenly washed over the girl, compelling her to find the nearest comfortable place and collapse. She slowly made her way to the nearest couch and, not looking at where she was going, stepped in what seemed to be a hole in the floor and fell headfirst into the chair that sat in front of it. Not having the strength to get back up again, she fell asleep.

Ariel lay limp in the arms of Seraph Sealtiel. All too soon, Seraph Sealtiel noticed the rosy red fingers of dawn creeping over the horizon. He sat up slowly, peering off to the east, where the first sliver of the sun was just beginning to peek up over the edge. The sky was pale, painted with bold streaks of pink, orange, red, and violet, patched with struggling, faint stars.

"Ariel, How l-long have you seen them?" He whispered unheard by Ariel. Her eyes were red and tired from tears.

He see now that the pale sun is slipping down quickly into sunset and the wind has picked up.

He ruffled his wings. His wings spread, by themselves. The angel quickly allowed his soft, pale blue wings to spread fully and flew out, and allowed his wings to carry him to wherever she was needed. To that safehouse he heard so much about.

Alex lets out a long yawn before plopping down on his favorite chair. Well, it was the only chair that was actually a chair. All the other "chairs" where milk crates and boxes, stuff of that sort.

"One day down... This may be harder then i had originally thought." he laments while letting out a deep sigh. He closes his left eye to look through the shadow eyes while having a serious look on his face. Everyone was asleep in the beds he gave them and yet no one seemed to trust him.

"Damn, hopefully i can turn this around," he says to himself as he keeps an eye on his guests. "Hmm? That ninja girl is still out?" He worries for a sec, but then figures ninjas like the night and just decides to leave her be. "She'll be back, and if not we can just look for her I guess." Alex use the shadow hands to shut off the lights and falls asleep on his chair.

Plop! In the dark someone seemed to have feel on Alex in the dark. "Hmm...," Alex says half asleep, not knowing what was happening. He didn't particularly mind it, but it was a bit of a surprise. "Huh? A girl? Must be a dream... " he mumbles to himself as he looks at the girl. "Huh? Ninja girl? I wasn't expecting her... Guess we never know what we want..." Alex smiles and drifts back into sleep. He loves his dreams.

The marketplace was vast. She looked down the big line of booths and couldn't see an end to the people and shops. "Awfully big." she said to Fitonie. Fitonie just laughed. They began to weave through the crowd looking for essential items Kanade would need. Fitonie looked at her and giggled. "Look at yourself! You're soaking wet! Don't you care about getting sick?" she asked with a bit of concern, but mainly she was entertained by the way Kanade acted.

While they walked through the marketplace, Fitonie was frequently being greeted by people around them. She even got some free food from a few booths. "Quite popular around here aren't you?" Kanade asked out of boredom. "I guess you can say that!" Fitonie exclaimed and laughed.

Fitonie seemed like the opposite of Kanade. She was always carefree and had a happy-go-lucky kind of attitude to everything. Kanade just sighed and looked at booths that seemed interesting and didn’t even seem to notice that Zeke had gone missing.

Zeke on the other hand was too busy on the outskirts of the marketplace flying around chasing butterflies everywhere in the meadow. Fitonie and Kanade eventually bought all the essential items before going back to the entrance. "Oh. Zeke is gone." Kanade said without much concern.

Fitonie put her thumb and index finger around her chin and closed her eyes. "Maybe he wasn't with us the entire time?" Fitonie said as possibility. Kanade nodded and looked towards the outskirt of the marketplace. Zeke was flying around the meadow; chasing butterfly when suddenly she saw a walking rock creature. "Whoa. Walking rocks?" she asked rhetorically and walked up to it.

Meanwhile Fitonie was too busy in her thoughts, talking about doing more shopping among other things. Kanade was a few yards away from the walking rocks and stared. Zeke finally noticed and flew to her. "Silly dog dragon." she said while shaking her head.

Fitonie soon noticed that Kanade was gone and ran to her. "Oh. That's a rock golem!" she said with a smile. "Rock golem?" she said staring at it. Fitonie merely nodded while she walked up to the rock golem and touched out of random. Her instincts told her it wasn't just regular golem...she felt as though there was more to it but thought she was probably over thinking things.

Contact.
The golem halted its movement briefly and turned its oblique head.
Familiar.
The feeling from this small creature was familiar. Kuldr was able to perceive through the earth what could not be perceived through the eyes, as outwards appearances were deceptive.
This small being was disproportionate to its "heavy" soul.

The being contained great power. Instinct was self defense. Kuldr lifted an arm...
I wouldn't.
...and began to lower it again.
Hm.
He never had second thoughts. Who was speaking? The voice sounded like the small being from earlier.

Kuldr's thought process was slow. A good 10 seconds had passed before he lowered his arm.
Inconsequential.
He turned his head and continued walking once more, ignoring further incident from the little thing. His mind wandered back to his purpose in the first place... why did he walk all this way, anyway?
"Explanation." he rumbled out loud, on accident. Kuldr rarely thought, much less spoke at the same time - he was having trouble isolating the two functions.
The changes. He reminded himself. He was somehow curious about all the changes going on. This was, in fact, the first time he was ever concerned about matters other than the earth.

His slow train of thought and mechanical movements eventually led him towards the city. The dutiful elemental golems never left their domain - and they normally meant trouble to disturbers.
The thought hadn't occurred to the simple-minded beast that he might be unwelcome in the peaceful lives of the city-folk, for it wasn't his main concern.

===============================

"...why would I punch a girl..."
Kane mumbled in his sleep a moment before waking up with a start.
Lucid dream... weird shit.
As with all dreams, the memory was short lived in his head. Some mountains, maybe a tree or something - an unnerving young girl that he almost punched for no reason. But it was a dream, and dreams are not reality.
It's inconsequential. He thought.

He stretched and kicked his feet out of the bed and onto the floor... leaving another hole in the floorboards.
"Damnit," he said audibly. His feet were even heavier now - and on top of that, his muscles felt stiff from sleep. "The mattress felt like a piece of concrete last night..." he murmured.

He hadn't changed out of his clothes from the day before, soaking wet as they were. He left all his clothes at home, and he was just too lazy to leave the safehouse at the time.
No - rather, he was too exhausted.

The events of the previous day flooded back into his head.
A shadowy creature, Alex's horrific magic and the small group of people gathered here by him. His feet turning to stone.
I've been taking it in stride, but I'm definitely not okay with this. He decided to himself, as if to insure his sanity.

But what am I supposed to do now? he wondered, walking out into the hallway. Just sit around waiting for...
He stopped in his tracks and chuckled instinctively.
On the couch lay a sleeping Alex, with the ninja girl sleeping cuddled up on his chest.
Oh, the implications.

"Morning, you two!!" He bellowed in a deep voice, rough from unused vocal chords after sleep. "You two look cute together," he added, stepping into the room.

The morning light started to peak in through the windows, he hadn't slept at all. The urges were getting stronger, much stronger than they were a week ago.

"What the hell is happening to me?"
-----
Help me...

The silent request jerked him out of his boredom, looking past the counter curiously to see where it had come from. His eyes narrowed in confusion when he saw nothing, leaning to one side showed nothing down the isles either...

"Looking for something?" Oh, his boss was here. Maybe that was it?

"No, thought I heard something." He responded distractedly, only focusing in on the man he was talking to after a few more moments. "Did you ask for help a moment ago?" He asked, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

His boss shook his head, "Nah, you're just hearing things. Take it easy, don't want you picking up work stress." his boss patted him sympathetically on his shoulder as the man walked off, presumably to do boss things in the backroom.

"Yeah. Just stress." The teen sighed, settling back down. He was feeling pretty tired.
--------

"Are you okay? You're always tired these days." She asked the teen with worry in her voice.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I'm just too preoccupied lately." He responded half heartedly, but the look on her face spoke volumes as to how well she bought his dismissal.

"I don't think you're eating right, vitamin deficient can make you tired like this you know..." She clapped a fist in her palm, "Oh, what about that new chinese place on 3rd? Some protein would do you good."

"Chinese food doesn't have protein, it's just grease." He groused.

"It has meat. Meat is protein. Now come on, you're paying." She laughed, he sighed.
--------

"You're looking better!" She commented cheerfully, a 'I told you so' look on her face.

"Yeah, I guess all I needed was a good meal after all. I'm actually kind of hungry now, you want to grab something?" he replied, in better cheer than he had been in a while - His energy spiking up back to normal again.

"Oh? Taken a liking to chinese have we?" she teased.

"Hardly, I'm in the mood for some burgers - Not that grease covered junk." He replied easily.
-------

Ugh, what the hell? His legs and arms were so stiff, it felt like he was made of air-dried clay... He was doing so good there for a while, was it just a fluke?

"I feel worse than before..."
-----

"knock kno- Oh, I'm just coming in. You here?" A feminine voice rang out in his apartment. She had been coming over more and more lately, it was nice to know someone like her really cared. "Mmm... That smells good, when did you learn to cook?" She had entered the kitchen staring over his shoulder expectantly.

In front of him, steak grilled carefully, his attention focused solely on the slab of meat he had picked up from the store earlier. "Har. Har. If you're not nice to me I won't let you have any." He shot back.

She put her hands up in surrender, sitting down with a smile. "How cruel of you, to deprive a pretty girl like me an honest meal! And after all I've done for you..."
-------

He felt horrible. Maybe he needed to schedule a doctor's appointment, this wasn't something he could just keep ignoring or putting off. He had already talked to his boss about taking some time off - An idea the man had agreed with, seeing as how the boy had been looking more and more like death chewing on a cracker lately.

The door to his apartment opened, he was stiff and tired.. And...

"Hey. you're home early!" Her voice called in from the kitchen, something was cooking. She had broke into his apartment to cook him lunch? "Sorry. I wanted it to be a surprise, I have something I want to ask you..."

Damn that smelled good, he was hungry. He found himself walking towards her, only half listening to her words in his fatigue. "-ith me? I think we have really good chemistry and... I don't know, I think I'm just rambling now, feel free to stop me whenever because I'm really nervous an-" Her mouth was shut abruptly by application of lips.

"That works." She responded breathlessly as he moved to continue. As far as relationships went, starting off with hot makeout sessions was good. Right? Oh... Damn he was good. Her mind went blank.

Then all hell broke loose outside as a massive shadow beast flickered into existence and the apartment shook.
-----------

That was yesterday. He stared down at her lifeless eyes, the corpse of his... friend? lover? staring up at the wet morning sky - It was still raining from yesterday. Whatever the hell had shown up was apparently gone, but the entire street and apartment section had been reduced to ruins.

Oddly, he felt good. Better than he had all week. He felt good enough to head back to work, actually - Hell, run a marathon. Giant freaks of nature should spontaneously ruin his life more often if it would leave him feeling like this!

He wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and hopped out of the ruined apartment building. Place was deserted, cops and the like would probably be here soon... Nah, he didn't feel like dealing with those guys. It'd ruin his day.

With a whistle, he walked out into the early morning light.

"Woman found dead in apartment...", this was only one of many headlines of the newspaper this morning. Already having grabbed breakfast, and finished it just prior a few minutes ago, he is now sitting nice and liesurely on the rooftop of a building. It wasn't hard for him to get to high places, his training did include this sort of thing afterall, since high places meant an easier to get element of surprise.

Otherwise, he was just sitting there reading the news, everything was somewhat expected, he can conclude from all the strange incidents over the newspaper was as a result of the chaos of gaining these counterparts. There was nothing about anything supernatural, but that was to be expected. It's being covered, but at this rate it wouldn't be long until it's all exposed.

"I wonder what could've happened...", asked Inari, sitting nice and snug next to Matthew.

"You and your friends of course...", he bluntly replied, changing the page.

"That's a mean way to put it", she pouted, blowing a puff from her pipe.

"Well I'm technically right anyway... This merging of worlds you told me a bit about, do you know anymore?", he asked.

"Unfortunately no, I'm a very distant kind of person, I like to be isolated", she said, holding her head up high as if proud.

"You're definitely the opposite to that... But if you don't know anything... Maybe another person's 'counterpart' will?...", he inquired.

"Maybe, there are plenty of knowledgeable ones in my world buuut... Whether or not they came over, or not is a whole other story", she reminded him.

"Great, so no leads. Maybe we'll just snoop around until we find something out...", he sighed, discarding the newspaper. He got up and checked the weight of his knives, two strapped on his back, and two tied on the back of his waist, and two hidden under his forearm sleeves, one each, as well as a pistol for good measure.

"Well, with something like this, I doubt the underworld or even this world can provide information...",

"So", responded Inari, getting up. "What'll it be?"

"We're having ourselves a bit of hunting...", he replied, with a smile, Inari gave her response before disappearing.

"Of course."

Ariel could hear his breathing.

She had slipped into dreams somewhere between both worlds.

She walks along the corridors, the sound of her boots echoing ever-so- slightly off the metal walls.

She looks up. Shadows, pouring down hell on earth. Suddenly, the pain, exploding through his chest, knocking him back. Shirt stained with blood. Shock assaulting her senses. It hurts so much.

Tears running down her cheeks.

Tears falling freely now. Eyes sting. Can't see anymore.

For Ariel, the world goes black.

She forced her eyes to open and then, she looks at Seraph Seaitiel.

"Isn't there another world beyond this world?" Ariel asked Seraph Seaitiel.

Ariel looked at him and then it dawned on her. It was not a dream.

Surprise showed on his bright features and concern furrowed his brow. "Y-yes."

I must have gone crazy. Wait a minute, why are we in the air?

White wings surrounded her and seemed to glow bluish in the moonlight.

"Even though this world is on the eve of its destruction, the sun still rises in the morning. It really says something about this place," the devil Mephistopheles says to himself while standing alone in a dark warehouse. "I see, Alex seems to be doubting himself...," he says while he looks into the heart of his counterpart. He has been keeping tabs on him and any others who are to play a role in this. Its much easier to play a game when you know where all your pieces are after all.

"Ah, what do we have here..." the devil focuses his gaze on a young man perched on a rooftop. He was flipping through a newspaper and talking with what had to be his counterpart. Mephistopheles grinned that horrible grin of his, "Friend or foe, ally or enemy, either way it would be best to keep him close..." A surprised look can across the devils face, "Oh, he's going hunting is he?" his grin stretched to disturbing proportions, "Oh this will be too easy!" he lets out a small chuckle, then proceeds to contact Alex's gang of street punks, giving them new orders, telling them where to look, and showing them what their person of interest looks like.

"Hehehe...",

Inari disappeared from sight. It appears he was being targetted by just a small... No, more were coming, it was nearly a full gang at this point. The alleyway was narrow, he was only just running through it as a shortcut, but if he knew this was going to happen, he would've stuck to just the rooftops.

"So you're the guy?", asked one. The gang wielded baseball bats, steel poles and lead pipes, hockey sticks, brass knuckles... The way they moved, the way they stood... These guys were only a waste of time.

"If you've got business with me, hurry up", he demanded. Matthew, didn't need his knives for this but maybe... For this many to come, it wasn't coincidence they targetted him. Someone must be watching somehow, as far as he knew, not even the best surveillance network could pinpoint him, and there was no surveillance set up on the city as a whole. This must be the work of something else entirely...

"Boss said for us to look for ya, and do what we want", replied the gang member. Just looks like they want a fight...

"Fine then... But you should have brought less, because none of you, will leave this alley alive", he stated coldly. Revealing a knife from under his sleeve. With this many, in order to maintain his energy, he was going to have to kill them quickly, but first... He'll need information from these guys. If this boss of theirs can find him, it's going to be a pain having him around. He had little doubt he could turn him into an ally though, but if his theory was correct, this guy would be watching this very instant.

Matthew took a step to the side, letting an attempted surprise attacked miss and stumble forward, simply whipping his right leg over and up, he axe kicked the attacker in the back of the head, sending him into the concrete, cracking it and killing him. There was a pause and silence as they saw their friend so abruptly killed...

"... He was... he was a good man!", from the same group, the one behind him, charged. He could hear footsteps from the other side, so his move was to be quick. Throwing his knife square into the saddened friend's heart without remorse, before he even fell from the sudden fatality, Matthew was already running up his body as a surface, while retrieving his knife. With that, he backward flipped high into the air, looking down as he saw the group charge, and now become one merged force. Well, he can escape now, but then he'd never get to know what he needed.

"I only need one of you guys alive... So hurry up", he taunted. With a confused and scared expression, they looked to each other, then charged.

The rest wasn't hard, part of his training back in the day was fighting several spec ops operatives in hand to hand combat. This was much easier than that. In the blink of an eye, five were already down from a fatal strike from the dagger, he aimed at the necks each time, making it quick and easy. He noticed some fled after seeing so many die so quickly, but all he needed was one guy. That was all.

The rest fell dead quickly, their faces were smashed in by their own weapons, as Matthew picked them up and rammed the butt of them into their heads. Often dropping them right afterward, he kicked one in the chin with a nearly perfect split, sending the thug at least a metre into the air until he landed with a broken jaw. There was only two left, it was as if they remembered his last words before he began to slaughter them...

They turned and ran, but more quickly than they could turn, Matthew threw a knife square into the leg of one of them. Walking up to the now fallen thug, who turned around to face him, Matthew looked down. These were the eyes of a trained assassin, an experienced 'interogator', and someone who killed as part of every day life.

"So... You tell me the name of your boss, where he is, and why he sent you guys after me... I've got questions for him", the man didn't speak, his eyes half crying gritting his teeth feverishly. Matthew just surveyed the rest of the body for signs, and only noticed there was a wet patch in his pants...

As if from nowhere, he threw another knife, the only time he's ever used a second one in this little... Murder fest. The knife proved it's sharpness by implanting itself nice and snugly in the concrete next to the thug's face. It seemed that this woke him from fear.

"He-he-he's... In a safehouse, not too far from here... He sent us for... I dunno, he just... I really don't know why but... His name is Alexander but... But... There's this strange thing, Mephistopheles I think... That appeared after awhile ago. He-he-... He was the one that... Sent us the order...", something started to smell, Matthew better get out of here before it begins to dominate.

"Good enough", he stated, pulling his knife from the ground, and the other, from the man's leg. Ignoring his cry of agony as he did so. He didn't expect this man to know where the safehouse was... It wouldn't be much of a safehouse if a simple lackey knew where it was. Although he figures this boss will just find him when he gets close anyways.

"My, weren't you ruthless~", Inari appeared shortly after he left the alleyway.

"This is an everyday thing. Whether or not I'm ruthless doesn't matter", he replied.

"Well, we have a lead now right?", she confirmed.

"Yeah, we do".

Mephistopheles... What an ominous name...

Matthew was walking through yet another alley. He had a feeling he was being watched, and his feelings weren't wrong.

Suddenly the alleyway seemed to go on forever in both directions, and it seemed to stretched up to infinity. The wall where dark, and the air was thick. It looked like some kind of nightmare, but it was daylight a second ago.

"No light can overpower my darkness if i so choose to let my darkness free,"this deep ominous voice came from a tall figure whose image was as equally ominous as his voice. He looks like a well dressed man with no hair and pale skin, but something was off. He seemed unnatural. "I am the one who has been watching you human," he was close now, but a moment ago he seemed yards away. In an instant he seemed to of glitched out of existence from his far away position to his current position in arms length of Matthew. "I am Mephistopheles."

Resha stared down the hall way, it seemed Miracle Boy had already awoken - from her position she could barely make out the girl from last night and... Eldy? She sighed, what kind of shit was she getting herself into with these people?

Merging worlds, revolution, monsters... She was either heading towards jail, an insane asylum or six feet under. Despite Edly's statement the night before, she herself couldn't feel anything different though.

Eldy had a magical butler, Miracle Boy could explode buildings, that weird boy...thing... had looked more animal than human. What about her? She caught herself staring at her hand, searching in vain for something that simply wasn't there. Her fingers clenched in frustration, was she really starting to buy into this con scheme?

No, come to think of it...The little girl didn't seem to have anything odd about her either. Then again, she had just shown up abruptly in the chaos and they brought her with them. She was just a casualty in all this, right?

She wasn't involved, just a victim of circumstance.

Then there were her mental switches to think about lately. With all the chaos happening since yesterday she had been acting pretty eratically in hindsight.

Why did she leave the safehouse in the first place? Logically she would have stayed her and accepted help.

Why did she come back after she left? Normally she would have stuck to her guns, good or bad.

Why did she volunteer to play along with this little scharade? It was ridiculous, something she wanted no part of today. Did a night's sleep really make that big of a difference? She was making choices at a moment's notice with no thought to their consequences - This wasn't like her.

Her thoughts wandered back to the night before - To her fingers curled inward and hovering with a finality above the girl's throat. What were her thoughts then? She didn't recall moving, much less what brought her to whatever she had been about to do.

"Maybe I'm crazy..." She mumbled to herself, the idea had merit. It would explain her inconsistencies in thought lately AND the ungodly abilities of the people around her. Yeah, if it wasn't for the massive destruction outside, it would explain everything.

Denial? All of the destruction outside was caused by faulty gas mains or terrorists and her subconscious substituted supernatural elements into it to help her cope? That was a good theory, it explained everything so far.

Which meant she just needed to find the nearest insane aslyum, check herself in, and be done with it. After that, all of this would be over with! It was foolproof.

...Except she didn't really want to spend the rest of her foreseeable life in an insane asylum. Which left these people. She didn't really want to spend the rest of her foreseeable time with these people either.

Kill

Yes, that could work. If she killed them all then she could avoid the insane aslyum and spending time with them. Why hadn't she thought of this sooner? The answer really was right there - If you don't like something then kill it.

Her eyes refocused mid-stride, she was in what served as the living room for this place with her arm extended towards Miracle Boy in the same manner as the night before. What the hell was she...?

Resha quickly altered it's course, patting him on the shoulder as she made great effort to just continue walking by, without breaking her stride. Just make it seem like a casual pat on the shoulder for good morning or something.

Her eyes furrowed in irritation, walking clean past the group of Miracle Boy, Eldy and some... Prostitute? No, that was the girl from last night. It didn't matter, she was tired and hungry.

A few moments later, tuna salad sandwhich in hand, she leaned against the counter and chewed upon it mechanically. Absently she remembered how terrible it tasted... then took another bite.

"Well... That was easy", he muttered. The darkness around him, the blank black of shadow itself, he was not unfamiliar with it. The only thing he was unfamiliar with was the figure in front of him. Mephistopheles.

"So Mephistopheles... No, that's going to get awkward to say. Mephisto... Mind telling me what's been happening the last few days?", he inquired. The only thing irking him was the perception of distance with this guy... He always seemed to be either too far away or too close. With all this darkness, he can only assume that this guy had abilities relating to the darkness. Specifics might not matter. If this darkly fashioned man didn't have any interest in him, he had a feeling that they wouldn't be meeting face to face.

"I only know as far as worlds merging... I was hoping I could find someone who knew more than that", he continued. Appearing by his side was Inari,

"Hey... I have a bad feeling about this guy", she asked, nearly trying to hide behind him.

"Of all the inhabitants of the other world I've ever seen... He is clearly the shadiest", she described.

"Well, it's better than staying ignorant of affairs", he bluntly stated. He then turned back towards Mephisto, waiting for his answer.

"Human, either say the full name or don't say it at all. If you must you can just address me as Devil," Mephistopheles looks down at the man and his counterpart when he begins to grin, "And I don't think you are in any position to be demanding information from me. For all I you can choose to be my enemy."

The tall devil looks at the timid goddess hiding behind the boy and lets out a deep dark laugh, his odd facial features seem warped as he does, "Shouldn't you be protecting him? This is a sight. How odd that such a competent human be dealt such a cowardly companion by fate. Nothing is more humorous then cruel irony."

He turns to the young man again, grin even longer and more twisted then before, "Human, you have slaughtered some of my soldiers. Though they're worth varied greatly, it was still better then being down so many men. How do you plan on repaying me? Think about that before you start asking favors of me."

"Convenient, 'Devil' is even easier to say...", but right now, seemed to be a convenient proposition.

"Hey, what do you mean by irony?", it seems Inari was rather prideful of herself, suddenly stepping out from behind him. Before she could speak another word, he silenced her with his hand over her mouth.

"So, were I to do any odd jobs for you, you'll give me answers to what's happening right?", he asked. What he had to offer was many times more valueable than that of this devil's 'men'. He was sure not to refuse. Were he to take this offer, it wouldn't be any different to taking jobs in the underground, whether it be for information, supplies or money.

"I'm sure the 'Devil' has use for a reaper for hire...", he finished.

Muffled screams rang out from the door leading down to the basement of the house. The voices.. they sounded strangely familiar.. With a sudden realization, Keiko realized that they were the voices of her parents. Without wasting a second, she grabbed the nearest weapon - a katana her father had forged himself. She rushed into the basement and was met with the sight of her parents and sister tied to chairs, bloody and helpless. They were being tortured.

Stunned by the shock of seeing her family in such a condition, Keiko did not notice the man creeping up behind her until it was too late. She was caught, and would face the same fate as her parents. For hours, she was forced to watch her parents be tortured - every time she tried to look away, the bastard cut her in various places.

She struggled to break free of her bonds. She had to fight back. She had to save her family.

She broke free, and immediately rushed to grab her father's katana. The bastard noticed, ironically too late to prepare. Keiko raised the sword and, with a scream, brought it down upon his head, killing him instantly.

She rushed to her family to find them all dead except for her sister.

---------------

"Daddy?" Keiko mumbled as she cuddled against the chest of the man who she thought was her father. "I love you."

"Morning, you two!! You two look cute together." In her stupor, She heard the voice as feminine;just like her mother's.

"Mommy? Is that you?" she called out to the voice, simultaneously turning her head and opening her eyes. As she opened her eyes, what she saw was definitely not her mother. It was a man. Hatman. The shock woke her up fully, and compelled her to check the identity of her 'father.' It was Shadowman.

Keiko jumped off of Shadowman in shock. What had compelled her to sleep on his chest? As she thought about it, she remembered her dream. The memories of her family being tortured. The memory of her sister dying in her arms as she entered the hospital doors. The memories were too much;she couldnt take it. She sank to the floor, sobbing.

"Well, now i at least know your open to the idea, but do you really think odd jobs can replace a human life? What is is you humans say, 'an eye for an eye?'" Mephistopheles looked at the young man scrutinizingly, sizing up his worth. He knew that the man was worth much more then the thugs Alex had running in his gang, but not enough to replace them and merit revealing the nature of whats going on. "Once you pay me back for the damages, then I will consider letting you in on our little game," the devil held out his hand, as if initiating a deal, "Swear your loyalty to my counterpart and myself, and I'll call it even for you slaughtering so many of my men. Then once your a player in my game I will tell you what you need to know," another sinister grin appears on the devils face, "You can always refuse my offer, but I will have to avenge those young men you killed my own way."

---------------------

So it wasn't a dream. "Daddy? I love you." Hearing words that seemed so out of place stirred Alex from his sleep. It was morning and most everyone was out of there rooms.

"Huh, me?" Alex asked the sleepy-eyed girl. A look of shock was on her face upon her realizing her mistake, and she jumped off of Alex, collapsed to the floor, and started to cry. Alex hates crying girls. They make him feel so vulnerable, something he couldn't allow, but for some reason could never get angry at them. It was most frustrating.

He gets down next to her, not sure of what to say or do. He placed his hand on her back and in a feeble attempt to comfort her said, "Look, I'm sorry. Whatever happened, I swear I didn't mean it... I don't even remember anything happening, I swear..." It was painfully obvious that Alex had no clue how to comfort a crying girl let alone understand how they feel. His mind always jumped to the wrong conclusions when dealing with girls, usually to make it something closer to something he could understand, something from the world he lived in.

Slowly, the white room of her dreams faded away, and Arietta was awoken abruptly after falling off the bed and smacking her head on the hard side table. A tired groan escaped her throat as she felt the place where her forehead had made contact with the table's corner. Hand coming away dabbled in blood, Arietta placed her hand back over her minor wound and slothed over to the white porcelain sink on the opposite side if the room.

"Good morning, Arietta." Teofila gave kind words of greeting, seeing that her counterpart's day wasn't quite off to a good start, "Even with the first seconds of the day... you manage to hurt yourself." Arietta felt her kind 'other' sigh indside of her.

"I wonder if they have bandaids...?" Arietta questioned aloud. After seaching with little discovery of any bandaids, she decided that she'd have to ask Alex. Unexcited about the prospect of talking to a stranger, more or less her savior, but a stranger, the slightly boolied girl tentatively peeked her head out of the door at the end of the hall.

Outside, she could see the the ninja girl had returned... and she was crying. Teofila encouraged, "Come on now. Don't dawdle. You can do it, so be brave. It's just a question."

"I..." Arietta hesitated at the sight of so many people in one place. She wasn't familiar with these people, and it made her uncomfortable about... everything. With a couple more words of reassurance from Teofila, Arietta eventually stepped out of her room and walked down the hall. Auburn pig tails bounced above her shoulders, and her clothes were wrinkled from being slept in.

She quietly entered the living room, and, once she was near everyone, her confidence that had filled her just seconds ago drained out of her, and her whole body became stiff. For something as insignifigant as a bandaid, Arietta felt that the scene playing out before her could stand to be left undisturbed.

The ninja girl cried and cried and, as Alex tried to comfort her, her condition remained the same. A strong feeling of sadness and sympathy for this girl swept over Arietta, and she couldn't help but reach out and touch the girl's shoulder. Others in the room hadn't realised Arietta had entered, and stood surprised... both at her bloodied forehead, as well as her 'bold' actions.

She stood there with her hand on the girl's shoulder for a moment, before even she was surprised by her actions. The girl looked up at her with red and puffy eyes, and many of the others in the room stared at her. Immediately assuming that she would be scolded for showing affection, Arietta squrimed under the stares and blurted out, "I'm sorry... i shouldn't have... i mean... i'm really sorry..."

Her father had always yelled at her if she tried to sit with her mother or comfort her when she was crying from her father's harsh accusations... all of her life that was what she had been taught. He would say that her mother should be able to deal with it on her own. "Help" and "comfort" were unneccessary and... well... wrong. The image of her father hitting her mother ran back through her mind.

Slowly, Arietta backed up while apologizing. The trauma she had felt yesterday when she was kicked out of her home returned, and she moved down the hall. Soon running back into her room and locking the door, hiding under her covers, she continued repeating her apologies. Such fear teared at her heart that she disappeared from reality. Entering the white room. Teofila's star had grown into a red-black star once again, and Arietta laid her face on her legs, tears wetting her clothing.

"Swearing loyalty is something I can't do. I live only for myself", he stated easily. Despite the situation, the words came out naturally, meaning he was dead set on that. But he needed information, information was a valueable commodity, he wasn't going to underestimate that.

"On the other hand I can swear allegiance. I help you, you give me information. I'll think of some way to replace your men later. I have plenty of 'favors' owed to me in the underworld anyway", he offered instead. Reasons to why swearing loyalty was impossible for him, was it's link and ties with 'loyalty', back then, he could've easily sworn such a thing. But after the events of his betrayal to the government, he began to stand only for himself. In no way does he seek to bind himself in the chains of loyalty ever again.

Whilst negotiations went about, Inari was watching, smoking her pipe as she did so. She was getting fidgety, the presence of such darkness would do this to anyone, but for Matthew who was used to it, it was normal for him.

"Ahh, jeez...did I do that?" Kane scratched the back of his head, slightly shamed.
I was just kidding...
"Hey, I was jokin', you were probably tired or somethin' and just fell asleep there on accident, right, er...ninja girl?"
Oh, I don't know her name.

The chaos in the room was interrupted by...
Er...damnit, I don't know Sheep Girl's name either.
...comforting the crying girl, followed almost immediately by flustered, embarrassed apologies.

He cocked his head with an almost tired, dead expression on his face. "These people."
Resha sat quietly by the kitchen, eating the flaming shit sandwich; Alex was failing at an apology; the little girl was apologizing for whatever reason; Ninja girl was weeping on the floor like a baby.

He signed in resignation. "Guess I'll have a day old sammich," he mumbled, joining Resha in the kitchen.

"It's a monster!!"
Wait, what's a monster?"
"Why is it here?? Someone call law enforcement!"
Wait,
"Wht?" He murmured, mouth full.
Nobody seemed to have said anything.
He swallowed. "Did anyone hear..." but his words were lost over the commotion.

Small creatures, fleeing?
Small...oh, what did you do??

Shadowman got up suddenly and started trying to comfort Keiko. He didnt do a good job;he just mumbled words and patted her back.

Then, the little girl walked in. She saw Keiko, looked confused for a second, and then walked towards her. Keiko looked up at her. Her eyes.. they were full of concern.. She was sincere, unlike Shadowman over there who was just trying to "contain a situation"

Trust

Could she trust her? Open up to her? Wouldnt it be putting too much of a burden on her tiny little shoulders? She was young, after all.. No reason to trouble her. But.. She could be a friend..

Friend? I havent had one in a long time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the little girl getting a panicked look in her eyes and running away. Did she think that she would be killed for showing concern? Keiko felt like saying something, calling her back, but was again interrupted, this time by Hatman.

"Ahh, jeez...did I do that? Hey, I was jokin', you were probably tired or somethin' and just fell asleep there on accident, right, er...ninja girl?"

"The name is Keiko, Hatman. I'd prefer you use it."

Gettin up suddenly, She glared at both Hatman and Shadowman and ran off after the little one. She had to make sure that the girl didnt think she would kill her.

As tears slipped down Arietta's reddened cheeks in the white room, Teofila slipped out of the star above, basically floating down to where Arietta sat curled up. "There, there," Teofila spoke softly, "It's all right. These people aren't going to ridicule you... if they were then i would never have let you stay with them, isn't that right?"

The girl looked up at her companion within her soul with gratitude and admiration, "Mhmm..." She wiped her wet cheeks with the back of her hand, and stood, rising to Teofila's level.

"I'm glad you understand... and i think its about time that I let you know a little more about yourself... and exactly how you happen to be connected to me. Okay?"

Arietta couldn't refuse, so she just nodded her head in response, "Okay then. First thing's first. I'm not like you. I come from an entirely different world than yours... and when your world collided with mine, i found your soul and took root in it. By blood, i am a soul phoenix, and, more or less, you are my child. Because i'm nested in your soul, i'm obligated to take care of you...
"And... because we are connected, you will earn all of my own abilities, just as a child would recieve certain traits from their parents. One, you cannot, theoretically, die. Secondly, with this comes that you have a healing sort of fire. One which... (=.=) as long as you are you, you'll find it useful..."

Arietta stood looking at her... hmm... counterpart? Mother? She wasn't sure... but it was amazing anyways. It made her feel more comfortable that there was someone who would always be there, no matter where she went or how she was feeling. In a reply to Teofila's explanation, the corners of Arietta's mouth lifted, and formed a soft, yet sheepish smile.

Teofila's eyes seemed to brighten, and the white room faded out. When she returned to reality, Arietta was standing next to the bed, and the door to the room had been broken open. Before her stood the ninja girl whose eyes were still a little red, but expressing a deep sense of determination.

Arietta stood in mild shock... wondering what the girl had to say...

Keiko stood next to the little girl's bed. Determined to talk to her. Personal relationships had never been her strong suit. She could manage to talk to people normally, opening up to someone was something she found really hard to do. Talking to the girl was going to be hard. She mustered up all the courage she could, and began to speak.

"Hi.." She said with a slight quiver to her voice. "I...I'm sorry! I didnt mean to make you think I was going to kill you! I wont, I promise! I was just trying to become your friend... My name.. is Keiko.. What's yours?"

Resha waited until Miracle Boy had sat down with his sandwhich before she even made an effort to acknowledge him entering the room, staring thoughtfully out into space as she chewed on her own horrible tuna sandwhich distractedly.

"So," she started suddenly, breaking the awkward quiet that had descended, "Your sandwhich taste as shitty as mine?"

"...My name... is Keiko... What's yours?" Arietta stiffened up at the girl's apology, and instantly averted her gaze to her bare feet, cheeks turning a rosy pink. "I-- I know y-you won't k-kill me..." Arietta shifted her gaze forward, now looking at Keiko's face and said in a voice barely audible, "Arietta."

Fidgetting, Arietta returned her gaze to the floor. Keiko... she didn't seem like a bad person. She was kind, and she seemed like a trustworthy person. Beneath her embarrassment, Arietta smiled, thinking of the wonderful prospect that she might be able to have a friend. Her parents had always forbidden her from bringing friends home or going to others' houses... so people just began to, well, not want to be around her anymore. They saw it as pointless if they couldn't be with a friends any other place than school.

So maybe... with this person... she could be near another human. That it would be someone who wouldn't run away from her or abandon her... someone who could giver her hope. Nervousness drained from Arietta until there was none left, she lifted her head and her smiled formed on her face, "Arietta," this time louder... she was grateful... and for once, truely happy.

"I-- I know y-you won't k-kill me..." the girl said quietly. She seemed... nervous? She was blushing. "Arietta."

Arietta's apparent nervousness made Keiko even more nervous, and she was considering leaving the room, but then.. Something changed in the way she looked at her.. She seemed... confident?

"Arietta." She repeated, this time with more confidence than before. She smiled.

Seeing this, Keiko's resolve strengthened. "Nice to meet you, Arietta!" This was getting easier. She could talk to her without stuttering. "So, um.. How old are you?"

Kane was between two worlds - his subconscious was playing a second scene in his head while his conscious was trying to deal with reality.

"Restrain him!"
Strings. Danger?
What the hell is going on, Kuldr?
"Your sandwich taste as shitty as mine?"
Should attack.
"Ahh! It's going to strike!!"
No, don't attack anyone!
"Huh? Ah..it's--"
Not attack? Flee...?
"Call the magi!"
What? Yeah whatever, just get out of there!
"-shitty?"

A large thud shook the safehouse a little. Kane's senses pointed almost 2 blocks away.

"Oh, what."

Kuldr escaped.
That's great, what the hell is going on?!
Where...?
You were in some other city just a second ago, but now you're...wait, here?!

He started getting a little nervous. He didn't want any part in this, but as Resha pointed out before, he already seemed to have contracted a mild case of "miracles".

Decisions, decisions...
Pretend it didn't happen? There's no avoiding it.
Run away? Creepy would probably find me somehow.
...Confront him?
Kane's eyes darted back and forward as he tried to decide on a plan of action.

"I...I'll be right back!" He yelled, tossing the sandwich in the trash and bursting through the door.
Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit-

Resha watched him leave with a deadpan, following the trajectory arc of his sandwhich into the trash before she looked at her own again. "Yeah, sure. Mine sucks to." She stood up and tossed the sandwhich leftovers into the trash casually before walking out after Kane.

"See ya 'around, Eldy." her flippant farewell as she closed the door behind her and looked from side to side before catching the tail end of Kane's clothes as he dashed around a corner. She sighed and began to walk after him, crossing her arms to stave off the morning cold and the continuing rain.

Stupid Miracle Boy.

"Ahh!! Earthquake!"
You cause trouble wherever you go. What are you?
Kane inexplicably knew exactly where to go, and the sporadic quaking wasn't the only reason. He could feel everything - the cars speeding across the road, the massive quakes, even the raindrops on the pavement..
..and small taps behind him..? Whatever.

He turned the corner and saw it. It was covered in the same shadow as the other creature, and it was just as big. But the shadow dissipated the closer he got to it.

When he was within 10 yards of the beast, he was in full view:
A huge, hulking mass. Two legs, two arms, and what resembled a head. Its 7 foot tall body slouched over as it took each step, leaving huge cracks wherever it moved.
And it was made entirely of a dark brown stone.

"What."
He was momentarily incredulous at the sight, before it dawned on him.
"..Kuldr?"

=========================

He grunted and halted.
He turned his head to see another small creature. Unlike the others, he was easier to see behind the shadows and he felt...different.
His body was heavier than the others.
"Kuldr?"
It called his name. What was he?
Kuldr's stale mind put the pieces together.

It's you.
Hah, so that is you. You're bigger than I expected.

Instinct made Kuldr turn and face the small creature.

You...counterpart?
According to Alex, seems like it.
He grunted again, before walking towards him.

=========================

"Hey, whoa, wait!"
The golem's footsteps almost made Kane lose his balance as he approached, but he didn't back up.
...Merge, huh?
Kuldr was but 2 feet away now.

Kane turned his head and saw that it was Resha that followed him.
He smirked.
"Miracles, am I right?"
A crashing noise and a cloud of dust consumed the pair as they made contact.


...


Kane emerged from the dust, coughing. His footsteps cracked the ground as he stumbled out of the cloud. His boots looked strained and he looked slightly bulkier.
He brushed some dirt off of his jacket with cracked, stone hands.
"That was fun," he spoke dryly.

Well, there went her perfectly normal, nonsupernatural morning that had nothing to do with Absurd common sense defying shadows and unexplainable shit.

And it was going so well to.

She opened her mouth to say something, but really what was there to say? 'Oh hey, giant crazy shit just happened. Morning.'? No, there really was nothing she could say to this. What little plausible deniability she had cobbled together up until now was blown clear out the window in one fell swoop, she couldn't even muster the urge to be upset about it either

For what was essentially the event that cemented the destruction of her normal life, she idly noted that her emotions were... Conspicuously not there. Kind of like she had fallen into a trance watching not-so-interesting movies to pass time.

Finally she just sighed, walking towards and past the little Miracle Boy with a deceptively calm and steady gait. "Miracles. Right..." her mumbling portrayed annoyance, but she couldn't really get it to be heartfelt.

Maybe she was just shellshocked? Yeah. That would work. It explain why she didn't seem to really care that her entire life has just been concretely blown till kingdom comes.

"Come on Miracles, we're going to go get some real breakfast." She didn't bother looking back, but her pace was slow and easy - Almost mechanically smooth.

He was slightly taken aback by the calm response, but was happy for the lack of questioning.
"Aight, shouldn't we go back to the others, though?"
Ahh, she isn't really listening.
"Well whatever. Probably don't want to be around here when the smoke clears anyway."
He walked after her, not really caring about the situation anymore. His body felt lighter than before, but he was definitely hitting the ground harder.
Whatever you did worked.
I didn't do anything, human.
Don't get cocky with me, golem.

=====================================

He was back in his world - his mountain.
He looked down at his hands - five fingers.
His weight was significantly less, too.
The golem looked only about 6 and a half feet tall now with much more toned features. His limbs were slightly more rounded than before and his head appeared sculpted halfway into that of a human.
"Ah..Sleep." The golem rumbled, leaning back into the wall of the mountain, sinking into it. He was satisfied with what he learned, and he was tired.

The two of them walked aimlessly for a while, Resha didn't really know where she was going or where she was afterall. She had never been to this part of the city...

She wished she was lost in thought, but the truth was that she wasn't thinking at all. In almost dull and forced enthusiasm she would take a little survey of everything around her.

Those birds looked warm.
That house is pretty shabby.
This road is filled with crags.

If she was lost in thought, at least she'd be getting closer to figuring out what to do.

Eventually they had wandered out into a shopping strip, a fast-food restuarant beckoning enticingly with the smell of unhealthy and mass-production food that would probably test better than the terrible tuna salad back at the safehouse.

She ate her food in silence, disappointingly she couldn't even taste the difference between this and the horrible thing from earlier. She couldn't taste at all.

And come to think of it, she wasn't even that hungry. Kind of sick to her stomach, actually. Resha set her fork down, looking over at Kane blankly in silence that had stretched on since she had met him this morning.

"What the hell are we doing?" she asked, deceptive calm and a light tinge of curiosity in her tone. She hated not having any idea what to do when there was a feeling digging into her that she was supposed to be doing something.

"These shadow things are real." She continued, listing out facts she knew to help sort things out. "I may not have one, but you and Eldy obviously do. More over, I'm apparently in danger because I lack one and they have an interest in me."

She took a moment to savor a sip of her soda, the cool carbonation leaving her feeling even more complacent.

"Eldy wants a new world order, those things want... I don't mnow. To destroy us? We don't even really know what the hell they are and suddenly we're involved." She pressed her plate to the side and set her elbows on the table as she tented her fingers together in thought.

"You have one of those things, you're arguably deeper into this than I am. While I don't seem to have much of a choice in this matter, because if I stray to far - Odds are I'll be shadowchow.

But you, you can do whatever the hell you want. Work with Alex, strike out on your own agenda, hell, even go back to your old life and ignore all of this happened."

She sighed, there was something underneath that thick cloak of calm and detachment that was furious. The more she actively thought about this, the hotter the fires stoked.

"What are you going to do? You have a choice to be involved or not, so which way are you going?"

He rolled up his sleeve and removed his right glove, fully displaying his cracking, statuesque forearm.
"That last part was wrong. Can't exactly be normal with this goin' on, can I?"
He put his glove back on.
"You're right that more weird shit's happenin' to me than you, and you may be right that I have more options."
He sighed.
"But what can I do, really? You'd think I'd gain some omnipotence by fusing with some creature of lore...but it doesn't mean I can do anything."
He paused and sighed.
"Doesn't mean creepy and his gang of circus freaks can do shit either. I like how that guy pretends he's jus' tryin' to survive when he's tryin' to start an uprising."

I'm just trying to get by. I'm honestly afraid.
Afraid?
Yeah, who knows what's going to happen when this thing goes through completely.
Must wait.
Yeah, yeah. Work on your grammar.

He looked at his food, which he barely touched yet.
"So I got a question for you."
He folded his hands in a mock version of hers.
"What do you want to do? Because I don't got any plans in particular."
I think my apartment was in the wreckage too, come to think of it.

“Kirin, if you don’t mind, I wanna know more about this myth world you come from. What’s it’s like, the environment, monsters and creatures, everything. Since I have a feeling I’m gonna be going there soon, I need to know what everything is like, ya know?”

“Yeah I know. I was hoping we’d get to have some type of help, but they’re all gone to that Alex person. Shame really. Hmm well where do I start… Well where I come from, there are a lot of palaces. They are there to house the kings of the eastern empire”

“What are the kings of the eastern empire, and also what IS the eastern empire?” Rui interrupted Kirin

“Ahh well, the kings of the eastern empire are dragons you see, well they share the throne with other powerful creatures. Those powerful dragons and other various creatures make up the power of the eastern empire. And also, the Eastern empire is the empire that houses all creatures related to the eastern mythology of your world. For example, all known Oni’s and Yokai are housed in the Eastern Empire while all vampires, werewolves and the like are housed in the west. I’ve never been to the west, so I don’t know much except what I’ve heard.”

“Now then,” Kirin continues with his description, “I live to serve one of the Dragon kings, Ao Run. He’s the king of the western part of the empire. I lived in a majestic palace, gold everywhere, pillars sparkled gold but painted red. It was glorious. The landscape of the Eastern Empire was somewhat magnificent. I say somewhat because while the palaces and the land surrounding the palaces of the kings and lords and such were great and rich, the lands outer to it were poor. Many creatures forced to fight each other to consume and such. Barbaric it was. Those creatures that you saw when I first met you were one of them.”

“But wait,” Rui again interjected, “If those were creatures that lived in the poorer parts of the land, why were you there?”

“Ahh good question Rui. Well you see just after this world merging, some kings and other royal creatures were merged to humans. At first we didn’t noticed, but after a while the royals were slowly beginning to become corrupted. They soon changed a lot of things. One of which is to destroy the Sinner patrol unit. I had to run away and I came across you.”

“Well I guess that just about covers the background, and more extensively what you’ll be facing once we get there. I won’t lie, it’s gonna be perilous. Creatures who were ranked as weak are now getting strong; I’ve witnessed and felt it first hand. They are strong. That’s why we need allies,” Kirin said ominously.

“I hate to say it but, we’d have to ally ourselves with Alex and his band. But we’ll be wary of him, don’t worry,” Rui responded.

Before Arietta could reply to Keiko's question, the ground shifted beneath them, and Arietta lost her balance. Falling over, confusion flashed across her face, What's happening here? Why is there-- Her thoughts were interrupted once she slammed hard against the tough floor. A small 'umph' escaped her lips and she grimaced... it was where she had fallen the day before, and, even though the impact was weak, it made pain rush through her side.

For the moment, she tried to divert her thoughts to... otherwise. Keiko was standing at Arietta's door, a worn gun brandished in her hand, and doors at the front of the dinky shack opened and closed. Hearing voices, Arietta determined that it was Resha who had left after the one punk-y boy. Slowly, she stood up and walked her way to where her new friend stood.

She gently pushed her way by Keiko and entered the hallway. Alex was standing alone at the center of the so-called 'living room', staring... or more like glaring, after the two who had just up and left out of nowhere. Arietta stepped her way towards their somewhat self-proclaimed leader, and stood at the end of the stretch of hall... also gazing at the door.

Within no more than a few moments, Arietta had jogged back into her room, pulled on her pale pink raincoat and spotted boots, and returned to her spot at the center of the hall's 'archway'. Confidence she had artificaially built just minutes ago melted away, and her timidness returned... Quietly, she moved her way past Alex and opened the door to the cold morning air, turning, she said, "I- I'll come back." Immediately, she ducked her head and rushed out the door...

Reasons for as to why she had felt compelled to see what was happening with Resha and the boy were unknown... but the farther she walked, the less convinced she felt about being able to even find them in the first place. A huge amount of alleyways surrounded the area, some filled in with debris, some not... they could be anywhere. Sighing, Arietta plopped down on a nearby peice of concrete and hummed a sort of sad tune.

She lifted her hand to rest her head on it, but winced at the pain. Her head... that's right. "Teofila?"

"You should try it. I want you to start making it a habit... as you are the most exceptionally clumsy individual i have ever known."

"Eh-hehe..." Arietta's cheeks reverted to their previous rosy pink hue as she lifed her hand behind her neck and smiled with a little tick at the corner of her lips. She removed her hand from the back of her neck, and looked at the pale appendage. Sighing, she lifted it to where her wound was still wet with her (usually internal) red liquid.

Closing her eyes, her mind sort of went blank... what was she supposed to do? A calmness came over her and dispelled her worries, then a warmth spread across her hand, then to her wound. Arietta pulled her hand away and saw a soft blue fire had enveloped it...

The fire slowly dissipated, and the now curious girl felt her forehead. No pain was produced from her action, and when her hand was re-inspected not a single drop of fresh blood smeared her fingers. Teofila wasn't lying. Arietta was like them... like Alex and the punk boy... and it made her feel more... comfortable. Not for a particular reason, it just did.

The ground shook almost knocking Alex off his feet. Kane ran out, Resha followed. "What the hell...?" Arietta ran out as well but at least she said she would be back. "Damn, what a crazy morning we are having."

A phone rings from his room. "Oh, must be for me." He hurries off to his room and shuts the door behind him. "Hello? Oh, alright. No, I'll come by to pick it up soon, I need some fresh air." He hangs up the phone and proceeds to get dressed.

While walking down the alley on his way to his destination, Alex spots Arietta sitting by herself. "God, what is she thinking hanging around a place like this all by herself?" he says to himself and lets out a sigh. He couldn't just leave her all alone in such a bad neighbored, even if it was the morning.

He comes up from behind her and stands next to her, "What are you doing?" he asks looking down at her. Although he was genuinely worried, his voice seemed hard and inquisitive. "You cant just walk around a place like this all by yourself you know. Come on," he takes her hand, "I have something I need to pick up, but after that we can get something to eat or something then I'll bring you back." Asking her to come with him sounded more like a command then anything.

----------------------------------------

"Those men lived for themselves as well, and you killed them. They believed that their contribution to a cause would give life a new meaning, and yet you stole their lives away without a second thought, stealing what meaning they had," Mephistopheles lectures the man in front of him with a look on his face that conveyed interest, "how curious it is that you think your life had any more value then theres..." the devil pondered to himself for a moment before addressing the man again "Very well, your allegiance for the information. You will need to lead some missions now and again. Nothing you cant handle, I assure you." The devil walked around his guest as he spoke, sizing him up. "Now for those men you killed... how can we arrange a deal for them? Any suggestions form you two would be greatly appreciated."

----------------------------

"Ugh...," A young woman in a cluttered office lay with her head on her desk. The chaos from the rest of the police station could be clearly heard from where she was sitting. Trying to escape into her office for a moments peace was a bad idea.

Her door swings open to reveal a young man who seemed to be taking calls. "Another incident was just reported! Seems like witnesses are saying it was an earthquake, but as far as we can tell, it only effected downtown."

"Cant you tell it to someone else? I already have a lot on my plate as it is..." the young woman whined.

"Sorry, we are very shorthanded recently. Gang violence is on a rise, and with all the shit thats been happening lately, our officers have no time to sleep, so why should you get to rest now?" the man looks at the woman in a very confrontational way, "besides, I'm sure if anyone can handle it, it would be Diana Chase, this cities young prodigy." the man left laughing, closing the door behind him just in time to avoid having a coffee mug hit him in the head.

"What an ass!" She hated people rubbing that in her face. All she ever wanted was some down time, and all her skill has ever gotten her was more work. "Stupid men and there stupid expectations..." she mumbled to herself has she grabbed her badge and her gun. "How's my baby doing?" she says to her monster revolver. There were some perks to being special, as that cannon was far from standard issue.

At the scene of the disturbance the ground was cracked and the cops were scarce. It was easy to see there numbers have dwindled. No one wants to be a cop when everyday you hear about how some poor office was lynched by a mob of gang bangers. Never the less, this was all she was good at. Hunting down scum who terrorize the people. But this didn't seem like the work of gang bangers. It seemed like something massive dropped out of the sky and just disappeared after scaring a few folks. She decided to leave this to the team and go work on more pressing matters. Matters like an alleyway full of corpses and the string of missing persons cases.

"I don't recall ever talking about the values of life... But that aside, I'm glad we've come to an agreement", he stated. He shuffled a bit to a more eased standing position.

"As for your men, there are a number of underground bosses who owe me. I think they'll find it a simple matter to agree with working with you", he wasn't sure about this too much. Afterall, the keyword seemed to be 'loyalty' with this man. However, to replace twenty men with a small army per boss... The quantity as well as equipment quality and training offered well outweighed that of street thugs. The question now was whether or not this man would accept this, he knew well that the mafia groups were more than eager to do some work. Even moreso, they'll be likely to want to know about the current events as well. If not the favor they owe him, he can use that as a bargaining tool.

A detached part of Resha noted she was in headbutting range of Kane since he had also leaned forward. Was she immature enough to do it? No, no she wasn't.

But her nerves were settled, although he didn't look like it - This kid had also been thinking about it. It felt good to know she wasn't the only one really worrying about what was going on.

"Unlike the rest of you, I don't really have a way to defend myself if things get out of hand. So what my choices really come down to is deciding who I'm going to be staying near until the situation changes." she responded contemplatively, half of her considering the situation even now as she spoke,

She sighed, looking out the window towards the morning crowd wandering about. "I could try and go back. To my old life." She mmuttered, "Call up a co-worker, see if they can help me until I get back on my feet so I can rent another apartment... See what my insurance can help me with."

She shook her head, as if to knock the thoughts away. "But no, I can see those damn things. Twice now they've shown up around usw specifically. If I tried to go back now..."

She sat back and sipped her drink, sadly noting that it was pretty empty by now. "I don't trust Alex, suddenly showing up right in time to kill something that huge and then having a safehouse conveniantly ready for us?" She snorted with amusement, "I don't trust him, but he's the strongest freak we've seen so far... And he apparently has a plan. I don't know that I like the plan, but it's better than not doing anything."

"So you do wanna go back?" Kane had leaned back after Resha started talking. "I don't think it's a bad idea either. Like ya said, not much else you can do." He thought for a moment, before adding flatly, "and something tells me he's not gonna let us, anyway."
Before the statement could settle, he added, "You should prolly tell your co-workers what you're doin'...er...that you won't be around. They could think you're dead after that shit downtown."

He stood up, his food half finished. "I wouldn't worry 'bout that second shadow thing though." He looked at his hands again. "..Nah, if anything that one was a good thing."

============================

Floating. It wasn't water - it felt more like space.
Everything was so surreal, but familiar.
A voice?
You two...
Two? Ah, Kuldr is here, too.
You two are bound together by fate. Your worlds are tied and will soon be one.
Where is that voice coming from?
As the worlds merge, so will you, until you are one being.
It's kind of cold in space. Wait, I missed that last part?
Until then, you will share your knowledge with one another, bonding mind and then body.
Share my what?

An intense feeling rushed through both Kane and Kuldr as their respective memories and experiences blended together.
Guardian of the mountains, Son of a sinner,
The adrenaline in their bodies shot to unbearable levels.
I will catalyze the process. You both have much ahead of you.
Everything went black and his senses returned.

Kane emerged from the dust, coughing.

============================

He said I had "much ahead of me." I really don't like the sound of that.
He looked up at Resha again, his attitude returned.
"So you wanna head back now or what? Alex must miss you, ninja girl might've taken your place as his favorite."

"He can have her." She responded, leaving a tip on the table and idly cataloging how much money she had left in her wallet as she stood up to began the trek back to the safehouse.

After a proper breakfast and some time to sort things out, she was feeling much better. Her situation was still pretty shitty, but she could live with this for now.

Now she just had to tolera-
Kill
-Kill the rest of the freakshow.

Resha nodded to herself, not fully aware when her train of thought had shifted so abruptly. It made perfect sense - Kane was okay, Alex and everyone else, with the exception of the little girl, were just going to have to die when she got back.

She smiled a little, it was good to know what to do; hashing it out with Miracles had been a good choice after all.

Arietta was looking up at the dreary sky, thinking about her newfound "powers" when she spotted Alex out of the corner of her eye. What was he doing there? He seemed to have seen her as well and took long strides up to where she was sitting on the big chunk of fallen concrete. Scolding her, he said that she shouldn't be hanging around in a there all by herself. With that, he took her hand and told her he needed to pick something up, and then they'd go back.

She hopped off the block, her rainboots making a loud clack. Alex's hand enveloping Arietta's, the two walked along to an unknown destination. After they had crossed a couple streets and turned some corners, Alex stopped abruptly in front of a large pile of debris composed of Lord-knows-what. After running into Alex's back, she stepped back and pulled herself up next to the man. When he sighed under his breath, Arietta assumed that, beyond the rocks and broken windows, was exactly where they needed to be.

"Good good. A larger army would be most appreciated. I'll leave you to gathering the men for me." Mephistopheles turns away from the young man and begins to walk back down the dark corridor, but turns his head for one last thing, "Then I need you to rob a bank. You can do that cant you?" his grin grew as he watched for his new allies response.

--------------------------------

Alex was staring sadly at the mess in the middle of the street. "Another one must of crossed over... I wonder if it was another bunch of strays like from last night..." He let out a deep sigh and decided to move along. The cops where still here and he had somewheres to be.

It wasn't long before Alex met with another young man in some warehouse not too far from his safe house. The man was wearing a black hoodie that covered his face nicely. He was holding a chrome briefcase in his left hand and looked like he was waiting a while for Alex to show up. "What took you Boss?" he ask as Alex walked in with the young girl. "Who's the tag along?" the hooded man snickered, "Wow boss, I didn't know you were into that kinda thing."

Alex gave the hooded man a dirty look, "I'm not late, I got here right when I wanted to, and never mind the girl, she doesn't concern you," Alex signaled for Arietta to get behind him.

"Chill boss, I'm only trying to stay entertained. No one will think less of you."

"Can it. How did the job go?"

"Very well." the hooded man handed Alex the briefcase. "This should keep you feed and clothed for a while." The man begins to leave, but stops as if remembering something, "Oh, something else you should know. Some of our men where killed in cold blood in an alley."

Alex face turned sour, "What? How did this happen?"

"We don't know. All we can tell is that they were Mephistopheles' men and that one is still missing. Are you sure you can trust that freak? He seems shady."

"He wont do anything to hinder me, so don't worry. We need to find that missing man, so be sure to give the order for a man hunt. I'm going to get some decent food in me." Alex took Arietta's hand and walk out of the alleyway on his way to visit his favorite Chinese food place.

------------------------------------

"So we have a suspect, do we?" Diana said with a smile as she talked with one of the officers at the crime scene. The alleyway that was the stage to this grizzly seen was closed off with yellow tape and had crime scene investigators running back and forth trying to get all the evidence they could.

"Thats right ma'am, a patrol man picked him up fleeing the seen with plenty of blood on him." The office was reading from a clipboard to get his facts straight, "He claims to be a witness, not a suspect. Says he saw the whole thing and barely escaped with his life. We are keeping him in holding now. Would you like to see him?"

"Yeah, i better go and do that," Diana let out a sigh, "And here I was hoping to grab some food. Silly me... You got this taken care of? Let me know if something comes up." With that Diana was off to her car and on her way back to the station. On her way there she ran the facts from the last couple of days though her head. She still needed to find the missing people from the last couple of months, not to mention that some of the people who lived near the indecent last night are still unaccounted for. They are neither alive or dead at this point. If she can find them, she may be able to find out what exactly happened last night. Just a freak gas leak? No, not likely. Her gut told her differently.

The prospect of robbing a bank was...

"Sounds petty, but that's pretty easy", given his merged ability, getting in was easy. All he needed to do was plan an escape route.


"I have a feeling you're not after money though...", he wasn't sure what this guy was after, but either way, such a task was easy. It'll be even easier if what he was looking for was compact. It seemed also at this point, Inari had disappeared from sight, but he could still hear her pipe in his mind for some reason...

"But I can do it, what're you after?", he inquired.

The walk home was swift and silent, the morning rain and chill encouraging the pair to get home straight away rather than be chilled to the bone and possibly catch a cold later.

Once entered, the house itself was all but empty. Alex had apparently left, or was in his room in the back, and the little girl was nowhere in sight. Even the ninja girl from before was apparently gone, but Resha hadn't exactly looked very far yet.

No, her thoughts lay elsewhere. No one was home, which meant she had no one to...

To what? What would they... Oh, yes. Annoying. Since no one was home, she had no one to annoy her. Today was turning out unexpectedly well!

She let a thankful smile slip through, counting her small blessings of the morning and then walked back to her room - With everyone gone, she could grab those spare clothes and use them until her own dried... After she took a shower. This place had to have a shower somewhere.

Her happy thoughts were cut out, however, as she turned the corner and saw the ninja girl in her room. Resha stopped in mid stride and stared blankly, why? The day had been going so well. Everyone was gone, no one was going to annoy her, she was going to take a shower... Damn it, one of those annoying people just had to be home.

And in her room. She didn't understand that, but oh well.

"Well?" She asked from the doorway, looking to Keiko with a raised eyebrow, "Should I expect an explanation for why you're in my room, or chalk it up crazy shadows?"

"Ah, it's cold and it's wet...why did the worlds have to pick a cold, wet day to start merging, huh?" He spoke aloud to the air as he closed the door, following Resha.

He looked around the empty shack.
"Oh, nobody's home, eh? Maybe they ditched us, huh Resh-" he saw Resha strike a cocky pose at someone in her room. "Should I expect an explanation for why you're in my room?" she asked sarcastically.

"Ah, I guess someone's left."
He looked around and realized he had some time to himself for the first time since running into Resha in the alleyway.

He punched his stone fist into his hand and cracked his neck.
He planted his feet firmly onto the floorboard, feeling the creases and consistency of the earth it lay upon.
"Time to see what that Golem could do."

=================================

Kuldr wondered what was to become of him. He wondered what would become of his mountain. He wondered what would become of his world. He wondered, for the first time, why he was wondering anything. He hadn't bothered to wonder before. It was wondrous.

Humans seemed to be very interesting creatures, to be able to entertain so many trivial thoughts at once. It was almost foolish, but somehow fulfilling.

The stone beast who remained dormant for centuries lay wide awake, unable to sleep for the first time, undisturbed in the mountains.

=================================

Shit.
"Oh, shit."
A draft flew in immediately.
Kane had fallen backwards from the shock - he sat in front of a large stone slab protruding at an angle out of the floorboards and through a sizeable hole in the wall.

His eyes narrowed, his muscles tensed.
Instinct kicked in.

"I didn't do it!!"

Resha jumped clear off the floor when the crash happened, turning immediately to look towards the cause of the commotion to see... "Miracle boy!" she growled, a quick irritated glance at the ninja girl in her room was all she spared before she had taken steps towards the living room.

"...?!" She gestured incredulously towards the protuding slab before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes - The strain of visibly calming herself quite evident. "Look..." she started slowly, taking care to pick the right words to get her point across AND spare her sanity.

No. No, it wasn't going to happen. Either her sanity was going to stay intact or her point was going to get across - She liked her sanity.

she opened her eye to stare the rock slab, so long as it didn't go anywhere then there at least wasn't a hole in the wall. It could be ignored. Sort of.

She just turned and walked into her room, past ninja girl, grabbed the dry clothes from last night, out of her room, and resolutely down the hall to the bathroom - The door slamming shut and locking before water could be heard running behind it.

Don't murder the allies, don't murder the allies, don't murder the allies, don't murder the allies...

"Ah..." was all he could say before she stormed off.
She's mad.
Yes, thank you Kuldr. I'm glad you're still spying on me.
You are reckless. You mishandle the earth.
Hey, it was my first time trying it. I don't hear any helpful hints out of you, "partner".
You must feel the...
Yeah, yeah, I have to feel the earth's movements and shit, I'll be more careful next time.
You should apologize.
Eh, it's too late. She walked off. Why should I be apologizing anyway, it's not my dirty old shack!
Kuldr didn't respond again.

"Ahh, whatever."
Using slower, more controlled movements, he shaped the stone slab into a more square shape to sit on. He broke his crate, after all.
"At least it covers the hole."
He leaned back on the rock, wondering where everyone else went.

After they had gone around the debris, Alex and Arietta came across a suspicious looking man with a shining briefcase in his grasp. He stood with an air of impatience and intimidation that made Arietta grip Alex's hand tighter just for the sake of wanting to feel safe.

They stopped at the man and he and Alex exchanged a few words while Arietta half hid behind her "companion" if you would even call him that. Alex recieved the briefcase readily and scanned over what seemed to be an exuberant amount of money before re-closing the case and letting it dangle in the the hand not occupied with Arietta's trembling fingers.

They turned from the dark alleyway as soon as the two men's conversation was finished, and. once again, stepped out into the lighter part of the world. Alex had said that they would get some food of sorts before they went back home, so they walked for a while until they hit a fast food restraunt along a less traffic-packed street corner.

Arietta ordered chicken nuggets and fries, the typical meal for her ever since she was about seven, only paying enough attention to everything else to, at least, say thank you for buying her some food. Nibbling on the end of a fry, Arietta's eyes glazed over while she thought about the traumatizing events that had transpired in the last 24 hours.

They finished eating in silence, and, after a bit, Alex asked her if she was ready to go. Nodding, Arietta pinched a bit of the back of his shirt as they walked back to the safehouse. But... what they found when they get back was... not exactly what they had expected. The place had gotten pretty torn up... and it looked like... the punk boy?... was sitting right in the middle of it.

The ground shook, almost knocking Keiko off her feet.

Something was wrong. Normally, She would automatically balance herself back out.. but not this time. She was teetering on the balls of her feet unable to control herself. The little one.. Arietta, walked past her, gently resting her hand on Keiko's waist and restored her balance.

What was going on? Aside from the fact that she couldnt move a muscle in her body, she felt fine. She wasnt in pain, She could feel everything, She just felt a bit tired, thats all.

So sleepy.. Need sleep..

She wanted to lay down on the bed near her, but couldnt. She settled for just standing there like a zombie. As if she had a real choice in the matter.

"Should I expect an explanation for why you're in my room, or chalk it up crazy shadows?"

The red haired one... Resha.. spoke to her from the doorway. Keiko just stood there. What else could she do? Her muscles were locked up.

Suddenly, There was a crash.

"Miracle boy!" she growled, obviously at her wits end. Things werent going to end well as long as she was around, Keiko could feel it: A hidden malice, the intent to kill, all directed towards everyone around her.

Resha quickly stepped past Keiko and grabbed clothes. She brushed Keiko's elbow on her way back out, and for some unknown reason, reawoke her muscles.

"Was I asleep?" Keiko wondered aloud, half hoping that Resha would turn around and converse with her. She didnt seem to hear her, and just walked out the door into the bathroom.

"Hmm, She's probably going to take a shower.. Good. She was starting to smell a bit.."

She decided to look for Arietta, after all, she was the only person in this place who actually seemed to like her. She walked out the door into the Living room, where Hatman was sitting on a rock, pretending that there was no damage to the walls around him.

"What did yo-- oh, nevermind. Where is Arietta?" She asked the boy.

"All I need is for you to get the money. My counterpart is still human and needs to eat, and so do the men I employ." Mephistopheles let out a deep chuckle, "Why is it that humans always think I'm up to something? Always so quick to pass judgement and jump to conclusions. This must be the "fearing what you don't know" that I hear plagues your people."

"I had only wanted you to prove your worth with this act, but if you feel like you need to be apart of something more, then make as much noise as you can." the devil smiled when he made his odd request, "I want people to know the bank was robbed. I want your actions to seem so chaotic that it is on par with the rest of the destruction happening to this city. Make them fear for their lives." After finishing his proposal, the dark walls around the two of them seemed to melt away, giving way to the world of man, but instead of that alleyway, they where now in a warehouse occupied by young punks all armed with various bats bars and poles. Some even had guns.

"Feel free to have my boys help you in your heist. They are very good at making people fear them."

-------------------------------------

The street where Alex took Arietta had restaurant going all the way down it as far as you could see. He asked her what she would like to eat, then swiftly purchased it for her. Chicken nuggets and french fries. Alex couldn't help but think of what a stereotypical 'kids meal' that was, heck, he half expected her food to come with a toy surprise.

After she had eaten, he went to his own favorite place. A rundown little shop call 'The Gordian Knot' which had different foods from several countries. Alex usually opted for the Greek and Chinese dishes, so he figured thats what everyone else would like as well.

After purchasing an abundance off both the menus he caught a rickshaw ride back to his safe house. All eyes where on him and Arietta as they rode through the streets with a stack of take out. Alex decided to give them a show and stood up for the remainder of the ride, shouting "Onward with haste! I have troops to feed!"

Upon arriving at the safe house, Alex was greeted by the sight of a trashed lounge and an absent Resha. After placing the food on the bar he asked, "So, whats with this mess?" Upon further investigation, he had a revelation. He quickly took Kane's arm to inspect his new change. "Oh wow, so its starting for you is it? Thats good, I was worried you'd be stuck a weakling forever," Alex let out a small chuckle, "Though this rocky transformation wasn't what I expected. Can rocks still eat?" With that he let go of Kane and made his way to the kitchen, picked up a box of some kind of tsao chicken, and started eating.

------------------------------

A young man sat on a metal chair in front of a metal table in the middle of a bright room. Directly across from him sat Detective Diana Chase. "So, your telling me one man did all that, and for some reason decided to let you off the hook?" She was understandable skeptical, but she also knew this one guy couldn't of done all that by himself. The cuts on the corpses where all from a weapon that wasn't at the scene of the crime, so someone must of left with it. So far this mans crazy story of an assassin killing all of them made the most sense.

"Yeah, thats how it went. This guy was good." The man paused to take a drag on his cigarette, "I'm not surprised none of them survived."

"So you where smart and ran for your life," She sipped some coffee out of her '#1 Detective' mug that her roommate got her for her birthday. "leaving your friends to die. Why was he targeting your gang in the first place? From your priors you guys are just small time."

"I think I'm finished."

"Finished?"

"Yeah, I'm not saying anymore."

"And why not?"

The man looked up to meet the detective's eye, "Because I'm much more scared of our new management then I am of you and your justice system."

Diana looked shocked. So they have a new boss. Thats helpful. "I assure you, you don't have to be afraid of anyone. We can hide you."

"Not from him. No one can. He is always watching. All of us. He is watching us right now." The man was obviously shaking.

Paranoia had gotten the better of him, that was for sure. "How is that possible? This is a police station. He couldn't possibly of bugged this room."

"No, nothing like that. You couldn't possibly understand. He is always watching. Everyone. All the time." A dark smile appeared on the mans face. "No doubt he has taken an interest in you by now detective. You'll be seeing him soon."

She was shocked. How can she let the taunts of a mad man actually frighten her? How could she let that fear appear so visibly on her face? "Thats enough for today," she signaled for the officers to take the man to his cell, "We can finish this up when you finally decide you want to talk." The man was dragged off, still taunting the detective. Taunting the girl. Thats what she felt like now, a scared little girl. "I need to get home, let me know if you need me."

"Yeah, 'ignorance is bliss' is but a lie. Knowing is an important thing", he stated calmly. So it was just money, simple. He can do it in two ways, physically nab the money, or hack the system from inside and send the money across a large number of accounts, eventually ending up in Mephisto's counterpart's account.

What irked him was that they wanted people to know the bank was robbed... Hmmm... Flashy made tactics very simple, but it wasn't to Matthew's taste. Then again, Mephistopheles wanted people to know that the bank was robbed, this meant he didn't have to reveal himself as the culprit...

"So you want it flashy... Okay, sounds simple enough. Point me to the bank and I can get started", it was probably good that he just ransack the bank entirely. He was already thinking of plans, but he needed to know what bank so that he can get the details down.

The hot water bearing down on Resha was the relaxing sensation she had been craving since this insanity started. It cleared her mind, soothed her pains and let her just stop thinking and enjoy it.

Warm, constant, beating, running do-

-wn my body, the pulsing life I am submerged within for only a moment before the momentum carries through and its liquid form is sent cascading away into the air. The feeling can't be forgotten; the warm, constant, beating...

Resha was dimly aware of the water falling on her face, but it was a struggle to open her eyes. Every movement she made, her body seemed to resist - Was it always this hard to open her eyes?

Her leg jerked out and hit the side of shower, shocking her unresponsive body briefly. "ugh..." Try to lift her hand to her head only to get her eyes to started prying open. She had fallen at somepoint, the shower still pouring hot water down on her sore body.

"Damn it... Need to see a doctor." She muttered, this was certainly not normal - Nothing in the past few days had been normal.

It took a few moments to pull herself together, if she had many more episodes like this she was just going to give up this charade and go get professional medical help.
---------------

The shower had helped her relax a bit, enough to be at least amiable to the people around her. She left the bathroom wearing the dry clothes from the previous night, distractedly running a towel through her hair, and entered the main room to find the Ninja girl, the little girl, miracle boy and Alex all having returned.

Convenient.

"Alright," She started broached the topic now, since she was in the state of mind to think clearly now, "What are our plans for today?"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Shadowman walked through the door. Seeing The mess of the living room, he immediately started talking to Hatman. What he said was lost on Keiko, as she had noticed that Resha had walked in and was running a towel through her hair.

I'd better try to make nice with her.. I dont want her to kill me while I lay sleeping

Keiko made her way towards Resha, who, for some reason looked more at ease than before she had entered the bathroom.

Maybe the showers here were magical? Who knows, anything is possible, considering the messed up events of the day.

"Hey, umm..." Said Keiko timidly to Resha. "I'm sorry about earlier.. About me being in your room.. I was talking to the lit- no, Arietta about something, and after that earthquake, I.. I couldn't move my body. I didn't mean to intrude.."

Resha hung the towel around her neck casually, hair still dripping down her back as she turned to see the ninja girl from earlier... Who wasn't nearly as confident as she appeared, apparently.

"Arietta, hrm?" she was looking in the ninja girl's direction, but her gaze was focused on something behind her, "So that's the little girl's name..." she muttered.

Turning her attention back to the ninja girl, she tried her best to emulate what she hoped would pass for a reassuring smile, she wasn't really good at these things.

"No, I should apologize. I've been more stressed out lately than is good for meeting new people, I shouldn't been so rude." she kept her tone carefully non-chalant, but the subtle undertones of just how tired she still was could still be picked up on.

"Name's Resha, you?"

"I'm Keiko Yayoi," Replied Keiko to Resha's question.

She stared awkwardly at Resha's hair for a long moment, unable to come up with anything meaningful to say. Personal Relations were not her strong suit.

"I... Um.. Right. You still look rather tired, so, I'll let you get some rest then."

Keiko scuttled away, now towards Shadowman. She still needed guns. Shadowman was the only one she could think of who had that knowledge. Thankfully, he was done talking to Hatman, and was eating. She steeled herself for her third conversation of the day.

"U-um..... Shadowman? Do you now where I could um... acquire.... some guns?"

Resha watched her go blankly, her mind primarily elsewhere for the time being. She was a fairly nice girl, if a bit timid...

What was she... Ah, it didn't matter. She strode over to Arietta, dropping the towel on her rain covered head and rubbing it around half heartedly. "Hey squirt," her greeting was more relaxed, "You can catch a cold if you stay wet all the time."

She let go, leaving the towel perched on Arietta's head. "Why don't you go take a quick shower? The hot water will make you feel better."

"Well it can be any bank, I really don't care..." the devil seemed annoyed by the mans constant questions, but his face lit up as he got a wonderful idea, "Oh, on second thought, I got an idea that will make this a very interesting job. How about the bank just down the street from the police station down town?" As if enjoying the new ways to make the heist more difficult, the devil smiled and chuckled.

"What better way to show how confident we are in our abilities? How serious we are in our war? I'm starting to like you young man. You inspire me in such profound way," Mephistopheles circles around Matthew and places his large, thin hand on his shoulder, "I'm beginning to consider enlisting you permanently."

---------------------------------------

"Still with this Shadowman stuff? I could of sworn i introduced myself," Alex says with some lo mein sticking out of his mouth. He quickly slurps it up, "You can call me Alex." He slides two boxes of food up to the seat next to him. One containing fried rice, the other orange chicken, "You hungry? I didn't buy all this food just for me, everyone is welcomed to it." He turns to the rest of the room, "That means you guys can eat your fill too, cant have my troops going hungry!"

"Now was it guns you wanted?" he said turning back to the ninja girl, still stuffing food in his mouth. "With the city in a panic right now, getting any legally would be difficult," he reaches across the counter for a gyro and takes a big bite out of it, "but lucky for you I have my connections. I have some smaller firearms in the back, but if its something special you want, I'll have to get it delivered here." He stops eating to look over at her, "but should a kid like you really be playing with guns?"

--------------------------------

"I'm home!" Diana shouted into her apartment as she came through the doorway. She walked into the room and slumped down on a large couch, her fedora falling off to the floor in the process. "Minnie? You home?"

"Yeah, I'm here," replied a voice from the other room, "What time is it? Are you already done with work? Jeez, another day wasted to sleeping in." A young woman wearing flannel pajamas walks over to the sleepy Diana picking up her hat and putting it on the coffee table.

"No, I'm just on my break. You haven't been sleeping that long." Diana says as she sits up and rubs her eyes. "I don't know if it is because of the lack of sleep or the rest of the crazy stuff going on, but i really don't want to be out on the town."

"Aww, poor baby," Minnie plops down next to her roommate and puts her arm around her, causing Diana to instinctively rest her head on Minnie's shoulder. "At least you have our little haven to come back to."

"A haven huh?" Diana says as she falls asleep. She couldn't help but question how safe their 'haven' really was, still letting the man from earlier get to her. She shivered as she slept at the thought of being watched by some malicious force.

Matthew doubled back the moment the hand touched his shoulders. A purely reflexive action, but usually it would come out as a throw. The circumstance was different, he knew who it was, and he doubted a throw would work on this guy anyway.

"I have a complex about human contact", he crudely joked. He wasn't sure whether or not to be glad that this man was beginning to consider permananence... Such a thing had two sides of it, one bad, one good, and he couldn't imagine too much good with this guy.

"Either way, if you'll excuse me, I have a bank to rob", he stated. So it was the bank just down the street, near a police station no less. Just a police station? This operation seemed to be rather easy, but he was very familiar with attacking these sorts of places. It was obvious that doing it successfully right beneath the noses of policemen, would invoke fear.

"If we're done here, then I'll be on my way. Send word to your men that I may have need of them also", he finished.

It took quite amount of effort on Kane's part not to punch Alex when he grabbed his arm. It might have been fatal, given the state it was in - though Alex might not have been exactly human either.
Kane remained silent with a scowl on his face while Alex spoke excitedly. He wasn't hungry, much less for rocks - he just ate.

Before long, ninja girl came into the room, followed by Alex and the little girl - what, were they on a date? Resha had finished her shower as well and came into the room, talking with the others.

Kane was feeling docile - he just observed the collective conversations.
So the ninja's name is Keiko and the little girl's name is Arietta.
He slumped back in the "chair" while everyone talked. He wasn't physically exhausted, just mentally. The morning's events had taken a toll on him and he was still piecing it all together.
So I really am going to merge. This world really is going to merge. Everything's going to be different, huh?
He half expected an intrusion from Kuldr, but there was no response.

A thought popped back into his head and he stood up.
"Well, I'm not hungry right now, shadowman, so I'm gonna go take a walk. I'll be back before you're all done eatin'." He walked out the door.
It was getting crowded in there anyway.
He walked in the direction of his home, whether it was still there or not. He needed to get some things.

"Still with this Shadowman stuff? I could of sworn i introduced myself. You can call me Alex." Replied Alex while sliding over a pair of boxes. Keiko peered inside, wondering what kind of food Alex thought she would like. Upon investigating the contents of both boxes, she found Rice... and Orange Chicken. Her absolute favorite.

Keiko's stomach growled, and she dove into the food. It had been years since she had had it last, and it was still as good as she remembered.

"Thanks!" She exclaimed, while stuffing her face like a madman. "You knew exactly what I liked!"

He must've done his research, I'm rather impressed! I may have been wrong about him...

"Now was it guns you wanted? With the city in a panic right now, getting any legally would be difficult....but should a kid like you really be playing with guns?"

Kid. He called me a kid.

Keiko didnt like to be called a kid. After all, she was 15 now. Could a normal kid have lived on her own for all these years? No. They couldn't have. They'd either be dead, or kidnapped and put into slavery by some creepy pedophile. Ugh.

Her anger displaced her aversion to conversation, and she felt a momentary surge of confidence. "Kid? I'm not a kid. Not after what I've been through. Do you know what I've had to do these last past years just to get by? Kill. I've had to kill more people that you could ever imagine. I've seen more death and suffering than most adults have, let alone kids." said Keiko furiously, her voice barely above a whisper.

Suddenly, the surge of confidence she felt ebbed, and she was left feeling incredibly guilty about what she had just said to Alex. "Eh... I'm sorry, I-I-I just really don't like being called a kid.. p-please forget I just said any of that.." she apologized before Alex even had the time to respond. "I need guns because I dont quite feel safe anymore with swords. Guns allow me to be farther away. Would it be possible for me to have a pair of long range guns that are lightweight?"

She tried to make herself small, hoping that Alex wouldn't lash out at her for reprimanding him. She had seen how he had eaten that monster earlier. She didnt want to be on the receiving end of that.

After she and Alex had entered the safehouse, Arietta saw Keiko step out of her room, Resha following her. Alex stepped up to the punk boy and the two talked a bit before the boy stood, seeming somewhat flustered, and walked out the door. After that, Arietta wasn't really paying attention. For whatever reason, her mind had blanked out on her the moment she walked through the door.

A moment passed and Resha walked up to her, dropping a towel over her head and rubbing her head, trying to get her hair dry. When the towel was lifted, Arietta looked up at Resha, who suggested she go take a shower. She smiled at the person who had somewhat taken her under her wing and nodded.

Her mind still in a bit of a blur, Arietta made her way to their bathroom where she would be able to... well... relax for a minute or two. She undressed and stepped into the shower. The showers water seemed to warm her to the soul and she stood there until she felt as though she was warmed up and clean.

After drying herself off, she stepped out of the petit white shower. But... she was feeling a little dizzy. Maybe it was just the steam from the shower? She couldn't tell. But she knew that something was very wrong as her eyes glazed over and she fell to the floor.

"Yes, it seems I have some place to be as well," the devil said while looking out a window, as if doing so let him know what time it was. He tossed Matthew a small black headset, "go ahead and use that to talk to my men. Anyone here will be happy to help you, but I'm afraid my counterpart and his company are busy with there own matters," the devil turned back towards the young man, "maybe you can meet with them sometime in the near future. Now, if you'll excuse me," as the devil was walking towards the exit, he slowly began to disappear into a shadowy mist, "I'll be seeing you soon." He was gone.

-------------------------------------

"Kid? I'm not a kid..."

Just as Alex had thought, she had killed before, and she does it quite often too. Having someone who wasn't afraid to get their hands dirty around would certainly make things easier on him. The rest of his dream team seemed to be having serious problems coming to terms with their situations, but this girl would no doubt be using her new powers in the best of ways.

"Eh.. I'm sorry..."

She is apologizing now? Just a second ago it seemed like she was going to display that killer instinct of hers. Not that Alex wanted her to start taking head off, he was just surprised by her sudden change of mood. "Look, I don't really know a whole lot about guns. I rarely use them myself and when I do I just point it at the things I want to go away and fire, but I do have some in the bad for emergencies if you would like to take a look," Alex gets up and heads towards the hall, taking his box of food with him, "and if i don't have what you want, I can always place an order for you. You coming?"

On his way down the hall Alex came past the bathroom. Wasn't someone in there? Arietta, thats right. She's been in there a while now. "Hey kiddo? You alright in there?" No answer. The water wasn't still running, so he was sure she could hear him. He knocks on the door, "Arietta? Are you ok?" Still nothing. "Damn, alright, I'm coming in."

-----------------------------------

"I can see you."

"Who's there?" Diana jolted up. She was in a calm forest, surrounded by tall trees. The occasional animal would scurry by, but even though she took no notice to them, they seemed more ephemeral then your run of the mill critter. But something didn't seem right. That voice wasn't coming from any squirrels, that was for sure.

"You cant hide," the voice responded, much deeper and darker this time. The world around her seemed to respond to her fear, as the forest around her became dark and shrouded in a thick mist. "All mankind are playthings to me."

"Damn it! Go away!" Diana shouted into the mist and huddled up against a tree sobbing. As she was she was helpless, and being helpless was hell for her. She pleaded with herself to just muster up the strength to over come this while she cried, but nothing seemed to be doing any good.

"Soon you will know, but not know..." The fog started to lift and the forest she was surrounded by seemed to be getting brighter.

"Feeling better?" A playful voice calls out from the woods with concern for the girl. "Boy am i glad its gone, now I can finally say hi."

"Hi..., who are you?" Diana replied with hesitation. Even though she had no reason to trust this voice over the other one, she felt a warmth from it. It felt familiar in a strange way.

"Thats a silly question, I'm you," a shining silver doe pranced up to her, nudging her playfully. "Well, at least I will be you. And you will be me."

"Thats... strange. How does that work?" Diana knelt down to pet the doe gently. She had always loved animals, so she found herself not being able to resist it.

"You know, I'm not to sure whats going on. Not a whole lot of us are. But hey, why not just go with the flow? I'm sure we can find out whats going on eventually."

"So your going to help me?"

"Of course I am. We might as well be life long friends." The silver doe light up in a brilliant light, catching Diana off guard and causing her to stumble backwards.

"Ouch... try to warn me if you do that again, ok?" she said now sitting. Without thinking Diana took a hand being held out to her and stood up.

"Oh, sorry." Where the doe once was now stood a young girl, maybe 16 or 17, wearing a knee-length girlish tunic. "Well then, I think you should get up now."

Alex looked at Keiko with the expression that reminded Keiko of her father buying new tools at the store. What did he think she was? Some kind of tool? He really needed to learn to control his expressions.

"Right, lets go take a look then," Said Keiko to Alex as he got up.

They walked towards the bathroom. Keiko wondered if he kept his stash of guns in there so nobody could kill him off while he was sitting on the toilet. The thought made her laugh audibly, and calmed her down further.

"Arietta? Are you ok?" Still nothing. "Damn, alright, I'm coming in."

Alex's words shook her from her daydream. Was something wrong with Arietta? Keiko fell into panic as Alex rammed the door open. Was she going to lose her first friend so soon? Did someone sneak into the house when she wasnt looking?

He ran down the streets, passed some rubble from various earthquakes and shadow creatures past. About a block down the street, he stopped in front of a building. Panting, he opened the door. "Glad it wasn't destroyed."

He looked around inside the dilapidated shack, which was arguably in as bad a condition as Alex's safe house. He walked through the room, floorboards creaking under his rocky feet as he moved through the unlit house, looking around knowingly. He opened a door to the basement of the shack and turned on a light.
He stood in front of a table littered with papers, beakers and other materials. "I guess I'm not coming back here for a while," he said, opening a crate in the back. "Might as well take what I got."

=======================

He walked outside, his large jacket concealing several things, when he noticed the rain stopped. He looked up to look at the clouds, and then took a step back instinctively.

The small, unnoticeable rift in the sky from yesterday had grown to a large spiraling hole. A steady stream of shadows was pouring out, the shadows dispersing to different parts of the city.
They must be creatures from the other side, invading or merging with people in the city...
He wasn't safe on his own without control over his own abilities. He sprinted back to the safehouse, footsteps cracking the pavement as he ran.

=======================

Kuldr looked up from the mountainside. Above the nearby city, a large rift had opened up, creatures being haplessly drawn in and shadows pouring through the hole. The chaos once again tore the creature from his rest, this time out of apprehension.
Merging?

Arietta felt as though she could be floating around in space. From "the outside" she could hear people talking. A deep voice called her name that reminded her of Alex, then she heard her new friend, Keiko, also calling out to her, but no matter how hard she tried to respond, she mouth wouldn't move. Her eyes wouldn't open. She couldn't stand up. What was wrong with her? Where was Teofila? Was the same thing happening to her?

Arietta tried over and over again to go back to reality. She told herself that everything would be okay, just as long as she could open her eyes. If she could just call out to someone, then they would be able to save her. Over and over again. She tried. But... but she just... couldn't. After a bit, she just gave up. Her soul was weary and couldn't handle the constant self-motivation anymore. Figuring she just needed some rest, Arietta succumbed to her restlessness and fell asleep within her sleep.

In the distance of her dreams, she felt like she could hear a faint but frantic chime. Much like that of Teofila's. Calling out to her. Also, possibly, begging for help, just as Arietta had tried to do. Another noise followed the chimes... the same voices from before. They were calling her name again...

"I can't," Arietta tried to say, "I can't... help..." She felt like someone was shaking her... trying to stir her from the box her mind had locked her in. Then the voices seemed to grow more distant as she fell into a deeper sleep, "No... please. Don't go... you can't... just leave me in here... please..." After that, she felt like she had shut down. Sort of like on a day when you have the flu. You just don't have the energy to move or eat or speak... nothing. Just nothing.

Keiko rushed past Alex into the bathroom to find Arietta laying on the floor in nothing but a towel. She frantically looked around the room to see if someone was there, laying waiting in the shadows, but there was nobody to be seen. Switching her attention back to Arietta, Keiko put away the gun she had unconsciously drawn and checked Arietta's limp body for wounds. There were none to be found.

"She... seems to have fainted. We should get her in a bed." She called out to Alex. "Can I trust you to carry her to her bed without doing... anything?" Keiko's voice was cold. Emotionless. Her eyes were turning darker by the second, and there were faint tendrils of dark fire wrapping themselves around her.

"I'm going to look around and Make sure that there was nobody responsible for this." A smile creeped its way onto her face. "And if there was... Well, I wouldn't want to be them right now."

She chuckled, and made her way out of the bathroom, leaving her unconscious friend in the care of Alex. There was a hint of a smile lingering on her face.

She sighed and sipped her coffee. What a week it was. These random shadow creatures come out of the sky and attack everything and everyone. She looked at clock on the wall. She had been training for a while, maybe a few hours or so. Fitonie taught her about her Sonic Blade. It didn't actually have a name. Sonic Blade was just something Komoriuta had called it, but it had the power to absorb the element of whatever she killed with the blade, so if killed a Shadow creature, the blade would have shadow/dark element like qualities. Of course it only worked on things like fire demons or whatnot.

She put down her coffee and looked at Zeke and Fitonie. She had even had taken out the time to train Zeke. She looked at the table and wondered if she had any other motives. All this training for well, getting rid of some girl that merged with her soul was a pretty small price to pay considering all the time and patience she was going to pay to train her and Zeke.

Zeke breathed fire out of his mouth charring a few makeshift dummies made of grass and whatever they could find. Her eyes wandered to the sky and there was a giant rift. Monsters were getting sucked up and flying towards. When they got near the hole, they would turn into shadow creatures.

She looked at Fitonie and saw that she had noticed it too. "Well, what's happening, Fitonie?" she asked hoping for a more clear explanation. "Well, those who are flying and being sucked up, choose to be. The rest around us who are fleeing or not even paying attention to it are those who wish not to be merged." she explained even though it as pretty clear who wanted to or not to be merged.

She stood up and walked over to Fitonie and glanced up at the sky once more before looking at Fitonie. "Do I need to go back yet?" she asked reluctantly. She didn't really want to go back to the other world where things were being destroyed and humans targeted to be merged with, willingly or not.

Fitonie merely nodded. She closed her eyes and swung her arm in a semicircle around her waist. A holographic computer appeared and Fitonie began to press on the buttons. Suddenly behind her a subway appeared at the broken down station. Fitonie waved her to it and Kanade stepped in, not sure if it was the right time to yet. The doors closed and the subway began to move. In a blur, it was gone from sight into a dimensional portal that quickly disappeared the moment it entered.

========================

Fitonie motioned her hand in a semicircle in the other direction and the holographic system disappeared. She got onto a hovering motorcycle and drove off. What was she thinking? She wasn't sure what was going on, but she had to ask her higher-ups about this. Komoriuta could've gone to her spirit world and contacted them about this recent incident. She pushed down the gas pedal and sped up. Just what was going on?

=======================

Komoriuta was walking along her spirit world. A world that only a select few, including her of course, could enter and leave as they pleased. A few spirits were wandering, not quite sure where they were and what they were doing here. She smirked and walked up to one of them. "Excuse me, sir." she said tapping his shoulder lightly with a fake smile and soft voice. She could fool anyone with it.

"What is it?" asked the male demon. She just smiled and asked, "Would you like to live again? But there's a small price to pay." The male looked slightly confused but nodded. Who wouldn't right? She smirked and spread out her wings. They were no longer clear, but more white like an angel's wings since...well she was technically dead now. She stared at him and smiled. "Have fun, but remember, you're mine now." she said and covered him with her wings. "......" she chanted and the male was gone.

=====================

Kanade was starting to doze off. Her head was nodding up and down; trying to keep herself awake was quite hard since she hasn't slept at all. Suddenly the subway came to a stop and jerked forward, making her fall on her side. She fluttered her eyes open and looked outside the window. She was at a regular subway station now.

She walked to the door and looked to the right and them the left like she was at a stop sign. But then, she was pushed out by some force and was knocked onto the platform. She nearly tripped but caught herself before she would make a fool out of herself, but she noticed that no one was around. She turned around to get back on subway, but it was gone.

She soon made it above ground; looking for some signs of life, but there were none. She continued to walk and look around but her expressionless face didn't change. It felt like a game of hide' n 'seek to her and she was growing bored and tired of it. She halted and sighed, shaking her head. She looked up and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hello! Is anyone there? Answer me someone!" she screamed on top of lungs, which something she never did before. Must have been some side effect of the worlds merging or something.

"Settle down, Keiko, your eyes are turning red from stress." Resha rolled her eyes as Keiko passed, she seemed to be a nice girl... Just scatterbrained. And possibly paranoid.

Walking over to Arietta and staring down at the little girl, Resha idly filed away the incident as stress. She had been through alot in the past day or so, the least of which was being caught in the constant rain almost the entire time - Falling unconscious suddenly wasn't all that surprising, especially for a girl her age...

Resha herself had passed out at some point in the shower from sheer fatigue catching up to her, she was just surprised the little girl had held out for so long before giving in.

The hot water was apparently just that relaxing.

Resha laid her hand on the girl's forehead, checking to make sure it wasn't a fever of some sort before she just sighed and picked her up, carrying her out of the room and back into what Resha had reluctantly decided to claim as her room - and Arietta's room, because she simply didn't trust a number of these people not to involve the poor thing in something she shouldn't be.

Laying the unconscious girl on the bed and tucking her in, Resha yawned. The day had just begun and she was already tired... Maybe Arietta had the right idea here.

She blinked suddenly. What was she doing? The whole 'caring' stint wasn't her thing... Resha shook her head and sighed, feeling a headache coming on already.

'I'm not a people person... Playing the nursemaid isn't me, when did I start giving a damn?'

Her thoughts were left unanswered, as best they should - Had they been answered, her headache may have gotten worse simply on the principle of the matter.

"She should be fine, she's just tired... I don't think any of us can blame her for that."
-------

Hmm... He was feeling good, this chinese restuarant really was pretty good.

He walked away whistling, "Hey, you want me to flip the sign to closed when I leave?" ... "'Kay!" the sign for the store flipped closed as he left, his good mood swelling.

"Should drop by work, thank the boss for giving me some time off."

Like a reflex, Matthew caught the small headset as the creature crept away in shadow, his last words lingering before the alleyway came back into view. It felt vivid, but it was definitely real, the small headset in his hand... He put it on, then checked to see if it work...

"Hello?", he spoke. There was a pause, but soon...

"Oh huh what? Oh hey! Boss that you?", spoke the voice. It was young, but very informal, telling him this man's background was rather poor.

"No, but for the time being I work for your boss. He has asked you and your friends to cooperate with me".

==================

The conversation was, well, uneventful. He merged before he went to meet them, concealing his face behind his mask. There were a dozen of them, which was good. They were reluctant, but all that was left was equipment...

"So you're the guy?", asked one.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not take orders from a masked freak", commented another. There was a bit of murmur as there was some doubt began to appear.

"So you want to go against your boss?", he stated bluntly. Suddenly, the doubt disappeared... It was only a test, but it seems Mephistopheles held quite a fearful grip on these men. There was a small bag on Matthew's shoulders at this point...

"Now your boss wants me to rob a bank, close to a police station no less, you guys may be pleased that he wants this flashy, so it's simple", he went straight to the point here.

"Four of you will go through the front, stand the bank up while three of you will go through the back and take money straight from the vault and stores. Two people will be drivers, one will ride a bus, the other a van. The van will drive in around the back, while the around the front", he explained.

"After you have taken what money you can, head to the nearest driver and run, following the map I've put into both the van and the bus", he states.

"Then how about you?", asked a concerned thug.

"I'll be disabling the bank's security and the police station's security, which will give you all plenty of time to carry out the operation", he firmly explained. The dozen or so of them began to think, and after a moment, they got a bit excited.

"Alright, let's do this. So who's doing what and what?", said the most front gangster.

"It doesn't matter to me, decide that amongst yourselves, so long as it gets done. But first...", he interrupted himself. He took off his bag and opened it, revealing several explosives.

"There are six charges in here, remote detonated. The remote is inside also. This is for the group going through the back. You'll only need four charges, one set on each corner to blow out the vault. You may do what you wish with the last two", he instructed, with that, he handed it over to the nearest thug.

"I have a transciever, let me know when you're ready by radio", he stated. With that, Matthew walked away, unmerging as he got out of sight, and out of sight again, becoming completely hidden. He now sat on a rooftop...

"My, you're pretty knowledgeable", Inari appeared behind him, her chest resting on his head.

"It didn't take long to find out the security levels...", he answered. He pulled out a small PDA from his pocket, it had a skull sign on it's screen.

"Ooohh, that's the thing you used to find out right?", Inari leaned forward looking down on the small screen.

"It used to be a government communications PDA, but I had it reconfigured to make information dealings in the black market... It appears that the bank has at least two million stored in there. It has weak security, so this operation won't take long...", he reaffirmed. The next part was the police station, sneaking in as a cop with his disguise ability was only a simply matter. All he would have to do was sneak a small explosive past, then plant it ready to go when the operation begins.

The time was about noon... He expected the thugs be ready in at least half an hour, the sports bags required for holding the money and the masks to conceal their faces, they should find in the vehicles. A moment ago he saw them walking down to where he mapped the vehicles in the bag he handed over... Apparently, these vehicles were black market items, countless times have they been used in bank robberies, and again they will be used.

He got something to eat in the meantime, just a simple sandwich. On the other hand Inari preferred something else, so he got her a hotdog. Which she apparently liked, she didn't seem to mind it was junkfood. After he had finished, he got a message through the transciever.

"Uhhh, yeah we're ready uhh... What should we call you?", asked the thug. Matthew placed his hand on the transciever. He then recalled his previous codename during his time as a government agent.

"Just call me Reaper".

One the roof of an abandoned building stood a lone figure looking down at the city. With an umbrella over his head to keep the sun away, the devil stood patiently waiting for his appointment to arrive.

A door opened from behind and a girl with a flustered look on her face came through. "I'm not late am I?" she asks trying to catch her breath.

"No, your right on time." the figured said turning towards his guest. "Now, are you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm tired of this place. Take me to another world. Any place is better then here." She said looking down at her feet.

"Now this is a big decision, once you go I cant bring you back."

The girl looked up at the man, taking his warning into consideration, but finally deciding to stick with her decision. She nods silently to let him know she will be going through with it.

"Very well, now if you would, please close your eyes and slowly count to ten, then open your eyes and you'll be far away from this place." he places his hand on her shoulder and smiles.

The girl nods once more and closes her eyes. She begins to count, "One, two, three,"

The devils smile twisted into its usual dark grin. Shadows started to spread from his feet until a large radius around him was as black as night.

"four, five, six"

Countless eyes and mouths appear in the shadows surrounding them. Mephistopheles body began to lose form, now more of a shadowy mist then a shadowy man.

"seven, eight, nine,"

The mouths now smiling and the eyes peering, the shadows slowly enveloped the girl.

"I can feel it! This is really happening!"

"Yes, not finish counting dear." the girl almost completely enveloped, a large mouth appears below her feet.

"Ten!" and just like that she was gone. Away from this world she hated so much.

-----------------------

Resha picked up the girl and moved her to her room before Alex even had a chance to. "Alright, that works," he said following her into the room.

He watched from the doorway as Resha watched over little Arietta. "Not your area of expertise I'm guessing?" Alex asked her letting loose a slight chuckle to himself.

"Poor little thing, this whole merging business doesn't care who you are i guess."

-----------------------------

"HOLY TALKING DEER GIRL!" Diana shouts as she jolts out of sleep almost falling from the couch to the floor.

"Not quite, its a turkey sandwich. I thought you'd be hungry." Minnie responds with a smile and a laugh. "You know, it is lunch time."

"Oh, thanks. But after this i should get back," she sits up and looks at the sandwich placed in front of her on the coffee table "I was having strangest dream..."

"About talking deer girls, right?"

"Yeah... It felt real though..."

"Don't worry, it wasn't, now eat your food." Minnie said sitting down next to her.

"Right," Diana looked at her meal. It looked pretty good. But there where these strange silver lines on it. Weak points? No, thats silly. Why would a turkey sandwich have weak point? Better question: why does she know these are weak points and how can she see them?

"You ok...?"

Diana didn't respond, she just looked at the sandwich. She proceeded to poke one of the marks with her finger. Nothing happened. "No, of course not..."

"So your not feeling well?" Minnie asked in a concerned tone.

"Oh!" Diana jolted and looked at her friend, "I'm feeling fine, really. I think i need to eat this on the go, sorry!" She picks up her sandwich in her mouth and runs for the door.

"Wait, your hat!" Minne tosses the fedora at her roommate who successfully catches it.

"Thanks!" and with that she was out the door.

On the way to her car, she paused to look at the grey fedora her roommate bought her when she made detective. 'All detectives wear these right, so you need one to if your going to fit in.' What strange logic she had, but Diana didn't have the heart to tell her that detectives don't necessarily need to wear fedoras.

"No," Resha muttered wryly, "Shadow things attacking and merging with people is most definitely not my area of expertise." She smiled sarcastically before adding, "Neither is looking after little girls."

She walked out of the room and sighed, "I don't know, things were alot simpler before all this. She shouldn't be pulled into this, and I damn sure don't want to be..."

Quiet, thinking back over what had been happening lately. "Unlike the rest of you, I don't seem to have one of these shadow things trying to merge with me... So if I wanted to, I could still walk out of this. But... But I can't. I can't leave that little girl in there by herself, and..."

She smiled ruefully to herself, "And I can't bring myself to go back to the life I had. Not willingly. I don't want to be a part of this, and I don't want to go back."

Resha looked at Alex, indecision wasn't a feature upon her face despite her words. "For better or worse, I'm stuck here. So whatever your plans are, the revolution idiocy or what not... Count me in. As long as Arietta is being dragged along, then I'll stay here and act the Dragon."

It felt like ages had passed while Arietta was asleep... the deep parts of her mind really left her in a lonely state. After thinking back to before when she was unable to function, she tried to, first, open here eyes. Slowly, the thin lids over her olive eyes fluttered open, still glazed over in a certain emptiness... but at least she could see. Somehow, she had been moved into the room Resha and her shared...

Arietta tried to will her limbs to move, but they wouldn't budge... bit by bit she'd have to get better she supposed. Shifting her eyes to the left and right of her, she could see out the window that it had passed far into the night, and Resha was asleep in a chair next to the bed. Thinking of sleep... despite the fact she had slept for Lord knows how long, a strong feeling of fatigue swept over Arietta.

In her sleep, she was back in the white room... but it was no longer white. It looked odd in a way.. dabbled with black splotches... much the same as ink splatters on a piece of blank white paper. Arietta scanned the space above her... looking for the star... but it was only barely visible; now sort of a transparent-gray color. "Teofila." Arietta called out to her soul...

A chime echoed in the dirtied emptiness. Good, Arietta thought to herself, at least I know Teofila i-- "Arietta..." Her counterpart's voice startled Arietta... it was faint, but unmistakeable. "Teofila!" She called out, not knowing how close or far her 'mother' could be.

There was a pause... the Teofila spoke, "I can't... communicate much right now... but i need to... expalain what's... what's happening..." It sounded like she was straining to speak, and Arietta listened closely. "Just like a human gets sick with a virus in your world... i can get sick too. Something crossed over and somehow got me sick... because i am part of you... it affects your capabilities and physical state. Basically, this is locking you in your mind so that it doesn't need to worry about the rest of your body... 'interferring.'"

Arietta didn't have much to say... if she was just sick... then it wasn't really so bad, right? "Arietta... don't take this lightly. I know that i can survive... because it's a normal sickness in my world. But for you... it might try and separate us... our souls... and then kill you. I know that it's making you tired, but you need to try and stay awake and alert. If you fall alseep, the virus can lock you away easier... then it can end just as quickly..."

"M-mmhmm... i-i'll try..." Arietta tried to put a smile on her face... but was immobile even in her own soul where she couldn't make her face muscles move... nor anything else.

"We'll get through this..." Teofila encouraged, "Your friends are here for you too... for now... just let them look over you... and be careful... okay?" Teofila's voice faded and Arietta began trying to pull herself out of her mind and soul...

Keiko walked around the perimeter of the safehouse to make sure that there was nobody around. She was confident that Arietta just fainted, but it was in her nature to pursue every possibility.

"Stupid fire. It won't go away." Sighed Keiko, looking down at her body. Faint tendrils of darkness were wrapping themselves around her body. Usually, she could make it disappear at will, but this time was different. It wouldn't go away.

Ah, It seems that the merge is continuing along nicely
Continuing? I thought it was done?
I told you. We are becoming one. It takes time. Soon, you'll be able to use all of my powers.

Somehow, Keiko understood exactly what he meant. Their minds were connected on a deeper level than she had thought.

Keiko sat down on the steps leading up to the safehouse when she saw someone trying to sneak through the newly formed hole in the living room. She walked towards him casually. He wasn't a threat;he didnt even have any weapons.

"Hey. What do you think you're up to?" Said Keiko to the man. She grabbed his arms and pinned them to his back, just to make sure he wasnt going to try anything. The man didnt say a word. "He must be one of Alex's people." Keiko sighed. She was hoping for at least a little bit of action.

Keiko walked into the safehouse with the man and headed towards Alex, who was standing in the doorway of Resha and Arietta's room.

"Hey, is this guy one of yours, or shall I kill him?" she called out to Alex, thrusting the man towards him and simultaneously drawing her rusty old gun.

Hearing no answer to her yell, she began to walk around. There was nothing much to do, so she just trudged home. When she arrived, the windows showed no light or sign of life inside. She took out her keys and unlocked the door. Everything was still in the house. She was slightly disappointed, but reminded herself that this was to be expected and she was used to it.

Suddenly the phone rang and she ran to answer it, but it was just some stupid telemarketer and afterwards was another ring, but it was just a recording telling her to evacuate the area because it was dangerous. Well that was obvious, what kind of idiot wouldn't notice the giant mess the city was in? The suburban part of the city was only slightly affected by the tremors and such.

She glared at the phone and slammed the phone back into place. Her parents didn't even call if she fine or okay, but she gathered herself together and sighed. 'Was it always this lonely?' she asked herself. Sure, she was always lonely at home except for the butler and maid, but she was never this lonely. She always had her friends to keep her company until late, but they weren't around anymore.

She went upstairs and grabbed all her things and stuffed them into the bag that was given to her by Fitonie. She looked at the picture of her and her parents and thought about whether or not it was necessary. She grunted softly and stuffed in her bag anyways. She might need it, who knows?

She couldn't stay at home. It wasn't safe anymore. A few blocks ahead was a giant crack which indicated that the tremors might be coming closer. She walked out the door, but quickly walked to the kitchen stuffed a bunch of food into her bag as well. She walked out the door and turned the lock. As she slammed the door, Zeke came up to her and let out a small whimper like growl.

Kanade patted him on the head and walked towards the safer side, but stumbled along because of fatigue and exhaust. She hadn't slept at all yesterday. Finally, she tripped and a rock and fell to her knees. She forced her eyes opened to keep from falling asleep right then and slowly pulled herself up. She looked around and found a rock that looked like a chair. She didn't want to sit on, so she sat behind it and leaned on it. As soon as she leaned back on it, she began to doze off them fell asleep.

_____________________________


Zeke slowly followed Kanade behind and kept watch of the space around them by using his peripheral vision. He kept his main vision on Kanade because she was starting to sway a bit. When she finally arrived at the house, he stayed outside to keep watch.

He felt like something dangerous was lurking around. When she came out and slammed the door, he went to check if she was okay. She was fine, but seemed a bit fatigued. Soon they arrived at the rock chair, but Kanade had fallen asleep so he decided to keep guard of her. He remembered the strange woman named Fitonie mentioned something about there being others and decided to keep on the lookout for other humans as well.

__________________________________

Komoriuta just smiled as the demon's soul appeared before her. She had complete control now. She stared at the lifeless shell of the demon's body before her. She plucked a feather from her wings and made the soul merge with it. She stuffed it back in his body and watched as it faded away.

She was glad to be out of those stupid bandages and chains. She was not some animal for those lowly creatures to use an experiment. She was going to destroy them first when she got the chance to.

________________________________

Fitonie quickly made a sharp turn into a dense forest. She had to get back quickly. She parked the hovercycle and shrouded it with a bush and some leaves. She quickly glanced around for any followers, but saw none. She made her way through the thick undergrowth. She then put her hand on a touch pad. It scanned her hand and a moldy door that lead underground opened up.

She jumped in and slid all the way down as the door closed behind her. She landed on her feet and speed walked through the hall. She had to get to the meeting quickly. They had to take action before it was too late. "Curse them." she muttered angrily.

The tremors were getting more violent. Shadow creatures started to appear near him as the rift started to tear further.
Just run, just run, Kane thought to himself as he sprinted back to the safehouse. Gotta hurry back!
A shadow landed in front of him, and it lunged at him, shadowy teeth bared. In reflex, he punched without losing momentum, throwing the creature like a rag doll across the street. He stared surprised at his fist without breaking a step, and continued to run.
Resha was right. I have more protection than I'm giving myself credit for.

Looking up again, further down and opposite his side of the street was an unconscious girl with a dog. "This is hardly the place to be sleeping..."
Almost on cue, shadows landing nearby began to close in on the girl. He considered stopping, but shook his head, remembering why he was in a hurry in the first place.
Ignore it, ignore it,
Ignore it?
"Bah!" Kane understood what Kuldr meant without inquiring further. He stopped directly across the street, moments before the shadows got close to the sleeping girl and the restless dog. He was too far to run and wake her up.

"Time to wing it!" He kicked his back foot into the ground for good measure before crouching. "Wake up!!" He drove his right fist into the concrete with a deafening crash, creating a wave of debris that rushed towards the shadows.

Well this was a fine day, plenty of people around and... Oh, was that tear in the sky always there? Hm, he had never noticed it. Oh well, he was in simply too good a mood to care about it.

He walked out of the convenience store, his place of employment, and flipped the sign "closed" as he did. His boss had been pretty understanding about the whole deal, now what to do...? He had quite a bit of free time with the rest of his vacation at his disposal.

Well, it was starting to rain again. Why was it always raining lately? Maybe something to do with that weird thing in the sky. He didn't know, but he was getting kind of hungry.

There she was, the sky was blue and her parents were laughing and pushing her on the swing, but that all just a distant memory now. She slowly drifted back in consciousness and heard yells and a loud noise zip right past her. Her eyes fluttered open; her silver eyes stared at the male with an interesting fashion sense.

She lowered her headphones and put them around her neck. 'What's going on?' she thought completely oblivious to the shadows at the moment. She turned her head towards the other direction and gasped. There tons of shadows everywhere.

'Well at least I found some signs of life.' she thought sarcastically. She ran towards the male as Zeke ran right behind her, blowing fireballs at the shadows. Suddenly a wave of wooziness hit her and she fell to her knees. Everything was becoming blurry, but she shook herself back into awareness.

She stood up and summoned her scythe. "Why are there so many?!" she asked saying one word between each strike. A weird looking shadow made a low growl noise and charged at her. She saw it coming but her reaction time was too slow and she was knocked off her feet.

She winced, laying on her back, and tried to get back up quickly. The shadow was above her and ready to attack. Instinctively, she released her blades, no longer called Sonic Blade to her. She stabbed it and sliced up towards its head.

Soon, it was gone and its powers were absorbed by the blade. She grimaced at the pain in her back as she stood up. She turned towards the male and let out a nervous kind of chuckle. "Um...Thanks for your help earlier." she said to him politely. She tried to keep up a happy front but her personality wouldn't let her, so she forced herself to keep it up while trying not to look like an idiot. Zeke whimpered next to her and hoped that she was alright.
___________________________________

Komoriuta stomped down the spirit street. She was so pissed right now. Why couldn't she take over the girl's body? She had no trouble doing that before. Heck, the body she had before wasn't even her real body. She growled and let out a yell of frustration. She needed to find them now!

"We're ready Reaper",

"Right", Matthew pressed a small detonator, causing a small and muffled explosion to happen, originating from the police station. All lights went down it seems, for the police station at least.

"Move in", the moment he stated this, he also began to disable all sorts of security... Where he was? The bank's security room. All the guards were killed, or at least, the ones in the room. He made sure to lock the room, so that he wouldn't be disturbed until he thought he should go.

He watched the security cameras, screaming and panic occured in the front, while Matthew watched the three come through the back door, almost effortlessly. There shouldn't be a problem, the front always keeps a cache for withdrawals and deposits, while the main vault holds all the wealth.

As he spotted the men placing charges on the vault, Matthew got up, and placed a small charge on the security console, picking up his own carry bag as well.

"Uhh... I was wondering, why can you 'disable' the vault's doors as well?", asked a lackey.

"It uses a stand-alone security. If we want to do this today, we blow it open", he stated. It was fortunate that no one would think this bank would ever be robbed from, especially the vault. It was flimsily reinforced, it's corners were not reinforced either, meaning those were weak points. The moment Matthew arrived, he saw the men, masked and ushering money into the large carry bags. Matthew got the remaining into his own.

"You're taking some too?", asked one, who spotted him.

"Should you be surprised? I still need money to buy my weapons", he stated calmly. The thugs just looked at each other, then once they saw the vault cleared out, they broke for the back door. He then pressed his radio, to message the front four.

"The vault's been cleared, finish up and escape", he ordered.

"Yes sir", with that, Matthew walked out towards the back door. He walked past every little bit of security, no longer needing passcodes or anything like that, then he found himself slipping around the corner to avoid notice. There seemed to still be some guards left, and they were running into the security room.

"A bit early... Oh well", he sighed to himself, pulling out another detonator, and well... Pressing it.

A scream of pain and surprise muffled by the walls followed, as Matthew made for the back entrance. He remembered one of his old supply caches were nearby, set up long ago, so he made for it. Didn't take long, afterall, he re-equipped for a grappling hook today.

The building was rather... Dusty, old, run down. On the other hand, there was a hidden basement there. Matthew kicked the back wall once, waited five seconds, then kicked it again, twice, nearly tapping quickly.

With that, the wall began to open, a small room full of different knives and other small arms, there was an empty patch in the back of the room, with a few explosives. Of course, he took explosives from this room in order to supply his... Allies. Either way, he placed the money in a small compartment in the centre back. There was at least fifteen thousand in there, good enough to last him for depending on his assignments and needed equipment...

"Now then...", he breathed, walking out and tapping the side of the wall twice, causing the wall to turn back into a wall. With that same hand he pressed the transciever.

"Escape status?", he asked.

"Huh?", was all he got...

"Are you being chased?", he asked again.

"Oh. No, we're not", answered the thug. Another voice called out the same thing, or something along the same lines.

"Let me know when you get to the location I mapped", he stated. With that, he wondered... How was he going to find this Mephistopheles again? But after only a moment, he remembered... This guy will just find him instead.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" The woman in question was undeniably not okay - Half of her torso was eaten. Quite literally, eaten away with ragged portions of organ hanging out of the side.

Blood splattered her clothes, but none dripped from the body. Her eyes were glassy, movements jerky and breathing raspy; Made all the worse by the ability to clearly see her left lung inflating and deflating through a tear in her shirt... And the lack of both flesh and the broken hole through her rib cage.

And then she bit him. It was insane, it defied logic, and despite his size and leverage, he couldn't get her to stop. Belyind her physical size, she bit down with a mindless ferocity and the unrelentingly increasing pressure of a mechanical clamp.

The teeth pierced the skin, into the muscle, dragging his artery into the grip and tearing it from his brain and heart in a snap that was reminiscient of a piano chord snapping midrecital - Though his gargling scream drowned all out all but a faint pop.

Her glassy eyes started to clear, if only vaguely, if only to look at the mortified people around her, closing her jaw with a finality and swallowing the flesh within her mouth as the man - A mere corpse now - Fell to the ground limply at her feet, as there was no longer anything to hold him up.

...And then she sprung.

As Rui and Kirin sets off to find the group of freaks they had met days earlier, Rui had talked about many things to Kirin. Retracing their way to where Rui and Kirin saw the freaks ran off, they went. “Oh god, I FORGOT WHERE THEY WENT,” Rui screamed.

Kirin was speechless. Dismayed, Kirin said, “Rui, lets go to where the place where we fought that giant shadow.” Rui agreed.

As Rui was casually walking around the place where they had their first fight merged, the whole block was still in ruins albeit with some people around to rebuild. They were surprised that only three days passed and still the block remained as destroyed as it looked back then. Then something caught Rui’s eyes.

He saw some type of creature. Bloody, torso torn. A sight that was disgusting. He glanced closer and saw it was a woman. The sight was like something out of a horror movie. Rui saw the woman biting down a man, a giant man. The teeth, piercing through the man’s skin, the man screaming, but as quickly as he screamed he quieted down.. Rui couldn’t believe what he saw. Then the man fell to the ground, a corpse now. Rui told Kirin to transform and Kirin complied. Then, using his enhanced speed, charged at the woman, intent on killing this monster for killing an innocent person.

"Not the time for pleasantries!" Kane was still batting off a few of the creatures. They seemed akin to wolves or some other feral predator, lunging with the intent to feed. And like wolves, they came in packs.
And if that logic is sound, Kane mused, that means they're going to try and flank us if we don't get out of here fast. There isn't enough time to fight them all, and I don't think we could outrun them for long...

He surveyed his new companion. She looks like she could hold her own, but not against all of them.
Wait, getting attacked by shadows with some woman, our only choice to escape?
"I'm getting deja vu."
Without giving the girl a chance to comment, he reached with both hands into opposite sides of his jacket, pulling out two glass vials. He tossed them high in the air, then punched the ground again, this time releasing more smoke than debris.
"Now come on!" He grabbed the girl's arm and ran in the opposite direction. As the glass bottles shattered on the ground, he heard the shadow wolves snarl in confusion from the combined smoke detterents.

Now where to go...
He didn't even know who this girl was, but he couldn't leave her to the mercy of those creatures. He didn't exactly want to take her back to Alex, either. Who knows what that would be involving her in, knowing - or rather, not knowing - Alex... but where else was there to go?
He racked his brain for ideas as they approached an alley...

The half eaten woman turned just in time to be hit head on by the rushing mass and flung like a corpse into the building on the other side of the street with a large painful crash that shook the foundation.

... And then it stumbled out of the hole and rasped, shambling towards Rui without so much as a hint that it had even remotely been deterred.

Rui was somewhat amazed the woman survived his charge. Then Rui charged again. Then Rui charged his arms and legs with his flames. Rui then began to attack the crazy zombie lady once more. He attacked with all his might, punching and kicking the woman. Then, finishing off the woman, fired up a fireball from his fists and sending the woman off to a nearby building.

“Oh crap! Sorry about that!!”

The woman flew through the building's wall, her corpse heavily burned and melted, bones broken from both the blows and the impact with the building...

And all was silent for a moment, the dust beginning to settle. Moments like eternity ticked by before a scream erupted from within the building.

"My baby!" Only vague forms behind the dust settling, a young child, it's skin practically being sucked off before the whole of it's mass flayed itself apart and sunk into the arms... The woman went next, screaming briefly while the sound of tearing flesh and bones echoed out of the house.

Moments later, the smoke began to clear. A somewhat repaired corpse-like lady stumbled from the hole, another face - That of a pained and crying woman - taking the place of her left breast, her bones and skin having been grafted back onto her using living people as material.

"Uaggh..." And it stumbled forward.

Seeing the woman regenerating from taking skin from a baby and another woman, Rui was visibly disgusted. He realizes that he’s endangering the people that are there. “Shit, how the hell do I make this thing go away? Shit, shit, shit. I guess I’ll just blast this thing somewhere else.”

Rui then charges at the woman creature again. “I’ll send you flying away, FAR AWAY!” Rui then charged again. He punched the woman through multiple buildings. “Shit, sorry again. Then he fired up his fists and continued with his assault. He ran towards the creature. He picked her up and punched her with great force, sending her flying away to the sky. He then jumped up and grabbed her. “HIYAA,” Rui screamed as he threw her away from the city. A massive crater was made in the forest, where Rui threw the demonic woman.

“Tch, they should be safe now. I’ll kill her there.”

The body hit the ground like a ragdoll and was sent twirling and skipping across the ground and through trees, destroying the landscape that was so unfortunate to get in the humanoid projectiles way.

The careening madness slowly slid to a stop, it's bone thoroughly broken and it's body impaled by multiple shards of wood that had accumulated in it's wake, lying still and silent in the aftermath...

twitch

It lurched upward, pulling itself steadily out of the wreckage and dragging it's broken body off of the large shards of wood which had impaled it with a sickening squelch. Fresh blood ran down the length of the wood as it stumbled forward, it's weight forcing the wooden splinters in it's feet to stab up and through it's skin and turn into a masochist's cleet.

It's body was litered with shards of wood poking out of it, most notable was one that had entered through the shoulder and exitted the opposite hip - Very nearly driving it's way clear through the entirety of the spine, which is hanging in two pieces and freely from the back.

"Uagghhh...." The rasping breathing resumed, it's shamble resumed aimlessly back towards the city.

Seeing the creature making its way back to the city slowly, Rui took this chance to attack the creature again. He charged forward, shooting out fireballs from his fists at the creature. Then Rui charged up a fireball from his mouth and shot it making a small explosion. Then he fell down, landing on his feet, to where he made his attack on the creature. Rui looked confident.

“I hope you’re fucking dead now.”

It pulled itself forward, laboriously, the body alight in flames that worked slowly to melt the skin and fill the air with the smell of a roasting human... But the creature paid no mind to it, pulling forward, rasping, the fire spreading along it's blood as if it were a potent gasoline.

Seeing the creature on fire, the first thing that came to mind was ‘OH SHIT’. “How the hell do I kill something like this??? Kirin, any advice?”

“Ugh, I’ve never faced anything like this before,” Kirin responded.

“Fuck. This thing, it keeps taking everything I got. How the fuck, HOW THE FUCK, do I KILL it??? And damnit, it reeks. Uggh, fine whatever. I’m just gonna have to keep attacking it with all my strength then.” Rui then begins to attack again.

“NO RUI WAIT. There is one thing that might end it. Remember that attack I used the day we met? Now’s the time to use it. CHARGE IT UP RUI!”

Rui complied and then crouching down on four legs, Rui opened his mouth. He began to charge something. A glow appeared in front of his mouth. Then golden energy thread things begin to circle around the glow and form into a ball. The ball got larger and bigger.

Remember Rui, this attack will get weaker as you use it.

With that in mind, Rui fired the ball, a giant blast hitting the creature. The blast was large; it engulfed the creature’s body. Then Rui stood up, panting.

“I… freaking finally killed it…”

The charred skeleton's jaw fell off, the connection disintegrating under the rain, leaving a smirking lopjawed skull upon the ground. Finally, the desecrated corpse lay still and unmoving... Though the feeling that it steel stared up at Rui persisted. Even dead as it apparently was, it watched - The desire to crawl forward and consume him still saturating the air, even now.

Rui walked up to the dead monster. He looked at the monster, staring at Rui. With dead, tired eyes Rui said “You… evil creature. You killed a child… EUGHHH!!.”

Rui screamed as he punched the creature’s corpse. He continually punched it with all his might. “Rui, calm down. Calm down Rui! These things will happen. Understand that Rui!” Kirin said, trying to calm Rui down.

“I know Kirin… But still, I can’t even protect innocent people.” Rui sighed, as he walked away and transformed back. With guilt lingering in his heart, he walked back to the city, tired.

She whacked one in the head and kicked another in the face. She just wanted to hit something for the heck of it without a weapon for a second. She summoned her scythe again since it disappeared after she dropped it after being attacked by that weird growling shadow.

She swung it around in a big circle around her, knocking out a few of them in the process. She sliced a couple in half. She was starting to feel exhausted now. She sighed and decided to use another skill she had learned how to use from Fitonie. She closed her eyes and imagined herself being engulfed by a cooling blue flame. With that done, her eyes opened. Her right eyes was glowing a silvery blue flame in the shape of a comet.

Her speed had increased and she could easy find their weak points. She took one down after another, but it wasn't enough. There were just too many for the both of them. Suddenly she heard him say something, but she was grabbed by the arm before her brain could process it.

While being pulled away from the scene, she looked at her arm while being dragged towards an alley. She noticed the red rash on her right shoulder was now a black tattoo of an upside down cross with little wings on the side.

Zeke ran right behind. He was slightly bigger now,but was no in the form on a dog. 'He's back in the form of a dog?' she thought wondering how I t happened, but decided not question any further. She looked up at the male and wondered what he was thinking.

" Ah, there's simply too many pleasures happening in this town right now." Noemi stationed herself beneath the shadow of a large tree. She squatted, still as a statue, her right hand blocking the sun's frequent desire to shine on her. " Whom shall we consume first?"
Keisho gave a blank stare, he lashed his tail. " I see a man with courage, he seems to be willing to rob that bank over there."
" Fool."
" Well there's no reason in trying to assist him or not, shall we?" Keisho bounded out into the sun, its rays penetrating the cat so abundantly that it seemed to show through the pallid soul of his.
" Yeah, yeah. Actually I was thinking of going that way, to the unicorn boy and the half corpsed thing..." Noemi pointed at the opposite direction, then sprung to her feet, nonchalantly making her way to the broken into bank, skirting only through the shadows. " Oh, that thing?" She pointed, to the police station nearby. " This robbery..."
" Yes?"
" This robbery was not planned out properly!" She raged, and then decidedly skipped to the beat of the music playing in her ears. " Can you scent the people there?" Keisho took a quiet, terse sniff at the dusty air. " The bank is cleared, or at least most of it, there are people coming for back up. More humans. In the basement of a building there is..." he paused to sniff once more. " Some converged are there, I believe." Noemi nodded, she broke out into the open, dashed quickly to reside back into the shadows.
" How much I hate the sun..." she murmured, she entered the building, taking the descent down towards the basement. " You know, i don't quite like this darkness either." She signaled for Keisho to scent once more. He lifted his chin, his pink nose pointed high in the frank smell of the air.
" Human artillery." he finally concluded. Noemi sighed, then gave the door a steady knock. The petty thump repulsed through the door, swinging it open with an awkward creak. She stood, one hand in the pocket of her jacket, the other still frozen in the air. Her green eyes were wide with a disturbed look. " I knew i should've stuck to your world's problems instead." She took a mighty step into the room, " Hello children! Your dictator has arrived!" Keisho stepped forward, his dull gaze settled on the people in the room.
" He is the one." He pointed with his tail. " The one who has seen that of my world." Noemi gave a mighty yet boisterous yell, descending to the spot where the man stood.
" I will be your savior now, tell me, what is your name?"

"Well its good to finally see some resolve in one of you guys," Alex says while he walks into the room and sits at the edge of Arietta's bed, "Though to think it would be you, the only one of us who hasn't shown any positive changes to come around first. Thats something."

He looks over at the girl sleeping in the bed, looking almost like he feels bad for her, "Believe me when I say that being here with us is the safest place in the world for her now."

Just then Keiko came in dragging a man with her. "Hey, is this guy one of yours, or shall I kill him?" she asks throwing the man to the floor and drawing a gun.

Alex puts his hand to his face in an annoyed gesture, "Why are you dragging people you don't know in here? Look, I don't remember what all my men look like, but i can assure you this man is only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one hurt the little one, she just appears to be exhausted. Let this man go. If he is smart, he wont be poking his nose around here again, considering he almost got killed for taking a walk."

------------------------------------

Diana couldn't seem to stop her brain from going to strange places on her drive back to the station. She kept thinking back to that strange dream of hers. Dear girl seemed real enough, and its not like she was scared of her or anything, she just had trouble wrapping her head around it.

For some reason, ever since she woke up shes been seeing things differently. She couldn't quite understand why, but things just seemed clearer to her. She noticed little things that she never noticed before, and her brain seemed to connect the dots much quicker than before. She knew it was that little boy on the corner's birthday just by seeing him talking with his friends, and she knew that those teenagers running through the street away from those shadowy things had something to do with her new power and that earthshaking disturbance this morning.

"...Wait," she said to herself as she caught up with her train of thought. "Hey! Hold on!" she shouts out her window as she places the siren on the roof of her car.

BAM! While giving chase, one of those shadow monsters ran out in front of her car. She hit it before she was able to evade and spun out. "God damn it," she cursed to herself as she got out of her car and proceeded to chase after the two kids on foot, drawing her gun in case she had to deal with anymore of those things. "Hold on you two!"

"Hey hey, who's that?", Inari suddenly appeared, the comment made Matthew turn around to spot people, one dog and a girl.

"She's pretty loud too...", he stated bluntly. Suddenly, a knife appeared in his right hand.

"I didn't have any report that the police around here used dogs", he continued.

"Not to mention talking ones...", he was going to guess this person also had a counterpart, and that was the dog. The relationships between man and counterpart are... Very interesting. This one is much like a pet to a master.

"But first, you tell me who you are, or I can't guarantee you'll leave here alive", he announced, the dagger sheening in the dim light of the abandoned apartment room. Inari hanging over him like a clingy girl of sorts.

" Ugh, i'm not a dog..." Keisho padded forward, his long lithe body twisted next to Noemi's leg. The human girl burst out into an eerie laughter.
" You're a dog! He thought you were a dog!" she knelt down and picked the cat up by its wealthy amount of fur on its scruff. " Looks like you'll have to lay off the tuna and cream!" She shook the cate by its scruff, still laughing.
Keisho grumbled a few curses between his breath, teeth gritted. Then with a sudden turn of mood, Noemi turned her green gaze on the man.
" Oh bother, don't ignore my questions, I am your dictator now!" turning to Keisho, she demanded. " Sniff him down, dog!" The cat complied though grumbling his disapproval.
" Ah, he's met Mephistopheles..." he commented. " Such a strange scent cannot be avoided by the nose of a cat, let alone a demon."
" Aha! So little man, what was it that that crude blob of muck told you to do?" She edged forward void of fear, filled with a foolish courage. Keisho growled in a discontented manner.
" You idiot, what do you think? That he would randomly rob a bank that was so close to that police station? Even you are at risk being here with your kind of record." he reprimanded crudely.

They turned a corner and Kane covered the entrance with a makeshift wall of earth. Catching his breath, he waited for the sounds of the wolves on the street to pass.
I'm not sure if Alex should see her, he might just drag her into this...
"Hey, do you have somewhere to go, girl?" He asked suddenly. "To take shelter for a while, I mean."
If worst comes to worse, I'll have to take her to shadow-guy, or hide her myself. Damned pedestrians. He reconsidered the thought. No...I guess she isn't a normal pedestrian, with those powers of hers.

"Well if there was a contest on the oddest combination, these guys get my vote for now", commented Inari. The main source of the oddness would probably be the girl. Otherwise, what is now identified as a cat made itself clear. It seems they were familiar with Mephistopheles.

"Whether or not I'm at risk is my own concern. But I do not freely let on information on my clients. What they said to me is only mine to know", he stated directly.

"But girl, if your business here is to annoy me, you're doing a bang up job. The better you do that job, the more dead you will become", he threatened.

"Unless you have anything important to discuss, I'm afraid I can't let you leave here unscathed", he finished.

Noemi blinked blankly at the brazen threats. Then she dloosened her grip on Keisho, leeting the cat drop to the ground delicately thiugh with a thud. " Oh little man, the worlds have yet to decieve you. In my case, I am already dead, there is no reason in you harming me half because life is just living death, while dying is living life, and also because I can show you how horrible both these worlds are. If you want to kill me, then you will kill your chance of survival. I know practically everythin of that other world, the one with Mephistopheles, I know the secrets they have. You want answers dont you? To escape from the terrors of Mephistopheles? You cannot do so bu hurting me." She narrowed her green eyes, turning away. " I am not just a little useless girl, I am just like you," she whipped back around, " Doin things out of fear. There is nothing lower than fear, to me that is. So what is there to lose if you listen to me? I can guide you through places, give you more than any of that," she pointed crudely at the stolen money.
" The girl places a stupid yet reasonable offer, she only wants to know your name." Keisho curled his tail swifty around his black paws.

OOC: Actually the money is behind a wall in a hidden room behind Matthew.

"I'll agree with our feline friend here, it is a very good offer. Confirmation on the information is as authentic as our devilish friend from earlier", commented Inari, placing her hand around her chin in a sort of thinking posture.

It was reasonable, very reasonable, but she seemed a bit insane... Then again, Mephistopheles was rather shady, and that's either just as good as worse. Depending.

"I've got plenty of money, if that's what you mean by 'that'. All I need is information on what's been happening lately", he affirmed. Money to him, was easy to obtain. Afterall, he didn't need as much as many people.

"But why my name? Also, where I come from, if you want to know someone's name, you either buy it or give them yours", he stated. He needed to know this girl's name too, well, not really needed, but he made it a priority to know the name of everyone he meets. In case that name ever appears again later on, he'll recognise it.

As they turned the corner, she watched as the male made a giant wall that blocked the entrance. 'Whoa. A Giant wall? What will this guy do next?' she wondered and reached her hand up to touch the wall. The male seemed very exhausted. 'Maybe it takes a lot out of him.' she thought but remembered she was quite tired herself.

"Hey, do you have somewhere to go, girl?" He asked her after he caught his breath. "To take shelter for a while, I mean."

She sighed and looked at him. "My name is not girl. It's Kanade. What's yours?" she asked because she doesn't like to be called girl or woman. She let out a yawn and thought about his question. 'Do I really want to go back home? It's a bit safe I guess but I don't really want to....' she thought listing the pros and cons in her head.

"Yea." she finally answered. "There's my home, but I'm not quite sure how safe it'll be." Her home wasn't exactly built to resist shadowy monsters and supernatural creatures. Her right eye had lost the blue flame and was back to normal. She looked at him with her emotionless look and wondered what he was going to do next.

"Your home, eh?" Kane pondered the situation. She's right, a house might not be able to stand up to these creatures, but at least she'd be hidden. Damnit, is the only safe place with the others? Maybe if it was barricaded...no, but then she wouldn't be able to get out of the house.
I suppose there's no other choice. If anything happens it's just my fault I guess.
"If you want," he said reluctantly, "there's a 'safe house' of sorts up the street. There's others like us there, and there's more chance of surviving in a group."
Choosing his words more carefully, he added, "If you do come, I'd watch it. Some of them are...shady."

The sound of wolves were relatively distant now. He lowered the wall. "So you comin'?"

" Well, then how about you tell me your name, and I'll tell you mine?" Noemi bribed. She gave a sideways glance towards the door, then connected her gaze with Keisho's. " I feel an awkward disturbance in my world...like every second we waste we are losing others to your world."
" More like losing some of my people to your people." Keisho corrected. " They are making a large group, that is my suspicion. Just quickly get this over with and we can make our way there."
" Oh, yes." The seconds of contact they had just made seemed to have brought each of them to a conclusion. " My name is," she closed her eyes, causing the two seconds that passed to become more dramatic than needed, " Elise." she said, her mouth curled at the ends into an innocent like smile. " This is my dog--"
" Cat."
" My cat, Mr. Fluffles. He is a talking cat. Mm-hmm." The girl tilted her head towards the people in the dark room. " Now, what is your name?"

She glared at the male for a split second for ignoring her question, but shook it off. He was trying to help her. "A safe house, huh?" she asked. She tilted her head slightly and wondered if it would be more safer. It certainly sounded safer than her home.

"Shady people? I'm pretty sure it's better to hanging with those people than these shadow monsters. Gosh. It feels like I'm in one of those stupid supernatural movies or something." she said while shaking her head. 'Others...I wonder what they're like." she thought.

"So you comin'?" he asked. She snapped out her thoughts and nodded. She wanted to meet the others actually. They could know more to this situation. "Yea. I'm coming." she answered and followed after him with her now shadowy blades hidden by her sides in case they get ambushed.

She was... A rather...

"A bit dubious aren't they?", Inari stole the words straight from his mind.

"Then again, our position here isn't any better than it was with Mephistopheles. In a different way", she continued. She, and not just her but Matthew too felt something off... And that was rather easy.

"I had no idea the other world used such a name like Fluffles... But very well", just holding back wasn't going to gain anything really.

"My name is Matthew, and this is Inari", he stated. Inari waved over with a brief greeting.

"But now we've gotten past that, what can you tell me, about the other world? And what's been happening lately?", he asked.

The wolves, though they could not find their prey, continued to attack unsuspecting people on the streets. They tore at all who could not disperse in time, from child to adult. They ran with reckless abandon and an insatiable hunger towards a common destination.

A woman with long, dark brown hair stood in the middle of the street, awestruck and shocked by the sudden violence in her neighborhood. The wolves converged on her, but she couldn't move. They leapt at her as she stood, paralyzed by fear, and all she could do was drop her purse and scream.

=======================

The wolves were gone. The streets had gone quiet from the massacre. The woman stood up, apparently unhurt. She looked down the street, horrified at the gore lining the sidewalks.

However, staring at the spectacle, she felt an insatiable need to feed.

When she finally pulled herself up and out of her "comfortable" sleep, it felt as though she had emerged from under a threatening pool of water. She hadn't noticed it while asleep, but the virus must have been slowly drowning her out of heart and soul... separating her and Teofila. Gasping for air, Arietta came to in the real world... her room now seemingly empty.

It had gotten brighter outside, but clouds blocked out the sun... sending signals of more rain to come. Listening to see if anyone was still home, Arietta strained to hear any movement or voices. Someone shifted in a chair in the living room... probably Resha or Alex. She scanned the room once again when she saw Keiko sleeping comfortably on the floor space near her room's entrance.

She sighed... sleep teased her like a drug. There was nothing more she wanted than to sleep... nothing more she felt that she needed. Then she heard Teofila in the very back of her thoughts, "Stay strong... i have an idea. But you'll need to be brave, okay?"

"O-Okay." Arietta was having a hard time breathing again... and could only barely speak. She trusted Teofila to help her, and no matter how crazy this 'plan' was, she would follow through with it. Maybe that was too trusting, but Arietta couldn't care less about what happened to her in the long run. No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, her life wasn't all that important. She would do this... not so that she would live, but for Teofila's sake.

Teofila took a moment to respond, catching her breath, but eventually continued with her explanation, "All right. I know that you're having a hard time moving... but i need you to try and stand up. Use all of your strength to get out of this bed, and make your way to the kitchen. There is a low cabinet next to the stove where the knives are kept... with one of those..." There was a pause... Teofila was obviously distressed, "I need you to kill yourself."

Nothing made a sound... nothing moved... it was like the world had put itself on pause. Arietta's heart beat rang in her ears with the intensity of a thousand drums. A crash in the distance woke her from her trance.

In order to survive this... she was required to die first.

Now squatted on the floor petting Keisho quietly as the two conversed, she said flatly, " Well, you have told me your name, the first step to the almighty democracy i have in mind. You are now my citizens, welcome to the town. I am the mayor of this anarchy, and it pleases me to be so." She stopped petting the cat, the innocent face now obliterated completely, only to be supplanted by a devious glare and crooked smirk as if she had gone mad. " Anyways, let's not spend any longer here, there is much more i have to do than sit here in risk while police men are already lining up outside. Let us continue this conversation elsewhere." She did not give a choice.

"They're not lined up or even know where I am yet, but that can change if I stay any longer", he corrected. Furthermore, his cache of supplies would come under danger too.

"I swear, this is why I never leave that shrine. Too many crazy, shady folk out there", commented Inari, standing up straight, eyes closed and smoking her pipe.

"Solitude is one thing you'll never get being around these type of people, and I like my solitude", she continued.

"Yes, but you can no longer have it, now can you?", Matthew pointed out.

"Why do I need that now? I have yoouuu~", she flirted, hugging him from behind, rubbing her face on him.

"Yes yes, now... Elise and Mr. Fluffles, as you've said we should move location. Lead on", he pulled the entire thing back on track, letting Inari finish her little hug before regaining her somewhat elegant air.

" Well I would be delighted, but as inferior as a human should be," she turned to the cat beside her, " I will relate the question to Mr. Fluffles!" She stood above the black cat, eyes narrowed in a devilish array of schemes, yet could not be told by one glance. The cat nodded and flicked its tail, signaling for the others to follow him.
" We will use the approach of the mysterious confidence that Elise has, and detonate ourselves like the glorious bombards we happen to be." Now with their so-called 'citizens' behind them, following in sync, the two acted even odder than before, with the absurd airs of people in high positions.
" We are going..." Noemi queried stagnantly, popping a piece of candy into her mouth.
" We are going towards the mass of converged, your people and mine, I can smell them like a lemon in rubbish." The two padded out the door, and ascended back into the light of day. No one had appeared quite yet, though the sounds of police officers and radios were vivid and clear.
" Hmph..." Noemi grunted. The cat turned, leading them through an alley way, down the shaded visions of a still area in town and, nose lifted high, towards the ghosted appearance of a rundown motel. The scenery was indescribable. " They take shelter in a dump like this? Stupid yet smart...i suppose that's how they---" she cut off short, took a long whiff of the air about them just as Keisho had done before. " I smell a who--"
" Oh yes, quite. It's the group from before." Keisho cut her off, padding along side his companion.
" Before?"
" The one where that magical boy and the seemingly advanced converged one who swallowed up the monster that was attacking you? That group, how can you not remember that, you twit? It was about a few days ago, shouldn't you be traumatized." Keisho hissed in disgust. His tail fluffed up to twice its size, he glared at her with the perturbed look on his round face.
" Oh that group...that's what i was saying, the who--"
" Yes, now let's stop dawdling and get to that horrid place." He interrupted her once again, pointing with his tail at the area.

As the small group walked outside, it was clear that there was a police presence nearby, but for this much time to have passed meant they were slowed down by an incident. Matthew can account for that, he did afterall blow their power generator up, destroying the backup with it. As a result, their response is weak, and due to them having taken damages, they cannot properly respond to the thieves.

After some talking between the two oddballs, the cat finally pointed in a direction...

"Gimme a moment...", he said. He was going to be walking to who knows during broad daylight with police presence. His black coat was distinctive afterall.

"Inari, merge", he ordered. She sighed simply, then disappeared as a mask began to appear over his face. He grabbed the mask, and in a flash of folding white cloth appeared an entirely different person. Matthew removed his hand from his face, it was a much rougher face compared to the smoother one he originally had.

He now wore a beanie, a hooded jacket and some rough jeans, he pretty much looked like anyone on the street now.

"Alright, now lead on", he said. He felt it was fine, it didn't matter to an animal whether or not he could change form, smell was afterall a very strong kind of searching method.

"You can keep calling me Matthew, don't worry", he assured.

Fitonie walked down the hallway and sighed. The stones walls were covered in mold and plants. They really needed to fix the place up a little, but not even her powers couldn't turn the base in one of those cool looking ones in that magazine that fell from the sky. "Now where is that room?" she wondered aloud.

Soon she found it at the end of the hall. She pushed opened the door and smiled. "Yo, Sha-man!" she called. A creature with a cloth robe and hood over his head turned around. "How many times must I tell you not to call me that, Fitonie?" asked the shaman. "Um...A lot?" she said with a smile.

The shaman shook his head. "Act more like your age, Fitonie!" he scolded. Fitonie pouted and turned her head away from him. "Hmph. Meanie!" she mumbled. The shaman chuckled and looked at her. "So what's it like to know about these computer things you make and speak of? Sounds interesting. You should make me one of those flying bikes." he asked.

Fitonie faced him again and smiled. "Maybe. Only if you take me to see the high ups!" she said with a grin. The shaman shook his head. "Alright, but behave yourself! Why do you insist on seeing them anyways?" he asked intrigued. "Quite the curious creature, aren't you? It's just that situation is getting worse." she teased. She let out a sigh as he nodded and walked out of the room. She followed after him, hoping that there was a solution or a way to stop it.

Resha had spent the day resting aimlessly within the safehouse. With Arietta sick, the others out, the rain still pouring and no real goal to accomplish for herself. she was left with a great deal of free time to actively lounge around and collect herself.

She had already given her word to be devoted to this fool of a cause, so one way or another she had accepted her circumstances and had started to, she hoped, take adapt and take advantage of them; only time would tell if her actions held the fruit of success or not, however.

The day had given her time to think, time to let her mind wander without need. Time to lean against the window, sitting upon a knee-high bench, and stare distractedly into the hypnotic gray skies.

She remembered these skies, from her home. It was a long way off now, but she remembered. Back in Ireland, rain wasn't exactly an uncommon sight - Hell, she grew up with gray skies. These days were especially nostalgic for her...

Until she registered the proverbial canyons of gray concrete and steel around her. That really ruined the mood, but otherwise, she was good. A little nostalgia never hurt anyone, after all. Everyone had something that was strictly there one, something that held a special place in their heart, where merely looking at it uncovered memories long buried and ignored in the day to day life; a way to hold onto the sanctuary of the past when times got rough.

This rain, these gray skies, they were hers. They dredged up memories of... Not necessarily happier, but a more carefree time. Before she had a job, before this crap happened, back to the days when she had just been-

Drawn from the fires-
Released from the waters-
Thrown from the skies-

born into the world with no-

-care at all, her entire life spread out before her with nothing to keep in mind but her curfew and who to-

Kill.
Save.
Master.

Under these skies, she grew up from the little girl to the woman she was now.
Under these skies, she became the force she was now.

Raindrops like bloodwater covering her formbody.
---------------

Her eyes slowly drifted open, taking in the sky again. At some point, she had apparently drifted to sleep in her reverie, She rolled off the windowseat she had claimed as her napping spot and stretched sinuously. Her feet hit the ground with a relaxation that was akin to subconsciously ingrained instinct, of relfexes that were not her own - honed over countless instances where mistakes were no longer an option by thousands of weary souls not her own.

Every muscle in her body felt alive and coiled, a balance she didn't know possible, created by the conscious realization and feeling of each tensing and relaxation from her achilles tendon, through her calves, hamstrings, the rippling of her shoulder blades as her shoulders shrugged off the sleep.

The world was crisp, sharp and defined like a passive adrenaline high. She could hear the rain falling, the house stirring, her footsteps falling.

And as Resha breathed in, a sixth sense stirred deep in the back of her mind, trying to break free to the surface once more, only to be lost as her high began to fade.

Slowly, like a bloodrush draining away, her world returned to normal. The redhead yawned lazily, heading towards the kitchen and digging out the chinese food from earlier. She began to eat lazily, the nap having refreshed her more than she had thoughti t would.

Nostalgia.... She chewed on the spicy beef strip thoughtfully and stared out the window.

The rapid splashing of footsteps being dashed across the murky puddles in this inner city alley way can be heard echoing across the labrynthian channels. An unassuming looking man, skillfully weaves around the various bits of debris, garbage cans, and chain link fences, in a feverish attempt to evade a rather zealous group of persuers.

His dark blue eyes shifted vigilantly to and fro as his body made the necessary compensations to negotiate his escape. His shaggy brown hair struggled to keep up with him, mimicking his heads movements with a slight delay.

Despite his agility, his persuers persistantly remained at his heels. "Your flight is an act of treason against almighty GOD, Arthur! Let us free your little houseguest and you can die with the knowledge that you did something worthy of God's honor!"

Arthur ignored them. They had been yelling this shit at him from the moment they confronted him at the bus stop a few minutes ago. He wouldn't waste energy by replying with wasted words. These guys didn't seem like they were going to reason with him anyway.

Arthur made a swift turn into the most dimly lit section of alleyway he had come across yet. "Damn it. A dead end." A high rising building stood in front of him, with no doorway on this side. Two very tall brick walls on either side, much too tall for him to attempt to climb. Arthur looked around for any method of escape, but it appeared as if his back was against the wall for this one...

Shortly behind him, the group of zealots relaxed their pace and stood forming a human wall in between him and his only route of egress. "Arthur, we've been watching you. We know you're hiding that traitor. Now just relax. We only ever wanted what was BEST for mankind. And in this very moment what is best for mankind is the termination of your body. But don't worry Arthur, just surrender the traitor willingly and I can assure you a favored spot in the celestial plane. You'll be a hero among the heavens, Arthur! Just surrender."

Arthur stood grasping his sides, still winded from the extended free run. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, eyeballing the zealots and their hooded faces. "Guys..." He huffed. "Time out..." Another exasperated gulp of air was clumsily sucked into his lungs. He stood with his hands on his knees, trying hard to catch his breath. The zealots hardly seemed winded at all.

The lead zealout pulled out of his black leather jacket a very strange, and albeit very disturbing looking device. An intricately engraved silver handle connected to a shiny, clear orb. Two golden hooks protruded from the sides and arched forward, towards the top of the sphere. On top of the sphere was an orifice, topped with a transparent gel-like substance.

Arthur quickly regained his composure and raised an eyebrow to the introduction of this off-putting device. "Let me guess, now you want me to turn my head and cough?" The zealot leader looked displeased. "You know Arthur, those smartass comments are going to cost you more than your anatomy."

"Look guys, I don't know how you know my name, or who the hell this traitor is, but you definitely picked the wrong guy to chase into an alley."

The zealot leader's mouth curled into a smirk, his mouth being the only visible part of his face. "We're very aware of your history Arthur. We're aware of your former rank in the military. Perhaps I should refer to you as Colonel Vandergilt? We're also very aware of your aptitude for combat, and grasp of small and large unit tactics. You're quite the commander aren't you, Colonel?" The zealot leader took a few steps forward. "Yes we know what we're dealing with Arthur... The question is, do you?"

Both stood impatiently waiting on the sidewalk, they stared blankly on at the two who had seemingly merged together. Each gave their share of crude, silenced stares, then Noemi spoke, " Well, I suppose it is better for both of us, plus they are both strong, so that would aid us when we come into a...a..."
" A problem? Especially with our...'stranger' problem?" Keisho added as his human companion came to a lost for words.
" Oh yes, of course." Noemi complied quietly. " Well, let's continue, the more time we waste, the more people we lose to the other side, and the more people we lose, the harder our mission gets." She skipped along the sidewalk once again, the purple silenced headphones in her ear. Keisho padded along side her.
" Hm. seems that there are currently people in this building, but...they are deep inside." Keisho commented, his tail lashing once again.
" So they wouldn't exactly see us?"
" No, not technically, until you break down theyre door again." The cat stole a glance behind him to the citizens of their 'town'.
" Ah, that is wonderful! Just glorious! Let us pick up their trash today!" Noemi skipped inside, after taking a long pause at the doorstep, peering in with her left hand on the frame, her other on the door knob. The two stepped inside curiously, and then stepped into the first room. A few things lay loose about the floor, clothes, food. Noemi picked up a couple of each, she sniffed the air and crinkled her nose. " Smells like some dog took a crap here." She fled the room swiftly, picking Keisho up and tossing him into another room while she scavenged through another.

Arthur bared his fists in preparation of the imminent assault. "I guess the time for words has come to an end." The zealots walked with purpose toward Arthur who was now ready to fight. The lead zealot raised his device and pointed it at Arthur, activating it in the process. "Hold him down." The lead zealot spoke with a firm command. As the other zealots closed within melee range, Arthur made his move.

The first enemy he could reach was subject to the butt of Arthurs palm. The upward thrust to the fragile cartilage of the zealots nose overwhelmed his sense of pain. With a slight popping sound the zealot slumped to the wet ground, with a torrent of blood spewing through the cracks between his fingers that he used to try to hold back the flood.

With that, the rest of the zealots swarmed him and began to wildly punch and kick Arthur in an attempt to beat him into submission. Despite the chaos, Arthur did his best to systematically beat his way out of the crowd. However, his human body would only take him so far. Several of the zealots had collapsed onto the ground, holding random broken appendages, or trying to sooth the pain of a muscle that had been seperated from it's sinew.

Arthur began to succumb to fatigue after several minutes of attempting to save himself. As the small mob began to overwhelm him, something began to tingle amidst the immense pain Arthur felt in his body. The tingle soon gave way to a great burning sensation in his chest.

The zealots held Arthurs arms out, reminiscent of the crucifix, and forced Arthur to his knees. Their leader approached, his menacing device ready to carry out its purpose. Arthur's eyes widened in disbelief as a zealot grabbed his shaggy head of hair and yanked his head back so that his face became a parallel plane with which the sky could properly bestow its inundation.

Despite his approaching demise, Arthur could concentrate only on this ungodly burning in his chest. Why? Why the hell was it burning so badly. "Have I eaten chili today?" Arthur tried to rationalize. At that, an extraordinarily powerful, yet very reassuring voiced boomed from the recesses of his skull. The syllables each shook him to his very core, and threatened to explode out of every orifice his head had to offer.

"ARTHUR! YOU'RE TIME IS NOT NOW. RISE! RISE TO YOUR OWN FEET AND SAVE YOURSELF! MY POWER IS YOURS FOR NOW! USE IT TO BAPTISE THIS EVIL IN RIGHTEOUS FIRE!

"Dear God what the fuck is happening inside me?!" Arthur felt as if his body was being placed on the rack. Just as Arthur began to pass out from sensory overload, the deep burn in his chest began to automatically split and run its course down both of his arms. As if traveling through his blood, the firelike sensation then seemed to take root in his arms.

The lead zealot raised the orb of the instrument to Arthurs forehead. The two hooks automatically dug into his temples like scorpion stingers. That pain was nothing compared to the fire inside him. He felt the disaster of his life being snuffed and could do nothing but look into the hooded face of the zealot leader, whose smirk was still blatantly emblazoned there.

Staring at that smirk was just too much for Arthur to bear. "Fuck this...." The words proudly stepped out of Arthurs mouth like the most aggregious affront to fate. The zealot leader had to laugh. "Arthur just give it a few more moments my boy. That skull of yours will pop like a cork, we'll get what we want, and then you're free to go straight to hell."

Arthurs face could be described in a lot of ways at that very moment: Wet, bloodsoaked, battered, bruised. But the defining feature was the returned smirk Arthur lodged on right at the last moment. The zealot leaders mouth quickly turned into quite the perfectly U-shaped frown. "You've nothing to smile about Arthur, you're fucked."

The fire in Arthurs arms, that was the greatest source of his pain, had begun to feel just a little more domesticated. Now, Arthur felt a renewal. The burning that had taken hold of his arms was now expanding, and with just the right amount of coaxing, Arthur felt like he could use it. So in the most dramatic fashion he could manage, Arthur let out a scream that would annihilate even the most fearsome barbarian warcry.

The zealot leaders hood was blown away from his face, exposing the fear that had taken root in his eyes. "That... That's not... It's not possible... The voice of Michael!" The zealot leader quickly, and fervently began to push the device harder into Arthur's forehead. "NOW! WE HAVE TO FINISH THIS JOB RIGHT NOW! HOLD THE BASTARD DOWN!"

It was too late, the burning in Arthurs arms had manifested into a physical flame. It burned white hot, and Arthur felt as if he held the power of a newborn star in each fist. The dark and wet alleyway instantly was transformed into a bastion of seemingly immeasurable heat and light. The zealots were taken with fear and stumbled onto and over one another in a desperate attempt to make distance from this man.

Arthurs consciousness was well aware of his body, but his voice was not his own. His will still felt as if it belonged to him, but also as if it were heavily influenced by an unknown force inside of him. The raging flames at his arms were then accompanied by another flame in his chest. A beam of intense light pierced the middle of Arthurs chest like a laser from heaven. The light gaveway to the hilt of a sword. Almost independant of his will, his arms both grabbed at the hilt and pulled outward, as if to draw it from his beating heart. Despite the great strength he felt emanating from his arms, it was with great difficulty that the sword was withdrawn. It seemed to resist the force of all but the mightiest of wills.

Slowly, the sword was withdrawn inch by inch, revealing the polished blade inscribed with writing from a language that Arthur had never seen. The double edge of the sword was inlaid with golden pictures, depicting great battles from an era before time. Finally the tip of the great sword was visible. As the weapon became a part of this reality it rang out a glorious tone, ready to be one with combat once again, and to strike at the heart of evil wherever it may hide.

Arthurs mouth opened to speak, and the same thunderous voice from his head echoed out into the universe itself. "JAMAERAH, YOU ACT ON BEHALF OF YOUR BLIND LOVE FOR A CORRUPTED DEITY. YOU CAME TO PASS JUDGEMENT, BUT JUDGEMENT HAS FALLEN ON YOU."

The zealot leader gathered the presence of mind to rise to his feet and meet Arthur's penetrating gaze. "How Michael... How can you manifest as such... My power is useless to me inside this pathetic human shell, but your power stands here on this plane where we have never been able stay for long."

"So Michael, you are aware of the consequences of your actions. Even if you slay this body now, all of heaven and hell will be at your heels. You cannot stop God."

The woman walked down the street from where the wolves had come, darting her narrowed eyes from side to side. What am I even looking for, she wondered. Her instincts were picking up a scent - of what, she could not immediately tell - and she was compelled to find it. Her vision went blind to the gore and wreckage surrounding her as she sniffed the air.
She stopped in front of a restaurant, "Rapid Transport Panda," without turning her head. Her gnawing hunger spiked and she spun in the direction of the chinese restaurant. I'm...hungry? I don't even like chinese food... She extended her arm towards the building, eyes focusing inside. No...not chinese food...
From her shoulder out to the outstretched hand, dark apparitions began to violently spew their way out of her from seemingly nowhere. The cone of shadows took shape the farther out it got, the form of wolves emerging from the ghastly material, bursting through the glass entrance of the building.
The woman began to grin. Her features sharpened, her face contorting to something inhuman. "Feed..." the woman uttered the word in a voice not her own, and she felt her hunger sated on the flesh of the people inside.

From the back of the chinese restuarant, an awakening began to occur. People once dead, their corpses missing flesh with the teeth marks of man upon them, began to stir. Like the woman, hunger was their first impulse...

Unlike the woman, it was also their last.

One of the wolves was the unfortunate creature to wander into all three as they awoke - Their lunge was swift and aided by surprise, it didn't survive the rampant devouring of the trio.

But the wolf was nothing to them, their hunger was insatiable, and as one they stumbled forth from the back of the store. Into the direction of the screaming, into the direction of the food, the three corpses shambled into view.

Complete chaos had broken out in the surrounding area.

The woman cringed and jerked her head to face the back of the restaurant. The flow of wolves from her arm had ceased, and she lowered her arm. Her eyes twitched in annoyance, and the wolves immediately responded by directing their attention to the shambling corpses.

They simultaneously leapt on them, tearing at whatever they could grab hold of. The wolves that suffered fatal damage dissipated into black smoke, returning to the woman.

Despite their efforts, these humans did not give up after being torn apart, only ceasing when it was physically impossible to continue. Baring her teeth in frustration, the woman had the urge to join the fray, but left the work to her companions.

The wolves were bitten into in a futile effort to devour, but seeing as they simply reverted to smoke when the damage became severe - And with the increasing damage being done to the creatures - their attention turned to the dead and dying innocents within the restuarant as the wolves were ignored in their efforts to tear them apart.

Their dead forms shambled towards the bodies and collapsed upon them... And then the feasting began. Skin, muscle and bone sliding off it's original host and slathering itself upon the individual creatures. Wounds healed and their bodies began to transform in order to accomodate the newly gained biomass.

She growled in anger. They're ignoring me. They're ignoring me! She watched as they turned their attention to the other bodies, amassing into a larger creature. Those were MINE.
She began to walk quickly towards the monster. Several of the wolves re-merged with her body; The more that recombined, the more feral she began to act. She leaned forward, her steps quickening to a sprint - her hair grew longer and wilder, growing even on her forearms and legs. Her fingers extended into claws and she bared her now knife-sharp teeth. About 5 meters away from the mass of flesh, she made a tremendous leap, barreling into its center, tearing at it ferociously with teeth and claws as it fell.

Her instinct made her quickly forget her humanity.

The leaping weregirl was met with astoundingly little attention - She was ignored just as much as her wolves, as the skeletal structure of the bodies were torn from their muscles, rearranging the three creatures into unholy abominations of the flesh that still bore the skin color and facial expressions, as well as the gore, of their recent meal.

It was likely they would ignore the threat unless it interfered, or they finished their meal and it was still there for the next course.

Walking away from the forest after his battle with zombie lady, Rui seemed a bit better now. He went to a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat and regain his energy. He ordered some Lo Mein and sat down at a table. Then a waitress brought Rui his food and left. Rui munched on his Lo mein, looking very hungry. Just then something caught his eye. He saw another zombie like creature outside. He went a bit closer to get a better look. Then he saw a wolf like creature fighting the zombie creature.

“Ah shit, more of these things! And also, there’s a wolf there. Weird, it has a human like body too and is standing upright. Wait a sec… Is this a werewolf?! The hell is happening…” Rui said, looking surprisingly. He then transformed quickly and made his way outside, charging up his fists with fire.

DIE, DIE, DIE, her mind had only one word in it as she tore up the creature, only to see it reconvene and reshape itself. Her frustration fed her rage, causing the remaining wolves to act more rabid, completely devouring the nearby corpses, bones and all.
She stopped momentarily and spun around, seeing another creature, hands aflame. She could sense its malicious intent - well, towards her - and shadows poured out of her where she stood. She burst into a sprint at the new threat, the cloud of smoke she left behind emerging into a large wolf, imbued with a sizeable portion of her strength to continue the onslaught.

With a familiar motion, she sprinted then pounced at the man with terrifying speed and ferocity.

=========================

Kane led the girl down another alleyway, then stopped as he felt several buildings shaking in their foundations a short distance from them.
He slowed to a stop. "Did you hear something?"

As Rui tried to hit the werewolf girl with his fire punch, the werewolf girl managed to counter by pouncing onto Rui with her terrifying speed. Rui then fell down hard, making a loud thud. Rui wasn’t out yet, as he then threw the girl off him. He then jumped up into the air using his immense leg strength and attacked the werewolf girl using a fireball punch, the resulting damage making a giant crater from where the werewolf girl was thrown at.

The remaining bodies were absorbed in their entirety by the corpses, and with the woman gone, only the wolves stood between them and shambling out to find more food...

And so the corpses, now deformed and transforming as their biomass increased with each creature they devoured, turned to the closest source of food. The wolves, once more.

Their bodies were bigger than the one Rui had fought, much larger, with disproportionate limbs and bodies as the mass was still sorting itself out. A huge hand that may have very well weighed an entire man's body weight smashed down upon one of the wolves, bones that had obviously been used as a ribcage now clamping down around the canine's body and piercing it's stomach viciously.

The trapped wolf had no time to yelp, as it was swallowed into the arm itself. As they fed, the corpses evolved to feed more efficiently. To feed faster.

The woman rolled out of the way just enough to not be directly struck with the man's fist, though the resulting explosion knocked her clean across the street. She cringed at both the direct damage and her wolves being systematically devoured by the zombie creatures. There was nothing she could do about the latter, however.

She started forward again, slowly accelerating into a dead sprint, this time leaping much earlier and twisting to extend her right arm forward, the front half of several shadow wolves biting at her aggressor as she hung in midair.

Rui saw the werewolf girl not taking a direct hit as he slowly fell down to the ground. Then he saw the girl leaping at him. “Tch, I’ll finish this”, Rui said menacingly. He then, in the air, ran towards her. He then charged a stronger fire punch and then punched at the girl, which in turn sent her flying away to a nearby building. The body of the girl crashing into the building left a huge crater in the building. “Fuck, I did it again.”

The wolves were pack animals, but in an enclosed space with these inhuman monstrosities, they were little more than food. With no sense of pain, and the nightmarish distortions of their body gained from devouyring, it wasn't long until they were dispersed enough for the creatures to start shambling out into the rainy day.

The people who hadn't bothered to run, and run far away - Those in the surrounding buildings.. They were soon to be food, as the freakish corpse-devourers began to seek their next meal.

She lay dazed in the crater - even in her inhuman form, her body could only take so much strain, not to mention the wolves that died trying to kill the zombies. Her rage calmed as she tried to regain her senses, the larger wolf that split off earlier re-merging with her body.
Her humanity reclaimed her, and she stood up from the wreckage, rubbing her head. She looked up at the boy in the air who just struck her and snarled defensively, arms outstretched and claws flaring as a show of aggression. Now what does he want? I'll kill him!!

With nothing to distract them, the surrounding humans were quite easily plucked up - At first. The moment they realized that they were being eaten, and rather effortlessly at that, there was much screaming and running.

However, feasting was what the corpse-devourers did best. With each new kill, their mass grew, and so they split up to devour as many as possible with their mindless hunger.

Seeing the girl looking human, Rui decided not to even approach her. “Huh, she looks human now. Tch. I don’t kill humans, she probably was taken over or something.” Then Rui heard the screaming from the civilians as the zombies ate them. They got stronger and larger with each human they ate. “Fuck. I was busy with wolf girl, I forgot those guys. They look a bit different from the last one. Damn, I hope they aren’t as different in terms of killing them either.” With that said, Rui leaped forward, determined to save the humans that were running away.

Arthur raised his sword with both of his arms, covered in the divine flame which was Michael's strength. Jamaerah fell to his knees in acceptance of Micahel's judgement.

The voice of the Archangel emitted from Arthur's mouth once more. "Return to your tyrant." The sword of Michael descended upon the head of Jamaerah with titan force, splitting his body cleanly and instantly.

Arthurs gaze turned to the horrified zealot mass. The voice of Michael spoke to them. "You lesser beings are granted amnesty. But you must release the bodies of the men you have taken. Return to your master in failure, and let him judge you."

With that, the zealots began to drop to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Arthur tried to move but found that his body seemed to be locked. *Gr...Ungh...* Arthur couldn't budge a muscle. Michael's voice returned to his mind with a noticeably more bearable demeanor. "I apologize human. My name is Michael. I represent a force that is beyond your current threshold for understanding. I am remiss to inform you that I have no choice but to store my power with you for now. It seems that fate is none too fond of you Arthur. You seem to have been drug into my situation."

Arthurs body returned control to him and allowed him free movement. He began to open his mouth to question this insane event, but was interrupted by the realization that an all out battle seemed to be happening not far from where he stood.

"What the hell is going on over there..." Arthur thought as he started to run in the direction of the noises. Michael's voice in his head resonated back to him, "A fierce battle rages. I sense the presence of beings unnatural to this world." Arthur grimaced and stopped. "Do I need to be running over there? I mean... I apparently have some sort of insane taking up residence in my body, no offense, and I just got attacked by a bunch of guys who were possessed? I don't know if I need any more of this."

Michael responded, "We must head that way. As of now, we are both on a 'hitlist' if you will, between all of what you know as heaven and hell. Any sort of unnatural disturbance we must investigate. We now have to find a certain friend of mine and any signature that is not of this world might help us locate him."

"What the hell" figured Arthur. "This day was fucked up from the beginning. First they put eggs on my damn McMuffin, now i'm on a supernatural hitlist. Fucking great." Arthur ran towards the destruction.

The creatures mass was growing in odd ways, their forms shifting and changing as the bodies devoured accumulated. With their new mass came new muscle, came more weight, and came an entirely new creature that was far more of a threat than a simple fledgling corpse-devourer.

For example, the arm which was a size of two full grown men which ended in a huge gaping hole and several reinforced ribcages acting as a claw which met Rui's charge head on.

And then didn't budge an inch.

The deformed monstrosity groaned, and then the claws began to close around Rui as it attempted to devour him as well.

As Rui charged into the creature, in a flash the creature caught Rui with its claw. “Fuck, this thing is about to eat. I… can’t let it end. I have to do something!” Rui’s look of fear and desperation made him charge a fireball using his mouth. Anything to escape death. Anything to escape being eaten by the giant zombie. As the fireball was fully charged, Rui then shot it at the creature, point blank.

It had expected to devour a puny fleshbag, the fireball was not a puny fleshbag. The corpse-devourer made a novel discovery among it's race...

Heartburn.

As the inside of it's arm was bathed in flames, the claws finally snapped shut around the puny flesh-thing and proceeded to launch it angrily across the street and into a building while it's melted flesh began to melt out of it's palmmouth with a grotesque sound and smell.

However, the force of the swing proved too much for the melting arm and a great deal of the flesh on it simply... fell to the ground from the centrifugal force exerted on it once the skin and muscle had been liquified.

The zombie thing looked down at the melted arm which lie upon the ground in as close to confusion as it's species could muster... And then it reverted back to Plan A when encountering something made of flesh.

It descended upon it's own arm and devoured it.

Where's he going? She watched him leap away, ignoring her challenge.
"Where the hell are you going?!!" She yelled after him, falling on all fours instinctively, rage filling her eyes again as her headache wore off, and the took off towards his direction.
He's pissing me off!!!
She caught up in time to see him tossed across the street. She ignored everything except him, her most recent source of torment.
With a feral roar, she leapt into the building after him, shadow unintentionally leaking from her body again.

After being thrown by the giant zombie creature, Rui looked a bit dazed. He stood up slowly and was wondering where the hell he was. When he regained his surroundings, he found he was across the street. And to his surprise the werewolf girl came back. She let out a roar and made Rui said in a monotone like voice, “Oh joy.”

He then readied himself. He fired up his hands and legs and took a stance, ready for round two.

Arthur sprinted down the still wet roads, feet splashing in various puddles as he approached the scene to find an ungodly mass of flesh and bone in mortal combat with a group of people he'd never seen before.

Michael's voice resonated again, "We must join the fray." Arthur's surprise was apparent as he retorted, "What? Against THAT? Please tell me you want me to fight the kids."

An unamused Michael responded, "This is no time for jokes Arthur. I will lend you my power so that you may bring my holy fire to this wretch."

Arthur seemed a little more relieved. "Well alright, let's do it then." Michael's great sword grew warm, and with a whoofing sound its blade was engulfed in white fire. Arthurs body flooded with a renewed vigor and energy, as his body pushed flames out that solidified into the golden plate armor of the Archangel.

"Well all right! I look cool but I really don't know how to use this stuff Michael. My kind hasn't really used swords in combat since... Well it was a good long time before I was born."

Michael's voice resonated in Arthur's mind. "I am with you. My knowledge is your knowledge." Arthur frowned. "Well... Eh... Okay, whatever." With sword raised, Arthur charged into the fray, trusting Michael to guide him.

Another one of the corpse-devourers, this one having been feeding unobstructed since the fight moved out of the restuarant, chose Arthur as it's new source of food.

This creature had evolved differently from it's brethren fighting Rui. It's entire torso had been covered in a bone armor made of the ribcages from the people it had eaten. the bones making up the forearms had split apart and had more added to them, creating vicious preying mantis like bone-structures that were roughly the size of a man's thigh.

The kneecaps had long since broken and inverted, more muscle mass and bone causing it's lower half extremely capable of lunging and jumping.

The truly intimidating factor was that it's development meant that all of it's muscle mass was concentrated in it's body equally, behind row after row of reinforced bone carapace that still bore the blood and scratch marks from their original owners.

With Arthur as it's new target, the thing launched itself from nearly fifteen feet away and swing it's scythe like mantis-bones in an attempt to bisect the next food instantly.

Drawing from instincts that he couldn't possible have had, Arthur held his great sword in front of him in a vertical manner, the scythe-like bone violently striking and grinding against it. Arthur struggled to brace himself against the assault. Michaels voice resonated again, "Push back, NOW!" Arthurs arms instantaneously burst with flame as he gave a dedicated return of force.

The monster stumbled momentarily as it was knocked off balance. Michael's voice giving specific direction to supplement his gift of heightened combat awareness. "Now, he's off balance, go for the leg that supports his weight NOW!"

Arthur charged in with his sword at his chest, pointed at the monster like a vicious lance. The white hot sword pierced through what acted as the monsters left knee. With a twist and an outward slash, Arthur dashed away as the beast dropped to one knee.

She landed in front of the boy, who had stopped retreating, and extended her arms to her sides. From them poured 5 wolves from each side, flanking the boy and cornering him against the wall. She dropped on all fours, and her 10 wolves tensed up. She howled, signalling the wolves to attack all at once.
They pounced.

========================

The door to the safehouse burst open and Kane spoke, neglecting utilization of his "inside voice."
"Have you seen what's going on down town, guys? Fucking wolves every-fucking-where!" He looked around and saw Resha in the kitchen area. "Also, I brought a...er...friend, here." He moved aside so she could see Kanade. "She was almost killed by those things, I figured here was the safest for now."

He changed subjects before Resha could respond.
"Also, like I said, there's crazy shit goin' on down town, I wouldn't go there." Almost on cue, a faint crashing noise resonated through the city. "Thought I'd let'cha know."

As it fell to the ground, the creature groaned in what may have passes pain if indeed it was capable of feeling any. It's knee was cauterized from the heated sword, but this meant little to the creature.

It's prey wasn't devoured - It still hungered. The body rearranged itself, another leg, identical to the last only without bone plating, replaced it's lamed side - It's fresh form smelling of an opening corpse, the leg itself composed of visibly rippling muscle, the lactic acid dripping into air with blood oozing out with each step.

It seemed it had simply remade the leg out of stored bodymass held within it from the devoured people.

The old leg lay abandoned, blood oozing out from the top of the bone like a giant crab leg. The creature ignored it, bending it's legs once more and lunging for Arthur with it's scythe like appendages extended.

The weregirl landed in front of Rui. Just then, she summoned ten wolves, 5 on each side flanking Rui and cornering him. “Ahh fuck. I’m in trouble.”

As the wolves pounced on Rui, Rui instantaneously jumped up and launched a counterattack. He then punched and kicked the wolves with flame induced punches and kicks.

As Rui fought, he would soon realize the wolves were quite immaterial. The ones he landed hits on were sucked back towards the woman. With each one dispatched, she grew more tense, claws digging into the ground, until she launched at him with all her might, intending to slam him into the building.
The wall behind them collapsed inward from the resulting impact.

To meet the monster's attack, Arthur opted for offense this time. With a downward swing, Arthurs blade met the approaching bone scythe with ferocity. Each weapon deflected the other and both parties struggled to recover.

"This time Arthur, I want you to jump as hard as you can upward." Michaels voice came again. As Arthur recovered from the previous deflection, he jumped hard. Simultaneously, Michael manifested his angelic wings onto Arthur's back to give him a great, singular boost. With a flash, the wings returned to the ether as Arthur was propelled into the air.

Michael took temporary control of Arthur's actions and rotated his body upside down in the air, blade downward. With great concentration he allowed Arthur's body to plummet downward toward's the mass of flesh.

After the even more raged werewolf girl slammed Rui into the wall, Rui then launched a fireball to the werewolf girl. He then jumped into the air trying to keep his distance.

“Kirin, what the heck do I do? This girl, she’s just too relentless. I need something to end this, but without killing her,” Rui asked Kirin, looking for advice.

“Rui, you must be feral to defeat a feral like creature. Do not use thoughts against a thoughtless being. Use force, use instincts. Attack with great intensity Rui. Do not calculate! Use the power that you have and attack on instinct!”

With wise words Kirin has provided Rui, he began his assault again. Not thinking about anything, he attacked, letting his instincts guide him. Rui jumped down and begun punching and kicking the werewolf girl with greater force, like an animal.

Resha raised an eyebrow at Kane's entrance, a noodle hanging out of her mouth as proof that she had been in the middle of eating. She slurped it the rest of the way up and leaned over with the food still in her hand to see around the corner.

And there she was, a girl just like Kane had said. And she was here. And apparently attacked by wolf things. And the crash outside was indeed further proof that shit was happening again.

Resha sighed, setting the food down and kicking off the counter and walked calmly over to the two of them. "Kane." she greeted, turned her head to face the newcomer, "Name's Resha," she greeted once more, the placid tone and expression on her face never waivering.

"It seems one way or another you've been pulled into this insanity. Make yourself at home, there's chinese food in the fridge, avoid the tuna salad, and excuse me while I talk to the boy wonder here."

She smiled pleasantly at the girl, then walked out the door after patting Kane's shoulder.
-----------

The creature had followed its prey's ascension and flexed its legs in anticipation, thrusting itself off the ground into a story-climbing vertical rush, its mantis claws extended to bisect the falling fleshling.

Its rise was for naught, it's simple mind unwittingly feeding into the falling Arthur, whose sword, coupled with gravity, wouldn't have been enough to do more than wedge itself into the armored creature... With the added momentum of the creature's own jump, the blade struck its top center mass and cut it in half clean through.

The two halves of its body continued their course into the air, splitting apart from each other the further they flew from each other until the momentum had bled off. The crescendo hit, and the bisected corspe-devourer fell towards the ground, landing with a ground shaking crash that left craters from each half - One of them even going all the way through the concrete and into the sewers below.

She took the fireball to the face and cried out in pained anger. When she came to, the boy pounced on her and began striking randomly, the blows taking a toll on her physically but feeding her rage mentally.
She half screamed, half howled, and let loose a torrent of shadow from her chest, intending to engulf and carry off her aggressor with the river of wolves. She panted as she did so, attempting to catch her breath. Her thoughts, in the last 5 minutes, had shifted from hunger, to anger, to vengeance, to survival.

"Ugh, this place is disgusting", Inari complained inside his head. There was no way someone else would hear, unless they could read minds. Matthew hinted back a thought.

"I've been to worse...", he thought in response. After a moment, his transciever activated again.

"Uhhh... Reaper was it? We're clear now. So what now?", asked the thug over the radio.

"Just take it to your boss, he'll take care of the rest", with that, the transciever went silent once more.

"So... Elise, what exactly are we doing here? Not wasting time rummaging through garbage I hope. I thought you were taking me to a group of people, not a dump", he inquired, kicking an empty can to the side and out of his way.

As the werewolf girl let out a river of shadow wolves, Rui began shooting multiple fireballs, not letting the momentum lessen from earlier. Then he charged right back and tried to continue the assault. He saw the look of the girl’s face for a split second. He saw the looks of wanting to survive. He knew how the girl felt, as he had felt a few moments prior

“Fuck. What do I do… Fuck!!”

Rui then stopped in his advance. He then charged up a fireball. He took only a couple of seconds, more so than he needed to when charging up a normal fireball. Then he shot the more powerful fireball at the girl.

Her humanity crept back into her mind with each blow the wolves took. She found she couldn't get up, after both the damage she took and the strength required to release those wolves. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw and felt a huge ball of fire.

She took the time to consider her morning. When did it come to this? It all started with that hole in the sky, huh...

She let out a small chuckle before being engulfed in fire.

===============

"'Boy wonder'? Do I look like a gay kid in tights to you??" Kane retorted as he followed Resha outside, turning around to close the door. "Oh yea, just...hang out here for a while." The door slammed shut.

Still in temporary control, Michael flipped Arthur's body upright and landed on the street with a kneel. Returning control to Arthur, Michael receded into Arthur's mind.

"You know... Michael? Is it? I really hate it when you just take my damn body like that. We're gonna have to work something out if you're gonna be living here. Like, rent."

Michael quaked Arthur's body and dropped it in a display of power.

"Do not mistake my unfortunate situation with you for license to make demands. I returned a portion of your tattered honor to you in combat."

Arthur stood silent. Michael spoke again, "Yes Arthur, your memories are mine as well now." Arthur replied, "Well why don't I know anything about you then? If you know my life, why don't I know shit about you?"

"Your mind does not possess the capacity to endure the events of my lifespan. I am intentionally withholding the sharing of my experiences, for the sake of your sanity. However, I suppose as this arrangement has been thrust upon us I owe you a sampling of why you are where you are."

With that, Arthurs mind was flooded with images of this "Michael" and examples of his service to something that was blocked from transmitting. Many great battles between.... Angels? and Demons? But what's more, dragons? All manner of supernatural creatures, conquered under the armored foot of the great Archangel.

And then... A loneliness. Cast from the sight of his master. A rebellion? The images were unclear but the emotions were not. An overwhelming sadness, and anger. Then... Escape.

Arthur's mind rushed back to the present as he struggled to process this rush of information. Tears streamed down his wide eyed expression of shock.

“Ah fuck… I really did it this time… I fucking killed a normal girl… SHIT SHIT SHIT!!” Rui exclaimed. He had the look of angriness. But then more screaming had come off into the distance. “Oh fuck. I forgot that there was still that fucking monster. Damn it! That were girl was fighting against it too…” Rui said as the thought had came to him. He could’ve teamed up with the wolf girl. But he killed it.

“Sigh. I am totally fucked,” Rui lamented. He then ran off to attack the corpse devourer.
He charged up his fists once more, determined to defeat the corpse devourer and repent for what he had done. He then charged at it and attacked the creature viciously.

After the door shut, and the crash echoed once more from some place off in the distance, Resha turned around to face Kane. "You brought someone else?" it was a statement, not a question.

"You went out. Played hero. and brought someone else." Why was she so angry about this?

"We don't know if it was a trap, or if she's dangerous, we don't know anything here." Oh yeah, that's why.

Another crash echoed in the background, a part of her wondered what the hell was happening. She'd ask later.

"This girl is going to be your responsibility. If she does something, anything, that ends up screwing over what little respite we've managed?" And by the sound of the mayhem some ways off, that was very likely going to happen, "Then it's going to your fault."

That was why she was so angry - She had just resolved not to snap and murder everyone. Then more people showed up. Decisions, decisions.

"And what the hell is making those crashes? Did another big thing show up and decide to destroy the city?!"
----------

The creature which had previously had the ribcage-claw arm had revolved more, given time to regenerate and feed more. It's body only vaguely resembled human anymore, with both arms having become identical in their design, reducing the body to a connecting structure.

It's torso and legs had molded together in the beginnings of a tail, turning the creature into a great two headed worm-like corpse whose mouths oozed the acrid odor of decaying flesh and stomach acid mixed with fresh blood. The ribcage teeth rippled in their search for more food, scraps of flesh hanging from them in a vomit inducing cloud of noxious fumes.

Oddly enough, it didn't seem to have any noticeable bones in it's structure, which looked to be pure muscle.

Its brother on the other hand, which had been left alone since the fight started, was about the size of a normal man. Even still held a human form. A completely human form, It shambled forward, still devouring a good deal down the road away from the worm like thing.

Kane was surprised at her sudden outburst. He hadn't expected her to yell at him.
It was...nostalgic.
"We don't know if it was a trap, or if she's dangerous, we don't know anything here." He opened his mouth to respond, then shut it and glared at a spot below and behind her, like a rebellious child. He maintained this, unable to think of a response, until the end of her statements.
"...did another big thing show up and decide to destroy the city?!" She asked, almost rhetorically.

"Actually," he spoke up with trepidation, "yeah."

So she's my responsibility? Well, could've been worse.
She could have actually been a trap.
Heh, hey that's not out of the question yet... I'm starting to think this was a mistake. I could've just left her in the alley.
And then she would have died.
You don't know that.

He turned to walk back inside. He didn't really have a lot to say back to Resha - he couldn't even really think of sarcasm after being scolded.
"Tch."

Arthur snapped back to reality with knewfound knowledge concerning his guest. "W-what the FUCK?! What the fuck are you?"

Crashing, yelling, and various noises caught Arthur's attention. He looked down the street to see more fighting. "There's no time." Said Michael. "Let us finish this, then i'll do my best to explain this all."

Arthur took a step reluctantly, with a million questions brewing over the edges of his mind. Finally, he shook it off and ran full speed down the street, sword to his side.

Resha sighed. She really shouldn't have gone off like that. Odds are, since he had hauled his ass back here so quickly, she had something to do with that mayhem.

She had something to do with that mayhem and he...!

The redhead closed her eyes, breathing out deliberately, the exhale sheathed her anger back into its place, if only barely. "Look... Just be careful, okay? You're one of the few people in this shithole that doesn't make me want to stab them in their sleep."

She ruffled his hair, the perks of him being smaller, and glanced back towards the chaos. "I don't know what it is, I don't want to know. Maybe if we leave it alone, it'll resolve itself..."

The sentiment sounded pretty far fetched to her, but she had to hope. "Anyway, there's chinese food in the fridge like I told her... You must be hungry. I'll make you and the girl a plate."

Resha was proud in some instances, she didn't backdown unless she was utterly defeated, she was stubborn.

Fracture.

If she fractured, she was almost worthless. She could not become weak. Strength was her integrity.

This was the closest to an apology she could muster.
-------------

Rui's charge was met with the lunging rib-cage heads of the worm thing, it's mouths gaping without rememberance towards what appeared to be it's next meal. It still held char marks from the previous fireball, but they were swiftly fading away as the devoured flesh provided more bone-material to reinforce and recover the damage done.

Rui charged as he saw the creature’s gaping mouth wide open. He charged up another fireball and fired it. He then continued his attack with multiple kicks and and punches with one last fire punch attack. Then Rui backed off to see the damage he had done to the creature as there was too many smoke in the air.

He turned as he felt her hand on his head, and almost thought she was someone else.
Faltering, he quickly turned back around. "I'm flattered you don't wanna kill me, I guess." He opened the door and walked back inside. "I'm not that hungry, but thanks for the offer."
Who was that?
Nothing, shutup.
"Yo, girl, Resha said she wants to cook for ya!"

Arthur arrived at the scene of the chaos to find a young man in dire combat with an abomination. The man was visibly fatigued, and the corpsewurm seemed to be making more havoc than should be tolerated.

The Archangel pushed a little more power through Arthur's body, and Arthur raised his sword in preparation for combat.

"Young man! Over here! Let's work together!" The fire from the holy blade of Michael flared for a moment in agreement.

As the smoke cleared the Corpsewurm became visible again. "What now, Michael? I have no idea what I can do and what I can't." Arthur inquired. "Yes, you do. Draw from the memories I endowed you with. Draw from my experience."

Arthur looked stupified, but nonetheless had to do something lest he be overtaken by the Corpsewurm. He widened his stance and braced to assault.

Resha reached back and smacked the side of Kane's head casually, but hard enough to make a 'thump' off of it as she walked into the kitchen. "I hope you like chinese food, and I never did get your name new girl."
----------

The corpsewurm was otherwise unharmed this time, it's melting flesh swiftly be reabsorbed into it's body and replaced by fresh material as it bore down on Rui without a chance for respite.

It slithered forward quickly, both heads lunging forward at him from opposite sides in an attempt to devour him from both sides.

Seeing two heads attacking him, Rui quickly jumped up in the air and he then heard a man yell out, “Young man! Over here! Let's work together!”

Rui responded, “Uh sure! Okay!”

Rui then used his speed to jump back, right next to the man. Then as Rui fell to the ground gently, he began panting heavily. He realized he used all his strength already. He wasn’t gonna last for long. He felt the transformation going to dissipate soon. “Fuck. This can’t be happening. I don’t have much time left” Rui muttered. “Hey guy, hold off this creature please! My power is gonna fade away. I need a bit time to recharge! Just hold off for a few minutes, that’s all I need.”

Rui’s plan was to use the gold bomb once again, knowing the risks it imposed and how it was gonna be beneficial to future battles, lost forever.

"Can we do this Michael?" Arthur inquired to his guest. Michael responded, "This creature is nothing more than a trifle to my full power. The problem lies in your bodies inability to handle much of my strength. You're going to have to be tough for this."

Arthur took a deep breath. "Alright Michael, let's do it." Arthur ran in with his sword down to his side, both hands on the hilt. "I can read your thoughts as you fight, Arthur. Just do what feels natural, and i'll put out the appropriate amount of power to supplement your attacks. Together we'll bring this unholy beast down."

Arthur closed on the Corpsewurm and slashed upward from his side, as the holy blade surged a wave of white fire in its wake.

She stopped after him and felt the shaking. She merely nodded her head to answer him. She didn't really feel the need for wasting her breath to answer such a small question. It was a stupid question, but at least he talked to her.

Soon they arrived at the safehouse the male told her about. She walked in after him and listened as he spoke. She bowed slightly at the woman when he introduced her, but kept her emotionless expression on. She smiled at the male's comment on the woman, wait correction, Resha calling him boy wonder or something similar. She nodded at the both of them as they went outside and left her alone. "So the male's name is Kane, huh?”she said to herself and reached down to pat Zeke's head. “There, there. They don't seem like mean people." she said to reassure him and withdrew her blades.

She wondered what they were talking about, but shook her head. It was probably the usual things people would think like 'Who's that girl?' ‘What if she's evil?' or something along those lines. She looked up as Resha walked back inside. She stood back up so she could speak properly. "I'm Kanade. Nice to meet you, Resha. I'm feeling a bit hungry so thanks. I would like some." she spoke with a smile. She was glad she wasn't alone anymore, but how would she get a hold Fitonie now? Suddenly she felt her body go numb and fell to her knees, but after a few seconds she didn't feel numb or weird. 'Weird.' she thought but shrugged it off.
_______________________________

Komoriuta growled and stomped on the ground. "That girl!" she yelled. What was she doing wrong? How could she not possess her? Normally by now she would be able to use their body whether they were willing or not. Then suddenly there was some shaking in the spirit world. "What? What's happening out there?" she spoke with shock. The spirit world never shook like this. What was happening out there that could cause this?

'Why are you doing this? Please stop!' a girl yelled. "Ugh! Shut up you insolent girl! How dare you speak to me like this?" she yelled aloud. That stupid little girl was still resisting? "I already have your body? You wanted power? I gave you it!" she growled. The voice was gone for now. "Argh!" she roared and kicked a wall. Where were they? Usually, they would be here by now.

The flame washed over the corpsewurm, scalding it and melting it's outer fleshlayer to reveal a scorched bone carapace under the skin of heads.

The blade itself however, sunk deep into the flesh without resistance, carving a chunk out of the beast as easily as butter without any bones to impede it's progress.

Which left him standing directly in front of it as the two heads reared themselves down at him, the vomit inducing smell of decaying flesh becoming almost suffocating around Arthur.

If it were a more intelligent creature, the ribcage mouths may have smiled. As it was, the rib-cages slammed together from both sides of Arthur and trapped him inside of a literal cage of ribs that served as teeth.

However, instead of attempting to swallow him, the flesh in the space between it's heads - where the human head had once been - revealed itself to consist of flaps, out from which peaked something undeniably sharp.

all the bones that had been absent from the rest of its body were hidden along the central spine, converged into what could only be described as a bone-lance that could shoot out and be retracted at will. All of the bones of the people devoured, reinforcing it, making it longer and harder, capable of penetrating more deeply than ever before.

And with the cage around him, and the sword in the creature's flesh, the bone lance levelled itself at him - Only an exhale away from exploding out of it's hidden sheathe and through the cage of teeth that held Arthur stationary.

"Uh, Michael. I could use a little help here." The Archangel sighed heavily. "I thought you were a high ranking officer in a human army. I had assumed you'd be a little better than this." The angel retorted. "Fine, but you just brace yourself, because this is going to really strain your body.

Arthur's eyes widened and he tried to "go to his happy place." Michael instantly surged enough energy through Arthur's body to make him cry out sharply. Michaels full wingspan materialized from the ether, the base of each wing running down the full length of Arthurs back on either side.

Michael took control, and flexed his wings hard, Arthur screaming from the inside, and bleeding from his shredded back. The flex shattered the weakened version of Michaels breastplate, but broke his cage into bits. Fully freed, his expanded wings took him into the air. With a mighty flap, his 60 foot wingspan battered the ground with a strong gale.

"Now," said Michael. "You just concentrate on holding your body together. I'm going to push you hard. You need to toughen this body of yours. Get ready, this is going to hurt."

With that, Michael flew above the buildings on either side of the street and executed a swan dive for the ground. At the last second he pulled up and flew parallel to the ground, directly at the Corpsewurm, wings streamlined at his back, his fist covered in righteous fire. "Here it comes Arthur, brace yourself."

The corpsewurm recoiled back, it's teeth broken and useless. With Arthur swooping back down towards it there was still only one thought on it's mind - Feed.

It had to kill Arthur. To devour Arthur. To Devour. To Devour. Devour. Devour. DevourdevourdevourdevourdevourdevourDEVOUR!

It's heads shot forward, tackling into Arthur blindly and ineffectually as he rushed forward - But it was all for naught, the last ditch effort of the creature as it's heads were eradicated.

The bone lance fired, over a thousand bones reinforced and culminated into a single spike, rushing out viciously and impacting directly with Arthur's fist.

It couldn't even pierce his skin, only strong enough to slide the flying projectile of a man off course, sheering away the majority of the bonelance, and the back of the things spine, as he shot post it entirely and left it with naught but broken teethless maws and a shattered bone fragment where it's spine/weapon had once lay hidden.

Still, it lived. The last ditch effort was enough to divert the otherwise fatal missile enough to leave the creature in a state of horrible wounds and almost entirely immobile, but only until it's bodymass could recover enough to rearrange itself into a smaller form.

Arthur's body crashed to the ground and rolled and slid across the concrete, wrapping him up in Michaels massive wings. Arthur lay there for a moment in horrible pain.

Michael's voice echoed in his head. "Get up Arthur! I know you were pushed hard, but you must follow up! The beast was injured greatly by our attack! This is where you finish it, Arthur! Make me believe in my sacrifice!"

Despite Arthur's intense pain, Michael's last statement put him into a state of confusion. "Your sacrifice? What are yo-" "ENOUGH, ARTHUR" Michael yelled in frustration. "Get up! And finish it!"

Arthur nodded. With great struggle, and immense pain, Arthur managed to slowly get to his feet. The mighty wings had dissipated back into the ether, leaving two bleeding gashes on Arthur's back. With difficulty, Arthur tried to clench his right fist. "Gahhhhh!! It's useless."

Michael encouraged Arthur from inside, citing his faith in the human race. "You creatures have amazed me, and I see something in you that certain entities no longer have sight of. Do this Arthur. I'll lend you enough strength to get the job done."

Arthur composed himself and soldiered forward, preparing to strike a decisive blow. He clenched his left fist. Michael channeled an orb of energy into Arthurs hand, which flattened out into a translucent spear. All you have to do is hit it Arthur. Once you do, the impact will cause the energy to react violently and detonate.

Arthur nodded and lined up his shot. He took a few steps slowly at first and then picked up his pace, raising the spear above his head. Finally, with a final hop and his hardest lunge, Arthur threw the spear with Michael's great aim.

The spear struck true, and just like that - The creature was impaled and pinned to the ground helplessly. It's efforts to escape were for naught, golden veins tracing their way through it's body as it slowed to a hault...

Then, it exploded.

Noemi bounced from one room to another, taking things, leaving things. She hummed a short, quiet lullaby which wafted about the perturbing sounds of rummaging. When she had finally ended her scavenging she turned around to speak, though Keisho had already answered Matthew.
" You see, we are bringing you to meet more people, but--"
" Oh, well of course we are coming to see people! They are just a little ways further in this dump, we just have to find them." She interrupted rather loudly this time. " Now, let us go find those little helpless piglets."
" Shall we?" Keisho rebuked sardonically. He expressed what seemed to be a sigh, then padded on.
They had approached the last room, there was a sort of quiet murmuring, then a silence as if the beings inside had heard them. Noemi exchanged another glance with Keisho, this time revealing a queried impression. Noemi inquired the cat silently. " Should I go in with a quiet, soft personality, or the lost and confused?"
" Who knows, it could be a false notion, a window could be open with wind blowing through rattling some papers left behind. Just go with the stubborn approach."
Noemi blinked, then remarked a little louder, " Which stubborn personality? The masochistic one, the child-like one, or the more mature, knowledgeble one?" Obviously the two had been conversing for quite a while, but they did not show any sign of fear or anxiety.
" Ah, would you mind settling yourself somewhere between the masochistic one and the child-like?" Keisho asked politely. Noemi nodded, the only proof of her agreement. She darted into the room, making a loud noise, her arms waved wildly in the air. She stood with a slight crouch, her knees bent a little in, her eyes were wide with an indiscriminate shine.
" Salutations little piggies! I have come to present myself to you, not as an offering, but as something far greater! I come to save you from your death, now, what do you say, fearful representatives?"

The crash was a perfect entrance for Resha, whose nerves were already frazzled and had been carrying a plate of hot chinese food to Kanade - At least until the door crashed open, then all bets were off.

Moments after the entrance, during her speech, the plate in Resha's hand had been launched with reflexes born of being scared out of her wits by a loud intruder in what had otherwise been a quiet building. It impacted hard into Noemi, the momentum carried forward with the hot and greasy chinese food, further serving to splatter the intruder.

Moments later, after Resha had done that and jumped nearly four feet off the ground and back into the kitchen, she peeked around the corner.

Resha stared at Noemi, stared long and hard in silence, as if trying to place the vaguely familiar face, voice and mannerism with something she had seen before.

Where had this... runt shown up before?

A flashback to her jumping out of a trashcan and then being haphazardly thrown by the giant creature.

'Oh. That's where.' Now the question was why she was here and how she found the place. The first part was answered by the girl, something about bacon and offerings and... You know what? It didn't matter.

Two response came to her mind immediately - "Fuck off!" and "what the fuck!?".

Resha wasn't one to swear needlessly, and though it was tempting, this wasn't quite worth it. Not yet. Besides, she had hit the poot girl with a flying plate and covered her in hot chinese food. Counter attack completed.

So, what to do now? She was still here. Resha couldn't do anything about it, she would need some kind of 'counterpar-...

"Kaaaane!" she called plaintively, not entirely sure where he was. "There's a creepy girl-thing talking nonsense in the living room. Fix it."

After resting for more than a couple of minutes, unlike what he said, Rui saw that the man already defeated the corpsewurm creature. “Thank god. I don’t… have to… use that attack” Rui said panting in between. But in the distance, he heard screaming. The first thing came to mind in Rui’s head, fucking shit. The second thing that came into mind was there was a fucking third?

Rui went to go see all the screaming. He saw the corpse devourer eating humans. “Ah shit…”

Rui then jumped into the air and charged up his golden bomb. Fucking shit, I had to use this attack in the end. Oh well, better to use it on a fresh thing then on some thing you had to finish off any fucking ways

After that thought, Rui fired at the corpse devourer, making a large explosion. Rui fell down to the ground on his feet. But the battles that took place wore him out. He collapsed onto the ground, making a large thud.

She stood with food splattered about her, her green eyes narrowed, her face shaded with a dark premonition. Then she lifted her face, as if the eerie phase had passed and had never happened. Her eyes now lit up to its natural flickering curiosity." Ow." Noemi commented plaintively. She flicked off a shard of the broken plate, picking up a piece of food and taking a small bite. SHe looked back to Keisho who was standing a little ways off, he dipped his small black head towards her. Noemi turned back, she looked at the woman in the room. " Ahem, that hurt i must say." She picked up some more food and popped it into her mouth. " It tastes quite good though, sorry that my awesomeness cost you your food, but may I ask where everyone else is?" She brushed off the rubbish from her clothes, taking off her jacket and shaking it loosely. " Hm, I do seem to like that intense feeling of human-like adrenaline, though." She put her jacket back on, turning around to zip it up as Keisho jumped up into the open space. She bounded further in to the room, leaping at the brown haired girl who sat in the middle of the area.
" Well, what are you going to eat now? I don't need your food, but, I suppose I could get you some more now shouldn't I. Especially since your number one human need is to get all your proper nutrients, isn't it? Or, perhaps, you are different? No, that would be improbable, wouldn't it, so I did my proper research, right? Ah, I should probably stop asking you guys, you probably don't understand me now do you?"
" Will you just shut up and let me speak, you indolent child." Keisho ordered his human companion. He turned to look at Resha. " Hello, human, I am Mr. Fluffles, this is my companion Elise. We are here to inquire something of your group, please, do not pay much attention to her. She seems to...have a strayed a little on our deed."

The Gold Bomb struck the creature head on, it didn't even have a chance to move or try to evade - Not that it would have anyway. But once the bomb struck, the inferno was unleashed and an explosion that rocked the street rushed in all directions.

Buildings were scorched and burned, some of them even beginning to topple over as their structures were slowly destroyed. The surrounding populace was naught by Barbeque under the intense flames, their lives coming to a terrible end of flash-flame before they had a chance to scream or run, like a small sun had been birthed not twenty feet from them.

The ground beneath the actual impact took the brunt, utterly obliterating the ground itself and leaving a gaping hole that's fractures promised to drag more of the ground along with it into the abyss below.

The corpse-devourers defeated, chaos began to disperse as an awkward silence and stillness descended. The smell of burning flesh and the corpses of the freakish creatures still litered the ground, as well as the burned body of one weregirl. Buildings, once pristine in maintenance, now stood dilapidated with their faces scorched black.

Broken windows, a destroyed street filled with potholes, with an ever growing sinkhole now occupying the space the goldbomb had struck, surrounded by charred black bodies of people who couldn't escape the blast.

The threat had ended.

As she picked herself up from the floor and picked Zeke while at it. She sat down at the table and put Zeke on her lap. "Good Zeke." she praised the puppy because he was behaving himself for once. She smiled lightly and was about to receive food from Resha when there was a loud crash.

Kanade stared quietly as the girl spoke. "Um...Who are you exactly? You're kinda weird." she asked quiet confused. Zeke stared at the girl and her cat, but let out a little grunt and turned away from them. “Huh?” she asked again. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand you since I don’t speak idiot or gibberish. Please in a language we can understand.” she said with a shrug. Who was this weird girl and her talking kitty?

She was tired and didn't exactly want to talk or move. Also she was starving so she didn't really feel like doing anything that involved hard work like talking to some random strangers who just barge into your house...well safehouse actually. “Can all of guys just shut your mouths? I don’t give a rat’s butt about what your deed is ok? I’m tired and hungry. I want my freaking food. Now since you messed up my meal that was made by Resha, you need to do something in return! I couldn’t care less about what you have to say at the moment. Go get me some food this moment and then we’ll talk. Don’t you even think about putting anything funky in it either.” she told them. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. Even if she wasn’t exactly the spoiled kind of person, she was from a pretty wealthy family and knew how to demand what she wanted.

She was getting irritable and cranky since she hasn’t eaten and slept in so long. She wasn’t a temperamental type, but she was when she didn’t get much sleep, food or both. She shook her head as Zeke stood in front of her like a guard dog, growling at the girl near his owner. He considered her a threat and wanted her removed from the area.

" Aw, Mr. Fluffles, the thing is getting quite bouncy right now." Noemi remarked crudely. She twirled her finger about Kanade's face. " You are hungry? Well, I'm sorry, but I've no food for little beings, so..." she looked down at Keisho, her chin resting on his soft furred head. " Should i feed it?" Keisho shrugged, the girl bent down to pick up a hand full of food from the carpet.
" Again, I'm terribly sorry for your...cooking?" Noemi added as she took a step forward. " I didn't know you could make genuine chinese food AND put the fortune cookies in the wrappers..." she turned around and looked back at Kanade. " Here you go, piggy." She plopped the food onto the table, half trying to feed it to the girl, half just playing with it for fun.
" Ahem," Keisho wriggled free of the jacket, bounding out into freedom and prancing up onto the table. " As I have said before, salutations." He dipped his head towards Resha and Kanade. " I am sorry, foul irritable one, but we've nothing more to give, so please put up with our efforts. As for you," he turned to Resha and took a sniff of the air about her. " You have not met the other world, or have you?"
he lashed his tail impatiently, watching Noemi from the side of his eyes.

Resha sniffed, brushing past the cat with the still-warm plate of food that she had put together for herself but never quite started to eat and set it down next to Kanade before turning to face the intruders.

"Look, Fluffles." hadn't they introduced themselves when they showed up the first time? ...Wait, they showed up a second time. God, why couldn't she remember? "I don't know why you're here..."

Resha took a moment to realize she preferred talking to the cat over the girl. Then accepted it, filing it away for later despair, and continued. "And if that shadow thing from earlier is this 'otherworld' you're talking about then yes - You were there. With the girl."

Stall for time. Stall for time. Stall for time. Kane or Alex had to be nearby - She just needed to stall until they waltzed in like Big Damn Heroes and kicked their crazy guests out.

"Forgive me if I seem a little amiss, but a talking cat and a girl who...isn't all there... just burst into our-" What the hell was this anyway? "-er.. House without invitation. I'm a little distrustful of you."

"Maybe the disguise was too plain. They don't seem to notice you", joked Inari in his head. He responded, in his mind also.

"Very funny... But from the conversation, it seems these people are also aware of events".

He looked on as the situation unfolded, which was rather simple... He had some creeping feeling about something, and he only had this sort of feeling concerning Mephistopheles, like a sort of instinct. Either way, he'll still be able to find out more here. Looked to him that this place was just another home... Or it could be the safehouse he used to be looking for, until he met the devilish shadow man. The position of this place was in the area he was told... Well it didn't matter anymore. He wasn't going to make himself known though, he just stood by the doorway inside, observing and speaking only when asked a question.

Kane lay on his bed, taking in everything that happened again. He thought he would be used to it after yesterday, but today he was attacked yet again, this time with nobody to save his ass. In fact, he ended up saving someone else's. What a twist.

"Kaaaaane!"
Resha called from the other room and he opened his eyes, irritated. "No rest for the weary..." He got up and walked into the room.

"What."
He looked at Resha, who was talking to a cat on the floor.
He looked up at a new girl, trying to feed his rescuee a pile of soiled chinese food.
His eye twitched and he raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?"

The urgency in Resha's voice and the look on her face told him these weren't houseguests.
I've had enough, I've had enough!
Twice?
Can we have one pile of bull shit per day max, please?!
He took a step forward, stomping his foot on the ground in frustration and a spike of rock shot up from the floor towards, but not connecting with, the peculiar new girl.
I didn't know I could do that.
"Look, precious, I'm fuckin' tired, I hate cats, and I was gonna eat that later. Either explain yerself or get the hell out!" He pointed a stony finger at her face aggressively, clenching his other fist beside him.

How did they even get inside? Were was Alex?

Kanade gave the girl a disgusted look. "Do I look a pig, you idiot? Go stick that up your butt." she said whacking the girls hand away. "The only who can eat that is you. Don't touch me with your filthy hands. I don't want to be touched by the likes of you." she said standing up and kicked the girl away. "Ick. Gross. You go back to your pigsty. If you can't get any food from here then go buy some or something, obviously." she demanded. "Use your brains, if you have any." she said walking away from the table. "Oh great, a talking kitty." she stated like it was common sense and rolled her eyes. She walked to the wall where there was an outlet and sat down. Zeke stared at the cat and then turned away. He didn't need to pay attention to a lowly cat.

She yawned and leaned against the wall. She was bored now. If she couldn't get any food, she'll just do something else. She opened her grizzly bear backpack that had red eyes and pulled out a laptop. She sighed and began to mess with photoshop and play games like solitaire. It was actually quite fun when there was nothing else to do. "Now where's that ace of spades?" she asked quietly to herself. Meanwhile, Zeke curled up next to Kanade and rested his head on her lap, watching her play.

She returned to her indifferent self. She should just ignore the situation like always. She didn't really want to get further involved with those weird idiots. The other world was more peaceful than here. There were so many tremors and battles going on everywhere.

She watched as Resha put the plate of food near her and ate a little bit of it. "Thanks." she said to Resha and continued whatever she was doing. Suddenly she noticed Kane walk in. Man, did he look mad. She stared as he shot a spiky rock up at the filthy girl. She shrugged and continued to ignore it. He could deal with the weird idiots.
_______________________________________

Fitonie walked through the halls with the shaman. "Hey. Are we there yet?" she asked impatiently. "Calm down. Don't act like such a child, Fitonie." the shaman told her. Fitonie puffed up her face,but didn't say anything else.

Soon they arrived at a door with a glyph. The shaman put his hand to it and it glowed a bright blue color. Then the glyph rose with the wall and a passage was revealed. "Come." he said and led the way. Fitonie followed after and walked in. It was dark and creepy. It gave her an eerie feeling.

A few minutes later, a light was showing at the end of the passage. The shaman put his finger to his lips to indicate her to keep quiet. Soon they entered a room let up by candles and torches. "Why are you here, shaman?" asked a voice. "Sorry Ms. Reika and Mr. Sa-eun, but Fitonie insisted to see you." he explained while on one knee. They were very high status people. Fitonie stepped into the light and bowed. "I'm Fitonie. I just like to know what exactly is going to happen to us and the rift in the sky is getting bigger and bigger by the hours." she requested humbly. "Oh. If the merging of both worlds becomes successful then it could cause major mayhem." Ms. Reika explained with a worried tone.

"It could cause a war with the humans and either of us could be wiped out of existence. We mustn't let that happen." Mr. Sa-eun stated seriously.

Fitonie expression turned pale. But what could they do? There wasn't anything to guide them or tell them how to stop the merging. They don't even know how the merging started. The shaman patted Fitonie's back to reassure her that they'll find a way, but she wasn't sure anymore.
________________________________________

Komoriuta smirked as she found out her fire demon had landed safely on the other side. “Good job, fire demon.” She whispered quietly into the feather. She watched as it passed by a sign that said Seattle and grinned, “Yes burn down that city! Show them who’s superior!”

Stop it! I won’t let you do this anymore. I’ll stop you!” exclaimed the little girl’s voice. “Shut up will ya? It’s too late for that! If you could do it, you would’ve done it years ago, Komoriuta.” she said with an evil like laugh.

“Oh wait. I’m Komoriuta now.” She said and laughed. ”I’ll find a way! Just you wait! I’ll take back my name, you evil fox!” yelled Komoriuta. “My, my. What an attitude you have. I have a name you know. I’m Scarlet, but your name is mine now. Remember that!” said Scarlet in a different voice. Suddenly the voice disappeared and she continued on her way. “Stupid girl. She thinks she can outwit me?” she laughed. As she walked down the street in the spirit world, her many tails followed behind in the formation of a fan.

"Is it just me or...",

"Yeah, I get the feeling being here is rather useless... Maybe we should go", he muttered. He was still in his merged state, disguised and looking like a plain-as-hell man. Maybe they won't notice him leave...

This Alex person seemed to be rather important, although not present is clearly the person in charge. That being due to them calling for him, while he was clearly not here. Also from the looks of it... This Elise here was rather... Well she was obnoxious, he can see that clearly, also she seemed to come here from time to time...

"I think I should go speak with Mephistopheles... Just being here is annoying me...", he muttered, taking a step outside.

Noemi whipped around, completely forgetting the girl who had shoved her away. " Hey! If you leave, be careful okay? It is more dangerous where you're going than it is in here." It was as if she had completely dropped her stupid, idiotic appearance and had supplanted it for a more mature, caring one. " Ahem," with a change of voice and personality, she turned to the talking cat, who was slightly conversing with Resha. " Ah, Mr. Fluffles, the thing went to the corner, was I abusing it?" She lifted her hand to point with a straight finger towards Kanade. " I think it's scared."
Keisho turned towards the human girl and gave an instructive statement. " Elise. Please, if I may order you to come to an end with the S.M.C.L.P. and change more to an Ma. I. P." The simple coding of words rang in Noemi's ears. She wiped her dirtied hands on her pants, then removed the headphones in her ears. Her expressions didn't change, though the flickering light in her eyes were subjugated by a more serene, understanding look, but the cruel intent had not gone completely. The two partners' eyes locked, then as if with a signal, Noemi turned to Kanade and Resha. With a dimpled, pursed, and struggled look, she calmly apologized. Her green gaze lingered, narrowed with a distinct expression, on Kanade for a moment, then lifted. " Forgive me, I hadn't expected to see such hideous--" She stopped with a rebuke of Keisho's lashing tail. " ----so many people, I really wanted to know you more, as citizens of my city, just like Matthew and Inari. I don't intend any..." She searched for a few words, her eyes wandered from up to the ceiling to the boy with the spiked rock. She had been completely oblivious of him, even with his threat, but now she saw him openly. But the she overlooked him, being that he didn't seem to spark her attention to span any longer.
" Harm," Keisho added, applying his wider use of vocabulary for the girl. " is what you meant to say."
" Oh yes, thank you, Mr. Fluffles. I dont mean you any harm. I am rather looking for some people." She took a curt, brusque bow, slowly rising up to give a a terse conversation with the cat.
" Do not make me waste anymore time with you, Elise. I cannot stand it when you goof about on our missions, do you think HE will enjoy singing our failures?"
" No, Mr." She said quietly, still bent at the waist, her left hand behind her back. " I understand your plight, but you look at our mission so seriously, why not play around with the pieces on the way."
The cat nodded, though still seemingly irritated, giving a sudden premonition. " Do not look at this 'game' so crudely, or you will let your 'life' go too loosely." He turned back to the humans in the room.

Kane's eyes widened with anger, his left eye continuing to twitch. His face changed to that of extreme indignation.
Did she just snub me?!
Patience, Kane.
She just completely ignored me!!
He thought he heard an audible sigh from his mental companion, but he ignored it. Was it even possible for a rock to sigh?
"Hey, crazy cat lady!!"
He dropped what was left of his diplomacy and grabbed the girl by the collar and began to yell directly at her face.
"I ain't that smart and I ain't that fluent in gibberish, yer gonna have to be blunt with me. My original query: 'the hell do you want??"
He glared daggers at her, awaiting a response. He just ran all over town and it was the second time he was almost killed - his reserves of patience were fully depleted after being so blatantly ignored.
I swear I'm gonna step on that freaking cat too.
Calm down.
You calm down!!

Noemi tilted backwards, her eyes still on Keisho, as her original conversation was with him. She continued to speak, but with more a slurred choke. " Keisho, may I ask to play around on this board-game?" she managed being pulled back. The cat shook his head.
" You are a the player, not the piece. You know he does not wish for the pieces to be ruined, plus it would only be a burden." He turned to Kane, blinking the nothingness from his eyes. " Do not be quick to anger, I've had my full share of them," he spared a demeaning glance at Noemi. " Please, she's the attention span of a girl named Elise, anything is possible with her, which also causes me to be in lead at times when it is impossible. I know her more than you, do not let me finally back down from my stubborn hold on the reigns, at least not yet." With that he returned back towards Noemi, who now stood upright. " Elise, I would like you to remain in the poise, but please add whatever you have left of your attention towards others, you know humans, they have the need for attention, that is why they are born with it."
" Oh yes, that must be horrendous, how saddening to know such a thing...oh, but YOU are born with it too are you not?"
" Yes, but there needs no more petty talk about it, you understand me, therefore i do not wish to ruin anything else."

Did I just get consoled by the cat.
Kane let go of the girl, still enraged.
"Aight, you done being an idiot or should I ask your cat instead?"

I'll give them about 30 seconds before I just throw them both out a window.

Both gave a stare towards each other, their green eyes meeting for a few moments once again. Then Noemi spoke, her voice more serious, her personalities changed once again. " I do not need a cat to interpret and order me around. I am who I want to be, I am who I am, do not take me for a fool. I came for a talk, the cat is my companion. Do not look at me that way. I am not the one with a rock as a companion, do you understand me? You cannot tolerate being undermined, I cannot either. Now let us see who has the more shorter fuse?" She suggested wryly. Keisho bounded between the two.
" As a COMPANION, i would like to kindly deny any comments on that statement, and would like for you to withdraw it at once."
" Maybe i will, maybe i wont. Keisho, we are pieces as well if you havent noticed, it is like a solitude game of othello. He is the player, we are his pieces. We are the ones he started out with, he uses us, don't you see? Now we are only known for doing what he says, let us continue this, let us see which color will convert." Keisho hissed crudely, his fur now standing on end, his back arched, tail fluffed.
" You are a fool! I must say, let me handle this! I promise you, it will be more gratifying in the end, but now is not the time." He raked his claws on her leg impulsively, his little want and intentions for power becoming bigger and bigger with every second he stood in it. Noemi gave a startled look, then quieted down. She understood him for once, and did not rebut.
" You better be right, but now," she stated. " We must be even." There was a thick silence, the relationship between the two had only but a small fracture. The slight movement that Noemi had to do was only to bind that crack so that it would once again become stable. Keisho nodded.
The girl took a step back, her eyes shaded, her mouth pursed, bottom lip biting the top. She took a deep swing with her leg. There was an 'umph' and then a silent thud. The cat lay sprawled on the carpet on the other side of the room, mangled. He had flown and hit the wall and fallen on the ground. He staggered to his feet, fluffed out his fur, and padded back.
" Now with that over, we would like to speak, regularly."

Every statement began to poke holes in Kane's sanity.

"Do not take me for a fool."
Hard not to when you're a damned idiot.
"I came for a talk,"
And yet you've said nothing!
"I am not the one with a rock as a companion,"
"Wait a minute, how do you know..."
Ah, she isn't listening to me...
"Now let us see who has the shorter fuse?"
"DAMNIT, I HAVE THE SHORTER FUSE--"
She's still ignoring me!!

Kane mustered all of his resolve to refrain from punting this girl through the nearest wall. This was visible in his shaking fists, held firmly at his side. He did not have to wait long, thankfully, and the girl promised to speak "regularly."

" 'bout bloody time, you piece of..."

Arthur sat down on the concrete, resting his mind and body. "This is without a doubt... The craziest day anyone has ever had. It has to be. I got chased and almost brain scattered by some possessed religious nutjobs, saved by what I can only imagine is some manner of god, found out that this god freakin' lives inside me and talks to me through my goddamn brain, and top it all off I get used like a skin puppet to fight a corpse orgy. You know what? To hell with this day. My hand hurts, my body is numb, my back is bleeding, I just need to rest."

In a few moments, the Archangel replied. "Find some cover, Arthur. You did well. It's time for you to rest."

"Well great, i'm glad I have your permission to sit down and take a load off after you hijack my body and use it to perform suicide acrobatics against something that just CAN'T exist. Thanks... Thanks alot..." Arthur seethed as he painstakingly crept to his feet. Michael sat in silence as Arthur began to walk down the street in search of a subway station or some hardened structure he might be able to rest inside of. Arthur struggled to drag Michaels heavy sword down the road with only his one good hand. It was much harder now that Michael wasn't channeling energy to him.

"Hey KID." Arthur yelled over to Rui. "I'm getting out of here. I don't know about you, but i'm not waiting around to see what else is hanging around here." Arthurs voice began to trail off as he walked. Michael's sword scorched the concrete as it trailed behind him.

Rui, still very much conscious but very much tired as hell, hears the sound of sirens everywhere. Fire trucks coming to put out the fire that Rui started. The look of his eyes showing much fatigued. Then the transformation faded away. Rui, looking normal again, lays on the ground.

“Hey KID, I’m getting out of here,” said the man that helped him with the corpse devourer. But that was all he heard as Rui went into a state of unconsciousness. Obviously, going into merged form and staying there while combating four powerful creatures took its toll on Rui.

Rui, you must wake up. Rui wake up. Wake up damn it! I know you can overcome this. Now do what I say damnit, Rui!!

It was no use. All of Kirin’s cries for Rui to wake up were all for naught. Police and ambulance sirens continued in the background. One police officer that was patrolling found Rui lying there. He picked Rui up and checked for his breathing. Then brought him to an ambulance vehicle which quickly whisked him away to the hospital.

Noemi bent down to pat Keisho on his black, soft head. His pelt was shaking with slight tremors, but it wasnt as if he was surprised from it. He shook himself, opening his eyes with a vivid look of ambitious power. Then with a sudden turn of events, both stopped their bickering, the room was silent except for Kane, who stood disgusted in their midst. Their eyes widened in dismay, and then a, " Do you feel it?" Noemi murmured. The silence was thick, heavy like a fresh fog.
" Yes." Keisho replied quietly. " I'd hate to leave them...but is it more important to have multiple pieces or one big piece?"
" I'm not quite sure on that. Let us continue, but see if it is possible to continue this conversation elsewhere?" Noemi directed the suggestion to Kane, half trying to soothe the tensed nerves of the boy and half because her attention was only directed towards him and his rock. Especially the rock, perhaps in fact, the comment was TO the rock? She gave a blank look. " I will speak to you normally if we do go."

Kane blinked. She's suddenly civil.
He glanced at Resha, who still seemed flustered, and Kanade, who had already begun to ignore the argument.
It's not that safe outside, and the girl's speaking to me.

"Fine then." He grabbed the top off the stone spike he erected and shoved it back into the ground. "I'll come."

He turned around to face the other two girls. "You guys wait here, I'll see what these jokers want." He walked passed the girl and her cat and stood next to the doorway. In an obviously sarcastic flourish, he straightened his posture and waved his hand towards the exit, bowing slightly. "After you."

Chin up, eyes slit in a contented yet amused way, Noemi prodded outside, Keisho followed suit. When they had appeared to be absolutely alone, Noemi turned. She dug a small hole with her heel as Keisho bounded up to her shoulder and spoke.
" Ah, we thank you greatly for you patronage, we were more or less seeking for some people. Would you mind helping us?" He wrapped his curved tail about Noemi's small arm.

Kane folded his arms, standing with legs shoulder-length apart in what he hoped to be an in-charge pose.
"That's what Alex said, too. I don't even know his full intentions. Yer gonna have to clarify before we all jump onto another crazytrain."

What do you think, Kuldr?
Of what?
This girl and her cat. They seem pretty normal, compared to eldritch horror Alex. Maybe they know what's going on, or maybe they're just as irrational as Alex is. What do you make of them?
They're...light.
You're useless.

========================

Wh...what?
The girl slowly opened her eyes, but her vision was half-obscured by bandages. She could barely move her arms and legs.
Where...
The last memory she had was shopping for groceries...then walking down the road towards her house.
Did I get hit by a car...
!&@*^$
An intense emotion flooded her head for a split second - scenes of gore, bloody horrors, fire, fire, fire..!

She yelped and jerked around in her hospital bed, as if waking from a nightmare. A tear rolled down her non-bandaged eye, and she looked around. A hospital...
She turned her head to the side and saw a familiar looking boy.
Rui...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the girl walks home from school, in the rain, she accidentally bumps into Rui Murasaki. “Hey Jessie,” said Rui nonchalantly.

“Huh. OH HAI RUI!! … That is your name right? Rui?” The girl doesn’t know Rui very much. This had been their first interaction in about a month or so. They see each other on the way to school, but that’s as much interaction they have.

“Oh sorry Rui, eheheh. I have a tendency to forget thingies, you see. Heh,” said the girl smiling.

“Ah don’t worry about it too much, Jessie. Sorry about bumping into you, by the way.”

“Ahhh! No don’t apologize. I should be the way saying sorry. I should’ve looked where I was going,” said Jessie sweetly. “Oh, it’s really pouring out, I think we should cut this short, don’t you? Hehe.”

After that short conversation, Jessie and Rui parted ways. Jessie went running to her house in a hurriedly like fashion.

Soaking wet as she got home, she promptly went upstairs to change and take a shower.

“Hey Jessie!! Dinner’s in the fridge, remember that okay!?” yelled her mother.

“Ah don’t worry mom. I won’t. I gotta take a shower first, mmk?” replied Jessie.

After the shower and taking her dinner to her room, she sat near the window watching her anime. Hearing the loud, roaring thunder Jessie screamed a bit. She then peered outside her window.

“Ughhh, darn thunder thingies,” she said, moaning and groaning. “Ehhhhh, what’s that hiding behind that cloud? That’s so weird… Meh, I must be seeing things again”

Noemi gave a strange smile at the boy's pose, but did not say anything. She lifted her hand to pet Keisho, but he crouched low on her shoulder. She whispered something into his ear, then took a step forward.

" I feel it's necessary for me to talk now instead of the cat. It would be a great discomfort to both of us if he was the only one speaking. I know you're probably ready to burst now, saying that it wouldn't be horrible to you, but would you rather have me standing in the backgrounds quietly, possibly looking with intentions while a talking cat spoke with grammared english? We only wish for now to be....um...oh! Joined. We only wish for now to be joined with your group. My petty group cannot possibly make it far enough, and your large group could not make it without...said guidance."

She suggested crudely. Then made a random gesture.

" Actually I would like to know, who is this Alex and this Mephistopheles?"

Keisho now took a few pawsteps closer, his head tilted in expectation. Both looked rather interested.

" Oh yes, please tell us, we've hear loads about this man." He commented, tail waving leisurely in the air.

His head lowered and his eyes squinted slightly.
"You know their names too. You seem to know a lot of things."
He spread out both arms towards her accusingly. "Even if you did know more about the other world, it doesn't explain why you know about us specifically."
His arms dropped in resignation.
"But even if you ask me about him, I can't tell ya much. He's creepy, that's about all I got outta him. Seems to know a lot too. Extra creepy."

"Now, about you joining us...I don't know. You're gonna have to ask 'em about it. But first," without looking, he slammed his left foot into the ground, erecting a flat slab of rock as a makeshift chair. He sat down with a grunt. "Tell me how you know about Kuldr."

I don't suppose you happen to know why.
Small creature and smaller beast...unfamiliar. Strange presence...
Yeah, they're pretty strange.

" There truly is a couple of things we haven't hit on directly...one of which, we know their names from," she took a quick moment to gather her thoughts, then, " we know Alex from what you people have said, and we know Mephistopheles from what our...friends...have said. It appeared that they knew Mephistopheles pretty well, they were doing some very naughty tasks for him or something."

The girl shrugged and turned in a circle, her eyes closed, rather to stop herself from possibly giving anything more than she wanted.

Keisho grunted. He was upset about something. Then he gave a curdling yowl, the need for attention.

" Here me now, boy, we each have our fair share of knowledge, but you must readily accept us. If you have such hesitation, and you only want answers, how can we not be skeptical that you would only use us for information and abandon our citizens? It would be cruel yet reasonable, especially for such a keen man like you, wouldn't it?"

The cat was suspicious, but it was overall nothing surprising either. Noemi shot a tense glare at him, she knew what she was doing, her words seeming to have purpose.

" Mr. Fluffles, I can handle this conversation, now can you tell us how long you've known Alex, or how long he's been associated with the other world?"

The cat hissed his disapproval, but did not say any more. He turned to Kane, ready to speak but not apologize.

" This is tedious, answering your petty questions. Though the other world is big, it is also not as big as you think. It is, just as yours, a small world, after all. I don't expect Kuldr to know much about me anyway, only that he should know me from my....my meetings that I hold for some of the other inhabitants of that world."

At the ending statement, the cat sat with a straightened spine, eyes slit in a mistrustful color of green. Noemi continued with her blank stare, though still not heeding much attention to either the boy, his floating rock, or her companion. She was waiting, feeling something in the air.

"Skeptical? Use you?" His smirk grew with each phrase and his brow furrowed. "You're talkin' like you're in charge, cat. Don't forget yourself, you were asking me to join you. Don't act like I'm forcin' ya - but I got every right to ask questions."

DO you know him? What meetings did he mean?
I know of no such thing.
I figured as much, you're a rock.

"Kuldr tells me he doesn't know of any meetings. If I'm not mistaken, he's an earth golem, and they don't leave the mountain. So how do you know of him?

"You're quite inquisitive for a cat, aren't ya 'Fluffles'?"
He squatted down until he was inches from the cat's face.
"That is, if you are a cat."
He stood back up and spun around, pacing backwards towards the door.
"Fine, fine, I'll tell ya what I know. Not like it's a secret or anythin'. I've only known him for about a day, and I got no idea how long he's been with Me...Meffle...shadow guy. You can ask him yerself, wherever he is."

He turned back around to face them, having distanced himself. He put on a false regal tone: "So is this the part where I swear fealty to you and your kin, oh great cat lord?" He dropped it immediately. "I still got not reason to trust you, ya know. But I guess I'll talk it over with 'em!"

They're withholding information. I don't feel like playing the interrogator to goad it out of them right now.
You are impatient.
I don't wanna hear that from you, Kuldr. I'm still human, I have a lower attention span than a frikkin mountain.

He opened the door and walked back inside, yelling in a monotone voice as he approached the room. "Yo, Resh, they told me absolutely nothing and now they wanna join us for no god damned reason. Sound like a plan?"

"Hell no." The response was instinctive and instant, "She bursts in here like she owns the place, has the nerve to talk down to us and then asks to join us?" Resha shook her head, trying to understand the logic behind this - Trying to not be annoyed as all get out by this.

Calm down, think clearly. Resist the urge to kill her... would solve all of her problems. All she had to do was walk out the door and end the annoying girl's life, it couldn't be that hard, could it? She'd ended countless lives before, literally countless. It was what she was usually made for, what she was good at. She had reputations for killing things of far greater threat than some random brash girl who talked loudly.

She didn't have to deal with this stress, she could slide this knife into the girl's throat, off to the side to separate the carotid artery, slide it across the upper neckline to sever the vocal chords. She would die of bloodloss without making a sound, it was very simple.

Resha's eyes landed on the knife in her hand, and it wasn't even really a knife, it was a dagger. Solid hilt, short guard, a blade about as long as her middle finger that looked to be built solidly. Even at a glance, this was clearly tiers above the ornate or "authentic" blades that were made these days.

...So where did she get this thing from?

"Just... No. I don't trust her, I don't want her around Arietta." Resha sighed, keeping the knife flipped up behind her wrist so you couldn't see it from the front. "She's shown up before, remember? Back when that thing was chasing us. There's something too convenient about it all - What if she's like a homing beacon for those monsters?"

That made sense. A disturbing amount of sense. "Look, it's been what? Three days now? There hasn't been a single new monster show up until today, and then not even fifteen minutes after one shows up..." Resha flashed her empty hand out towards the door across the room, the knife in her other hand slipping into her pocket. "She shows up at our doorstep?"

She'd find something to do with it later, Alex probably had it laying around and she grabbed it without realizing it. "I don't like it."

"That's..." He toyed with the thought. She was right. The girl was there with the shadow beast, and now with the wolves. "...perceptive."

"I don't like it either. They know a lot and they're not tellin' us any of it, but they expect us to quietly go with it. Like fucking sheep." He glanced at the door, they hadn't followed him in just yet.
"And given the circumstances, they do seem more danger than help."

They seem persistent, though. I have a feeling we won't be seeing the last of them if we just decline...ah, what to do about this?

"So what do you want to do," he asked, half jokingly with a smirk, "Kill them?"

"Yes." Resha replied without thinking, her mind already moving on to other things. "Preferably." She stood up, turning towards the hallway.

"She didn't come from the front door though. I'm going to go see where exactly she got in from...Come find me when you're done, okay?" Resha walked off down the hall as she spoke, intent on discovering just where this obnoxious girl had gotten in from.

Kane blinked.

"What?"

Was she serious? I can't just..kill them.
Why not?
There's a very good reason why...!
But Kane couldn't think of it.

I'll just tell them to leave. And if they don't...if they don't,
You have to break them?
...Yeah...

Of all the things she could have said in response, this was probably the last one Kane would have expected. Resha was seriously considering killing them? It was sensible, or as sensible as it could get in this situation.

"Hey," he opened the door tentatively to find the girl and the cat waiting still. He stood at the doorway and looked at them. "You gotta leave - we're not interested."

Hey, get ready.
...Me?
I'm gonna punt them.
Define...punt.

“La la la la di daa~~” Jessie sang as she went off to school. She skipped, joyfully, along the road to school. When she got to the school, she noticed something strange. She hadn’t seen Rui along the way. “Ehh, I wonder where’s Rui… Usually I see him by the time we get to school… But… He’s not here. I wonder if he’s alright.”

Seeing that she was going to be late to her class, she quickly ran to the building. She just made it to class. She quickly took her seat just as the teacher went into the classroom. Her first class… Science. “Ughhhhh, such a fudging bore. I wish I could switch out but it’s too late.”

Fidgeting slyly around, Jessie notices some classmates talking about crap. Mostly about school stuff, drama life, etc. But then she hears something that caught her attention.

“Hey didja hear about the shit that happened last night? I heard that a street got totaled by some shit man. Freaky shit dude. That street is where John and Mac live. Well used to live, hehehe,” one classmate snickered as he said that.

After what felt like a long day, Jessie headed back home in a hurry. She was still wondering where Rui was. She hadn’t seen him in the morning and she didn’t see him on the way out the school. Where could he be? But Jessie left those thoughts alone, as she went into her daydreaming state like always.

Then Jessie went downstairs to get her food when her little sister turned on the TV. And then the news pops up.

“Story at 10. Street totaled. The cause: An explosion. Join us live to see the mass destruction this explosion has caused. The explosion caused total devastation to this street. And there have been no leads as to who caused this explosion.”

Another day passed by and again no Rui. Jessie was a bit worried. “What if… What if Rui… was in that explosion… Oh please god no…Nahhh, he’s probably cutting school. Maybe he’s hiding somewhere. Or something. I hope.”

The day passed normally and school ended. Jessie went home normally. She did her homework. Then she went down to grab dinner. “Oh Jessie dear. I won’t be here to make dinner tomorrow, so remember to pick up something to eat or something okaaay~?” said her mother.

“Oh. mmk,” responded Jessie. Then Jessie turned on the TV to watch the news again, wondering about the destruction of the street

“There are still no leads. Police say that if there were bodies here, they may have been disintegrated or crushed under all this debris. It would take days to pick up all this debris.”

Still hurting and bleeding, Arthur continued walking in search of a hospitable structure in which he could rest. Michael had not said anything in a little while. As he walked, dragging the holy sword of the Archangel across the concrete behind him, he began to withdraw into his own mind.

"You know I can hear what you're thinking." The Archangel chimed in a rather plain voice. "I know." Said Arthur. "To be honest i'm kind of hoping you'll just fill me in on a little bit of what's going on here. Maybe answer a little bit of what i'm thinking about."

The Archangel sat in silence for a few moments before answering. "Let's find a place to rest. I'll tell you a little more." Arthur continued to trudge along, dragging the heavy great sword in his wake. "I see that you're having trouble with my weapon." Michael declared. "Here... Let me assist."

The heavy sword was engulfed in white flame starting at the tip of the blade and swimming up to the hilt, disappearing in the aftermath of the fire.

Arthur looked down at his now empty hands, palms open. "Where did it go?" Arthur inquired as he stood in place. He wouldn't bother keeping the fact that he was baffled to himself. Michael knew anyway. "It's back inside you, with me." Arthur rolled his eyes as he continued to walk. "So what does that mean anyway? How are you inside me? I don't feel anything. I can only hear your voice."

"I exist inside of a place in your unconscious brain, on a spiritual level." The Archangel answered. "Inside this space exists many things that you are unaware of. Your darkest urges, your subliminal desires, your gravitation towards sin... Human things." Arthur sat quiet as Michael continued. "However, there are other things here as well. Your capacity for goodness, your desire to assist the weak, and to protect innocence. Your courage to fight oppression and evil no matter what form it may take."

As Arthur continued walking amongst the various rundown buildings in the area, he stumbled across an inviting looking office building. Four stories tall, right next to a parking garage with direct access to the side of the building. Arthur began searching for an unlocked door as Michael continued.

"You see Arthur, we are much alike at our core. Despite being fallible, we are two beings who, deep down, strive to create righteousness in the universe. And what is right, is a matter of principal... Sometimes... It's just a matter of love. Like protecting something that you love, no matter what you have to do. Don't you agree?"

Arthur walked up to a side door entrance to the building. The door was cracked and a small amount of light emitted from inside. Cautiously, Arthur crept inside, conscious of his movements and not to alarm anyone, should someone be inside.

"Yeah I agree with that..." Arthur came back. "Sometimes doing what's right isn't the most popular choice. Most of the time... Noone even notices. Hardly seems worth it no matter how strongly you feel about it."

Arthur walked amongst the offices, occasionally peering into the deserted cubicles. Random papers littered the aisle. At the end of a big office room, lay a hallway whose floor was composed of white tiles. The flourescent lights were either broken or turned off. The only available light source came from dim lamps that were left on every couple of yards.

"I know how that feels." Michael said with a solemn inflection.

Arthur walked down the poorly lit hallway to find an open room with a leather couch and a vending machine. "Perfect." He smiled, relieved to be able to get some rest. "If it's all the same to you, i'm gonna get some rest." Arthur said quite matter-of-factly. "Before you do..." Michael inserted. Suddenly the vending machine lit up and several bars of chocolate and a few bags of chips fell out. "Have some food. I know you're hungry."

Arthur looked surprised. "Thanks... You know... It's been a while since i've had anyone to hang out with. You're the closest thing i've had to a buddy in quite some time. Even if you are stuck in there against your will."

Arthur grabbed a few of the snacks and sat down on the couch, crunching a few doritos between his teeth. In a matter of seconds, Arthur was fast asleep, snoring wildly.

“Ahh, another day of school done. And it was a short day. Yay! Now time to go ho-Oh wait, mom isn’t here. Gotta get some food!” Jessie said excitedly. “First, need to go home to get my purse.”

Jessie ran home in a hurry to get her purse. “Hmm, I should change out of my clothes first!” So Jessie changed her clothes in a flash. Then she went to the store to buy some food.

Jessie then went to the store near Chinatown. Jessie rushed to get food, as she was very hungry. She hadn’t had any type of food that day. She hurriedly bought some meat, vegetables, some snacks, and some soda. Thankfully, the line to the cashier was not long so everything went by like a flash.

Jessie ran to home when suddenly something scared her greatly. Jessie stood in the middle of the street awestruck at what is happening before her. She saw wolves attacking all types of people. From child to adult, the wolves continuously ate. Jessie couldn’t believe what was happening.

“W-why… Those… poor people…” muttered Jessie softly. The wolves sighted her. They then pounced on her, but instead of devouring her as they did before, they converged with Jessie. Jessie, paralyzed by fear, only stood. She didn’t move from that spot. The only thing she did was scream, at the top of her lungs. She dropped her purse.

The wolves seemingly disappeared. Jessie awoke, apparently unhurt from earlier. The gore lining the sidewalks horrified Jessie but the only thing that came to her mind was the insatiable need to feed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been going like this for... how long now? A few days, at most. Felt like weeks, though.

For the longest time, it's been bugging him. Word of mouth spreading like wildfire, people raving about creatures one would expect from some kind of weird story book, it was almost as if everyone lost their collective mind. Lunatics finally lost it? Maybe, but isn't likely. There was something - no, a lot of things - wrong with this picture.

But see, that isn't the problem.

It was the fact that everything is starting to make damn sense.

A news station reported recently of a man claiming to have seen 'shadows' and things that 'ate everyone in sight, grew bigger'. Malfunctioning gas mains? Widespread panic? The city isn't exactly a utopia, but the coincidence is a bit scary. Terrorists? Some kind of attack?

Conspiracy theorists, eat your hearts out.

Shit... here we go again.

Sip of some tea to calm the nerves. These constant migraines day in and day out aren't helping his life much. Night after night of lost sleep can take a toll on someone too. Maybe everything is finally getting to him.

A quick look outside the window didn't reveal anything remotely new, but at least managed to get his thoughts off this mess. Bit darker outside than usual, raining slightly. Might be nice to get outside when the rain stops. Turning away from the window, he took a quick scan around his apartment. His place was rather generic, save for maybe being a bit neater and having some pieces of computer equipment here and there. Need to clean up that mess later. The television was on as it always is, the man having developed a habit for recording the news ever since he got that cheap VCR off the pawnshop.

Again, the same news. Eyewitness reports of some kind of 'freak accident', but nobody can recover the bodies. Rescue teams on site, dumbfounded people interviewed, the whole story. Even though this has become routine, there's still something bothering him...

Now they're replaying footage from the-... pfft... okay, what in the world was that? That thing, that sudden 'thing' leaping across the-... what the hell?

See? Believe.

Hold the fuck up, what the hell was going on here? Wait, wait, hold it.

He pressed the rewind button and played it again, just to get a closer look. The quality was too horrible to get anything, and this TV wasn't exactly fancy. Shit. Maybe, just maybe, if he can get an actual look at whatever the hell that was...

Are you...?

Now this is just stupid. There's no way he's going out there on a whim just to see something-

Aren't you curious?

Well, of course someone would be curious. Anyone would be under these circumstances. It wouldn't really hurt to check... right? Right? He was planning to stop by Chinatown anyway since he was almost out of food. Maybe bring the camera. Probably need a coat too.

The man suited up and made sure to bring an umbrella and his knapsack. It wasn't too far to walk, and he suppose that rain wasn't so bad.

It won't kill to be a little curious, wouldn't it?

Maybe even get some peace of mind.

Noemi stood outside the door, having followed Kane a fair distance after he disappeared inside. She leaned against the doorpost, listening. Keisho felt her distress as she bit her tongue along with holding back a foul remark. A head appeared, Kane, he commented boldly at them to leave, yet they did not seem at all confused. This was just a small obstruction that they would have to come by. Sighing and then clearing her throat, Noemi produced an harmony-lacking bribe.

" Excuse me, Kane, but you seem to have lost the point. It is not I nor Mr. Fluffles who needs your help, but instead our helpful assistants. They have run off to somewhere, but they will be back, we have not the need to provide anything for them, though we should, which also makes us bad caretakers, but we really need your provisions for them. If it helps, I am willing to stoop low enough as to not talk to any of you, which would probably be a hindrance, but I suppose you guys could survive without it. Also, in my bright offer, I will stay my distance from Arietta, for I am not much older than her myself, and as of the monsters..."

She took another moment, this time quite longer than before. Words had come to escape her grasp once again.

" As for the monsters, I while try my best to ward them off. It is not I that brings those unsightly creatures forth, it is just that we are looking for the same thing, but have different intentions. The monsters and I and Mr. Fluffles, we have nothing in common except for possible wants, otherwise we would be as much as enemies just like you and I."

The girl made a beckoning movement with her hand, trying to show her innocence was true. Keisho hung in her jacket, paws dangling outwards, small head cocked to the right in a querying fashion.

Punt option retracted.
I still do not know what...
Shut up.

"So you eavesdropped, huh." He looked back at the hallway before resuming the conversation. "I personally don't give a shit as long as you stop fucking with us, but the others might say otherwise. Didn't exactly have the best first impression."

I'd rather not make more enemies than we need to, but I don't want to deal with this crazy girl anymore...
Taller lady said destroy.
I know, I know, but I'd like to avoid that too. Ahh, damnit...

"...Look, can't you just leave for now? We don't need help with the monsters, and you haven't told me what you want from us. Can't help ya with what we don't know, and frankly, at this point, 'don't really give a damn."
He started to close the door.
"Sorry."
The door slammed shut.

I hate diplomacy.

Kane was not used to problems that couldn't be solved with violence. Annoying brat or not, he didn't want to kill a little kid if he could help it.

"Resha," he called out, "locks, do we have 'em??"

"No, but we need them." she called back from somewhere in the building, having walked back to what served as the back of the building. "speaking of which, I found how she got in... We do need some locks."

For the moment though? the door had been shut and barricaded by... Well, everything in the room. From chairs to garbage cans, there was no way of getting through this without alerting the rest of the occupants.

Still, if something actually managed to get through all this crap, Resha doubted an alert would help them.

"Check on Arietta will you? I'm going to try and block off this backdoor. We'll figure out how to get locks later."

" Ah, well, I suppose it's time for the bad guys to leave, isn't it?"

Noemi said calmly with a shrug and hollow sigh. Then with a change of attitude, she scrunched up her face, hands tucked away in her jacket pockets, and kicking a small pebble off the sidewalk.

" Meh, we can find some other type of residence for our citizens. Meanwhile, I feel rather spiteful now."

The cat in her jacket nodded, his small fuzzy head touched her chin.

" Noemi, I've never reasoned about how you'd feel on my behalf of leadership for this team, but now, I seem to have a better view. I will listen to you, and I will try my best to not get in your way. Now,"

He paused at the feel of the emotions that his companion carried. It was undiscriminant. Hidden too far beneath the burdened heart.

" Now, they didn't really hear us out much did they? Perhaps we should've gone with the more quiet, mature presence? But that's probably too late now, they won't matter much in our discovery, we will have to try another route. It happens all the time. So what would you like to do in your spite, any ideas for them?"

" I in fact feel like being very spiteful.... as in blowing up their house, or running in with pistols wielded...sniping?"

Noemi rattled off lists of murderous possibilities. Keisho twitched his tail, he was not as into the whole thing but seemed to be rather amused.

" Oh, the bombing won't work, remember?"

He remarked quietly, then spied a little distance off. The memories of a 'pre-bombing' on some fair maiden's home, the excited...no, ecstatic...no, over joyous? too zealous? perhaps the accidental laughter and the pointing at a flaming building, body parts raining like hail.

" Ah, i suppose you're right, I would be a little too loud..."
The girl trailed off, then with a quick movement, placed the headphones over her ears, no music played yet she continued to hum a song. " This brings me to be less spiteful, I feel like finding some...people." She continued her walk, somewhere to the middle of town.

Meza and struggled to find the key he had just dropped in the grass. It was a dark and rainy night and he was inebriated and out of breath from trying to lose the cop that had chased him through the neighborhood after seeing him trying to spray paint the side of the corner store. Meza gave up and laid in the grass a moment trying to catch his breath and enjoy the rainy night. This was a rare moment of peace in his chaotic life. Even now he knew all his problems were caused by his bad decisions he was twenty-four and living with about 5 other people he barely knew in a rundown house in a rundown neighborhood. Meza didn’t want to grow up he didn’t want to stop spending his money and his nights downtown going from bars to shows to parties.

When he opened his eyes he could see something that wasn’t there a moment ago, some kind of jagged shape faintly glowing from behind the clouds and stretching wide across the night sky. “Oh shit….I must be wasted.”

Meza scrambled up and began beating on his door. The door opened a few inches but was stopped by a chain. It was Justin…or Jake… Jay? YES jay. “JAY THERES SOMETHING IN THE SKY YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS DU-“
“What the FUCK do you think your doing? Don’t you have your goddamn key?! Just shut the fuck up and get your drunk ass in here I’m too tired for this shit.” Jay said unlocking the chain on the door and walking back into the living room where he had been sleeping on the couch. Jay didn’t take Meza seriously but not many people did. His short messy blue hair, torn dirty blue jeans, and his stained gray thermal t-shirt didn’t add to his credibility either. Jay didn’t like the idea of living with Meza but they need an extra source of income to help pay for the rent and utilities.

Meza stumbled in and walked carefully through the living room on the way to his mattress in the room at the end of the hall. “Fucking asshole.” He said quietly to himself walking past Jay. He wasn’t sure if he had tripped over more random clutter on the floor or was pushed but he found himself on the ground. “You think you can just wake me up in the middle of the night cause your drunk ass lost his key and then your gonna call ME an asshole? I’m going to beat you to a pulp YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Meza had rolled over to find Jay leaning over him ready to start throwing punches. The metal flashlight Meza landed next to didn’t make much noise as he slammed it into the side of Jays head but as Jay began to fall time seemed to Freeze.

HELLO MY DEAR FRIEND YOU HAVE BEEN selected BY –inaudible/static- I AM LYTTA I AM (and you will be) INSAINE
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit someone slipped me something…”
NEGETIVE whoa what are you YOU HAD BETTER CALM DOWN HAHA

The house began to come apart board by board becoming unstable some of the pieces seemed to turn to a kind of smoke or mist. The voice in his head still laughing… It stopped the house fell to pieces around him jay was slumped over bleeding and not breathing. Meza grabbed Jay’s keys and climbed carefully over the wreckage toward jays car in the driveway, past a couple that was living in one of the rooms who seemed utterly baffled. He couldn’t stay here but he had nowhere to go. Remembering the voice it seemed to echo in his head its odd changes in pitch seemed horrifying to him. Meza sped off into the dreary rainy night.

A few doors slammed open and closed, shaking Arietta from her shock. It took her a minute to reassess her situation after a spell of extreme dizziness hit her. Some mess she was in... The sickness was spreading, she could feel it. It was almost like being in a closet or small box... all scrunched up inside a covering of skin, bones, and muscle that weren't hers anymore. This wasn't going to be easy.

Step one: Sit up. She thought back to when she had been sick with pneumonia at seven. Her mother was staying in a hotel because she couldn't handle the stress of taking care of a sick child, -and- her violent husband. Whereas Arietta's father was constantly out drinking with his buddies... A tear slipped down her pale skin beaded with sweat.

She wasn't alone this time... she had the people at the safehouse... she had Teophila. And she wasn't going to lose them all because of a little sickness. If this was her only option to save herself from an even darker world... then she was going to need to make up her mind and go fishing for courage and some determination.

It felt like it had taken hours, but Arietta was finally able to pull herself into a sitting position after much strain and struggle. Wooziness threated to knock her from wavering consciouness, but she grabbed the egde of the bed and waited until she felt well enough to at least swing her legs out from under the heavy covers.
_______________________________________________________________

Waves of fever, dizziness, and nausea bombarded Arietta as the world spun around her and the floor threatened to fall out from under her feet. She had stood up... barely. Steadying herself with the bumpy wall on her left, she slowly moved towards the door. Keiko was sleeping soundly next to the wall, so Arietta tried to make soft movements... also making an effort to steady her raspy breathing.

Any trace of color she had held before was completely gone once she made it as far as the hallway. That feat alone was genuinely incredible... but to make it to the kitchen... she wasn't sure how much more she could take. Her bangs were tainted with sweat and messy trundles of her short hair fell around her face. Her loose shirt was twisted around her body in every which way, and the carpet squished between her toes with every step.

Then, when she wasn't paying attention, she crashed against a solid... and tall object... The impact brought about a sense of alertness inside of her, and she looked up. It seemed that she had run into the punk boy... and Resha was standing in front of him, seemingly having just finished saying something.

Panic gnawed at the back of her mind... the would never let her... she wasn't strong enough to... how could she... The world began spinning again as various worries crossed her mind.

"Check on her? Do I look like a babysi--oof." Just as he was heading to her room, she bumped into the little girl. She was extremely pale-skinned and she moved with seemingly no direction.

"Whoa. What the hell happened to her, Resh? She have the plague or somethin'?" It must be a fever, or maybe pneumonia from being outside in the rain so much recently. She seems frail and kind of sickly, she shouldn't even be here.

Just then, it seemed like Arietta was going to collapse as she suddenly tottered around, as if dizzy. "Hey, hey," Kane crouched to eye level and put his hand on her back for support. "You need to get back in bed." We need to do something about her. I'm talking to Resha about it after she's back in her bed, Alex is out of his mind letting her stay here. She probably has a family... He remembered the recent carnage around the city. Then again, maybe she doesn't anymore...

The voices were finally gone. The weird people and the talking cat were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the door opened to reveal Kane. He had sent them away she supposed and he was talking to Resha. It all sounded like mumbling to her. She didn't quite grasp the situation she was in, but she didn't care either. If she died, no would know. It would be the same if she was alive.

Her parents haven't contacted her once, but they were probably self-indulging themselves to death and forgot about her. It was a regular thing so she was used to it by now. She started to type and write down things that happened to her so far. She had nothing else to do and it seemed like a good idea to sort out her thoughts so she wouldn't get a confused later on.

She looked up to think and saw Resha take a sharp object and hide it. She figured it was nothing and shrugged. Whatever she did with it was none of her business...well unless it involved her which it probably didn't.

Then she heard someone collide with something, well more like an 'ooph' sound coming from someone. She looked up and saw a little girl, probably a few years younger than her. She looked as if she was about to die and was insanely pale. 'Huh...What could've happened to her?' she thought but shrugged it off. The girl probably caught some flu virus or something. It could be personal thing. She shrugged it off and went back to her laptop. After all it was none of her business. Besides there was nothing she could do to help the girl.
_______________________________

All she hear was the sound of water running and people chattering in the background. Her expression was pale and grave. What could she do? Nothing. She listened mumbling in the background and eavesdropped on the women talking behind, near the door. She held onto her cup of tea and winced. "Hey, isn't that the women that nearly made this company close down?" asked one of the woman to the other. "I think so. I heard that one of her students went berserk while she was training her. I wonder what she did to the poor girl. She was so weak before and suddenly she got so strong! She must've done something to her!" whispered the other woman. They were gossiping about her. Why were they still doing that?

It was years ago. She herself didn't even know what happened. The weird hole in the sky was probably causing a lot of commotion and caused the old topic to be brought up again. She hated that topic. It nearly ruined the company and her reputation.

She wouldn't let that happen again. She had to stop Komoriuta and save Kanade. She needed to do it for closure. The incident from back then always gnawed her soul, felt like it did anyways. She felt like this was her chance to redeem herself. She lifted up her cup and chugged down the last of her tea.

She headed for outside and brushed away the undergrowth and sat on the dirt ground. She slapped herself lightly on the face and shook her head. "Cheer up, Fitonie!" she told herself and smiled. She felt like she had to smile. If she didn't then the other trainers would be able to get to her. Besides, what was wrong with smiling and acting childish? At least she was able to have fun. She hopped to her feet and threw a fist up. "Okay. I got this! I can do this!" she cheered. She didn't care if anyone saw or hear her. They can't put her down...for now.

"Hm?" Resha walked out from the back where she had finished throwing everything she could find against the door. "What do you mean?"

Catching sight of Arietta's condition, Resha lengthened her stride and came to a kneel next to the little girl and Kane a few moments later. "She looks sick," she began, kicking herself momentarily when she realized how redundant that sounded. "See if there's any medicine in the kitchen, I'll get her back to bed."

With a soft grunt, Resha lifted Arietta up off the ground and carried her back into the bedroom, setting her down as gently as she could manage before sitting next to her on the bed. "Really, one thing after another today... Arietta, you really shouldn't be up and about when you're sick like this."

Scattered pieces of charred flesh, investigators and their entourage on the scene, pieces of debris everywhere. The entire package, it looks like. Even here, some of the 'detectives' were a bit... well, stumped. From what he can hear, the entire disaster didn't have any semblance to any previous breaks if we're ignoring the results. This place resembled a whale filled with dynamite more than it resembles some kind of faulty pipeline.

Not that he knows what that looked like.

He's obviously not going to get any closer to the scene than he is now, so he made sure to sneak in a few photos as a memento. Got shooed away, but without getting caught. Looks like his trip here wasn't really a total loss. Came here for what he looked for and maybe got a little bit more.

Yup. His idea of a good time involved taking photographs of dead people. He covered wars, you know.

So...

Now what?

Well... there's not reason to go back home. It's a bit less crowded around here than it usually is (not exactly a good omen), so he supposes that it's a great idea to wander about to take advantage of this. It's always fun in Chinatown! Well, sometimes. Food ain't half bad either.

But are you sure that's the only reason? Don't you feel as if there's something you're missing?

It still feels pretty cold.

There's this sneaking suspicion gnawing at him, that there's something watching. It was probably the cold. Probably nothing. Best to ignore it. All in his mind.

He shook his coat a little and began to walk in the direction of the shops. Maybe get something warm to eat.

Kane rummaged through the cabinets in the kitchen. There were first-aid kits, painkillers, and fever medication.
I don't even know if it's a fever that kid has, Kane pondered. She looked deathly ill...and cold, like she was dying. I wish I was a doctor.
He grabbed the bottle of possibly-expired medicine and headed back over to her room.
She needs to get to a hospital or something.

"Resha, we gotta do something about 'er."