Act I
Wiki
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Act II - Hraesvelgr

In the city of Mumble, life had been radically changed in the brief course of four days. The beginning of an unexplainable phenomena that has since been referred to as the 'merge' which was slowly intertwining reality with another world - Full of Myths, the legends and stories of mankind which were long thought simply fables are becoming far realer than any could have expected.

Some individuals have become more personally affected than others; Finding themselves irrevocably bonded - whether willing, unwillingly, aware or unware - to Entities from this world of Myths. At first the changes were minimal: Slightly stronger, faster, more durable... Overtime it became something more. These people were becoming something beyond human as their very body and souls mixed with their counterparts.

Some ran in confusion, some banded together, and others still sought to use this power to seize control... Regardless of purpose, it soon became apparent that even with these new powers it would take all the luck they could get to survive what was coming next.

And while Mumble's populace became more and more exposed to the supernatural, the government stepped into ensure the safety of the surrounding areas. So, as the rain falls on yet another day - Mumble, and all of it's inhabitants, are locked in.

For better or worse, it appeared that the future would not be denied.

She raised her eyebrow and stared at the man. He suddenly seemed to act so different than before. He was actually thanking her for something instead of being an ass! She was shocked.

Then she remembered about his split personality and felt disappointed. It was his other side Leon. He seemed nicer, yet like a pushover. She wondered what she could make the man do since he was such a nice guy.

"Ah. It was nothing. Just wanted to help a person in need is all." She responded.

At least she wasn't being called nothing anymore.

'I study French for a year and the first time I hear something French outside of school is some stranger calling me nothing!' She thought angrily.

Well at least Leon called her 'that girl'. It was a big step up from being called 'nothing'. She sighed and looked over to where the hospital was. The bone seemed to have been taken away by some guy and put in a box.

"Well, I can help with getting down, but it doesn't seem like we need to fight anymore." She said, pointing down at where the last scene had taken place with the wendigo getting embraced with a lightning bolt.

Seems things have settled down; for now at least.

Yes, but you still haven't told me your name.

I shall tell you later, after we get off this building.

She looked over to Leon and wondered how much he remembered about the prior events. It seems he didn't remember anything about the teleportation though. She guessed memory loss was a side effect of having a split personality like Jekyll and Hyde.

"We'll be getting off the building by using that!" She pointed next to him as a portal appeared.

Having fainted and all, the girl was unaware of everything happening around her. The world around had plunged into darkness, the sounds around no longer conciously reaching her. Falling into the realm of unconciousness felt like being pulled into deep water suddenly.

Then the darkness of sleep faded into something unfamiliar. The walls of the area were composed of Obsidian, and the place lit up by some...spirit looking things of sorts. This sure didn't look like any place in Mumble...

"...Osiris?" Ainlisle called out.
"Ainlisle," a voice she recognized as Osiris' replied. The voice this time, was not coming from inside her mind.

"Woah," the girl paused. "Where am I? "

The god looked to the walls of the area, then nodded approvingly to himself. For now at least, things appeared to be at peace here.

"Technically, you aren't actually here. However...," he stated. "This is what you humans would call, the Underworld."

------

A teenager observed the going ons of the eternally rainy city. Funny how a place could be so busy and noisy, he was used to rain making the day seem quieter. Hell, it was night, it was supposed to be even quieter. ...Well, with all this crazy stuff going on, guess it makes sense it'd be so loud right now.

"Yoooo man, there sure is a lotta stuff going on in this city, huh?" the teenage boy asked looking to the sky. He was squatting on the top of a building, his arms resting on his thighs.

The grey skies offered him no response, and he shrugged after a long moment of silence.

"Fine, be that way, man! The boy stood up, and adjusted the baseball cap on his head. "What did he want me to do anyways? He mentioned something about looking for some blonde chicks... Wonder if they're cute?"

He stepped back a few feet from where he had been loitering, then took off running, back towards the edge of the building.

"WOOOOHOOO!"

Oh right... She probably associated with my other personality prior to this. So I'd better introduce myself...

He opened his mouth to speak, as she said,

"We'll be getting off the building by using that!" She pointed next to him as a portal appeared. His mouth then proceeded to stay open with nothing really coming out...

"This....this is incredible, I'm assuming you have powers as well after seeing this... What are they? Dimensional powers? Or is it like spacial distortion? Is this a wormhole? Ahaha! Amazing..." He said in an overly excited voice.

Nerd...

"Well in any case, I'm Leon, its nice to meet ya! Whatever is happening seems rather urgent, so we had better get going...uhhh...what should I call you?"

A long haired woman stretched lazily in an occupied bed, her mind drowsily drifting back into a long awaited consciousness. It was fairly quiet, this much Resha realized from sounds alone - But she wasn't alone in the room.

both the sound of breathing, and a small weight on her side informed her that there were at least two people in the room, and one of them was in the bed with her. Not so technically, her addled mind summed up this information in the succint format of 'mmr'.

After several moments of laying there, she woke enough to start regaining actual feeling in her body. She felt fine, better than ever actually. Except for her stomach aching, her muscles pulsing, her head pounding, her eyes about to burst, her ears throbbing angrily and the kind of pain which could only be described accurately as her skeleton deciding it was tired of this shit and was leaving.

Perfectly fine.

'It's been a long time since waking up has been this sweet.' she thought to herself while the rest of her consciousness gently floated down into her body.

And a part of her realized that the only reason she was able to genuinely think that thought was because she hadn't actually woken up and everything she was aware of felt more like it was happening to someone else.

'I'm going to be late for work, aren't I?' she sleepily rolled over and set her feet on the floor, slipping out of the bed with closed and sleep filled eyes before walking out of the room calmly.

It was only once down the hall, turning to the kitchen did her awareness catch up with her and hurriedly begin uploading its information about her body so that she would know that moving was a terrible idea.

"Ow." she stated quite plainly as her body-lag ended and all the excruciating pain was displayed through her nerves all at once. "...Ow." She repeated, her head laying on the floor of the kitchen while the ceiling spun around woozily and the house turned upside down under the sound of rushing blood through her veins.

Dull gray hair splayed out around her head as she lay there, detachedly wondering what she had done last night. It must have been some amazing liqour... But she didn't drink. Hm.

And this wasn't her house either.

"...Rrr." The closest vocalization to 'ow' she could produce rose half heartedly from her.

This is going to be a bad day...

"Thank you!" the nurse called to the boisterous young man. Then she noticed another young man calling for her to come and take a look at some people before darting up some stairs. "Oh! Alright, thank you!" She hurried over to the first girl he'd gestured to and began to look her over. Then another girl stepped up and asked if there was anything she could do, but then abruptly turned and excused herself, apologizing.

"Er... alright. Anywho.." She got back to work, looking over the unconcious girl, checking her pulse, looking for signs of wounds. She seemed to be in pretty good shape, just having fainted. Probably from exhaustion..

The nurse moved on and spotted the girl with the bone sticking out of her arm - but then her attention was caught by a girl dripping with blood. She rushed over to that girl and began looking her over for wounds quickly. What she found was that instead of a lot of terrible gashes, she had wide, but relatively shallow puncture wounds, wounds that had seemed to already stop bleeding at that. That's a bit unusual... but whatever, I'm wasting time here.

"Anybody here know how to bandage up wounds? This girl has a few that needs to be cleaned bandaged!" she called out. She rushed back over to the girl with the bone in her shoulder. The blood wasn't flowing too bad anymore, since someone had already applied pressure to it, but it needed to be washed and stitched up asap. "I need some antiseptic, surgical thread, and a needle! Some new gauze would be nice, too!"

As Vincent wandered through the hospital, not really knowing what he was actually looking for, he stumbled across a first aid kit against a wall.

"Should work well enough, I guess." he said out loud.

Apparently, he didn't mind the fact that talking to himself as much as he did made him look insane. He would probably respond by saying that talking to himself is the most awesome conversation he has with anyone.

Once the kit was securely in his possession, the young man made his way back though the way he came in. Or...was it this way? Maybe he got himself a bit lost. But, it was good that he did, because he ended up stumbling upon one of the survivors of the battle.

"Wait, isn't this the chick using the ghost dudes?" he said as he knelt down, "Well, can't have you hangin' around here, huh? Let's get you back to the downer nurse chick."

Picking the girl up, Vincent began making his way back towards the area where he figured he was supposed to go. Or...at least, he was almost positive.

Unfortunatly, the First Aid kit now sat where the girl had been.

"... Damned idiots- You two! Steve, Bob, the fuck are you two doing?!"

There was Joe, standing behind both of them in the ice cream line. Visibly pissed.

"You faggots were supposed to stay on your post and tell us when-..."
__________

Plastic explosives, a specialized form of explosive material that can only be triggered by a charge. Malleable, easy to mold, resistant to most physical shocks, an important object for demolition of fortifications, obstructions, along with safe disposal of certain material. The basic idea of it.

The famous 'C-4' is used not only by the militant countries, but guerrilla terrorism groups due to its availability, power and control. Publicized in video games and movies, this remote detonated explosive has created quite a name in the market and has even found commercial use.

Perfect for this situation.

Well, it's an explosive; you honestly can't go wrong with it.

Typical of an explosive, it... well, it exploded, destroying what little structural integrity the hospital had left from all the chaos. Unable to stand erect, everything came tumbling down, each floor pancaking on top of each other in a sequential manner. Heat and debris shot from the deathtrap and covered everything nearby in a coat of soot and loose stone.
__________

"... Well, better late than never." Joe whistles. "Job well done boys, job well done. As you were."
__________

Alright... That bone wasn't sticking out before-hurgk, that wasn't supposed to go there. That was the femur. The femur goes in the... the arm? This exposed skull cavity of his was giving him a headache... anyone with half a brain would know that the femur goes in... in... was it his neck? Wait, fuck, was that the phalanges?

Well, he lacked the convenience of half that brain, but hey, he still has the part that was able to create rational thought. Sure, there's still some lead in there, but he'll... 'live'.

Hah, alright, this is less amusing, slightly more sad. Very sad. That... hurt him mentally.

... Pfft.

Situation check: he appears to be... under another wall. Great? He's really always under something, is he? Well, this sucks-

"Alright, clean this up! Something is under the rubble-"
"Get this thing off, come on! I can hear breathing!"

Alright, never mind, this is actually not so bad. A couple of people dressed in some kind of uniform were getting a slab of rock off of him. They unearthed enough of the rubble just enough to see his face.

"Hey, thanks for the lift fellas-"
"OH SHI-
"OH GO-"

... Right, that's not a good reaction.

"Is there something on my face?" Noa said jokingly, sporting a smil-... well, his jaw appears to be missing, so it wasn't quite a smile. "Well... erm, what's left of my face."

"Erm..."
"Are you-"

"I was born this way." He attempted a pout. "Come on guys, my first day being disabled by a traumatic incident. How do you think I feel, man? I have to wake up to this."

"Al... right." One of them mumbled. "We need a stretcher for this guy to get him to the hospital-"

"No longer a hospital, fellas."

Another one of those guys, this time some girl behind him. His eye is still pretty messed up, so he can just make out silhouettes.

"That thing was totaled. Monsters, superpowered freaks, some huge monster-bone-flesh-I-don't know-what-the-fuck-it-was-so-I-drove-as-fast-as-I-can thing was there. And I'm not kidding."

They were handing each other some kind of object, small templates. Business cards? Photographs? Sounded surprised. Pretty soon, there was a crowd of people congregating just a few feet in front of him.

"The media will..."
"Yeah. Are you sure about this?"
"Look at the exif, it was taken today, no editing, no lie."
"Well, this is something else..."
"Took it while I was driving off, pretty much. So some are pretty blurry..."

"Hey," Noa grumbled. "Guys... half-dead body over here..."

The group walked off, showing a few others.

"Guys?"

Vincent finally strolled out of the hospital, young woman in hand, making his way towards the group.

"Hey guys, couldn't find anything in there. But I did manage to save this chick from the collapsing building." he said, a cocky grin over his face, "Guess that makes me a hero yet again, huh? How's that for aweso..."

Just then, the building behind him exploded, sending out a shockwave of debris pushed him forward. Luckily he caught himself in mid-stride to avoid falling facefirst, but it did hasten his steps away from the now-collapsing building.

Rui and Jessie promptly left the scene. Unaware of where to go, what to do, what their next move will be, they just left. They made it far away from the hospital. This put them as safe as can be for the next thing to happen.

Rui transformed back to his normal form, still his right arm is transforms, permanently. “I wonder where is the rest of that group of people... I didn’t see all of them back at the hospital when we left. Well I do hope they got away far from that place, and I really hope they don’t talk with that evil ghost girl.” Jessie nodded.

Then, an explosion happened, at the spot where the hospital was. Rui and Jessie quickly fell down, thinking it was an attack. Rui opened his eyes and peeked out. He saw that nothing had happened to him or Jessie. He got up and checked what had happened.

“Holy crap! Th-the hospital! It... It exploded...” Rui told Jessie. Jessie then got up to check. “Thank god we left the scene, huh...”

“Y-yeah!” Jessie responded. “Wonder if there were still people there.... Oh my god, I hope... They didn’t...”

“Yeah...” Rui said. “D-do you wanna go check it out?”

“N-not really... And besides... There weren’t that many people there when we left, right? So I’m sure they all made it out safely! I’m positive...”

“Hm... I think I’ll go check it out. It’s okay if I leave you alone right?”

“But Rui... What if you get attacked again?”

“It’s cool, I’m in no real danger.” Rui then summoned a bit of fire, which then was put out by the rain. “Well... Even with this little rain, I can still defend myself, no problem!”

“Hm... Okay... Be careful okay!” Jessie said sorrowfully.

“Don’t make that look. It’s not like I’ll be gone forever. Or even that long.”

“... Kay”, Jessie responded.

Rui then left to check on the situation.

Lost to the realm of unconciousness in the human world, and awake in the underworld, Ainlisle was unaware of the young man carrying her out from the hospital.

"The Underworld?! Wait, how am I even here?"

Osiris rolled his eyes, and stood up, starting to walk the grounds of the Underworld. Ainlisle's gaze ran independantly of Osiris', surveying the surroundings, as he strolled along. The water in the Underworld sure looked clean, she'd been expecting it to be full of blood, and for the underworld itself to be much more... intimidating? Scary?

"As I said, you yourself are not technically here," the god paused in thought before continuing. "Your... mind, in a way has however shifted to see this world temporarily...most likely because you're unconcious in your world."
"...How does that even work? Aren't you able to see into the human world without being asleep?"
"..."
"Of course he doesn't answer." Ainlisle thought.

Another of the spirit things giving light to the underworld danced off in the corner of her vision. Then her sight of the Underworld turned blurry, timing in with the destruction of the hospital.
------

"and, 1.... 2.... THREEEEEEE!" the boy ran off the edge of the high building,apparently not caring that, to any one who might have seen this, it looked like he was going to commit suicide.

The boy fell for a moment into the air, before kicking off nothing and breaking into a lazy flight back over the buildings.

"Hell yeah," the boy said to himself while enjoying the view from above the city. "Too bad I can't do this forever... Dude wanted me to find them blonde chicks."

Artemis and Athena, two goddesses whose names the boy only vaguely remembered. He hadn't really cared for mythology when they covered it in class, but he was always the one stuck between giggling girls who needed him to pass their notes for them. Maybe that's why he ended up with Hermes as a counterpart, you know. Being all messenger-y, or whatever.

"You know I have no idea why you need me to find these chic-----!!"

The teenager's flight was cut short by him landing back onto the nearest rooftop upon hearing an explosion not too far off. In his surprise, he'd descended a little too quickly, and hit the rooftop with a hard thud, rolling onto his back in some pain.

"Fucking shit, that hurt..." he looked off in the direction of the explosion. " Ain't that where the hospital is...?...What if those chicks are over there?!"

The nurse grumbled a bit, not sure what to do about the bleeding girls.

She glanced over when she heard the young man from before.

"You couldn't find anythin--" her sentence was cut short by the hospital exploding suddenly. She was knocked onto her side briefly, but didn't stay like that for long. She rose to her knees, prepared to move if she needed to, and shielded herself as small chunks of brick fell from the sky. She slowly started to look around as the sounds of the debris hitting the ground started to thin and eventually stop. It was hard to see through the ash, but she knew the hospital must be gone.

How am I going to help these people now...?

Peck... peck... squack...

Stupid bird.

Sneeze...

It's impossible to sleep here. The rain is too cold, too wet... The floor is too rough and felt jagged against her naked skin... This sickness makes it feel as if her lungs were in a vice... So much discomfort, it's a wonder how anyone could live like this.

A wayward breeze made the girl curl up tighter and press closer toward the machine. The sound of thunder and wayward sirens proved to be a not so effective lullaby. This was stupid, she told herself over and over again, swatting at the bird, a thousand-fold foolishness. She was above this... this... ah... ah...!

"Achoo!"
"Squawk!"

The human body isn't durable at all. She won't be able to do anything in this state.

She resolved to finally stand on her two feet to find shelter. It was... as an understatement, 'difficult'. The weather didn't do her any favors: she was only being able to take a step every few seconds or so, shiver in place, then try again. Having to do so in a hunched over manner while being attacked by this cursed avian isn't someone's idea of a pastry-stroll (?). It took about a minute or so, but she made her way toward a nearby door...

It would be warmer... much warmer... She stumbled to try and open the door.

It was the top floor of an apartment complex, similar to the one Noa had. She could recognize it from the time they went upstairs... stairs leading to this door, numbers on the doors, etc.

Sapped of all her strength, she laid herself down on the floor, using a nearby rag/mat to cover herself as a makeshift blanket. The stubborn bird soon fled to the street...

__________

Thunk.

"Did we just hit a bird?"

"Probably nothing, Rin," the officer said. "Alright, as I was saying... dead baby creature things, monster, all that. You gotta be shitting me man, I'm dreaming."

"I'm standing in front of you with no legs, half a head, a broken arm. And you almost shot me. You asshole."

"Dude, come on, you were a zombie!" Koji threw one of his arms into the air. "There were zombie babies and zombie everything everywhere. You know how I feel about zombies, man."

"Well, this wasn't my idea of a reunion," Rina muttered to herself.

Uneventful fifteen minutes. Noa was sitting on an police car with enough gauze on him to look like a mummy. The sporting 'one eye' thing wasn't that bad a look. Makes him look sort of mysterious. Putting that aside, two of his friends got themselves involved in this, which isn't something he wanted.

Alright.

"That thing?" Koji pointed to one of the pictures that Rina was holding. It was the huge monster they barely saw just before leaving the hospital. "Do you think Patchy can receive pictures on her phone? Because I wanna ask her what's up with this."

Rina's eyebrows shot up. "She has a phone now?"

Noa raised his free arm. "Do you think we can ask her about these things? I got a few things to ask her too."

"I was meaning to ask about that voice thing in my head," Rina cut in. "His name is... Indra, I think- yes, I remember your name. Ditz? What-"

"You guys have oversouls too? Fuck, you guys suck. What, I just drive? I'm the normal guy?"

"Well, driving is important," half-smiled Noa. "I don't even have arms. And Rin's even worse."

"Pfft, alright. You know what, we'll just stop by her house, how does that sound? We're like... 5 minutes away from it."

"What is this, random exposition time?"

"You know it."

The car drove onwards. Aside from the pitter patter of rain, the sound of windshields going back and forth and the droning sound of the engine, there was nothing but an unnatural sort of silence. Those two had their mind all over the place, which is natural considering the circumstances. Noa, however, was a bit more... glum. Something else entirely was on his mind.

When the Wendigo had arrived, the odd cannibalistic babies realized one important fact within their hive minds.

The Wendigo would fuck their shit up.

That in mind, the infants made like a leaf and got the hell out of that hospital in the droves - swarming out as fast as possible the moment it showed up and escaping into the city to hide and bide their time.

It remained yet to be seen if they could breed, but with mumble's luck - They're breeding capability would resemble rabbits on aphrodisiacs.

the rain continued to fall on the city of Mumble.

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

The amber eyed contractor poked the rug that Lily was using, her foot extended briefly to nudge it a couple times. She knew Lily was under there, it would be almost impossible to not know where her charge was.

"Hey, what are you still doing here?" She mumbled with a distracted expression on her face. Lucia's words were still bothering her, but that was something she would mull over at a later date. "It's probably quite dirty under that rug... You may have bugs under there. Or things that bite."

No response, she quirked her head curiously. Maybe she made the body wrong? That wouldn't be good...

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

My, this floor was nice. Actually, the floor was terribly dirty and may have had a bug on it. It smelled bad to. But it was cold against her skin, and helped the headache, so it was nice in that regard.

Just need to... Get up. Or something. Try and figure out what she was doing before she was on the floor, or maybe how to get off the floor because her limbs weren't much help in that regard.

She tried to reach for the counter, but her fingers barely even twitched. Urging her body closer seemed the next best idea.

Closer.... closer... wait, she wasn't getting closer at all, the room was just spinning again.

She sighed, straining muscles relaxing pitifully. At least she had the floor.

This rug... This rug was amazing. It lacked the allure of a satin bed sheet and was not quite as comfy as a bushel of angel feathers, but there was a certain... charm to it. It was as if it called to her. The small rug became her protector, her comforter, her barrier from the world, whispering 'I won't leave you' from its worn threads. This wooden floor has become a very welcome change from the frigid outdoors.

"Hey... doing... there?"

... something was starting to poke and prod her. She wrapped the rug to cover her entire body while contorting to a fetal position.

"Please..." she yawned loudly, tossing and turning in place. There were visible "Five more minutes... Just let me rest a while longer, master..."

A sharp pain shot up her right thigh, prompting the girl to sit up with a low groan. Something was squirming under the rug, now placed below her waist.

Looks like it was just a scared little mouse, startled of the sudden movements. It wandered off to a little hole and watched the two girls with curiosity.

"Ah... I thought I was back home... I could have sworn I was." She groggily rubbed her half-open eyes. Still exhausted, she yawned at the contractor. "I didn't think that sleeping was so... troublesome... What brings you here?"

The small rug was rolled to a pillow-like shape which she held tightly against her chest.

The amber eyed contractor raised an eyebrow at Lily, it seemed the independent and strong personality she had was... gone. For some unexplained reason. "I suppose if you're comfortable I can leave you be." She muttered as a reply, not even bothering to inquire into the 'master' bit. "However, as I am somewhat responsible for you - I figured it would be better if I took you with me."

Anton, you need to get help.

Anton, muttering curses, examined the foot long icicle jutting out of his left shoulder.

Stumbling through the rubble, Anton walked away from the remains of the hospital. There had been an explosion, destroying the facility.

"Ose... My sister... Alice is dead..."

Yes. I'm truly sorry, Anton.

Anton thought back to what had just occured in the hospital, tears streaming down his cheeks. He'd lost his sister for a second time.

---

"ALICE!"

Anton had arrived on the fourth floor, noting Anton and Jessie were nowhere to be found. Alice looked wounded.

Did those two fuck this up for her?!

"Alice, are you alright?! What happen-"

"Shut the hell up! You're starting to piss me off!"

"Wha-"

"You dumb bastard! Your sister is basically gone! There's nothing left of your little cunt of a sister! Merging with a weak, dying human, I was able to overtake her soul! It's a shame I'm chained to this location. Ah well. I guess I'll count myself lucky I didn't end up with a useless meatbag like you."

"N-No...! You're lying! Give Alice back!"

"She was never coming back, fool. She's too weak. She's done for. I'M Alice now."

"... And you've outlived your usefulness, 'big bro.'"

Creating an icicle, Alice sent the projectile flying towards Anton. The projectile hit, piercing his shoulder.

"A-Alice, please.. Stop!"

"You worthless bastard. Your soul's not even worth taking."

Alice opened her palm to Anton, an icicle forming in front of her hand. Aiming it, point blank at his head, she readied herself to kill Anton.

But she couldn't.

What? Looks like Alice has something against killing her brother... How fucking sweet.

Following were a series of explosions as the C4 detonated, destroying the building.

She's acting to save him again?!

Alice created a sphere of ice around Anton, then launched it outside the nearest window. He crashed into a nearby building, away from the explosions.

Alice stood in the building as it crumbled around her, suddenly feeling... released.

She realized what destroying the building had done for her.

"Ahahaahha! I may not be able to kill Anton, but it looks like I'll be able to leave this shithole around now! Rui, I'm coming for you!"

---

What are you going to do about Alice?

"Not Alice. That... thing isn't Alice. And I'm afraid of what she may do to innocent people. So that's it."

Anton wandered to the area that used to be the front of the hospital, and was now just a massive pile of rubble.

"That's it, Ose. I'm going to kill her."

It seems like my 'sister' will have to die a third time.

Lucia was immediately blown back by the explosion, not even having time to blink to avoid collision damage with the floor behind her. As she rolled to a stop ("Oof!") she watched as the hospital began to collapse, one floor at a time. It was loud. The neighbors were going to wake up, at this rate.

As she sat on her butt watching the spectacle unfold, she noticed a group of people on the outside of the hospital, one of which she recognized as her friend. "Ain-" she began to call her, but noticed she was unconscious and being held by some man.
After the scene was clear and the hospital stopped collapsing, she ran over to the group. "Are you all okay??" She noticed the number of injured people and quickly made a connection.
Informing the group, she stated firmly, "I don't think there are any more doctors at this hospital if your friends are hurt!"

She turned around and noticed another one approaching - one with an icicle through his shoulder. He was familiar - one of Kane's friends?
She looked around at all the injured people, and the uninjured ones who were just standing around. Slightly frantic, she blurted out at them, "You need to come back with us! It isn't safe here, right?"

Since there wasn't a hospital anymore, the only place she knew that was relatively safe was back at that safehouse they were gathered in. Without thinking about whether or not they would be welcome, she invited them to the one place in the city she was familiar with.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm hurrying! Shut up, dude!" the teenager cried, having broken off into another flight. "You nag at me more than my mother used to!"

His flight towards the hospital resumed in a much quicker pace than earlier.

"If we're lucky, we'll find them there,"
"Yeah," the teenager replied, looking ahead. "Wait, bro. You still never told me why I'm looking for them."
"Just in case. "
"Thanks dude, that clears up everything."

The conversation dropped, and the teenager blinked as he arrived near the hospital. Damn, what fucked that shit up? His eyes dropped a little ways away from the hospital to spot the group of people outside, noting that some people looked a little like they were bad shape. He couldn't tell from this far, plus the cover of night wasn't helping much.

In any case, he'd found people. Time to go see if who they were looking for was there.

The teenager descended a little more carefully than usual, a little ways off from the group, in time to hear a girl yelling at the group.

"You need to come back with us! It isn't safe here, right?"

"Huh..." the boy looked over the group, staying where he landed.

He picked out a blonde girl carrying another one-- was that blood? Hey... they seemed kind of familiar...

"Dude, that was sweet." Vincent chuckled as the building collapsed, looking down at the girl in his arms, "Looks like I got you outta there just in time. Remind me to tell you the awesome story when you wake up."

Just then, another girl came up to him. Man, the ladies all flock around the awesome dude, huh? She started asking how everyone was and made mention of coming with her somewhere.

"Well, I'm still as awesome as I can be, but these other guys don't seem to be doing as great." he said, "And wherever you guys are going, I think I'll tag along. No telling when you'll need an awesome guy like me to get you guys out of a tight spot."

"Thou art letting this situation go to thy head, young lord."

"Eevul, I got this." he said, appearing to talk to himself again, "Never let it be said that Vincent Demarco can't handle social situations."

"Awesome guy?" She blinked for a few moments, and then broke out into a grin, as if forgetting their situation. "Are you weird too? What can you do??"

And then she blinked again, as if switching herself off. She put her hand up to stop him from continuing. "Ah ah, tell me later! We need to get Ainsley and you guys back to the house!" She pulled on the boy's sleeve with renewed urgency, pointing away from the hospital.

"Go back?" Diana repeated what Lucia had said to herself as she got back from fetching the first aid kit from Minnie's car. She placed the kit next to Minnie and the nurse. "I guess that would be the smart thing to do," she said pouting remembering the reason she ran out in the first place.

Artemis giggled, "Guess you gotta apologize huh? Awkward..."

"Like hell I do!" Diana shouted back.

"Haha, oh Di, your so silly sometimes."

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

Alex woke up with a tired yawn. Babysitting was never something he was particularly fond of, so it was no surprise he wouldn't be very good at it. I mean, falling asleep on the job. That's a sure fire way to lose a job.

He directed his attention at the bed, and the two people he was supposed to be looking out for. Resha was gone. "Hm?" Alex said tiredly, "Maybe she's feeling better."

Alex got up and decided to see what the red head was up to. Hopefully she's eating something.

His optimistic thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he noticed her on the floor in the kitchen. "So is my bed really that uncomfortable?" He asked stepping over her to pour a glass of water. "Its the best one in the house, so I really hope you don't mind it too much." He knelt down beside her and sat her up. "Water?"

"What a troublesome girl..." Osiris commented, noticing a lack of comments coming from Ainlisle. "Have you finally fallen fully asleep, girl?"

A lack of response answered him, and he nodded thoughtfully.

"You have been through quite a bit today..."

------
Well, it looks like they were about to move..

The boy noticed one of the blonde girls address another, who had returned with a first aid kit. It was over his head what exactly the two of them were talking about, but. If he was gonna ask, he was going to now.

The boy took a few steps towards the girls, moving the bill of his baseball cap so it was out of his eyes.

"Excuse me, ladies?" the teenager called out to the girls. "Are either of you Artemis or Athena? My bro Hermes wanted me to find them."

Sniff... yawn...

Still exhausted. What an odd dream. A wayward thought makes her wonder if this being has ever had a dream or, rather, what it's like to experience them firsthand. A lot of questions were raised about this 'contractor', really...

Lily shook herself awake. "Seeing as I happen to be lying naked on the floor, anywhere from here can be a vast improvement," she said briskly. "This place is 'adequate', but I'd prefer to follow around."

It's not as if she had anywhere else to go, she thought.

"However-..."

A period of uninterrupted sneezing begins. Lily leans forward and rests her head atop the rug. "Damn... sniff...This 'deal' hasn't exactly turned out as well as I wanted. No offense; I would have simply preferred it more were it not so... sudden."

So much for a documented, well laid out contract, she thought not more than half an hour ago. She has always preferred a more organized, bureaucratic method than a possibly faulty proposal sealed by mouth. It's more or less the modus operandi down where she came from, so it's a given that she would have preferred something she's more familiar with.

... Would have preferred it much more if I weren't sick as well.

Her head turned curiously towards the contractor, half wondering what it was that got her in such a hurry earlier anyway. One supposes life goes on and she can't point any fingers, but this thing damned headache...

"Anyway..." She continues from where she left off and begins kneading her breasts. "I request that it be in something less... risque. If that isn't too much of a problem, of course. If you cannot, that is fine. The way humans work is still lost on me sometimes, really. For instance, thinking of clothing as a necessity... The only use I can find for it would be for practical purposes..."

Small talk. Don't see the reason why not.

"I know you've had your fair share of experience seeing their outlandish behavior. What are your thoughts?"

The nurse blinked in surprise as a young woman placed a first aid kit down next to her. "Ah! Thank you!" She snatched it closer and quickly went to take out the supplies she needed. She unwrapped the bloodied gauze around the wound and then went to clean it up with some antiseptic. She then braced even more gauze around it, grabbed the bone that was protuding from the girl's shoulder, and yanked it out quickly. She applied pressure to the wound as she fished out the surgical thread and needle. She placed the needle in the hand applying pressure and, despite her hands shaking, she managed to thread it after several tries. After a few more moments of applying pressure, she slowly peeled the gauze back a bit and then began to sew the wound shut. She caught a girl off somewhere talking frantically about needing to mobilize and move somewhere else. She also heard the girls nearby talking about "going back."

"...... Where exactly are you lot going?" she asked, still mostly focused on her task of sewing up the girl's wound.

"Honestly, it's probably better than a place that seems to be blowing up most of the time." Vincent said, apparently blocking out the 'weird guy' comment, "At least, it's been blowing up ever since I got here. Must be my awesome stage presence."

He seemed to weigh in on the topic without any real idea what was going on. How did he know this chick wasn't taking them to a worse place than this, with even less media?

Dude was either very trusting, or extremely clueless.

His excitement shocked her a little. Why was he so interested in her power? He must have been a nerd moment or something because he was way more excited about this than she was. She didn’t know how he could be so upbeat about this though.

She really had no idea how it worked. She imagined it and poof. It happens! Kind of like magic. This made her wonder how it really worked for a moment, but she wasn't really all that smart. So even if it was explained to her, it would probably be all gibberish to her.

All this thinking made her head hurt. Why did this Leon guy make it suddenly seem so complicated? She was beginning to like that Noel guy better, but she decided not to judge him until she got to know him a little bit more. He did seem like the pushover type though.

"Look. I'm not sure how it works. I was never notified about these powers until I was nearly killed five minutes ago." She informed.

Her tone sounded a little irritated though. It made her seem like she snapped, but she really wasn't all that mad, especially at him. He hadn't done anything to annoy her...yet.

'I wonder if there is a place we can go to rest.' She pondered.

She wanted to plan ahead a little, but she wasn't too familiar with the layout of Mumble because she didn't live here. She only visited from time to time because of her friend. Now look what she got involved in because she just happened to choose a day where she would be attacked by shadow monsters; only to awaken to have a wendigo nearly crush the hospital she had awoken in.

It was a lot to take in for her. Monsters and these weird powers. If you asked her, it was a lot of new things to experience. It had her stressed out a little.

"Yea. We should probably head down now. No use staying up on top of an apartment building." She responded.

She began to walk towards the portal, but turned to him. She almost forgot to answer his question. It wasn't all that pleasant to be called 'that girl' or 'Rien' all the time, so she supposed it was better to give him a nickname or something to work with for now.

"Oh right. The name's Nier. So do you know anywhere we can go to rest for a while? Seems like the danger has passed. For now anyways." She answered with a happier tone since she didn't want him to think she was mad or anything.

"Oh, this is Artemis," Diana said to the young man with her arm around the young goddess. "Athena is the one passed out over there."

The kid seemed one the level. But then again, lots of otherwise trustworthy looking people have been showing up lately. And with the power to level city blocks being commonplace these days, people are going to be tempted. Same principle behind the gun laws in mumble. Citizens are much more docile when they aren't tempted. "What exactly do you want with them?" Diana ask, standing between Artemis and the young man.

"Oh, this is Artemis, Athena is the one passed out over there," the young woman responded.

The boy blinked, taking a closer look at them. He'd been expecting one of the goddesses to be the older girl who'd addressed him... Apparently not.

"What exactly do you want with them?"

The boy's green eyes flicked back to the young woman, being snapped out of a moment of thought.

"Oh! Well my, uh..." the boy gesticulated for a few moments trying to think. "Well, I dunno what I should call the dude, but. This bro, Hermes? He's been talking to me in my head for the past few days and he was like,'Zane, you ought to go find Artemis and Athena'."

Zane took off his hat for a moment, running his fingers back through his honey colored hair. He looked up to the night sky, as if having a mental conversation, before looking back to the young woman with a cheerful smile, like a kid who'd just won a prize at a fair.

"Right, and the dude wanted me to check up on the ladies," Zane nodded, looking from Artemis to Athena. "Apparently, uh... Zeus is worried about them both, and stuff. "

He leaned a little to the side, looking over at Athena.

"So...What happened to her?"

"Oh... I figured he'd be worried." Artemis said with a chuckle, "I did kinda leave without telling anyone."

"Oh, so you know him?" Diana asked the girl, "Is he on the level?"

"Yeah, he should be cool." Artemis said giving her a thumbs up.

"So... What happened to her?" He asked them despite their whispering.

"Well," Diana said, once again turning her attention to the young man, "Zane was it? We just finished a battle. As little as she is, Athena fought like hell. She did have so saw her way out of the monster at one point, so I don't blame her for being tired."

"Yep, that's right." He nodded a little while listening. "Oh. I see... Uhm. I guess she's alright other than just being tired? "

The teenager paused for a moment.

"Wait wait wait, dude, bro, Hermes, shut up!" Zane ran a hand through his hair, looking a little irritated. "...Oh, okay."

He looked to Diana and Artemis, nodding a little.

"Well... Hermes is asking if you've been doin' good Artemis, since you've been gone and stuff... and... he'll report Athena's state to Zeus.. and.. uh.... Oh, yeah. Would you guys mind if I joined you?"

"Oh, you can tell Hermes I've been good. And I'm sorry about leaving without telling anyone. I just heard Di in my head and thought she'd be cool to come and meet in person." The young goddess said staring at her feet.

"Oh, and of course you can join us!" She added smiling.

"Wait, hold on a minute." Diana said interrupting. "We cant just invite him! Don't we need to get permission first?"

"Why? I thought we weren't in Alex's group anymore. He can just be part of our little group, right?"

"Oh, right..." Diana said remembering her resent falling out with Alex. "Well, I'm Diana," she said addressing the young man. "Hope we can get along well enough."

"Alright... You hear that, man?" he asked, looking up at the rainy sky. "...Well, bro says it's cool, or something."

"Oh, and of course you can join us!"

"Ah, sweet. Thanks!" He grinned, and then tilted his head at the two girls for a moment.

"Permission? .. Ah, whatever." he thought idly.

"Well, I'm Diana, Hope we can get along well enough."

"Same! Except my name isn't Diana, it's Zane, but yeah, you knew that already," he said, smiling at the two girls.

Resha tried to focus on whoever was speaking to her, but that particular task proved difficult when the room wouldn't stay still.

But there was a wonderful sound in her ears, even as the rest of her body was burning up, there was water - running water - not even a few feet away! Screw whoever was talking, that was more important.

"-at-r?" her addled mind could barely make out his voice, what the hell was he doing... holding something... Crap, room was spinning again and- Oh shit, the ceiling was falling now.

She braced for impact, briefly, but nothing came. Further more, closing her eyes didn't stop the room from moving, it just made it worse.

Alright, focus on his face.

"..." focus harder. "..." She recognizes this face. "rrm." She groans, aptly blaming him for whatever the crap happened to her. At least the haze was starting to clear, but that did nothing for how hot she felt. Well, the little things she must be thankful for.

"Creepy...bastard..." Rejoice, she regained speech! "Drag me... showers. cold."

"Alright, so this is the plan," Diana said the her two conscious friends, "We're going back to Alex's. We need to get help for Minnie and I won't let my pride get in the way of her well being."

---------

"Creepy...bastard..."

Ah, so she is alive.

"Drag me... showers. cold."

Alex picked the red head up, "I get the feeling this will hurt less then dragging you."

"I'm gonna go ahead and put you in with your clothes on." He said as he carried her down the hall. "You seem to be in a hurry and I would rather not get slapped three times in one evening."

When he reached his shower, he placed the girl down inside, sitting up at one end. "Cold, was it?" he asked as he turned the cold water on full.

"Anything else?"

The moment the cold water hit her skin, it was as if the final gear had been inserted. In a matter of moments the heat was fading from her, her mind being able to process thought coherently once again.

And the heat fell, her body changed - Where the water touched it soaked into her skin with the sound of escaping steam, leaving a clean splotch of metal where the skin used to be. As if the water was simply washing away sand to reveal the metal underneath, it took only a few seconds for everything from her neck down to become encased in a single solid sheet of form fitting metal.

"....ah" Resha spoke up finally, her voice unreadably flat, "I blame you for this." She finally decided.

"Alrighty," Zane nodded. " Wait...So.. who's Alex?"

The boy blinked at Diana, waiting for an answer. Hermes felt it safe to go with them because of Artemis and Athena... but Zane himself would prefer to actually know a little bit about where they were going.

"...ah. I blame you for this."

Alex gave her arm a firm poke. "Well, that was unexpected." Her skin seemed to be replaced with some kind of metal. "Try to help out a bit, and shit just gets worse."

Alex went to turn the water off, but stopped for a moment, "What exactly do you want to about this?"

-----

"Alex? Oh, he's just some guy..." Diana answered coyly, but soon decided she wasn't being very helpful. "He has gathered a couple of people like us, and most of them aren't that bad."

She stared blankly at Alex before looking down at her now metal skin, glancing back up to him with a studiously neutral expression. "First, I want to get my body back. Then, I want my life back." she replied with a tightness in her voice.

Though she held a disinterested expression, the expanding portions of metal from her eyes and down her cheeks betrayed what little self control she had managed to retain. "As soon as I can, I'm taking Arietta and leaving. She's too young for this... Neither of us should have gotten involved in this."

Alex let out a sigh while he turned the water off. "Well, if you think you can protect that girl better than I can, go right ahead."

He leaned against the wall of the bathroom opposite of Resha, "Honestly though, I doubt either you or that girl have a life to go back to."

"Oh," he replied, then looked over the group of people near by. "I'm guessing some of those people are these guys too? "

"Even if... Even if that's true, I can't just let Arietta get swept up in this. Neither she nor I have anything to do with this madness." She was trying to flex her fingers, but they wouldn't move.

What if she was stuck like this? Would she be unable to move the rest of her life?

... What life did she even have anymore?

"We may not be able to go back to our old lives, but we can at least try and go back to normal ones." She spit the world 'normal' as if it were a curse. "Besides, what have you managed to protect?"

She managed to slowly turn her head towards Alex, staring angrily at him. "That rock kid, Kane... He's not even here. If he was, he would have stuck his nose into our conversation already - He's either left or is out fighting for you. Arietta's a little girl who can't even fight in the first place... And just look at me."

She let the statement hang, "I don't know... If I can protect Arietta or not. I don't know anything... But. But I know that its safer to look out for ourselves than rely on you!"

"Just for the record, I have no idea what's going on here." Vincent chimmed in, "But, if they've got voices in their heads too, it can't be all that bad. Might be fun, actually."

Anton approached Diana, talking with some other guy.

"H-Hey there... We going back to Alex's? Where'd that nurse go off to? Or just anyone who can take care of this,"

Anton gestured to his shoulder wound, before finally passing out.

I guess being thrown out of a building isn't very good for me...

---

Alice walked the streets of Mumble, frost forming at her feet as she walked around. It was quiet, nice actually. A nice day to just wander about.

But she had a goal in mind.

Oh Rui, no one's ever been able to resist me before... And then you decide to play hard to get? Just thinking about you is getting me excited... I can't wait, my dear Rui.

---

Bob and Steve were able to hear the explosion from the ice cream store.

"... Well, better late than never. Job well done boys, job well done. As you were."

Steve struggled to remember his coworker's name.

Let's see... Crap. It was something that Bob had turned into a really stupid-

"Well well well, if it isn't Joe the Butt Plumber," Bob said.

... There we go.

Bob clenched his fists in anger.

"You son of a bitch! Who flipped the switch?! I called dibs when we went through all that pre-mission junk!"

"Bob, we had a job to do! I don't think it mattered who-"

"No Steve! We're leaving. Some people just don't seem to care about other people's feelings."

"Agh... We'll see you later, Joe the Butt Plum- I mean just Joe."

Then they left.

Her words where harsh. "Didn't I take the two of you in after rescuing you from that monster? Didn't I take you two in after you were left homeless?" He knelt down next to her, "And when you disappeared, we made it our first priority to find you."

Alex averted his gaze, "You two don't have to fight if you don't want to. You two don't have to leave. Sure you might get pulled into some trouble. That's unavoidable. But if you two leave and find yourselves in some sort of trouble, none of us will be able to help you. If you stay I can at least try!"

He stopped. Realizing he lost his composure, he stood up and turned away from her. "If you think leaving would be for the best, then you should probably leave. Maybe you can do a better job then I did."

In the back of Alex's mind, a dark voice called to him. "So... you have a weapon capable of getting you anything you ever wanted right there in the shower, and you tell it to leave? You don't know what you want, do you?"

Alex ignored it.

"Just get out." She muttered lifelessly, the sound of twisting metal alerting Alex to the fact that she had turned her head back forward.

The newly-steel haired girl sank into herself, there was a lot to think about - And even though her ability to turn her neck now was still a good sign... It was hardly something she could focus on.

Between her own current state, Arietta, and the realization that she had been studiously ignoring since the giant had shown up in the first place... There really was no going back now. Any hope she had clung to that this was just going to be a crazy ride that ended with everything back the way it was...

That ended with... this.

And beyond the soul crushing depression that threatened to crash down on her, an ember of silent rage sparked to life.

Lucia tapped her foot impatiently, static occasionally jumping around her skin like a nervous tick. Everyone had been standing around for far too long and it was making her antsy.

"...Hm? Hermes?" She cocked her head at the mention, but didn't say anything at the risk of prolonging their dawdling. The messenger god was probably friends with her own counterpart, so she could just ask her later anyway.

Just then, Anton stumbled in and passed out from a large, gaping wound in his shoulder. Lucia let out an irritated noise, but not at the sight of blood. Things were going to take longer than ever now, delays delays!
She mumbled to herself, "Kane's probably already back there by now..."


"I'm back~" Kane sardonically greeted the air around the safehouse and slammed the makeshift container into the lawn - literally, into. It was embedded about 3 feet deep, with the remaining foot or so sticking out like a post. "I need to tell Alex about that...but right now I smell like shit."
He opened the door to the safehouse, but heard that the shower was already on. Someone was yelling. "What."

It sounded like Alex. Who was he yelling at? As far as he knew, Resha and Arietta were still asleep, Diana was still out with Artemis somewhere, and Lucia was still back at the hospital with her friend. On top of that, it wasn't like Alex to lose his cool - at least, given what little he's seen of the guy.

Instead of barging in on the conversation, he decided to divert it. For courtesy's sake.
"Hey, Alex, what am I supposed to do with this shit??"

"Right, we need to get these wounded out of the cold." Diana said to Artemis. "Nurse, this car is now a makeshift ambulance! I want you, Minnie, and Anton in the backseat!. Zane, can you carry Athena and follow behind us quickly enough?" She turned to Lucia, "Can I leave Anny to you?"

---------

"Just get out."

Kane was calling form the other room. "Fine, just let me know if you need any help getting out of the shower."

Alex entered the lounge forcing a smile. "Hey Kane. Whats up?"

“…Zane, can you carry Athena and follow behind us quickly enough?”

“Sure thing,” the teenager replied, hurrying over to Athena.

He picked up the goddess in his arms carefully, looking to Diana and Artemis to lead the way.

"Your smile is creepy as ever."
...In any case, Alex hadn't lost his cool enough to let it show. He figured it would be best not to bring it up - not now, at least. "They killed the wendigo. I left its remains outside on the yard." He summed up the events succinctly, avoiding the fact that he missed everything.

He leaned over to look behind Alex. "Who's in the shower? I literally smell like shit right now."


"Huh? Leave her to me?" Her show of impatience was interrupted by an outrageous request. Lucia was approximately 4 foot 11, and could only barely be considered an athletic girl. Despite the extra energy she had via Fulgora, she didn't trust herself to be able to carry a person several blocks. "Do...you have a wheelbarrow? Or a car?"

The nurse blinked up at the woman telling her to get in the car.
"Er, well alright..." It's not like I'd have anywhere else to go anyway.. She finished up sewing up the girl's wound within seconds, and then barely managed to gather her up and put her into the car. "There.." she said with a huff. She turned and grabbed the medical kit, and then saw the young man who'd fainted, and he had a wound in his shoulder as well. "Oh! Oh dear.. I know I can't get him into the car by myself.." she said rubbing her neck. She put the medical kit into the car, then knelt to try to pick up his front half. "A little help, please?" she called out.

"My, you really are in poor physical shape, aren't you?" There was an accompanying snort.
S-shush, you!!

"Huh? Wheelbarrow?" Diana asked looking at the girl in an odd way. Then it came to her, "Oh, that guy Vincent will carry her. You just need to make sure he doesn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"A little help, please?" the nurse called out, trying to get Anton in the car.

"Oh right!" she said rushing over to help get the grown man in the car. "Sorry about that."

She turned her attention back to Lucia. "You know the way back right?" She asked the young girl. "Oh, and if he does anything he shouldn't, zap him, alright? I'll drive back to pick you guys up after I drop them off, alright?"

--------

Alex looked over Kane's shoulder. "The remains huh? Do you think there's any chance of it, well, getting back up?"

"Oh, and Resha is in there right now. She isn't bathing, she was running a fever or something." Alex turned to face down the hall, "She's having a strange reaction to the water though. I'd say go have a look, but she's in kind of a bad mood." He turned back to Kane, "Though it may just be me she's mad at."

"Oh. Of course!" She giggled a little at the thought of zapping him, like a certain electric mouse she's seen on TV. "I need to ask him something anyway, hurry back!"


"Getting back up?" He pondered that for a moment. It was just a bone right now, but again, the corpse devourers have been known to recover from near-obliteration in a short while, given enough 'food'... and this one was the main attraction, to boot. "I wouldn't say that's outta the question. Just don't let anyone touch it - it's in a casing right now, so it can't touch flesh."

Alex continued to let him know of Resha's current condition - she woke up, apparently, but was feeling ill. And something about a strange reaction to water? It was disconcerting, but he advised against approaching her. This wasn't the first time Resha was in a bad mood, taking a shower - and he wasn't going to approach her in the shower either way.

"Well," he gave Alex a suspicious look, crossing his arms, "what did you do to her?"

"Alright then!" Diana said shoving the nurse in the back seat of the car and hopping in the driver seat.

Artemis was ridding shotgun, going through the glove compartment. "We ready to blow this taco stand?" she asked closing the compartment and sitting back in the seat.

Diana gave the girl a scrutinizing look. "What on earth have you been watching?" he asked, half to the girl, half to herself. "Just put your seat belt on, would you? I'm gonna drive fast."

"Oh ok," replied the goddess as she put on the safety restraint, "This should be fun."

Pressing her foot on the gas, Diana sped off down the corner, on her way to the safe house.

------

"It still bothers me a bit, leaving it on the lawn like that." Alex said examining the block in the yard from the lounge. "You can't sink it to the center of the earth or something, can you?" he asked, half joking.

"And Resha," he said looking back down the hall, "I didn't do anything to her. Well, we had an argument, but that's all." He sat done on one of the chairs in the lounge. "I just told her I didn't think it was a good idea to leave. Sure I may have been a bit harsh about it, but sometimes that's what people need to here."

He motioned for Kane to have a seat across from him, then took out a bottle of vodka and two glasses. "At times like these, some time to unwind can work miracles on a stressed soul." He poured some liquor in the glasses and took a drink from one of them. "How about you Kane? You've seemed stressed lately."

Zane grinned as Diana started the car, starting to run quickly after the it as she sped off. He'd been quite the athletic kid in school, and with the god of athletes (amongst other things) on his side, being quick wasn't a problem.

He carried Athena close to him, following after the speeding car.

"Bro! Wanna help me out?" he thought.

Zane grinned, feeling a different sort of energy run through him. He kicked off the ground harder in the next step, jumping back into the air. Flight felt good, man. The speedy flight he'd been blessed with was only to last for as long as it took to get to the safe house. He tightened his grip on the goddess, keeping his eyes on the car ahead.

"Thanks, dude,"

"I can provide you with clothes," the Contractor mentioned offhandedly, dropping a pile of silks on the ground in front of Lily. "Consider it Reparation for my haste in the contract. The reason for that is actually tied with the answer to your second question..."

The amber eyed girl knelt down and looked Lily dead in the eye, "Please understand that despite everything you know about me so far, I am only seven hundred years old." She stated this in a complete deadpan, "I still have periods of time where I find the male gender to be in possession of cooties. If you are searching for someone to have a philosophical conversation regarding the state of humanity with, it is not me."

She stood back up and turned around, "I'll be on the roof for when you're ready." she mumbled, opening the door and laving Lily alone in the darkened hallway.

"H-Hey, wait a minute!!" Diana sped off down the road, and Zane left Lucia behind in hot pursuit. "You guys!!" She whined.
"That messenger god always was a hasty one."
A voice in her head spoke with a sense of irritation and nostalgia at the same time. Lucia was simply irritated though, that he would leave without even saying 'let's go!' or 'goodbye!'

She thought all this while breaking into a sprint down the road. She wasn't as fast as the flying man - though she easily surpassed any human in ground speed. Instead of blinking, she focused her energy into her legs to run as fast as she could, just to keep the car in view.


"If I could hold my breath long enough and not melt I could," he answered, also half joking.

He returned to seriousness when Alex told her about his argument with Resha. "So she still wants to leave, huh?"
To where? Half the city has been destroyed by now, does she even have a home anymore?
He leaned back and sighed deeply.
Do any of us even have homes anymore?
Kane didn't live with any family in this city, nor was he particularly close with anyone. He probably felt the destruction of the city a bit less than most people would, though he still gave thought to what everyone else would be going through. Thinking a bit further would reveal the glaring fact that there was little that could be done about it, but Alex interrupted his thought process at this point.

"At times like these," Alex was holding a bottle of vodka, "some time to unwind can work miracles on a stressed soul." As he poured the liquor into the two glasses, Kane realized he was being offered some. He also realized he never really tried drinking before - he always considered it, being perfectly capable of making some on his own, but for some reason never tried it.
Despite trying to think of it maturely, Kane was not of drinking age. In the back of his head was his inner child, the one that goes "oooooh, you're drinking alcohoooool," but has no one to tell him on.

"Uh..."
"How about you, Kane? You seem stressed lately."
That may be true, and unwinding would be a good thing. He's heard that vodka does just that. On top of that, he wouldn't let himself look childish - impressions are things that need to be kept up.
"...Sure, yeah." He picked up the glass and sat down. It wasn't time to be excited about such things, he needed to act more casually.
"So, I've been meaning to ask you," he said, lifting the glass to his mouth. "What's your plan?" He took a sip gingerly, cringing a little as the alcohol burned his throat. "Your plan.. I mean, for everyone. We just gonna hole ourselves up and defend ourselves?" He spoke with a choked voice. This would take getting used to.

Alex smiled noticing Kane obviously didn't have a taste for alcohol. "Well with whats left of the wendigo being encased in stone, the threat of the city becoming something out of a bad zombie movie is thankfully negated." He took another drink from his glass, "But that means the military will have the time and manpower to start looking for people like us. I'm sure they've noticed those with strange powers by now, and neutralizing possible threats early on should come as common sense to them."

He set his glass down on the table, "Keeping them, the police, and whoever that group with the tank was in mind, it would seem we have humans to worry about now." Alex shifted his vision down the hall, "That, and the recent developments regarding Resha and that contractor."

"Oh," he said, purposely leaving this for the last, "You don't have to drink that if you don't want to."

"Er...no, it's fine. Just not used to it." It was admittedly getting easier after the first sips. The burning sensation was tolerable, and it actually tasted alright. It made him feel warm, too.

"Anyway, I feel like humans are easier, right? You can talk to them at least, so they aren't just rampagin' everywhere. Well, mostly." He took another swig. His cup was almost empty. "Although, the military attacking people for mutating... I feel like we're in a different type of movie now." The name of the movie escaped him.

"What's up with that person anyway?" His tone was laced with disdain at the mention of 'that person'. "She's suspicious... and we never did finish talkin' about Resha earlier."

"Well, that wendigo was human apparently. Just some poor sap who got a shitty counterpart." Not like he was any better when it came to that matter. "You should be careful too. These mythical creatures may not be as trustworthy as they claim to be."

"Oh, and about that contractor. From the information I got from her, she's here to keep Resha from maturing as a sentient weapon." His face showed obvious annoyance, "And she plans on doing that by sealing away her consciousness. She also has reason to believe that Resha was never a person in the first place, but just some weapon pretending to be human."

"Well that's stupid." He put down his emptied glass a little harder than he intended to. "We met her before she even had this weird shit happenin to her.

"Damnit...well, what're we supposed to do about that then? Just let her do what she wants?" The thought of that woman screwing with them so much made him boil up... or maybe that was the alcohol. Either way, he was getting upset. "Did you tell her about this? We're supposed to be defendin' ourselves - we could just keep that woman away from her, right?"

"Well the alternative is Resha becoming a weapon of mass destruction the likes of which humanity has never seen, or something along those lines." Alex looked back down the hall, "Considering all she's wanted since this has started was her old life back, I don't think she'd find that a good replacement."

Alex set out a heavy sigh, "I figured if we couldn't find an alternative, we'd let her decided."

Alex chuckled nervously to himself, "Hell, I should really get around to telling her all this. She's already pissed at me as is, imagine her once I give her more bad news."

"Heh.." He chuckled a little at the comment. It was all he could really respond to that with - what was said was far from a casual summary of things. What did he mean by a weapon of mass destruction, was that an exaggeration? He couldn't even imagine her actively participating in a fight - she just wasn't like that.

"What if she picks to be a weapon, then? We gonna support that?" At this point he was kidding around, trying to keep the atmosphere from dropping below a certain point of lightheartedness. Even so, it was far from a light comment. "You did say ya wanted a new world order or somethin' like that, right?" He laughed again, as if openly satisfied with what he said.

He took a second afterwards, and his mood dropped again. "...I don't plan on lettin' anyone here die, at least." He wasn't sure where this was all coming from, and he wasn't sure why he wasn't stopping there. "I dunno - I kinda like you guys, since I don' know anyone else in this city anyway." Without thinking he started to pour more vodka into his glass. His words were progressively getting closer to mumbling. "It gives me somethin' to do, I guess." He started to look bothered by his own statement, so he took a swig.

"Well I'm glad someone is 100% in this," Alex said with a smile as he emptied his glass and began to pour a refill. "Everyone else has seemed so unsure about this. That, or they're flocking to the one source of structure they have left."

"And it's nice to find a like minded person in this bunch. I don't plan on letting anyone die either. How could I? Protection is all I can offer right now." Alex leaned forward a bit, "Glad to have your help, Lieutenant."

His mood returned at 'lieutenant'. "Pffahahaha, Lieutenant! That make ya the Captain then?" Without realizing it, he was already halfway through his second glass. "Aight then, cap'n. Guess there is a goal after all, huh?"
That's all he really wanted in the first place.

"The goal is what it has always been." Alex said sitting back with his glass of vodka.

Honking came from the road, followed by Diana's frantic shouting. "Hey! We got wounded here!"

"Alright, time to see to the troops," he said standing up. "Come on Ka-" It was clear that the kid could hardly walk, let alone help carry people. "On second thought, just sit tight."

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

"Knock knock", a voice came at the door.

"I guess that's him," Grant said standing up.

"Hello hello," Jamie said opening the door and peering inside. "You called for an audience, no?" Before Grant could answer, the black-clad man strolled in. His overly baggy pants rattling with chains and knives with every step he took. "Pretty nice room you got back here," He commented as he stepped on one of Viki's games. Although it was in it's case, it was shattered under his boots.

"Hey fucker! Watch where you're walking!" She shouted reaching for a gun.

"Victoria!" Grant snapped at her, grabbing the gun away from her with one of his red hands. "He's a guest, and we don't shoot our guests, do we?"

"No..." Viki said pouting.

"Little bird ought to keep her toys off the floor, shouldn't she?" Jamie said bending over to get a closer look on Viki sitting on the floor. "Wouldn't want to make you cry deary, would we?" he said with a grin.

"James," Grant said clearing his throat. "I have a job for you."

"Oh right right, that's why I'm here after all, isn't it little bird?" He straightened up and directed himself towards Grant. "You've already got spies, right? All I have to do is act chummy with Alex fellow and await further orders, right?"

"You are correct," Grant handed Jamie a handgun, "Don't go killing anyone yet, understand?"

"Right right, and keep your gun, I prefer this beauty." He pulled one of the many knives off of his belt and held it up to his own face, grinning. "Lucky for you I'm a good actor."

The car came to a halt, and Zane stopped flying abruptly, still afloat midair. He descended, stepping back carefully to the ground, goddess Athena still in his arms.

"Hey! We got wounded here!" he heard Diana yell, accompanied by the car horn being honked.

"Diana! I'm just gonna bring this one inside!" Zane yelled towards the car, jerking his head to indicate Athena.

He went up to the safehouse, shifting the goddess in his arms so he could get the door open.

"Sorry for barging in!" the boy cried out as he entered and went to set down Athena on the couch.

Ultimately, even with inhuman running speeds, trying to run after a car was a silly idea. Lucia was left panting at the end of the street, both the car and the boy long gone. "Hmph!" She turned back around, hoping her disdain wouldn't show to any onlookers. It occurred to her she left the other one behind with Ainlisle - she walked with a brisk pace back towards the ruined hospital.


"Eh?" Someone new came in. Has he seen him before? It was hard to remember faces when there were so many new ones he didn't care about. He chugged the last half of his drink and slammed the glass onto the table, this time intending for it to be loud. "The hell are you?" He stood up, but found it quite difficult to do so. He would have walked over to confront the boy across the room, but it would have involved a lot of stumbling - so he stood in place while the room stopped spinning.
"You 'nother one of Alex's friends?" He found it hard to gather his thoughts, much less articulate them. This was peculiar.

But perhaps he was wrong. Maybe this wasn't one of Alex's friends. "If you aren't, I'm gonna kick yer-" oh wait, Alex did just say they had company. He even went to answer the door. Damn his thought process. "...Nevermind." He blinked a couple of times and broke eye contact, heading for the hallway. "I'll deal with you later or something..." Yes, that was probably for the best. He still smelled like the sewers and could tell he was clearly in no mind to interact with people.

He stumbled out of the room with as much composure as he could manage, swearing as he hit (and chipped off) the door frame with his hardened forearm.

"Alex? Man, who's that?" Zane asked, turning to the other one in the room.

Dude had stone arms. Also, was he drunk? This guy didn't look like he was supposed to be chugging booze. The room smelled like shit too he realized, now that his attention was away from Athena. Was that also because of the stoned dude? ...Stone dude.

"Naw man, I'm Za--," he began, before the other one kept talking, and then eventually stumbled out into the hallway out of the lounge.

...

"Yo dude! You ought to go take a shower or something! You smell like you took a walk through a sewer!" Zane called after the stonedude, before turning to head out and see what else he could help Diana with outside.

"Don't mind him," Alex said to the new guy. "He had a long day."

Alex made his way past Zane and out the front door, "Oh, we can do introductions later, but right now we need to get these troops some help. Help me get them in a room?"

Before Zane could answer, Alex was out the door and down by the car. "So, who do you want me to take in?" He asked Diana, "The man I guess? Anton was his name, right?"

"Yeah, that would be best," she said, trying to not look at him, obviously mad about being here.

"Oh, and Diana," Alex said smiling, "Glad you have you back."

Diana huffed at his rather irritating comment, but before she could give him a piece of her mind, he was off into the house, setting Anton down in one of the empty rooms.

"Come on Artemis," Diana said trying her best not to look annoyed. "Get Athena, we can all share a room."

She took Minnie inside and set her down. "Oh crap, I need to go pick up the others... Wait her Artemis, kay?" she said while she was leaving.

Vincent watched as the rest of the group seemed to just get up and go. A group in a van, one literally speeding behind it, and the new guy flying overhead.

This was all well and good, but that left him standing there with the spirit girl in the parking lot.

"Huh, that was unexpected." he shrugged as he began walking in their direction, "Guess I'll just have to find my own way there."

And with that, he began strolling through the wreckage of the town. All the while he talked to the unconsious girl in his arms.

"Looks like a lot of stuff went down around here. Shame I missed it. Would have been pretty cool to see how a place got so messed up." he said, "I guess it's unavoidable, really. You catch wind of something cool going on in another city, that means it would have been going on long enough for people to see that it wasn't a fluke and start telling others people. By the time it gets to someone like me, all the good stuff's probably moved on. Guess I should be thankful I got here when the boss showed up, huh?"

Posing that question, he looked down at the girl. Still unconsious. Like talking to an inanimate object.

He had a habit of doing that, though. Anything that'll listen.

"Now, where are we headed. Wish I had a vehicle, or super speed, or flying powers." he said before shaking his head, "Wait, no I don't! The powers I got are freakin' awesome. Who wants all that stuff. Useless, if you ask me. Eevul, we got anything that'll help us find this Alex guy and his digs?"

"Well, young lord, I still have the tone from the great beast's bone structure. Since yon stone person took the final piece with him, thou could use a bit of sonar to acertain the location."

"Wait, I can do that? Man, I knew my powers were awesome!" he said, "And I think I may know a way to do it. But I'm gonna have to put you down for a second, spirit chick."

Placing Ainlisle against one of the buildings, Vincent knelt down and placing his hand on the ground.

"Ping!" he said loudly, in the same tone he had used against the Wendigo.

Underneath, the ground rumbled a bit, going outward in all directions. Much like sonar, it would bounce that specific tone off of the bone and come back to him, giving the young man a direction. Although it did hinge on having the bone in the ground at the time.

Luckily, it was.

The bone shook slightly in Alex's front yard, reacting to the sound being bounced off of it. That, along with the tone itself passing through the ground feeling like a very slight earthquake, might have made a few of those present take notice.

Didn't matter too much, though. Vincent had his direction. And lucky for him he was within range of it the first time. Too much farther and the tone wouldn't have carried back to him.

"Alright. I knew I was more awesome than originally advertized." he said to himself, "Now, spirit chick, let's get going. Can't keep everyone waiting for the hero, can we?"

Picking the girl up once again, he made his way towards Alex's. It was still a good distance away, but he wasn't too worried about it. Gave him time to take in the scenery.

Clothes. Silk. Exquisite choice. As the contractor talked, she rummaged through the small pile, ear still toward the girl. As she finished and left the room, Lily's face twisted to some kind of expression that embodies the human phrase 'what the fuck'.

"... What in the world are 'cooties'?"

Shrugging it off as nonsense, she continues to put on the garments given to her. They fit quite nicely, actually. Very classy. For a youngling, she does have nice taste.

To think that she was as young as she looked, she thought to herself. So, this female was just a toddler at best? Somewhat laughable, more so if she had a sense of humor. She never did like children. Explains the inexperience as well.

One has to give her credit, though.

There was an umbrella under the silks. Thoughtful girl.

She already appears to have made 'friends'.

Lily opens the umbrella as she exits and turns to the contractor. "Any place in mind?"
__________

The first female. Existence of her exists as far as the Mesopotamian texts, along with the... Jewish bible? No idea, really. The long story short was that she was the one rejected in Eden, was forced to follow Adam, said no, became angry, started killing babies something along those lines... Things about being a consort of an angel, some relations to succubi, ribs, all sorts of mishmash... Unspeakable name of Jehovah?

His memory no good no more.

Mythology is odd when being out of the mouth of a bookworm because you tend to lose the details. All of them. No, really, it's like calculus, except it was English. Aside from the 'difficult to understand' part, the idea of people making deities up in order to create reasons for unexplainable concepts is a bit interesting, though, but always makes you think of their imagination and how big it was. The reasons for wet dreams and miscarriages, huh?

"Are you alright? You aren't talking a lot."

The two, Rina and Noa, were walking home under the rain. Rain doesn't quite mix with bandages, so Noa opted for two layers of coats and an umbrella. 'Rain bad', the back of his mind chanted, 'rain very bad'.

"Just a weird day. Feels like I got hit by a ton of bricks."

"..."
"... But you were-"
"Yeah. I get it."

"Anyway," The girl snapped her fingers. "Will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Mind if you let me stay over at your place? I need a camera and your place is a bit closer. My wallet is... sort of gone too." Her eyes shifted toward him. "It's not like you're sharing your place with any girl now, are you? I haven't been there forever."

"Uhhh... no, it's fine."

The rest of the walk was just idle chatter and a quick recap of what happened to each other. To no one's surprise, both were equally... put off by each others stories. Weapon molestation and being a zombie were equally creepy in their respective criteria.

"Oh, so what are those two up to anyway?"

"Cinna says she'd love to help out if we have any other questions and that this makes her 'sweat'. In a good way. I'd rather not ask. She's a bit of a weirdo."

And they weren't. Noa cracks his neck sideways. "And...?"

"Oh, Bunny said he was gonna send us a package. Said he felt like being a merchant... 'enpeecy'. Asked us what we were buying."

"But I'm sort of broke."

"So, you haven't eaten any noodles in a while?"
"I know how to cook-"

Ringtone, sounding like some Japanese cat thing singing along to karaoke. "Oh, he said... he'll buy anything useless. Like your cameras. Or some limbs since he says you'll grow them back. You're sort of a zombie."

"So. About that dinner..."

"Anything but brains!"

"... Shut up. Just shut up. Please stop it."

Kane stumbled his way into the bathroom of the nearest room, inadvertently slamming the door behind him. His actions were on autopilot at this point - his mind was a bit fuzzy. In hindsight, perhaps drinking to keep up appearances wasn't a great idea.

He turned on the cold water of the shower and stepped in - oh, he didn't take off his clothes. Oh well, they reeked too. As he slumped down, his mind was able to calm itself and refocus.

He said there was a goal now, but was it even a real goal? To survive, and to help everyone around you live? Even though he was not in the best of minds when he said it, he meant what he told Alex. These people were alright - in fact, he did like their company, motley as it is. But that wasn't a good thing. They were in constant danger, and at any moment one of them could die. It already happened once, and almost twice.

And now Lucia was thrown into the mix. Things were more personal now, and he didn't like that at all. She always was able to take care of herself, but the situation this time is different. Quite literally anything could happen in this city now, as clearly evidenced by his stone limbs. Speaking of which, the aberration reached his neck already, and it almost covered his chest from the sides.

He was sympathizing with people he had only known for four days; His body was slowly turning into stone; When giving it thought, he was entirely unsure if any of them would survive the next day. Summarizing it like this in his mind, he laughed without a real reason to.
Drunk and unable to even imagine what lay in store for them, he let himself doze off for a little while.


"Oh, there you are!" Lucia spotted Vincent carrying Ainlisle as she walked back to them, calling out to him as if he was the one that was lost. "They were going too fast.. so I guess I have to show you the way back!" She paused, then mumbled. "If I can find it."
She changed subjects without even pausing to breathe. "I never got your name, or your other person," the 'other person' referring to, of course, his counterpart. She spun around to walk in the same direction once she was next to him. "Or do you not have one? I can't tell by looking at you if you're weird or not."

"I'm always here, sweetheart. Just as awesome as I could be." Vincent said as the woman approached him.

It took him a second to realise that she was one of the people who was at the hospital.

"Never got my name? Figured I gave it out. Not that it matters much now, since apparently I didn't." he said, "The name's Vincent Demarco, all-around awesome dude. I'm not sure of her name, though. I've just taken to calling her 'spirit chick' on account she's been using ghosts and stuff."

Obviously, the meaning of 'other person' passed him by.

Lucia giggled. "No, I know Annessa's name... well, nevermind. Maybe you don't have one. I'm sure they'll still be friends with you, though!" She gave him a sympathetic look, still smiling.

"Anyway, it's just down this way! ...I think." She pointed in a relatively correct direction. Her sense of direction was normally decent, but she did arrive here by rooftop.

"Wait, don't have what?" Vincent said, confused.

"I think the young lady is refering to me, young lord."

"Oh, you mean the chick giving me powers!" he said quickly, "She's Eevul, the grandest of all banshees. Apparently, she's got a whole group of these chicks, and they go around singing tunes for important dead guys."

"That is not entirely...."

"Anyway, who's this Alex guy? Apparently some hotshot 'round these parts?" he asked quickly, changing topics rather quickly.

She blinked, and then cocked her head and an eyebrow at his counterpart's description. "So you can sing to the dead now?" she mumbled in response, but shook off her confusion to answer his query.
"Alex... I don't know, I didn't really see him. Everyone else seems to like him though, so he must be a nice guy!" She nodded. "He took in a lot of the weird people, so it's like we're a superhero team! ...At least, that's what it sounds like to me."

Lucia didn't have a whole lot of reliable information on the matter. She just got there, after all, shortly before leaving again. It didn't stop her from making assumptions, though.

Another person had walked out, coming off friendlier than the stone dude did. Zane took a walk to the door to see who else who could bring in. Just about everyone else was coming in though, the friendlier guy carrying in someone, and Diana carrying in the other chick. That nurse chick as well.

"Yo, Diana do you nee--," he started, but she was gone just as fast as she had came in. "Well, damn."

Zane shrugged his shoulders, and looked around the living room of the safe house. Not bad, but is everyone from that group earlier gonna fit in here? He took the rain soaked baseball cap he wore off his head, and shook out his own honey colored hair.

"Well, what to do now, bro?" he thought, looking to the ceiling. "...That's kind of boring, but a'ight. "

A particular place in mind...

The amber eyed girl turned to look back at Lily contemplatively. "There are a couple of things in this city I want to know more about, so our first stop will be the closest law enforcement stronghold." she responded, "Depending on how that goes, we'll see from there. Are you capable of following me?"

She nodded towards the rooftops to indicate her preferred travel method. "I have yet to meet normal humans, to be truthful - So I am unsure as to the limits of your body..."

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

'Maybe being metal isn't so bad. I won't get papercuts anymore, god how I hated paper cuts.. But no more! I am now papercut proof! Yes, this isn't that bad. I can work with this.' Resha thought to herself half heartedly, a small smile courageously working its way onto her face - Before her mouth couldn't go any further due to metal streaks down her cheeks.

"Ah." She sighed, the smile dying from a surprise flank by soul crushing depression. "No, this still sucks." She laid her head back tiredly, staring up at the ceiling. 'I'm still alive. That's something. I'm not that good at biology, but at least I know all of me isn't metal... I hope. I think I can still feel my pulse.'

her eyes closed, the sound of Kane bumbling his way down the hall causing the small smile to gain its second wind... But it fought a losing fight against... well, everything else. "What's happened to you, Resha? You used to take things in stride." she mumbled to herself, 'If I were a kid, this would have seemed awesome to me, but all I can do is...'

She smirked deprecatingly to herself, 'Yeah.' she looked down at her feet, sprawled and sheathed in metal at the end of the tub. 'All I can do now is...'

...

...

...

"Wriggle your left toe." She stated to herself seriously, staring down at her foot pointedly.

"Nice guy? Gathering a group of super dudes? I gotta see this." Vincent said, chuckling, "If it involved those people who helped me take down that big boss dude, then I guess it's alright. Can't go shunning my allies, now can I? That just wouldn't be awesome."

"So, what about you? Who's the voice inside your head, Miss....?" he asked, apparently missing her name.

She grinned broadly. Her counterpart was the embodiment of the wrath of the gods. She was a being of great destruction, foretelling, and all around power - indeed, she was a force of nature, entirely made of this most feared of energies. She has had a hand in almost every mythology known to man, even if she wasn't outright announced. She exists on a plane completely separate from mortals and immortals - an ephemeral being comprising an aspect of the world. She-
"...She's electric!"

Somewhere, a being of unimaginable potential palmed her face.

"And my name is Lucia!"

"Damn..." Alex said coming out of the room where he laid the wounded Anton down in one of the rooms, "I don't think I'll have enough space for everyone... Some are going to have to get comfortable with a roommate."

He walked out to the lounge and sat back down in the chair from before. "Make yourself comfortable kid," he called out to Zane. "Here, let me pour you a-" the image of the drunk and stumbling Kane entered his mind. "Or, on second thought, maybe we should wait for everyone to get settled before we start any celebrating."

"Make yourself comfortable kid,"

Zane looked over, and nodded to the guy, the friendlier one from a few minutes ago.

"Oh, thanks man!" Zane said, going to take a seat. He shoved his cap into his pocket, taking a seat in one of the chairs.

"Here, let me pour you a-" the man began, "Or, on second thought, maybe we should wait for everyone to get settled before we start any celebrating."

"Good idea, dude," Zane replied, looking around the room and then back to the guy. "So...What's your name? Mine's Zane."

"..." She stared determinedly at her left toe, studiously trying to block out everything else that was going on in her mind to focus on it. Sure, her life suddenly sucked. 'More than usual.'

Traitorous mind!

Sure her life suddenly sucked, and sure her days had been bad lately, but she wasn't the type to just roll over and bitch about it, right?

'Right?!' her mental echo had only awkward silence as an answer. That was okay though, she had a toe to concentrate on. Her old life was probably dead and gone, she just needed to accept that. 'Even though it's probably that bastard's fault somehow and I could have just walked away from this shit and-'

She just needed to. Accept. That.

Her mind wandered despite her best attempts to focus, drifting into and out of mental tirades that seemed to never end and had no real central theme except for the root effect of her life being miserable now - And possibly everything that could have caused it.

'Wriggle your left toe.'

Her mind was much like some kind of demonic kitten; rushing about furiously in several directions at once with no actual goal in mind other than-

'Kill your left toe.'

That blasted toe hadn't moved at all, it was like it was mocking her - what the hell kind of toe mocks the rest of its body? She should just-

'Cut it off.'
'Kill it'

She blinked, her train of thought finally catching up to her. 'Why would I...' her eyes furrowed in confusion, sure it was frustrating but... 'How to describe this unconditionally passionate despising of my toe?'

And the more she thought about it, the more confused she became. The first thing to come to mind when she thought of the toe was to kill it. But why? Because it is the enemy.

But it was a toe. Toe's aren't the enemy.
'Right? I'm pretty sure... Yes, toes are not enemies. I think.' But the associated concepts wouldn't stop.

If it wasn't an enemy, then what was it? a friend?
'A toe is a toe. It is neither friend nor foe.' She thought to herself unsurely, as if that simple truth was... confusing.

If her toe wasn't an enemy, and it wasn't her friend, and it was just her toe, then that made it... what? The thought was going in circles, intellectually she knew the answer was very simple - A toe was a toe. Why couldn't she convince herself that?

"I'm going mad." She stated hollowly, staring down at the bane of her rehabilitation effort as it mockingly remained unwiggled. "Stark, raving mad."

"Oh me? You can call me Alex. Nice to meet you Zane." he said to the boy.

"You know, your lucky to find a place to stay. This city has gone mad." That's right, we were the lucky ones. No doubt a lot of people out there are alone, and even more are probably dead. "It's good to have someone around in times like these, huh?" he asked, almost forgetting the boy was still in the room.

His thoughts were on Resha, sitting alone in the bathroom, feeling frustrated and alone.

"Zane, if anyone needs me, tell them I'm in the back room," he said getting up and moving down the hall, not waiting for his new guest to answer.

With a bottle of vodka in hand, Alex walked down the hall. So what if she's being a bit temperamental? She's a freaking bathroom ornament, she has all the right to be bitchy. And as a leader, you need to make her time here as least depressing as possible.

He put on a smile, stepped into the bathroom, knocked on the wall to get her attention, and asked, "Thirsty?" as he held the bottle up for her to see.

"Die!" Her eyes widened and before Alex had much chance to react, a flash of steel had quite literally materialized in mid air while moving at a speed fast enough to embed itself into and through the wall next to the door - The other end of the sharp metal rod sticking out into the hallway.

She stared in surprise at Alex and the quivering rail of sharp metal beside him whilst staying very silent. That persisted for a few moments before she began to articulate her thoughts into words.

"Huh." Sophisticated words. "I uh... You brought me liquor?"

"Nice to meet you, Alex, dude" Zane said, nodding to the guy.

"...Lucky, huh? " the boy took his cap out of his pocket again, spinning it thoughtlessly on his finger. "I guess you were right about me needing to find a group, bro." Zane continued, talking up to the ceiling, and not at all at Alex. He paused thoughtfully, just nodding a bit, not at all minding that he looked plenty mental talking to the ceiling.

Alex got up, and went to head towards the back room, leaving instructions in case anyone asked for him.

"...Oh! Yeah, sure man," Zane called after Alex.

Well, in the very least, everyone here seemed to be like him, voices in their heads, or uh, with the goddess chicks running about. So, yup, he and bro agreed that findingthem was a good idea. But now he was bored and stuff. Well, at least he wasn't dead, that would be bad. He looked to Artemis, who was looking after her injured sister. Wonder if there was anything to help wit---

"Die!" an unfamiliar female voice yelled from down the hall, followed by the sound of...the wall being impaled or something.

He jumped a little in his seat at this, and leaned back in his seat a little trying to look down the hallway.

"Dude, what the hell? Did that guy mess some chick up?"

Alex went as white as a sheet. "Well... nice to see you too." He said as he looked behind him, examining the steel rod in the wall.

He walked into the bathroom and sat down on the floor outside of the shower next to Resha. "And yeah, I brought you some liquor. Don't really know how you're going to drink it though..." he looked at the bottle for a sec, "I guess I can hold it up to you'r mouth and you can grunt or something when you want me to stop."

Alex held the bottle up to Resha's lips, "Ready?"

She glanced at Alex, her attention still on the metal rod. "My grandfather drank a lot." she responded distractedly, "I was never around him, but all I ever heard growing up were stories about it... So I don't really drink."

The metal was already starting to... crack? "Sorry, but..." She trailed off silently, "thanks...I guess. For the thought."

"Oh, sorry about that, then I won't force it." Alex set the bottle down next to him. "I'd offer you some water, but... well water doesn't really seem to be helping much." He looked up at the ceiling, "Then again, not a whole lot does help anymore I guess."

"All I really have to offer is some company." He said after a long pause, "Sure, I'm the last person you probably want to see, but I figured if I apologize for being impatient with you, I wouldn't seem all that bad." He took a look at her new metal skin, "You seem to have it worse then all of us, so of course your going to be on your last nerve."

"I... I snapped to." She mumbled back, "I won't apologize, because I do blame you for this - But it's my fault as well, and at least you're trying to do something." She smirked ruefully, "I'm just brooding in a tub."

the cracks on the rod had expanded as if rapidly eroding away, the entire rod had practically ceased to exist no longer than a few seconds after coming into existence into the first place.

"And I guess it's not all bad... Silver is a good color for me. Maybe I could take up surfing?" Dark humor, by utilizing its therapeutic properties she would conquer her angst! "I don't know whats happening to me... But none of us do. So I can't just curl up and act like I'm suffering all the bad things in this place."

Not anymore, at least.

Physical limitations. Right. Does she share the same frailty of humans? Her pain tolerance was definitely-

Crunch.

Yep, that was her toes.

Frail it was.

Those expletives bounced around in her mind with wild abandon, much some twisted, demonic orgy. Pain apparently hurts quite a bit when experienced. Why are humans so damn frail? How the hell did they survive when they can't even... ffff-

There goes the rest of her body.

Concrete, why are you so difficult?
__________

A narrow tail ending in a spaded tip sways back and forth...

"I've never thought about the physiology of other creatures, you know? So, you guys can look different depending on what you feel like?"

From the waist up, no different from a well-endowed female human. This is provided that females of the human race were born with a pair of bat-like wings, ending in claw-like tips. Her perfect lissom legs ended in mostly human feet apart from a horn protruding straight down from the back of the sole, resembling a heel.

"Other than the feet and the wings, you'd pass for a girl," Noa nodded. He rubbed his imaginary goatee in deep thought. "Though, I have to ask..."

Lily moved forward with a swaying gait, hips moving from side to side. "I'd hate to be vain, but would you not be too distracted to notice as I walk across your view? Much too preoccupied to pay attention to such minute details, I assure you."

"See, that's what I was gonna ask."

He points at the feet.

"How the hell do you walk like that? On tip-toes all the time?"

"..."

"I mean, doesn't that seem a bit weird?"
__________

Forgot to walk after taking a quick nap. So much for those silks and being 'elegant'... Lily recovered with small scrapes on her elbows and knees, but the pride might be in a more serious condition.

"I... do you think it would be too much trouble if we walk on the street?"

The amber eyed girl shrugged, "Slower, but I have no objections to it." She walked towards the edge of the roof, "Shall I carry you down, or are you getting there on your own?"

Pfft, surfing.

"Well, that's good to hear. The taking action part, not the still blaming me part." He said laughing, "And I suppose I can get used to the blame."

He put his hand on Resha's shoulder, "It's good to see you smile, even if it is just a little bit. You had Kane and I worried for a bit."

"I can get down on my own, thank you very-..."

... Wait. Height. Humans fall from this height and typically die. How does one get down from buildings without...

... Well. This is a conundrum...

"... Erm... how do you...? Do I...?"

... Dangle helplessly from the edge and try to softly fall? Push arms toward grounds to try and slow fall? Flap arms similar to an aeroplane?

Lily began to stomp her feet and look down, deep in thought.

Alex's hand was set on what was decidedly a very sharp and spikey surface - The skin morphing of its own accord to become harmful to Alex.

Resha however, didn't seem to notice. "When your nice I'm not sure whether you're creepier or just a jerk with a good heart." She replied wryly. "Either way, with any luck this is temporary... Or maybe i can break out of it and move again." She went to shrug - but her skin was still quite solid.

Her face contorted irritably for a moment.

"Regardless, my earlier out burst aside... I don't know if I will stay here. Your right, my old life is probably... gone... but I'm not sure if the whole 'world revolution' goal is something I can support." She sighed, "And regardless of whether I stay or leave, it looks like.. I can't deny that I'm a part of this too now."

The water shimmered over her metal skin as if to emphasize her statement, "I'll need to find out whats changed. What I can do. That's something I have to accept, no matter what I do."

Alex laughed a bit, "Well, I'm nicer then I seem, I promise. Just had to keep up appearances I guess."

Alex averted his eyes to the corner of the room, "You know, if you stay you don't have to fight. Kane would be trying to protect you whether or not you were around or not. At least if you stick close we would have an easier time with it." He looked over at were the steel projectile was once embedded in the wall, "Not like you'd be no help in a fight. You made that very clear."

Alex looked at his hand. "Huh, even if you are warming up to me, your shinny new skin still thinks I'm no good." He held his palm out, "Huh... It doesn't seem to be bleeding..." He stuck on of his fingers in the gash. Only black mist came out. "Guess we are all changing."

"Well," Alex said changing his tone, "I was going to offer to take you back to the bed, or at least out of the bathroom, but with your body acting the way it is," He summoned up some shadow hands around him, "This would be the only way I could move you."

"I'd prefer to sleep here than have your creepy shadow tentacles touch me." She replied lightly, "nicer than you seem or not, I've seen this movie before. No tentacles, tendrils, or prehensile extensions."

She laid her head back against the shower. "I'm fine here for the night. Probably."

--------

"I," the amber eyed girl began, "can jump down. You, on the other hand might be better suited taking the stairs through the building behind you."

She shrugged, "Since you don't seem to want to be carried, I'll meet you at the bottom then?"

Alex stood up, "Now that you mention it, they are kind of creepy, aren't they? I guess I'm just used to it."

"I got some wounded to help out, and hopefully prospective members." Alex said standing in the doorway, "I'll be back after everyone is settled to see how you're doing."

Alex walked up the hall and into the lounge. "Well, that went a lot better then I expected."

Rui took his time to walk back to the hospital. “Why... couldn’t I have done more... during that Wendigo fight... Why...”

He walked slowly and slowly. “If... If I remember correctly... My Science Teacher taught us that a normal candle flame is about... 1000 celsius... And that’s equivalent to a cherry red flame, the highest color it can reach. I think... So far... My attacks were the same as a candle... Damn it... Damn it. And before that Wendigo fight, they were lower than that. Damn it!”

Rui got near to the hospital. But he could see its destruction from this point. “Ah... No one’s here anymore, it looks like... Think they must’ve fled or something. Ah well... The police must be coming soon or something. They might get me if I stay here, since my arm...”

Rui then turned back. He contemplated more about what he could do to prove more useful in future fights. “I’ve always attacked using giant fireballs... Maybe that made it weaker... Maybe I should condense it or something. That thought never occurred to me... Maybe since it was the heat of battle... Maybe...”

“Ah! Rui, you’re back! That was kinda quick!” Jessie yelled out as soon as she caught a glimpse of Rui.

“In any case... I know what I have to do to improve...” Rui looked up when he heard Jessie’s yell. “Oh hey Jessie.”

“So, was anyone there?”

“Not as far as I could see. And I don’t think we should go back there. I have a gut feeling that something bad might happen... Or something. In any case, your family might be worried sick about you! You should go back home.”

“Ehh.... You’re right... It’s been days since I last saw them. I hope they aren’t doing anything dumb...”

“Yeah... I’ll walk you back. Actually... I don’t even know how to get to your house from here. I haven’t been out and about ever since I moved here.”

“Really? Hm well, I guess I could go back by myself. I’m a big girl! But Rui, what about you?”

“Huh, well... I guess I’ll wander about. I got nothing else to do anyways.”

“Oh... Well, do be careful Rui. I’ll see you again tomorrow? You know my number! If you ever need me again, call me, kay?”

“Ah yeah. But I doubt it. Anyways, be careful on your way home.”
“Mm! Okay!”

Jessie then left, running. Rui looked a bit worried, but assured himself that Jessie can take care of herself. In any case, Rui needed to plan his next course of action. He had no other friends; and he was left stranded with no idea of the area he was in.

“Ah... I wonder if those two people Jessie introduced me to were still in the area... Or... That ghost girl and her brother... I wonder where they are... Well I shouldn’t worry about her too much. My power is her weakness. I can defeat her easily. Well anyways, time to start my wandering...” Rui then sighed.

"Damn straight, she is! I saw those bolts, they were pretty kickass. And, thanks to me weakening that beast's armor, we brought that thing down to nothin'!" Vincent said confidently, "You know what? If this Alex guy is so great, why wasn't he there at the battle of the century, huh? Who needs a guy like that when me, you, and the rest of the guys at the hospital kicked the daylights out of that boss? We're all kinds of awesome without that dude!"

Within seconds, Vincent went from liking Alex to wondering how lame he had to be to sit back while the awesome stuff was going on. All without actually meeting him.

And so she did, without protest.

The apartment was abandoned, which explains quite a bit. Appearance wise, it looks to have been in the state of neglect for quite some time, everything lined in a thick layer of dust and droppings. It was a haven for pests, impossible to walk five steps without seeing rodents and insects darting and crawling about every which way. If one listens closely enough, it's possible to hear human vermin snoozing about as well, likely tired from a day of panhandling.

Such a sorry state.

Next floor down this derelict building looks like the makeshift living quarters for said vermins. Belongings were scattered across the hallway, but nothing that looks like it would be missed. The girl helps herself to a pair of dainty slippers and slips them on, along with a tattered leather coat to wear over her drenched garments. She continues in a hurry, making her way down to the exit, when suddenly...

... "Hey, miss... what are you doing with mom's coat and my slippers?"

Something small was tugging on her coat. A prepubescent girl with a messy face. Thinking it would be in her best interest to ignore her, she continues outside. The small girl was quite persistent, following close behind and trying to catch her attention.

"Miss...?" the girl continues. "My slippers..."

Lily opens her umbrella as they exit, looking for the contractor.
__________

Home sweet home. Man, it feels like forever since he's been back. Rina crashed on the couch, tired from tonight. Having been asleep for several hours at a time now, Noa wasn't in the mood to take five yet, but he did want to take a breather.

TV on to the news channel. Hospital assaulted, interview with a bunch of military folks, rumors of a terrorist group in the city. This news wasn't very surprising anymore, but in the 'oh hey, that's new' sense. In the 'well, shit' department, there's a good chance things will only get worse.

"I wonder if I can still eat with a messed up stomach..."

He remembers reading somewhere that a ruptured stomach will kill you because of the acidity of the thing, but he looks fine. Can still eat, probably. Bacon, eggs, and some chicken. Alright.

"In other news..."

The TV mentions how everyone presently in the hospital has been evacuated and taken care of, but some have been suspected of being involved with 'terrorists'. Worried people being asked about their reactions to this little incident had the whole 'Oh God, I can't believe this happened, my insert-relative was in the hospital, hope he/she/it is alright!'.

Click.

Big tentacle eating thing swallow- oh hey, he's on TV. Hah, that's pretty awesome. The choppers weren't close enough to catch the people, but they did see half the neigborhood exploding and the corpse tree thing getting eaten. It cut to two people were discussing about the current state of affairs of the city.

"'Magic', hah, preposterous..."
"And what might you attribute what was encountered by the military recently?"
"No such thing. If such a-"

Click.

"What the cops doin' to help us, huh?"
"MY BABIES ARE DEAD-"
"What about our children?! The homeless?!"
"This is all because of videogames!"

Click.

"See, in a waterless environment like this, you gotta stay hydrated. Gotta drink my own pis-"

Click- okay, no, screw this.

Time to sort through these photos Rina took...

the amber eyed girl turned to see Lily walking out, a small child following her pitifully. A glance would tell even a dead man that young girl had something to do with the former succubus' new articles.

"Little girl," she spoke up, kneeling to face to face with the child who had exited the building. "Do you live here alone?"

The little girl shook her head. "Me and my mum and her friends all live here. It's our house."

A shabby, derelict building unfit for living is hardly an excuse for a house. The girl stood idle on the doorway, looking at the two strangers. She knows she probably isn't going to get what she wanted, and it was stupid to think so in the first place. She smiles warmly at the two, "If you want, you can keep it," she says, turning to Lily. "You can have it, miss. Momma always said money doesn't buy happiness."

"Are these important to you?"

Lily twirled her umbrella and looked at the girl. Again, the little girl smiles.

"Well, not that important, I guess. It was my papa's-"

"Contractor, do you suppose I can make a deal with you using this clothing? I dislike liars."

"What do you have in mind, then?" The amber eyed girl glanced at Lily with a carefully neutral expression, her hand still grasping the young girl's shoulder gently but with firmness.

"Funds. Assuming that I'm going to have to survive in this world as a human being, at the very least I would need some capital. Fare, foods, shelter. Anything will do."

The little girl looked pathetically at her. "You're... you're selling my clothes? B... but..."

An eyebrow raised. "But...?" she trailed off. "... is it 'important' to you?"

"I... well... yeah..."

The little street urchin was on the verge of tears.

"Well, I didn't know it meant any monetary value to you. Otherwise, you wouldn't give it so easily" The succubus took a second to give a sly little smile. "You told me that I can keep it, yes? It is now my property, yes? See, little girls need to know not to give away important things without good reason. I will say that, considering its importance, it should be worth... slightly more?"

Lily turns her 'benefactor' and began removing her coat. "Contractor," she says, "If you may please tell me the amount I would get?"

Before she could think for herself, the contractor's eyes had glazed over - A facet of her power actually converting the immaterial to material values.

In a moment it had passed, and she had made her decision. "You would get nothing - The clothes mean nothing to you." She stated flatly.

"Worthless? Then I suppose it's trash."

Lily tosses the clothing carelessly toward the girl who just barely caught it.

"Make the deal with her. Maybe she'll get enough pocket money to buy a clean rag to wipe those tears away. Disgusting, really. At the very least, don't use that dirty old coat to wipe it."

A pair of beady eyes looked at the contractor as the child wiped her nose with her sleeve.

"Anytime this week, please. She has places to be, and frankly, I dislike the rain."

She turned her eyes back to the little girl with a slight smile, "She's a mean lady, don't mind her. Tell you what, why don't you tell me what you want more than anything else in the whole world? If you're lucky, I might have it."

After all the fuss, the girl was still able to talk optimistically. She went on about how she always wanted food, clothes, simple necessities for her mom and all their friends. "Momma told me not to want big things," the little one says, "And that we should want what we only need."

Food? Clothes? Blankets? Really?

"At the very least, why not a cleaner, not-so-broken down wreck of a home to live in?" Lily scoffs. "Or maybe some way to keep them off the street and doing something worthwhile instead of trying to garner some pity?"

"Like a job?" she chirped.

"Yes. Like a job. It's not as if it's any more difficult than a flick of your wrist, isn't it, contractor?"

"That all sounds good! But..." The ragamuffin pouts. "I don't think you can carry any of those in pockets..."

"Especially considering how small her pockets are."

"Now, watch carefully dear." the amber eyed contractor smiled at the little girl as she made a show of holding her hands up. "You should never, ever doubt my pockets. Their magic, you know?" She reached behind her back, hand held out flat and made a face as if searching for something.

"Now, before I give you this - Promise me you'll grow up to be a fine young woman, okay?"

The contractor made the little one wear a face typically reserved for Christmas gifts. "I promise!" she beams in uttermost delight, anxious to see what it was she held. There wasn't even any need to know what it was, the surprise and the idea of a stranger giving her a present being more than enough.

Lily turned around, but with face turned, curious to see what would happen. She tapped her foot impatiently.

The moment the girl had voiced her agreement, it looked as if space had inverted itself into a state of non-euclidean geometry that would drive an individual into the depths of skin tearing madness should they focus on it for too long - The body and soul itself practically cried out to avert the eyes in order to stay ignorant of what it was seeing.

But before long it had ended, and in the amber eyed girl's hand was a small bracelet and several brightly colored candy looking objects.

"Here you go dear, remember to always keep this bracelet on. When times get tough, remember to wish really hard - the magic will do the rest. Okay?" She smiled gently, "And the candy is for you as well. Do what you will with it. Now get back inside with your things, its no good to be out in the rain as young as you are."

She stood up, turning to leave. "Lily, are you coming?"

"So pretty..."

She leapt at the chance to put on the bracelet and immediately began to admire it. Something like this looks very important indeed... And it was magic? To think, a stranger would give her a magic bracelet!

She throws her arms around the nice lady and gave her a tight hug. "Thank you so much!" she cries. "Thank you, thank you!"

As she returns inside, she gave the two a heartfelt smile and an enthusiastic smile. Maybe they'll meet again, she hopes. They'll definitely meet again if she wishes hard enough for it. She pops in on a piece of candy in her mouth and hums as she wandered back into the apartment.

Lily herself waved a hand in return, giving a small, yet warm smile back to the urchin.

"Lily, are you coming?"

The concrete was slightly more tolerable. She continued right behind the contractor, umbrella in hand. "I didn't know you were a philanthropist." She rests her umbrella on her shoulder as she walks. "I also didn't know your kind were able of emotions."

The rain continued to pour.

"That was very thoughtful of you."

Thoughtful.
Philanthropist.
Capable of emotion.

"Kindness is not always unbeneficial to the one doing it." she replied dully, "But of course we are capable of emotion - Do you not oft hear of the rage my kind are prone to descend into when their possessions are denied or lost?" She smirked wryly, "It is in my nature to be selfish and greedy, to that end, everything I do is to benefit me one way or another."

She walked ahead of Lily, her head facing forward even as bitterness crept into her voice. "Such is 'my kind', through and through til the flames lick us away."

"Must have slipped my mind. I rarely listen to rumors spread by the lower ilk. Beneath the world, it's bad etiquette to judge who's 'selfish' and 'greedy'."

A small car was the only thing that has passed for the past few minutes. The street was quiet this evening, making for a very sullen atmosphere. The rain was more... comforting than annoying. The wet concrete felt good beneath her feet.

They walked past a small bar. A slow, mellow guitar started to play a ballad. The sound was faint, but audible...

"Hey now, all you sinners...
Put your lights on,
put your lights on..."

"It doesn't sound as if you like this image your 'kind' gives you," she continues over the song. "Just a wild guess."

"There's a darkness,
Living deep in my soul.
I still got a purpose to serve."

"It makes me wonder what image humans are given as a whole."

"A child does not choose their heritage." The amber eyed girl replied in a tone that sounded as if it was something she said often. "I am my kind, through blood and bone and beyond."

She shrugged under the rain, "There is a certain pride to be held in that, but at what height and in what light might be questionable."

As they walked, the edge of mumble was getting closer and closer. Armed forces could be heard at a distance, and it was clear where they were headed by that hint alone. "But if it is the image of humans you want to see, then tonight might be of interest to you. I want to learn more about them, and the best way to do that - As my mother once told me - Is to go directly to the source."

In a sense anyway. The actual aesop had been geared more towards manipulating fools by controlling their desires. Same concept, right?

"There is certain pride to be held in that, but at what height and in what light might be questionable." The girl shrugs and continues onwards.

It makes her beg the question, "What of your personal opinion on it?"

To follow a rigid outline of what a race is imagined as. Almost sounds like a certain group of winged rats she remembers.

Toward the military, they continue to walk. Tanks, military, armed soldiers, all lined up in a neat little row like some child's playset. Not what she had in mind when she asked the question, but nonetheless, this should be interesting. What will the girl do? Well, that's what she's waiting for her to answer.

Hopefully, not something that will endanger us.

She blinks. Probably wishful thinking.

"Well, that went a lot better then I expected."

Zane snapped back to reality, having spaced out and engaged in an argument withe Hermes about something that was most likely quite stupid.

"Oh, Hey man," he nodded to Alex. " You alright? I heard something uh, crash through the wall"

He waved his arms in the air in a way to sort of emphasize what he meant in the last sentence. Unnecessary gestures, but it was just the way he talked sometimes.

"Boss, hm?" He must be referring to it as the boss of all of the other zombie creatures in the city. "Well," she thought about his question, about why they should stay with Alex and the rest of them. For personal reasons, she wanted to stay with Kane and Ainlisle, and it didn't seem like they were leaving that group any time soon - and on top of that,
"Alex has a house. A big house!"

She laughed a bit. "We haven't even met him, how do you know he isn't awesome too? I didn't really see all of the fight - I just got there for the end... so I guess I haven't seen anyone being awesome yet at all!"

"Nier, huh? A nice name!" he said with an unwarranted smirk on his face.

She seems a little edgy... I wonder whats upsetting her...
He begins to walk toward the portal cautiously...

"So, uhh I assume I'm just supposed to walk into this portal thing ri-" He is interrupted mid sentence by getting to close to the portal unprepared and is flung into a vortex inside the spacial rift. But before he could exhale, he was back in what seemed to be the correct dimension. However instead of gracefully landing, he shot out of the portal like a child coming out of a water slide.

"Holy shit... Where the hell did that thing send me..." He stood up and looked around in a daze and looked back at the portal expecting Nier to exit as gracefully as he did.

"Not much of a hospital left... It just looks like a war zone..."

Rui walked aimlessly for a long time now. But unfortunately, it only felt like a long time. It only really has been about 10 or so minutes, the darkness making it feel like such. He didn’t know where he was, and didn’t know how he got there. But then suddenly, he walked back into the hospital area.

“What the heck...” He only realized he had walked back as he stepped on some debris. Then, something suddenly popped up near him. It was about a few feet away from him. Rui heard something of a small thud, as someone got up. Rui took a step closer to see that that man and that woman appeared right before him like magic.

“... Again what the heck? How did those two appear out of nowhere?” Rui then walked a bit closer to them. “Hey guys... what’s up!”

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

Jessie managed to get home safe and sound. She opened the door to her house as quietly as she could, but when she got in, her parents rushed out to see whom it was. They cried rivers as they saw their daughter return home, seemingly safe and sound. They asked her questions upon questions, but talking at the same time made it hard to hear them correctly.

“Mom, Dad, I’m fine, calm down geez.” Jessie chuckled as she said it. But you could tell, that if you had listened closely, she had something of a sorrowful tone. Her parents didn’t ground her, all they told her to do was to go upstairs and take a shower. She had though she’d be in deep trouble. But it turned out that they were just relieved she had been safe, especially with all the destruction the city had faced.

Jessie went downstairs and hung out with her parents. They turned on the TV and watched the news. They sat close to Jessie, thanking and praying to god that their daughter was alive throughout the destruction.

“Well... At least they aren’t asking questions, right?” Jessie said to herself.

It's quiet tonight.

"A blessing," anyone here would tell ya. Nights like these, you get to see people at their worse. Worried, afraid of their mortality. Still trying to pull themselves together, trying to stay and act tough, wondering if they'll still be breathing tomorrow.

An older soldier said that this isn't a bad thing. 'Actually the opposite', he told everyone. 'It shows that there's still something human, that they've still got something in there.'

Bit cliche, but the guy has a point.

"Still reading?"

The man flicked a lighter, lit his cigarette, then blew a puff of smoke.

It was a military tent. Not very big, but big enough. Not very comfortable, but comfortable enough. Both sides were lined with portable fold-up beds, each with a small container at their feet carrying belongings. They already set up a fluorescent light, but it was too dim to cover the entire room.

Right now, the tent was barely half full. The rest of the soldiers were either up and around, doing an errand, or somewhere else entirely. Even then, it was dead silent except for their footsteps, quiet murmurs and the pouring rain. No one was in the mood for talking. At least not tonight.

"Mmm."

When we were posted here, everyone was wondering why we had to be here of all places. We weren't invaded, there wasn't anything on the news about riots. We didn't have any guesses about it, really. People weren't too happy about it, but it's not as if you can say just tell the big guys 'no'. If we're here, though, there's gotta be a good reason why.

You don't ask about it; you just go do what you're told.

"You know, that thing will kill you, yeah Tom?"

A fellow serviceman sat on the bed next to his, pointing at the cigarette in his mouth.

"In due time," said Tom, now sporting a warm grin. "Till then, don't see why not."

One more puff.

The other soldier smiled back and shook his head. "See, I told my girl back home that I wasn't gonna smoke since she's always going on about how bad it was for the children and my health. But it keeps out the stress, you know? And in a job like this, well..."

The fella laughed. The guy was a private, a greenhorn. Hasn't seen much, but very friendly fellow. Guy's name was 'Charlie'.

"You know about what showed up a couple hours ago, right? The thing swatting birds out of the sky and using tanks like little toys. Poor bastards..."

Tom nodded, his eyes still glued to a small diary. "I heard. I knew one of those guys too."

Another puff.

"I'm gonna head out. Midnight shift is mine."

"Alright. Later."
__________

The soldier covered his lighter. The rain here gets a bit heavy sometimes, but he doesn't mind. Sitting out here all night and being drenched in rain doesn't sound too great to anyone, but for him, it's actually a bit relaxing. Just looking around, sometimes talking to the locals early in the morning at the end of his shift, just good times. Very friendly bunch, except for the paranoid ones. His job was just to watch out for anyone trying to leave, so this wasn't too tough a job.

Two women, one tall, the other slightly shorter. Looks like they were just strolling around, but it's a bit late and past curfew. Not supposed to be out this late unless you have important business, especially not near here. Are they lost?

"Hey, are you to headed for somewhere?"

He approached the two and waved his free hand.

"If you guys are looking for a general store, this road is closed, so you have to head somewhere else."

Her amber eyes lit up on cue as the soldier called out, luminously alerting the soldier that the contractor at least wasn't what he was used to dealing with.

"Fortunately, I'm looking for you." She responded politely, "Not you specifically, but the people you belong to. Police, law, whatever you call it." She stopped a good distance from him, making a point not to make any sudden movements as she bowed briefly.

"My name is


Ő͗̈́̽͐̅̉ͨͯ͢͏҉҉̪͎͕̬͕̮͎ ̪̯̫̙̺ͤ͆ͮ̋͗ͮͮ̆̓ͩ͆̾ͥ̀̀ ̷ͭ͒ͧ͐ͦͦ͒̈́̚͏̷͍̬͈̯̦͖͕̻͖̣͙̗̠͝ͅ ̡͚̯͓̩͔̺͔͕̳̝̳̫̰̰̿͗̏̄ͬ̊̎̊̓̽͛̀͝P̫̗̫̜͓͔̙̫̩̹͖̈ͧ͑̓͊͂ͯ͛̄ͥͪ̇͝͠ͅ ̷̹̱͎͉͙̗̫̱͆ͨͧ̐ͬ̽̒̈́̓̀͛͛ͫ ͣ̈́͊ͩ́̆ͫ̾͂̇͏͚̱̭̖̝̺̺̩ ̟̬̼̥͓̪͕͇̏ͦ̊͜͟͝͞E̵̐͛̇҉̵͇͙̦͈̬̝͇̟͓̻͖̘͘͝ͅ ̵̩̹͕̼͓̬̅ͯ͑̊ͬ̒̐̂̐͒̽̿͐͗̀͞ͅ ̵̷̶̢͖͉͕̜̤͈̩̹̠̪͙͖̼̼̦̯͉ͧ̆̇ͮͭ̄͋̎ͤ͒ ̵̤̫̠̖̻̣̻̟̤̦ͩͭ̍̒ͧ̓̋̃͑̚̕̕͝ͅL͋ͭ̍͗̀ͪ̄̅́̚҉̫̹̮̺ ̇̅̾̔ͦ̍̌ͮͫ̃͆̌̎ͪ͋͏̹̮̜̜̖͚̰͕̞̲̗̲̳͇̯̩̰́ ̢̱̩̯̿̑ͧ̊͐ͫ̀ͅ ̨̧̝͎͔̬͇͇͕̬̳̻̰͚͔̾̇͑ͦ͆͛ͬ̚̕͞ͅͅͅA̛̬̙̩̤͚͈͈͍̲̳̩ͣ͛̈̊̇̊͋͆̐̉̈́̑̒ͩͯ̚̕̕͜ͅ ̷̢̧̠͇͍̇̎̏̏̂̈͝
̸̠̻͎̹̺̹̜̥͔̳̼͈̞̘̪͔͖̻͖͑̒̿ͨ̋̃̆͗ͪͭ̂̈́͆̚̕͢͜ ̾̃ͥ̀̊̊̒ͧͨͫ̿̓̆ͨ́͘͘͏̮̬̼ͅ ̴͇̟̣͖͉̞̟̯͕̲̏͋̂͐͐̉͐̾ͪ́̄͛͝ ̓̈̆̀ͥͩ̉ͦ̉̉̅̏̑͡҉͉̱̼̮̲ ͣ̅͐͋̉ͦ͂̓̈̀̐҉̗͙͚̭̱͚̫̘̱͚̠͜͡R̡͇̤̩̺̪̞̞̘ͥ̈͆ͪͣͣͥͮͦͧ̈́ͯ̌̚̚͘̕ ̝̘͈̝̻̥͈̘̮͎͚̙͙̹̍̃͆ͤͯ̓ͨ̾̆̓̈͂̓͂̏́́̕͡͠ ̴̛̙̰͈̘̀ͬ͆̎ͬ́̚Ḧ̨̡͙̭̗͍͔̫͕̙̭͉͔̥́̍͂̈̊̏̾͆̅͑̓ͥ̍́̔͞͡ ̧̰͈͙̖͈͈͍̲̣̼͍̣͙̫͔ͬͥ̔̅̏ͩ̑͑ͪ̋̕ͅͅ ̴̢̢͔͈͈̤͇̪͂̐̇̌̾̈́̊̂ͭ̇̔͝ ̸̡̛̻̭͇̦ͯͫ̉ͬ̅̆͆̀̚͟Y̷̼͍̗̦̤̼̟̟̾̋͋ͣͬ̐ͤ̋͘ ̢̯͉̣̣͓̺͖̩̲̺̎͋ͥͮͫ̍͋͛̇͐̾͆̊ͧ͂͋̚͞ ̡̛̱̺̣̞͓̼͉͖͙̜͎̩͖̰̪̖͋̅ͥ͒̋͂ͦ̚͜͞ ̢̲͓̳̫̟̲̬̠͖͎̭͈̬̱͔̮̤̝͆́̀ͦ͒̀̉ͭ̆ͫͨ̓ͪ̅ͪ̀̎̄́I̸̡̝̫̼̻̺͔͈̜̜̠̽̉͂̔̓̋̓͟͠͝




and this is my..." She trailed off uncertainly, "This is Lily. You could say I've forced her to show me around." She smiled at the soldier, sharp teeth glinting, "If you don't mind, I would be interested in having a more in depth conversation inside."

Well, alright now. This is new. Not the greeting he's used to. Couldn't catch the name either.
This girl wasn't normal, he could've gathered that much, but he's standing here and that's good.

"Call her 'Cindy'. Pleasure meeting you." That companion of hers smiled as well, batting her eyelashes. "It would really mean lot if you could just let us in. We're just here to talk and maybe rest, nothing more."

"Well, miss, you see..."

This here's a conundrum. They were told that some folks aren't the way they look and could rightly kill you where you stand, but that's no reason for not using some common hospitality. These two look like they've been out in the rain for a while, and it ain't quite right to leave two ladies outside.

He shrugs and shook the thought away. Gotta hold principles. "Guess it's no trouble," he said. "Checkpoint's nearby, but rules say I gotta keep watch under you two, alright?"

"Don't worry, we understand," grins the taller one with a wink.

The man walks toward the gated fence, and the two follow. Had to talk to the rest of the guards concerning the visitors, but everything checks out and the girls were eventually led into a large tent. The sergeant was in, drinking a cup of coffee and talking to another soldier. The soldier leaves as the group enters.

The sergeant looks up and sees the three, giving a friendly wave. "Corporal," he nods. "You ladies need anything? Feel free to make yourselves at home."

"I want information." The amber eyed girl replied, trying to get them to pay attention to her instead of Lily. The appearance of a child was terrible when no one took you seriously. "Lily is simply someone I've forced into my service as a guide. You may take her if you wish, I can't guarantee she'd stay alive that much longer if I keep her." There may have been a veiled threat in her statement, but it was hard to tell.

"Now that I've found a competent source of knowledge about humans, she really is of no use to me anymore - However, I would trade her useless life if you will answer my questions in exchange." She didn't so much as glance back at Lily as she casually bartered the girl away like a common slave.

As a response, the taller girl simply covered her mouth and giggled. "Cute little girl, isn't she? Makes you want to pinch her cheeks."

The sergeant blinked at the two, looking at the corporal, then back to the shorter girl. "Well, miss-"

Lily closed her umbrella. "Cindy."

"Cindy," the sergeant continues, "Well, we don't really... er... trade 'people'."

The woman - the taller one - grins from ear to ear, saying something along the lines of 'Looks like you're stuck with me'.

"That's not how we handle business. But we'd try to answer your questions if you need any, now." The officer turns to Tom. "Corporal, you mind getting the lieutenant here? Tell him it's urgent."

"Yessir."

"So," he downs the coffee. "Anything on your mind?"

She arched an eyebrow, "Knowing she's going to be killed, you leave her with me?" Well, it's not her problem - However, the interaction itself was telling her, and Lily, about the kind of people this race created. "Very well. I want to know about your ruling system, your morals, your strengths, your weaknesses. Tell me everything."

"Ymay have gotten there late, babe, but at least you were there." Vincent replied, "I'm just sayin', if dude's just chillin' in his house, not even attempting to help out, he's definetely less awesome than we are."

As the trio turned the corner, Vincent looked around as if confused.

"Huh, thought I had it pegged in this area." he said, as if unconcerned with being lost, "Hey, you came back from Alex's place, right? We anywhere close?"

"Mmmnope!" She declared. "If we were on the roof I could figure it out, but I think they'll be back soon anyway." She continued half-skipping down the sidewalk while talking. "Well, maybe he is less awesome...but that doesn't really matter. Everyone seems to trust him!

"But.. you don't have to stay with him if you don't wanna." She shrugged. "Do you even live here?"

"Hey now, hold on lil' miss, we just said we don't trade people. Now, we'll see if we can't help ya'll out, but we don't trade people since... well, that there ain't right."

The sergeant clasps his hands together and exhales. The officer seemed really deep in thought, stroking his goatee while switching expressions freely. "I'm no philosopher, so I can't answer some of those questions. Like your curiousity, though, real admirable."

Now, where to begin...

"First now, easy part. Ruling wise, we have a person elected, we all vote for him depending on similar interests, called a representative democracy. People's will, you know? People we think have experience and have the same lead. This guy isn't gonna rule everything, now. That ain't democracy. There's these things called... 'branches' making sure everyone with a high position keeps to their job and doesn't take advantage of everyone. Real simple. Gotta try our best to make things fair, even though we can't do it completely."

He points to his badge. "Now, if you're talking bout these guys with guns - firearms, vehicles, all that, shooting people - that'll be the 'military'. The army, to be exact. One of the multiple fighting forces of the country, you know? All divided. Several branches, trees, all led by people with more experience. They're not here to kill people, now. That ain't our job. Our jobs protecting people, keeping people safe. Well, we don't exactly know how to do that right now mighty well."

He offers the two something to drink. Typical hospitality. Lily asks for two cans of pop.

"You're not human, right? You drank one of them before?"

"Of course," the taller one girl replies.

"Heh, how'd you like the taste?"

"... Hrm. The flavor is great, although it's not quite filling. Although, I will admit that it has grown on me. I like the red fizzy liquid more than the blue one; much stronger, less sweet." She turns to her companion. "Give it a taste. I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

Lily offers a can to Cindy, while the sergeant takes his seat.

"Hrm... alright, strengths, that's easy too. See, what we have is... guts."

He slams his fist on an open palm for emphasis.

"Lots and lots of guts. Well, in the military, yeah, we have lots of it. See... now, it's weird calling ourselves humans... Anyway, we do things on whim. We do things if we feel its right. Don't need a reason to help somebody. Now, that ain't all good, but I guess I like it. Strength and a weakness, course. We do stupid stuff sometimes, but all depends on the person."

Ah, youth... That was the best damn way you could have made someone lose a hand. With glory.

"Eh, I guess moral too. It all depends on the guy. You won't see two guys that are the same, so you could ask. All depends. One guy could be a thief, but he can have him a way to change a world. Can't judge things too easily. Too tough to do it."

More hot coffee over the cup. Very warm, very nice.

The amber eyed contractor looked at the drink with curiosity and set it aside, listening to the man's statements. He had a strange accent, and by the time he was done - The drink was looking more and more appealing.

"I suppose that is sufficient. Now! Take me to your leader, I would discuss matters of dire importance with him. Her. It." She stated this very seriously, her arms crossed.

the amber eyed contractor said...."I GOTTA BONNER :D"

"That... won't be necessary."

There stood the man himself: the lieutenant colonel, clad in some dapper suit. Lots of military decorations on that chest of his, different from the worn ACUs the sergeant wore. He had this air of aloofness about him, typical of any high ranking officer, giving off the sort of vibe that makes you want to watch what you say. Tall fella too, dwarfing him by about a foot or so. Intimidating guy, to say the least, which makes that nice expression of his sort of a conundrum.

The sergeant did an obligatory salute.

"At ease, sergeant," the colonel salutes back. He bows to the guests as well, as a common courtesy. "Ladies, I assume that Sergeant Johnson here has shown you the famous southern hospitality he's known for? I wouldn't expect any less, of course."

"Hrm, I suppose it was adequate." Lily's eyes wandered off to a corner before turning to the officers. "Actually, I take that back. I'd say he took quite good care of us. Much better than expected."

She motions over for the coffee pot, which the colonel hands over. Two cups were poured, one to her, and another offered to Cindy. The drink was warm to the touch, and a quick sip proved it to be somewhat sweet.

"You don't want to look rude now, do you 'Cindy'? It's human etiquette to drink when offered. Depending on the context, of course."

Don't drink underage, kids.

The colonel doffs his hat and places it on the table. "Quite rainy out. Has been that way for quite a while now... As you were asking, Miss Cindy, I am the one in charge until the colonel is back from his duties. Do you wish to speak in private, or is this fine?"

"Keep your minions, it doesn't matter whether they listen or not." She stated flippantly, the supremely confident tone of a nine year old girl filling the room as she eyed the new comer with a critical eye.

"I suppose someone of your position will suffice." She finally stated after several moments of silence. "Further more, my name is not 'Cindy'. I will have you address me with respect, if not by my given name then by my title of Contractor or position of Incident Resolver." She craned her neck back to stare eye-to-eye with the man, "Am I understood?"

If she were older, it would have been a terrific display of venom and authority. As it stood, she was a petulant nine year old girl with a disliked nickname.

"Bob, stop it!"

Steve rushed to help the wounded soldier, who fell to the floor after being shot in the foot.

After leaving Joe the Butt Plumber, Bob and Steve wandered through Mumble. They had discovered a military post, tents everywhere. Steve had approached a soldier near the perimeter to ask to speak to his superior, but that was interrupted by Bob shooting the man in the toe with his sidearm.

"Steve, get away from him!"

"Bob, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Aaaaagh, you shot me in the foot, you bastard!"

"Oh quit your bitching, COMRADE."

"What."

"Steve, why else would there be military here? They're clearly a Russian invasion force in disguise!"

"Why would Russia invade HERE?"

"They're striking while the iron is hot, Steve! Sun Tzu taught them well!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"

"Shut up. I'm helping you. Stop your bitching."

"Steve, we must recruit local high schoolers to fight the Red Menace! WOLVERIIIIINES!!!"

A group of three other soldiers rushed to the scene, guns at the ready. They aimed at Bob and Steve.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing?!"

Steve stepped away from the wounded soldier, hands in the air.

"Ok... this REALLY isn't what it looks like."

---

"Aaarghh... Where am I?"

Anton winced in pain as he rose up, trying to get his bearings. He was back at Alex's base.

I take it someone brought me here...

He wandered out the doorway and into the main room.

---

"Ruiiiiii!!! Where are you, my dear?!"

Alice wandered through the city streets, only a few blocks away from her former prison.

Darling, you aren't hiding from me, are you?!

The lieutenant stood wary of breaking sight, cautious of making any rude movements. Not entirely sure if this is her way of talking, or if these were just customs, but this girl looked like the type to have a temper.

See, anyone can hold power as a supernatural, even at a young age. Saw that himself, he did. The limitations they're accustomed to mean nothing here; she may very well have the ability to level this entire installation if she so damn pleased. It's in their best interest to make sure this lady stays on a good mood.

Silence. Intimidating, overwhelming silence.

"Tsch... hehe... hehe."

Then giggling. Uncontrolled, sudden giggling. Her female friend didn't make any attempt to stifle the laughter.

"I'm sorry," Lily apologizes. "Continue, continue. By all means, ignore that outburst. Excuse her, of course. She's not very... erm... 'social'. Do keep in mind that her experience with humans so far have been limited."

The girl made a subtle gesture, biting her lower lip as she tilted her eyes toward the 'Contractor'.

To be honest, that was very well appreciated.

"Understood, Ms. Contractor." He makes a polite bow.
__________

"Hey, do you ever wonder... why we're here?"

"One of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there a God, watching everything, you know, with a plan for us and stuff? I don't know, man, but it keeps me up at night."

"What? No, I mean why are we here, in this city. I mean, I signed up to kill terrorists, and next thing I know, they told us to go back home, and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere and killing weird Godzilla things."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I get you."

Oh, looks like a couple of local cops decided to stop by and pay them a visit.

Pew pew.

And then he got shot on the foot.

Guns were pointed.

Shit is about to go down.

"Lay down your arms! I repeat! Lay down your arms!"

"Well, I for one don't trust a guy who can't throw down when it's necessary, hiding behind others to do their work for them. I do all my own stunts, and look how awesome I am!" Vincent exclaimed, brimming with the confidence that this 'Alex' guy was nothing compared to him, "I could walk this entire city, unconsious girl in my arms, and still have enough awesome in reserve to make this Alex guy look like a fool! House or no house!"

He really was setting this Alex person up as being some pushover who used these people around him. Setting up a first impression of a guy he hadn't met.

This would not turn out well.

"Do I live here? Babe, I don't live in any specific place. I wander from town to town looking for challenges to test my awesomeness." he continues, obviously embellishing to a high degree, "My origins are shrouded in mystery. Was I simply born this awesome? Or did I reach this peak through sheer force of will and determination? Were my parents there to shape me into the man I am today? Or did I rise above my upbringing, a true to life rags-to-awesome story for the ages? Not many know, and fewer still can understand. But, whatever it may be, it will certainly be epic."

"Young lord, that is not what the young lady inquired."

"Hush, Eevul. I'm showing off how cool I am."

The amber eyed girl momentously ignored her less than supportive companion as she nodded seriously to the lieutenant. "Wonderful, now let us get directly to the point of my presence." They always taught her to be direct and too the point with what she wanted.

Standard procedure was to beat up two people who knew absolutely nothing about what was going on, then get down to solving the problem by beating up people who did. She was technically a pacifist, and fighting was... A bad idea.

As a result, she had technically talked to two people - Noa, and then later Kane - who knew nothing about it... So that was one step down. The third person, Alex, somewhat had a grasp on the situation... But he was useless to her in the long run.

Which meant it was time to aim bigger. "You're world is heading towards something potentially bad. Both of our worlds are, technically,"

She thought briefly, "I am here to prevent that. In order to do so to avoid this bad thing which we don't want to happen, I need to acquire an artifact and seal it before it can fall into the wrong hands or develop improperly." She subtly slid the strange beverage away from her as she spoke, "I know where it is, however there are a number of problems with me acquiring it - Not the least of which is that it's current owner is either ignorant of the bad things true badness, or he is bad and wants bad things to happen."

"What this means for me, and in turn for you, is that to prevent bad things from happening - I would enlist your aid when I require it to retrieve what I am after, lest bad things happen and we all have very... very bad days.

She finished her explanation with a stern expression on her face the entire time.

The two creatures had been mostly dormant, guarding their nest of roughly 50 eggs.

Until a noise was heard outside.

Preservation of their young being their priority, the two readied themselves to tear through the wall of the building and attack those that disturbed them.

---

"Lay down your arms! I repeat! Lay down your arms!"

"Alright Bob, you've gotten me in enough trouble for the day. This is all just a misunderstanding..."

"This is no misunderstanding, Steve! Don't let the Reds compromise your patriotism! Be ready to die a hero!"

Steve was reaching down to drop all his weapons when the wall next to them shattered, bricks and debris falling upon the wounded soldier.

"Now what the hell was th- WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE?!"

Two creatures, each roughly two feet tall, crashed through the wall of the nearby building. They quickly skittered out, letting loose an inhuman screech. Eight feet long, they resembled centipedes, though their two frontmost pairs of legs were each much larger than the dozen or so behind them.

The face... or rather, faces, were what made it so different from any regular giant monster centipede. While the back half was covered in a carapace, the emerging front half was more of a mass of flesh, with the faces of several humans seeming to push out from the bloody mass of muscle and flesh. In unison, the four faces of each animal screeched as they readied themselves to attack the humans nearby.

"W-W-WE'VE GOT HOSTILES," screamed the wounded soldier.

Ready with his sidearm, the soldier shot several rounds into the body of the closest creature. The rounds successfully penetrated the carapace of the target, but did nothing but draw its attention.

One of the centipedes charged at him, unhindered by his shots. It let loose another cry as it raised up it front legs, and brought them down, piercing the man's chest. His rib cage, and all the tender bits inside, were crushed, and the man let loose a spasm before his cries ceased.

"Bob, more mantipedes! P90!"

His partner's advice wasn't necessary, as Bob had already started firing. With concentrated bursts, Bob shot off most of the legs on one side of the mantipede. The creature's faces screamed, and it fell to its side, unable to move. Steve unloaded his sidearm into the remaining legs.

Steve yelled out to the soldiers nearby, "Go for the legs! Gotta keep them from moving! Don't bother with body-shots, it only pisses them off. Gotta reduce them to gibs to keep them down!"

As Bob reloaded Steve moved to his side, covering his buddy. The mantipede wasn't interested in the two though, and took to leaping towards the soldiers nearby.

---

Anton turned about, almost bumping into Alex.

"Uh... hi... boss? I'm guessing you were already told about the hospital incident?"

---

Oh boo, Rui's gone and I have no idea where to look.

In her aimless wandering, Alice had turned around and had started walking back to the hospital. In the distance, she saw what may have been Rui.

"Rui?! Is that you!? Ruuuiiii!!! Get over here and fuck me!!!!"

"Rui?! Is that you!? Ruuuiiii!!! Get over here and fuck me!!!!"

Even though the yelling was distant, Rui recognized the voice all the same. It was from that ice bitch-witch, Alice. She had come back ... To have sex with him.

Rui knew that he was useless in this environment, as the rain would significantly weaken his powers. Rui tried to come up with a plan as soon as possible.

“Damn it all, what the heck do I do? Is ... Is it time to test out my powers? But this would mean I’d have to have zero failures at this damn it. I have to... Damn it all. Damn it all. I have to keep calm damn it. There wouldn’t be any use if I couldn’t do something as simple as that, so keep calm Rui. Wait a sec, I remember something...”

Rui then turned to face that man next to him. “Oi, I seem to remember you lending a hand when I needed to attack under rainy conditions. Well, now’s the time to do your thing, sir. Help me!”

Pests. Poor private got himself killed by panicking.

The presence of hostiles vulnerable to smalls arms fire in a military checkpoint typically have a short life span. Armed to expect the heaviest assaults and built as a first line of defense, the area had heavy fortifications, up to and including machine gun nests, small armory caches, and a straight route to the main camp. At every hour of every day, this area was under lockdown.

The sound of distant sirens and approaching vehicles began to fill the air...

"Multiple contacts!"

An armored personnel carrier has arrived, bringing with it a fresh group to the fray and needed firepower in the form of a 14.5mm turret. Heavy machine gun fire repelled a nearby mantipede, the heavy ordnance enough to stagger the creature back. The three guards weren't idle either, watching from example and expertly shooting the legs when opportunity presents.

"Tango down!"

Multiple AT4 missiles rocked the streets with enough force to knock down the remaining centipedes. The sound of gunfire and spent bullet casings echoed across the streets, yet caution was being taken to not to strike two locals.

The APC, driving past the centipedes, approached both SWAT members for pick up. The one manning the turret, still focused on the field of fire, yells "Ya'll need a lift?"
__________

Commotion outside. The sergeant grabbed his rifle in a hurry and was excused from the meeting. Two more soldiers entered in his stead, guarding the entrance.

"Hrm. While I would be more inclined to agree to that under present circumstances, we're not entirely sure of your cooperation. Not to say that I have no faith in your words, no, but rather, we're in a situation we don't entirely understand. We haven't any idea who are... in layman's terms, the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'."

The colonel was deep in thought. He took a sip of the coffee and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

This was a tough predicament, but the prospect of such a deal can help them significantly. Having assistance of the inhabitant of... did she say other world? Nonetheless, she may very well be the answer to defeating other, more hostile enemies.

However, the possibility of this working the other way hasn't left his mind. This girl may be plotting something more sinister, and judging from her outward appearance...

Considering their last skirmish, they haven't much to lose.

"I will say that we can reach a mutual agreement," he says, finally turning to the Contractor. "If we have your continued full support and cooperation, you have ours."

He held out his hand to shake hers.

"Do we have a deal?"

She looked back at him with a straight face. "Oh."
She looked forward once more, and responded somberly to his vague hypothetical biography. "So you don't have a home either then? I'm sorry."

She didn't need to respond to how awesome he was, that was old news and an established fact by now. The thoughts on her mind had already moved on to the next topic, and even then her attention was dwindling.

"Well, I think you'll be welcome anyway, even if he can't throw things!" She gave him another warm smile, silently wondering why that even mattered. It was a silly idiom that she would think about in greater detail later.

She wondered to herself silently what was taking Diana so long. It was pretty cold out because of the rain, Ainlisle might get sick sleeping through it like that.

A man around his 20th, wearing a ragged soldier attire, holding a Berreta 92A1 handgun in his right hand and wiping out blood that streaming down from his head with his left hand, walking towards the source of gunshots and explosions.

'who am i? where am i?' the questions repeating in his mind while he walks.

The last thing he remember is he's out patrolling with a team and got jumped by some creatures and he blackout after one of the creature bash his head, and when he come to his senses, all of his teammates and the creatures are fried and he lost most of his memory.

"crap, my head hurts alot"

"Sweetheart, Vincent Demarco is welcome wherever he goes. You know why? Because Vincent Demarco is the party. The party doesn't start until I enter the room." Vincent said, unaware of how awkward it sounded to switch from third- to first-person, "No matter what this loser Alex wants to do, we are going to celebrate like there's no tomorrow. An awesome event to congradulate such awesome people like us who just defeated such an awesome enemy."

The trio continued down the street, the word 'awesome' being used entirely too much for one conversation.

Diana turned the corner and saw that the trio she was supposed to pick up were right down the street. "Hey!" she shouted out the window as she honked the horn.

Pulling up next to the group, she stepped out of the car, "Need a lift?"

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

"Crash?" Alex thought for a second. All this chaos has seemed to dull him to a little bit of property damage. His old hide out did collapse after all.

"OH!, right, that." He said finally, "Resha was a little mad at me, and she shot a javelin in my direction. No big deal, she missed me."

Oh, that sounded bad. Like we crazy people are so used to trying to impale each other. "You'll have to meet her to understand."

Oh, that sounded like she's some kind of crazy bitch. "She's really not so bad really, just a bit stressed at the moment."

There, that should straighten things out. Oh wait, but what if he tries to to go and make friendly with her and she happens to be in one of her moods. "But, just to be safe, if you happen to meet her, try your best not to irritate her. Don't want to end up a shish kabob."

Oh great, now he thinks she's a crazy bitch again. Damn. "Well dont-"

Oh hey it's a distraction! "Uh... hi... boss? I'm guessing you were already told about the hospital incident?" asked the distraction formerly known as Anton.

"Oh, right. Kane filled me in on the whole mess."

"Resha was a little mad at me, and she shot a javelin in my direction. No big deal, she missed me."
"You'll have to meet her to understand."
"She's really not so bad really, just a bit stressed at the moment."
"But, just to be safe, if you happen to meet her, try your best not to irritate her. Don't want to end up a shish kabob."

Alex seemed to be having trouble describing this Resha chick, maybe she was PMSing or something? Well... do chicks really have anything else to blame being emotional o-- oh wait, right. There's a lot of crazy shit going on, and Zane recalled he's just lucky he's not part of the body count. Clenched his fists at this realization.

"Well dude, I'll try to be as nice as I ca--" Zane started, before being interrupted by another coming into the living room.

"Well, looks like the chauffeur has come back to pick us up." Vincent said, already making his way to the back seat of the car to put the still-unconsious Ainlisle in, "Before anyone says anything, I call shotgun."

"Oh, right. Kane filled me in on the whole mess."

Are you going to inform them about that ice spirit?

No. She's my problem. I don't need to involve these people. I just need to know what we're going to be doing from here.

"Right. So we've taken care of that creature, but what will we be doing from here? I mean, there's plenty of other bad shit that must be going on out there, but at the same time, being out in the open may end up making us targets for the military."

---

"Ya'll need a lift?"

Steve looked at the rubble from the battle that had just taken place. The military wasn't just dicking about here. If they knew how to take these things out, they sure as hell would be able to.

"Sure, we'll take you up on that offer. The name's Steve, and the moron over there is Bob. Mumble SWAT team."

"I suppose in times like these, it's necessary to join forces with the enemy, no matter how Red and freedom hating they may be..."

---

"Rui?! Why are you ignoring me for that guy? You aren't into that sort of thing, are you?! Come oooonn!!!"

Alice stopped, sensually moving her hands over her "body."

"Come on, Rui! It's probably your first time, but I'll be gentle. Tee hee. Trust me, this fuck will just be to die for, honey."

"Shotgun? Yeah sure, just buckle her up." Diana sat back in the driver's seat, making sure everyone was ready to go, and took off down the street.

"Sorry about the wait, hope you all didn't get too wet. Luckily we have someplace to dry off." She took a look at the fuel gauge, "this thing isn't going to be anything more then dead weight if we don't get some gas soon..." she looked in her mirror at the cold, wet, unconscious Ainlisle, "well, I suppose it can wait."

-----

"Right, the military." Alex sat down in a chair, "I get the feeling that most of us will have a problem killing another flesh and blood human being, so we should keep our contact with them to a minimum."

Alex pulled another bottle of vodka and a glass out of a shadow on the table, then chuckled a bit, "I don't have to get up to go to the fridge anymore."

He poured a glass, "We have some means of surveillance, I can get a pretty good picture of what's going on around town, but my eyes get strained, and looking at too many places at once only makes it worse. Kane can detect vibrations, so that should at least give us a general idea if something big is happening somewhere." Alex takes a drink, "So to lower the chances of us catching their eye's, we should try to limit our actions. Probably to thinks we can't count on the military to take out for us."

Alex sat back in his chair, "That is of course if they aren't already tipped off about us."

After walking for some distance, the sound of gunshots are getting louder.

'i hope there are still people there, alive and still humans'

He picks up the pace and half-running from cover to cover towards what seems to be a military outpost which are currently under attack by some centipedes like creatures

He lost almost all memory about himself, and the only things he can remember was his patrol mission. And it seems his skills with guns, explosives and other military trainings are not lost too, which is good.

He decided to move to the outpost's gate, runs like being chased by demons from hell while taking potshots at the centipedes like creature, mimicking what the others in the outpost did.

As soon as the car arrived, Vincent called shotgun. It made Lucia wonder about the origin of that statement. Perhaps the shotgun used to be customarily kept in the glove compartment of cars? Maybe the front seat was the optimal position to use a shotgun from, given you were in the car while using it. It was an odd statement, but by the time she was done thinking about it they had been in the car for a few minutes already. She shook her head, as if to dispell the familiar lapse of concentration, and spoke up.

"Is everyone okay back at the safe place? Some people got hurt, right?" She didn't have much else to say, but she felt odd being so silent. She never did get a chance to talk to Diana before, either, but breaking the ice wasn't something she was alien to.

Right - she would be friendly and inviting of conversation.
"..Is your friend alive?"

"I'm not to sure, I had to leave as soon as I got there, so I'm not all to sure. We managed to put the wounded up in beds and everyone else has a warm place to stay at least. That's gotta be better than the rain." Diana said smiling at the girl in the back seat through the rear view mirror, trying to reassure her. "I don't know where that one girl you were talking to got off to though." Diana sighed, "I really should of kept an eye out for her..."

"...Is your friend alive?"

"...Well, she was alive when I left her, and that's all I can really say." Diana started to tear up. "I... I guess I really shouldn't of taken her with me, huh?"

After several hours, Resha had succeeded in getting her metallic body to roughly obey her. It had started with her toe, slowly gaining enough control over it's function to bend it back and forth.

After that it was just a matter of working up. Fingers, elbows, ankles... She couldn't move very fast still, and each movement brought with it the screech of bending metal, but she could move again.

She just sounded like a rusty robot.

It was with that forewarning of her arrival that she lurched out of the bathroom, her wet clothes clinging to the solid metal of her body as she forced her way down the hall and into the living room where Alex and Zane were resting.

Despite her condition and the intense look of concentration she wore as she focused on keeping herself moving and balanced, her overall mood was victorious - almost pleased with herself. She stopped on the threshold of the living room, standing straight and planting her arm firmly against the wall to keep herself from tilting one way or another.

"Something smells like shit." She stated simply, "Whose the new guy?"

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

"Very well then." The contractor agreed with a small smile, "Now then, if my senses do not deceive me, it appears your base is currently being ravaged by some sort of giant centipede creatures." She turned towards the door, idly motioning for Lily to follow, "I'm something of a pacifist, so I have no vested interest in fighting them myself. Do try to aim for their feelers, however - It's their main method of navigation and communication."

And for all the world, the little girl walked out of the room as if she owned it. "Lily, I have a use for your body yet. Don't dally." She called back, disappearing out into the rain once more.

With the human forces signed to her cause, if push came to shove, she would at least have a chance at taking the artifact by force... Still, it would be a good idea to see if she could find anyone else of value that could be arrayed against Alex and his group at her signal.

Professor 'risa always said there was no kill like overkill to get something done, after all.

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

Hey. Hey.

Whatever the thing had been that she saw, it was talking to her now. That was bad, very bad - No way she could tell her family about it now... Maybe her friends could help? Give her a place to stay until she figured it out?

Hey. Hey girl, Listen. Hey!

She clinched her eyes shut, why wouldn't it stop talking to her? You're cracking up pretty easily, we got bigger things to do than sit here and listen to you mope.

Even the voice was being mean to her! She angrily yanked her sleeve up and glared at where the scales under her skin were, a pair of bright eyes and light blue skin stared back at her impatiently. God, working with you is gonna suck, but I guess I'm stuck with it. Listen up, I'm only explaining this once!

The tone caught her off guard, but the young girl nodded reluctantly as she got up, already walking towards her friend's house. You're pretty useless, so I'll be the brains. The voice paused, Come to think of it, you're very damned useless, so I'll be the brawn to.

She could hear humming in agreement with itself, but none of this was sounding good. From today on, you're my slave! Understand? Oh that definitely wasn't good. Finally got some way out of that damned puddle those people called a home, and I'm not passing this up... We're gonna the conquer world!

Not good, not good at all. She knocked on the door of the apartment her friend was living in currently, waiting anxiously for it to open. Well, I am anyway... After a few moments it did open to reveal a confused brunette, "What are you doing here this late? Are you okay?"

WORLD DOMINATION, BABY!

The girl burst into tears on cue and buried herself into her brunette friend. "No, I am not okay."

“Ah, there’s a portal right there. This myth world is getting boring, not much challengers. And I’ve purified all the ones I wanted to anyways. There’s probably a bountiful of people in the human world. In Mumble... Where it all started...”

Muerte jumped off from a cliff, he dived into the seemingly small portal. It closed off as his legs managed to barely enter it.

Muerte then walked calmly out of the portal, sword unsheathed, ready for anything that jumps at him. “Rainy... Just like how I remembered it before I left that day. It felt like years has passed since I’m back. Hm, now where am I?” Muerte looks around, surveying his location.

He then began to walk a few, until he nears a gate. “Is this a military outpost? Hmm...” Suddenly, Muerte hears gunshots firing. “Ah! Prey... Yahaha!”

Muerte walks towards where he heard the gunshots. He stands as he watches a man running and shooting down centipede like creatures. “Poor creatures. Being killed by human weapons, not being liberated by my sword. Well, he looks like he’s having trouble, so I shall help him.”

Muerte begins his attack and runs towards the creatures. “I am Muerte Mort and I shall liberate you from this demonic disease!” Muerte slashes at the centipede creatures. Muerte then walks up to the man shooting at the creatures. “Greetings, let me cut down these demons, since I am the only one capable of liberating them.” Muerte smugly smiles as he holds out his hand. “As previously stated, I am Muerte Mort, who are you?”

When he's getting nearer to the outpost while shooting the creature's legs nearest to him, he saw mangled and mutilated bodies of soldiers scattered on the ground, at that instance everything seems unreal, people shooting and dying horrible death fighting against something they can't bring down no matter how much munitions are used against them.

When he came to his senses, he realized he has stopped moving, out of ammo and one of the centipede's tail is swinging at him.

"CRAAAP!!"

But he instinctively managed to dodged it by diving to the ground and his face landed in someone's spilled brains.

"argh, groosssss"

And as he try to stand up and look back fearing the creatures might attack him again, he saw a man, wielding a sword, holding out his hand to him and asked for his name.

"Ah, i.. i don't remember who i am, anyway, thanks for the help uhm Mr....."
And he shake his savior's hand with his right hand after holstering his gun, while wiping out brain fragments and blood on his face with his other arm.

“Ah, amnesia. Poor man. I shall call you hopeless man number one. I do hope I don’t have to liberate you someday. You seem like a good, strong man. Anyways, you seem like you know where to go, so I shall follow you for the time being.”

Muerte looks around. “Am I right to assume this place is deserted? Could there be other people around? If so, I suggest our next course of plan should be to find other people. These other people, if there are any, must be fighting more of these creatures. And my sword is hungry for more blood. And I must do my duty of liberating as much people as I can.”

I do wonder if that golden boy is here somewhere... I want to see how strong he is now. He’s one person I want to liberate so much. He’s interesting, and one of the few preys that got away...

Muerte looks back at the man. “Well then partner. What do you say? Where to go next?”

"I need to find someone that knows me, anyone that wears the same uniform is fine."

Hopeless man number one look then look at his clothes and found out that his name tag is burned and no tag on his person either.

"well we should meet up with whoever shooting the guns over there and oh, what should i call you, erm.. partner?"

“Ah I see. Then we shall scour this whole place for at least a living being with the same uniform.”

Muerte looks at the man peculiarly as he looks at his clothes. Muerte spots the burned nametag. “Hmm, what a weird fellow. Must’ve gotten into a rough fight or something... Maybe... He fought that golden boy. He did have fire powers, and that tag is burned off”, Muerte said to himself in a quiet voice. “I can’t ask him though, he lost his memories. I shall wait until he gets a hint of his memories back, and then I’ll ask.”

"well we should meet up with whoever shooting the guns over there and oh, what should i call you, erm.. partner?" Muerte heard his new acquaintance say.

“Ah, you... Didn’t listen to me saying my name? Well, I have no problems telling it again... My name is Muerte Mort! I guess you can refer to me as Muerte. Well, lead the way, partner.”

Muerte then followed his new companion, hopeless man number one.

Diana parked the car outside of the safe house and stepped out of the car. Moving towards the backseat, she opened the door and took the unconscious Ainlisle in her arms.

"Come one, lets get some rest." She said to her two conscious companions.

She opened the door, "We're back." she said to whoever was awake to listen. "I'm just going to take her to a room lay her down and then go check on Minnie." She walked right past the group, obviously tired and took the girl to one of the empty rooms.

"Alright, Night then Diana." Alex said back to her.

"I'm pretty sure the smell was Kane. He came in smelling rather bad earlier. Oh, and the new guys are Anton and Zane." Alex said pointing at the two of them respectively. "Anton helped us get you out of that stasis you were in, and I assume Zane helped with the fight earlier this evening."

"ah right, Mwerte, might have missed it, you know, gunshots and ears are not in good terms, let's go"

Hopeless Man #1 picked up a nearest automatic rifle and some mags from the soldiers' corpses and start running to the outpost accompany by Muerte.

Zane looked in the direction of the hall as he heard something metal sounding approach. A woman came down the hall, in wet clothes.

I guess that's the chick he was talking to earlier? Oh, Alex introduced Zane for him already.

"Nice to meet ya, miss," he said, his usual friendly grin on his face.

He nodded towards Diana as she walked through, and then looked back to Alex.

"The fight..? Oh! No bro. I happened to find my way over shortly after I guess," he scratched his face thoughtfully. " The only thing I did was help bring Miss Athena back."

"Athena?" Resha muttered disbelievingly, "Like, greek goddess Athena?" The urge to just roll her eyes was strong, but she mastered it quickly.

"Right, one more troop to our army of misfits. I'm not surprised anymore." She slowly moved one foot forward, the sound of twisting metal making sure the motion was anything but stealthy. "I'll meet the new additions later. Alex, are there any open spaces around here where I won't draw too much attention?"

A... robot walked into the room.

Wait, that's not right. Some sort of metal golem? Wait... this girl... she's Resha, the one who had been a bunch of weapons. She had been normal, and naked, for the brief time he had seen her earlier... But now... Well, she looked a bit... stiff.

Alex said you helped get this lady back from her previous predicament. Isn't that a bit of a lie?

Shut up, there were tanks involved. I kind of almost sort of attempted to help.

"Hi, name's Anton. And you must be Resha.."

He extended his hand for a shake, then immediately realized his mistake. She seemed to be having trouble moving, and shaking her hand right now seemed like it could wind up being... painful.

---

"Oh hey, before we go anywhere, looks like there are more of those mantipedes!"

"Ah, let us not waste anytime on that shabby looking chum. Rescuing him may leave us exposed to The Poor. Let us just be on our way with our Russian chariot."

"Bob, where in the hell did you get that top hat anyways? And stop speaking like that."

"Ahaha, for a man servant boy you have guts to speak back to me."

"Goddammit Bob, try to be serious. We have an armed hobo and some sword wielding nut approaching."

"And what could you yokels do for someone of my stature?" asked Bob, adjusting his top hat with one hand while using the other to address the two men nearby.

Diana placed Ainlisle down on a bed in an unoccupied room. She put a hand to the girl's neck to feel her pulse. "Oh good, still alive." Diana said to herself with a sigh of relief. "Guess you're just exhausted huh? I don't blame you. Kinda been a long day."

"Alright," Diana said sitting up, turning to the night stand and writing a note.

Come see me down the hall if you need anything.
-Diana

Seemed friendly enough. Everyone else seemed tired or busy, and it would suck to wake up with no one to talk to. "Time to go see how Minnie is doing." She stepped out into the hall and made her way to her room.

"Oh, well thanks anyways," Alex said to Zane, "Can't leave our wounded in the streets after all."

He turned to Resha, who obviously got over her stiffness and was walking around once again. "Well you seem to be feeling better."

"A good open space huh..." Alex repeated her last statement while thinking of such a place. "Well, there is an empty lot behind the alley out back. Should be plenty of space. And the military is most likely focusing the majority of its attention on cleaning up the mess that monster from earlier made. As long as you don't make any sonic booms or mushroom clouds, it should be fine."

Alex held his chin in his hand while he was thinking. "But I don't want anyone going out alone anymore. Too dangerous. Everyone should at least pair up from now on, so have someone go with you."

"No promises." She muttered, nodding towards Anton appropriately as he greeted her. "You can come if you want, Anton. I doubt the buddy system really applies to things that can't bleed though."

She snorted as she walked away, a wry smile making it's way across her face at the self-depreciating humor. All she had to do was leave and circle about for the alley... Simple enough.

Lucia was somewhat quiet for the rest of the car ride after realizing the gravity of her statement, since Diana didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. She began to take in the situation once again, now that she had time to do so. She wasn't always aware of details, but she was good at picturing the full spectrum of events taking place when she tried to.

Serious injury and death was a definite possibility. What was happening in this city was no game, and it was perhaps only now she realized this on a personal level when both Cindy and Ainlisle collapsed during the battle. It was sobering, and not at all what she expected when she found out about the myth world. Despite the disappointing reality, she refused to let herself think of absconding - at least, not while she still had a reason to be here in the first place.

She shook these grim thoughts from her head quite quickly when they arrived back at the safehouse. She nodded at Diana to the suggestion of taking a rest. Though still mentally filled with energy, her body was physically worn from what she put it through today.

Entering the house, she saw Alex who, as she understood, was the leader of the group, talking to what appeared to be a statue holy monkeys it moves.
Since they were all having a nice conversation on their own, she contained her excitement. But only barely. When the statue of the pretty lady walked back down the hallway, whether or not she was out of earshot yet, Lucia dashed over to Alex. "Did you see that? Did you see that?? She was talking! Who was that? Who made it?"


"Are you not feeling well?"
"Mmrmph."
"Damaged?"
"Who ya callin'... damaged?
...
Oh. I'm unconscious again aren't I."
"Yes."
"I haven't heard from you in a while. Do you just do nothing over there?"
"I protect the mountain."
"Right, so you just do nothing over there. Don't worry about me, just a bit drunk, I guess."
"Drunk?"
"I... my brain is damaged. Temporarily."
"Oh."
Kuldr was situated in the same spot he is always in. It was a relatively uneventful scenery, starkly contrasting the state of Mumble. There was an eerie silence surrounding the mountain, save for the wind rustling the trees once in a while.
To Kuldr, however, it wasn't as uneventful. He felt the individual movement of everything touching the ground around the mountain, almost reaching the perimeter of the city. It was a sense that still amounted to white noise, but there was occasionally something more attention-grabbing.
"It's so damned weird that you feel all of that. What is that one over there?"
"The old man."
"What"
"You remember him. He has visited the mountain every so often since we met him."
"That's kinda weird too. Why don't you do somethin about it?"
"Not a threat. It's an old man."
"Okay, I didn't need that back-talking. Since when do you even do that?"
"Yesterday."
Creeeeak. Thump. Creeeeak. Thump.
"I don't know, that sounds kind of suspi- oh what the hell is that."
Creeeeak. Thump.
"It's so loud, you don't hear this?!"
"Hear what?"
Creeeeak.
Kane jolted up, splintering part of the bathtub he had been laying in. He was completely drenched, having left the shower on the entire time. At least he didn't seem to smell like shit anymore. The noises continued down the hallway - something like the sound of twisting metal, followed by a heavy step on the floor. The latter didn't make that much of a noise, but Kane felt the vibration vividly.
He got out of and turned off the shower to see what all that noise was, all but forgetting his conversation with the golem.

"I doubt the buddy system really applies to things that can't bleed though."

Anton retracted his hand and watched Resha slowly begin to walk away.

"All the same, I think I'll go with you. Bleeding may not be a problem for you, but for all we know there'll be some nut job whose power is melting stuff."

"Ha, wouldn't that be my luck."

It wasn't long before they had made their way out of the house and circled back, leaving Resha standing under the rain and staring at her arm in an odd manner. The rain had turned streaks of her face to steel, where the water from the shower had failed to reach earlier - Causing an even more metallic golem like appearance.

Still, that didn't seem to bother her much. A slight 'tch' was her only reaction as it happened. "Just so you don't think I'm standing under the rain because I feel like it," She began, the sound of metal twisting as she looked over her shoulder at Anton, "This change is something new, and I don't yet know what else I can do."

She clenched her fist, flinching a little as metal grated against metal. "I might be a shapeshifter." She slowly unclenched her fist, and then tried to partially clench again. "Or some kind of steel statue? I've got no clue, but these are things I need to find out."

She turned to look at Anton fully, "So the name of the game is to figure what I am, and more importantly, what I can do."

"Well try your best," Alex said after her. "Moving all these wounded before people show up to see what happened would be almost impossible."

"Hey, how is everyone?" Diana asked, closing the door to the hall behind her.

"Oh," Artemis cried as if snapping out of a trance, "Well, they look uncomfortable, but they seem fine. Haven't woke up yet though..."

Diana came over to feel the unconscious girl's foreheads. Fevers seemed to have gone down. "Don't worry, they need some rest after all that." She let out a long yawn, "You should get some rest too, I'll keep an eye on Minnie and Athena."

Artemis tilted her head and smiled worryingly, "Di, you look much sleepier then then I am..."

"Commies? Dems fighting words where I come from, man-"
"Contacts! Contacts!"
"Shoot, just get yer asses in already. Forget bout em."

And then the two were dragged into the APC by force. There was, unfortunately, no ice cream as promised. There was booze though, and quite a decent stock of it. Not exactly 'allowed' during duty, but...

"Ya'll want some Samuel Adams, fellas?"

A black soldier, carrying some heavy duty gear, handed one of the two a beer. The one... not wearing a tophat. He went back to the window and started firing his rifle toward the mantipedes, shaking his head and asking himself what's wrong with the other fella.

The vehicle drove to a safer position, closer to the gates. The soldier extended a hand toward Steve.

"Sup bro. Name's Samuel Cole Jackson, US Army Ranger."

The soldier cracked his neck. "Man, all these motherfucking centipedes in this motherfucking city. Gotta hand it to you guys, man, ya'll badass. SWAT team's the shit."
__________

The 'mantipedes' look pretty suppressed from the looks of it. There were just enough soldiers and manpower to hold the monsters back without overdoing it. Of course, it wasn't too difficult; a hail of lead tends to suppress things pretty well, unless they're impervious to ammunition.

Which, of course, these things are, but not completely.

If that don't work, they usually aren't using enough gun.

There's nothing particularly special to note that changed from the tons of bullets being fired at giant centipedes. Maybe it changed by about a couple pounds in terms of mass, but the situation remained just about the same.
__________

Another night, eh?

Jesus, Rina sure fucked up the lens. Cracks just everywhere... and these were heavy duty too. He purposely gave this to her because nothing short of a truck can break these things.

... Friends who have the ability to set your fire extinguisher on fire, and, by contact, he rest of your house... well, you try to find some way to deal with it.

He'll check the film later. They take some time to develop anyway, and he needs to relax. This thing was old. Like, damn old, since he brought this a long time ago. Still using photographic film, this needs some more preparation than the usual 'point, click, print' thing. He locked the door to the dark room from the outside and made his way out. Don't want any accidents.

It's difficult to sleep after a few naps. Damn difficult. Doesn't help when things keep poking around inside his body, bones keep moving about, joints just plain hurting... Brain of his is still fucked up, probably has something to do with those weird hormones or some shit.

He went outdoors, just on the stoop. A small flicker of flame and a stick of tobacco did a man good sometimes. Ain't much to health lose at this point, really.

Off the corner of his eye, he noticed some guy leaning against a light-post, eyeing him. Probably tired himself too. It's late at night, and half the city probably can't sleep.

Well, the normal ones, at least.

"So the name of the game is to figure what I am, and more importantly, what I can do."

Anton had followed Resha into the rain, watching as the tiny droplets that fell onto her body gave her more of a metallic look.

"Hm, maybe your skin changes based on the elements? Well, if we're just going to see what you can do right now, try punching a wall or something. Seems like you'd have super strength in your current state."

---

"Rui, this guy seems pretty spacey. Why are you wasting time trying to talk with this guy?"

Alice had finally made her way over to Rui. She stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for him.

"C'mon Rui, I know you can't resist these!"
Alice hefted up her breasts, trying to entice Rui.

"... You know you want toooooo....."

---

"Ah, thanks for the beer man. I'm more of a Budweiser man myself, but with all the shit that's been going on in this city I'm happy with any damn beer."

"Ah, no beer for me? No matter. A man of my status prefers only the finest of wines."

"Oh really, Bob? What's your favorite kind of wine then?"

"... A '78 Zeppelindel."

"... That's about the answer I was expecting. Don't mind Bob, fellas. He may be an ASSHOLE, but he's almost usually reliable."

"Super strength?" She responded skeptically, "I don't feel any stronger." She looked at her hand and shrugged, clenching it into a fist and extending arm out towards the wall.

"...More over, how would I punch something when I can barely move my arm?" A hint of frustration crept into her tone momentarily before she exhaled and shook her head. "Tch, I'll do it anyway."

She deliberately retracted her arm, extending and recoiling it several times as she slowly started to get a feel for what kind of force she really needed to move her leaden body now. Intense concentration marred her face while the information was gathered, but after several moments it seemed as if she had figured out what she needed.

"All right..." She drew her fist back, "Full power!" the metal along her arm contorted as her arm lashed out at a speed vaguely similar to 'fast' and slammed into the wall with a metallic clang... That was entirely drowned out by the sight and sound of a jagged metallic sheet exploding out from her shoulder blade like some sort of haphazardly welded on wing.

It's extra weight served only one real purpose, and that dragged Resha straight back down to the ground in an inelegant squawking heap - Her hand still extended towards the air in a fist.

"Not super strength... but it's progress."

Leon turned to greet Rui, but before words could leave his opened mouth, his jaw locked at the sight of a splendidly attractive woman making her move on Rui.

Whoa, check out that fine piece of ass..

"Um...Am I interrupting something?" He turns to Rui..

"Also...I don't believe we have met, my name is Leon." He then walks over to the woman, grabs her hand, and kneels down,

"Will you marry me?" He says blatantly without hesitation.

Helpless Man #1 and his new partner reached the military outpost and greeted by loud explosions and gunshots.By the looks of it the military managed to stop the centipede's movement by destroying its legs, but it still capable of trashing around with its whole bulletproof body. They try to kill it with all they have, bullets, explosives even some of them are throwing rocks or anything hard they can get their hands on.

Helpless Man #1 start shooting as soon as he spotted the centipedes with the rifle, it's loaded with AP bullets and after 3 shots he realized that all of the bullets are being deflected by the centipede's carapace.

"Mwerte, partner, can you kill it like the one before?" putting down his rifle Helpless Man #1 turned his head behind and asked Muerte to kill the centipede.
And suddenly the trashing centipede's tail swing at Helpless Man #1.

Helpless Man #1 eyes suddenly turned blue, and he raised his rifle again without looking or aiming and pulled the trigger.
A plasma-charged bullet, faster than any bullets launched by normal means, leaving a bright blue trails as it left the rifle barrel and penetrated into the centipede's and exploded, decapitating the centipede's head and turning half of its body segments into mass of flesh splattered around the outpost.

"Muerte, partner, can you kill it like the one before?" asked his new partner, before putting down his rifle. “Ah, you got it, partner.” But before Muerte could act on his partner’s order, the centipede’s tail suddenly swung at Helpless Man #1.

“Shit, no! Helpless man!!!! Fucking dirty beast, I shall slay you.”

But before Muerte could even attack, he noticed his partner had already killed it. His partner shot some plasma bullet at the centipede’s head, and the head exploded, decapitating it and turning it into many body segments splattered all around the area.

“Ah, nice job, if I do say so myself.” Muerte then turned to the soldiers. “Hello fellow people. Nice work on stopping this demon in its track. I am Muerte. This guy here who saved you all, is Helpless Man #1, he has lost his memories. If you’d be so gracious as to help him, please do so. And also, direct me to more monsters, my blade shall send them to the heaven they deserve to be, as they are foul demonic atrocities.”

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

Rui couldn’t believe what was going on in front of him. The evil ice girl had just come up to him, trying to goad him into having sex with her. But Rui knew better than to try and take her bait.

"Um...Am I interrupting something?" Leon asked Rui.

“Please, help me, this girl... She’s evil!” But as Rui said that, Leon had already made his way towards the evil girl, Alice.

"Also...I don't believe we have met, my name is Leon." Leon said this, as he grabbed her hand and kneeled down. He then suddenly asked her, "Will you marry me?"

Rui was dumbfounded by what had just happened. Rui didn’t know how to react. But one thing was for sure on his mind; he had to save Leon from this woman’s clutch. How? Leon was obviously entranced by this woman.

“Dang it all. I’m so useless. Damn this rain. She has the obvious advantage over me. Leon... Snap out of it. Leon, damn it Leon. You’re the—“ Rui then looked over. He noticed a girl, the same girl from the hospital. “Hey... You’ve been quiet this whole time... Aren’t you gonna help your friend?”

Wonder why she hasn’t talked this whole damn time... She may be the only one useful in this situation to even be able to defeat this ice bitch... I don’t even know her powers though, so maybe not...

“Oi, answer me already. Help us out here damn it, or else Leon’s as good as dead.”

------------------------------------------------------
Jessie had gone to bed, after her parent’s urging for her to get some rest. She was tucked under her bed, but found that she couldn’t sleep. She felt a bit cold. She didn’t know what this meant, but she took it as some omen.

“Rui... I hope you’re all right... I hope you’re safe...”

Jessie then turned the other way, still trying to sleep. She closed her eyes. After some time, she still couldn’t sleep.

“Gosh darn it, why... Why didn’t I just say that I wanted to be with Rui ... That ice girl... Is she even alive after that hospital crash ... It feels like she’s not, but there’s no way she could be.”

Jessie then widened her eyes. “Wasn’t she ... a ghost or something...? Then ... She could’ve stayed alive, since... she’s already dead... Rui’s... in trouble! I can feel it. But damn it, I’m in a bad situation. I can’t worry my parents even more by going out. I can’t just say, ‘my friend’s in trouble’ all willy nilly. I’m stuck. And ... I just can’t tell my parents about my powers. I wonder what they’d think of me...”

Jessie lay there, still pondering on how could she help Rui.

Not quite the brightest people.

All guns now pointed toward the two strangers. The closest to the outpost spoke on a loudspeaker: "Hands where we can see them! Weapons down!"

That... wasn't quite the only problem.

Some of the centipedes were incapacitated, yes, but not exactly 'dead'. Far from it, if what's in front of them is of any indication. The centipedes lying nearest to the gunner and the swordsman started flailing wildly about, throwing their entire masses across the street in crazed, almost haphazard motions. The helpless person found himself flung through the air and separated from his rifle, while the one wielding the sword was thrown against a metal light post.

The soldier in the APC didn't seem too confident. "Aww. Shit. Imma die first and this thing's gonna get flipped over, 'innit?"

More of them rose, one by one, each using their abdomen as a prop. Those feelers of theirs started to vibrate in unison, as if pressed for an attack. Those faces of theirs didn't look too happy either...

And then the little APC got its shit flipped, killing both Jackson and the person manning the turret.
__________

"Well, business calls. Thanks for the hospitality, boys~" she winks with a smile. "Do make sure you take care of yourselves."

The girl follows close behind the Contractor, not uttering a single word.

The colonel looked pretty satisfied. Those two were quite something else. He shook his head with a small grin on his face, grabbed his radio and began relaying orders.
__________

Mk14 EBR, selective fire military rifle. Used by a squad's designated marksman. Effective to about 800 meters with optics, firing 750 rounds per minute.

"Aim for the feelers. Help those guys out."
"Copy."

And with a few words, the odds were changed and the tide has turned.

Only slightly crestfallen at the fact she was ignored, Lucia refocused her attention down the hallway where the statue lady left to.
She was intent on making a new friend.

Before leaving the room, Kane decided to dry himself off and find new clothes. He removed his shirt, noting that Resha still had his jacket from earlier, and looked at his torso for the first time since the merge began.
The aberration had since spread from just his arms to all the way across his torso, save the chest and stomach area. The way it was shaped around the edges, it was almost like it had been slowly creeping towards his center, one jagged formation at a time.
His shoulders were completely covered as well, forming spiky protrusions at the joints where it wasn't as settled, but almost smooth down the non-bending areas like his back.
It kind of bothered him to look at it for too long, much the same way one feels uneasy staring at one's own open wounds. He grabbed a random shirt from a dresser - the safehouse seemed to have had guests in the past - and put it on.

The creaking sounds had stopped a little while ago, but he went out in the hall to see anyway. A door was open to the back area to his left, and to his right-
"Hey Kane!!" Charging at him was an overly charged brunette. As he braced for impact, blinking at the sudden noise, she was suddenly gone. He turned back to his left to see her continuing down the hall, having lost no momentum. "There's a metal lady! You have to see!!"
"Metal lady...?" What the hell does that mean? The internal question was more rhetorical. With everything going on, it was probably exactly what she said it was.

Kane walked down the hall after Lucia, absent-mindedly wondering if the others made it back alright.


"Do you want to save him?"
A voice echoed in her mind. It was soft as a whisper, but the voice itself carried a tone of chained fury.
"You know you can. You have felt my strength."
The voice sounded like it could hardly contain itself enough to speak at such a subdued level.
"Release me, and know this strength again...or you will both perish."
It was not a suggestion, nor was it a threat. The statement was spoken as simply a fact.

In just mere moments, the soldiers surrounded Muerte and his companion. But that would soon change, as the thought to be dead centipedes around them rose up and flailed about, throwing Muerte against a metal light post and his companion flung in the air.

“Agh, damn it” Muerte said, the pain from being thrown against a metal post rang throughout his body. But, he managed to force his body to get up. “I... Must... KILL THEM ALL FOR TOUCHING ME!!” Muerte’s eyes lit up. He had a murderous intent, unseen until now showing. The act of touching him, possibly infecting him in his mind, along with attacking him and his companion was unforgivable. Muerte raised his sword and charged in.

“I shall kill you demonic beasts and send you to hell, instead of heaven!” The centipede still wailed about, but Muerte concentrated and managed to dodge each of its attack. Muerte then moved to slice the centipede into pieces. Muerte then looked at the others. In an instant, he bisected them. “That takes care of those evil creatures.”

Muerte then looked over to where the other soldiers were. More centipedes then rose up. Muerte noticed their feelers starting to vibrate. “Damn, those things could be dangerous, even for me.” Muerte then tried to escape from harm. Muerte ran far enough from the spot to be able to escape the attack and be able to attack them again, while also witnessing a couple of soldiers dying.

“Poor men. I hope you find yourselves in heaven. Well, I’ll just have to send those demonic bugs into the darkest levels of hell. Their actions are unforgivable.” Muerte then ran back, holding his sword tightly.

“Damn it Muerte, you’re hurting me. Stop gripping me tightly, you dick”

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

"Do you want to save him?"
A voice echoed in her mind. It was soft as a whisper, but the voice itself carried a tone of chained fury.
"You know you can. You have felt my strength."
The voice sounded like it could hardly contain itself enough to speak at such a subdued level.
"Release me, and know this strength again...or you will both perish."
It was not a suggestion, nor was it a threat. The statement was spoken as simply a fact.

“Fenrir... I... I want to... Rui...” Jessie sounded scared. She didn’t have any choice. In her mind, saving Rui was far more important than anything else. She could disobey her parents, worrying them to death, if it meant to be with Rui and save him. “But... That incident... I remember... Everything that had happen...”

Jessie felt reluctant to ask for this power, if it meant more people dying.
“That... Doesn’t matter now. Fenrir. Please. I’ll do anything. I’ll release you.” Jessie got out of her bed and went straight out of the door, not fearing of any sounds she would make.

“As long as I can save Rui, as long as you can give me the power, please. I beg you, Fenrir.”

One feeler, two feeler, three feeler, four...

Accurate, controlled bursts. While the swordsman was busy running his mouth, the infantry was busy lowering the counts by more than just a few.

"Scratch one."
"Is that all of em?"

Likely... not. The amount those things went from two to maybe more than half a dozen. Granted, the recent ones were smaller, and the larger ones...

... Weren't there just two to start with?
__________

Noa was sitting on the porch when off the corner of his eye, he saw an old guy wearing a long coat approaching him. The guy had this odd look about him, as if he was down on his luck.

The old man stares at him for a minute, inspecting his eyes, his bandages. The old man was sizing him up with those two odd eyes of his. For what reason, he hasn't a clue.

"Hey, is anything wro-"

"You're one of them, aren't you?"

Difficult to respond with a hand in a vise-grip around your neck, hanging a foot or so above the ground and gasping for air. When he found himself able to breath again, it was when he was in a Noa-sized imprint just to the side of the building opposite the old man.

A fist just narrowly misses his head, breaking straight through the concrete and rebar with little effort. Alright, God knows what that thing would have done to his soft, just recently redeveloped skull...

A kick aimed toward this maniac's groin didn't help either...

In fact... it didn't even... hit point blank...?

Who was this bastard?

"Not super strength... but it's progress."

"Resha! Here, let me help you-"

Anton had rushed to the fallen Resha's side, ready to help her up. He stopped talking and tried lifting up the iron woman.

She was a very heavy lady.

"I think I'll let you get yourself up... But that thing on your shoulder... Maybe you can make blades and stuff come out. Some sort of metal manipulation."

Go-Go Gadget: Iron Wing That Makes Me Fall Over!

---

"Will you marry me?"

Ah, maybe the reason he's been so quiet is because he was stunned by my beauty? Even so..

"Hora hora, I see this cute one's interested in me? Why can't you see my beauty like this one does, Rui?"

With her ethereal hand, Alice caressed the man's face as he stood on one knee.

"You ARE cute, but I'm sorry, I've got my eyes on Rui. Unfortunately, he just seems fine with stomping all over my poor little ghost heart."

With a dejected sigh, Alice crossed her arms.

"Why must you hurt me so, Rui?"

---

"I think the battle may still be going on outside."

"What makes you say that, Steve?"

"The fact that our APC is now upside down."

The two, both seat belted in, simply sat there, letting the blood rush to their heads.

"Well Steve, it looks our world has been turned... upside down."

Steve turned to Bob, now wearing both a top hat and the shades he had donned for his latest pun. Without a word, Steve unbuckled himself, allowing himself to fall to the ground.

"Sounds like they're still fighting out there. ... Let's give it another 10 minutes before we exit get out of here."

"Well, if I can manipulate anything then it would be metal." She admitted with a sigh, Curling her arm back as she rolled over and tried to rise up to her feet again. "If nothing else, I do seem to have some kind of wing now."

She took a moment to steady herself, attempting to figure out the balance again. "Metal manipulation... All right, lets see if I can get this wing thing to not be useless." She stood there, concentrating, trying to will it to move... To no avail.

"How would I...?" She muttered to her self, shrugging her shoulder to relieve the soreness building up from the weight pressing down on her. Without any pre-warning, the metal sheet had extended in a flash of rending steel - Creating a wall of serrated steel almost five feet long.

Which, naturally, through off her balance and brought her tumbling back down to the ground. "Metal manipulation it is then." She sighed, her happiness with figuring it out warring with her irritation.

In just mere moments, the soldiers surrounded Muerte and his companion. Helpless Man #1 still possessed by his counterpart, didn't said anything and keep silent while looking at his surrounding and soldiers whose guns pointed at him. While his companion, Muerte, talk to them.

Suddenly centipedes around them rose up and flailed about, flung him to a ruined house.

Helpless Man #1 in his possessed state simply roll his body and landed on the roof, pulled out his sidearm which have no bullets in it, then aim it at the centipedes and start shooting out plasma pellets at them.

A hesitant silence followed the girl's plea. The laugh started slowly, building into a crescendo that would have shaken the room were it audible. In her mind, the sounds of chains rattled and snapped, and her vision was filled with blackness.

Collapsing on all fours, she was no longer conscious of her own actions. She gripped the floor in agony as she began to take on a more feral appearance, her cries shifting between screaming in fear and growling in frustration.

A voice echoed, as if in surround-sound, through her mind.
"You've made a mistake."


Lucia made it outside first. She stared in wonder at the metal statue lying on the grass. It had grown a wing as well!
"Look! Look!" She called out to Kane further down the hall. "I'm coming, what the hell are you-"
A metal figure lay on the ground. He blinked a couple of times in deja vu, but there was something very familiar about it.
"...Resha?"

A number of thoughts raced through his head at the realization, ranging from intrigue to panic, but he was only able to express one of them.
"...Were you always that shiny?"
His thought priorities weren't the best.

"Were you always as dense as a rock?" She shot back from the ground, hauling herself up again unsteadily and slowly trying to reflex whatever muscles she had used to make the wing move before.

"Something weird that happened when I got exposed to water... Maybe if I find fire I'll do something else, but until then I can apparently manipulate metal... Or something."

Her shoulder shrugged forward and the metal sheet of a wing curled in around her front like a shield, wrapping around all most in a complete circle.

She stayed that way for a moment before it shakily unfurled back out and sent a breeze of displaced air out along it's path. "But at least I'm not unconscious anymore, right Miracle Boy?"

As soon as Leon went through the space rift, she jumped in as well. Unlike Leon, she was able to land on her feet and not fall face first onto the ground. She glanced around for that Jessie girl, but seems like she was separated with her boyfriend, well who she assumed was her boyfriend. It seemed like they were a couple though.

"Will you marry me?"

As soon as she heard those words, she looked over at where the source of the voice came from. It was Leon; proposing to that weird ghost girl from lady. No wonder she suddenly felt colder. As if the rain didn't make it cold and wet enough already, now she was stuck with some strangers she barely knew in the freaking rain.

'Great. Just great. Just what I needed. A grown man that I helped, proposing to some ghost with a big butt.'

She shook her head with disappointment at Leon's lack of self-control. Oh how she wished for that Noel back already. At least he didn't propose to random strangers in the middle of nowhere. Well, hopefully he didn't.

Suddenly she felt the need to sneeze and brought her sleeve up to her face, but the cold of her soaked sleeve surprised her enough to stop her from sneezing. Great. Now she had that funny feeling in her nose. She really hated that feeling.

With a sigh, she walked up to Leon and kicked his back with her boot causing him to fall over.

"Shut up, dumbass. We don't have time for you to be proposing to random strangers, especially idiotic ghosts. If you really want to help, then find us a place to stay you idiot."

Normally, she wouldn't be so mean, but she was not in a good mood. Yes, the rain was nice, but not when you're outside in it for hours. She just hoped she hadn't caught a cold yet. That would be a major pain in the ass with weird monsters lurking about.

"Look. If we weren't out here stuck in the freezing rain and had just nearly died, then I wouldn't be complaining. If you're going to ask every girl you see with a big butt that passes by to marry you, then just bring Noel back. He'll probably be more helpful than you are right now."

She rubbed her temples and sighed. This was not a good time for her head to be hurting. What a wonderful this day turned out to be.

"You know what? Let's go discuss elsewhere, shall we? Somewhere that isn't soaking wet. I also suggest leaving that creepy ghost here."

Maybe her mood would improve if she wasn't being rained on while they talked. Leon was being ridiculous by proposing to a ghost and she had no idea what Rui was up to at the moment. Hopefully he wasn't falling for the ghost's antics either. Sure, she didn't have to stay with them, but if she went alone where would she go? It certainly wouldn't be smart to be wandering around this town alone, especially when she wasn't familiar with the city.

He smirked for a split second at the mention of his name. It had been a while since he heard the nickname. "I dunno, I think I liked you better unconscious if yer gonna be like that," he snapped back jokingly.

"But still, I never thought you'd also be..."
"Weird!" Lucia both interjected and completed the statement, in a tone subverting what would normally be an insult. She was simply beaming - having just now realized this was the same naked woman from earlier, the change in appearance was new and exciting. "So are you super strong? Bulletproof? Can you conduct electricity?" She rattled off a string of questions, small, nearly unnoticeable threads of static jumping across her skin in excitement. "Maybe you can fly with that wing!"

"I wouldn't know." Resha responded to the excited girl, casually trying to get used to how to move her wing during the conversation. "I can't move fast enough to check strength, I don't plan on being shot and getting struck by lightning is the last thing on my list of things to do."

She managed to stretch her wing out, moving her feet to keep her balance as it started to seriously drag her down with it's weight. "And flying seems out of the question, it's way to heavy. It'd be like Miracle boy over there taking to the skies."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, her eyes focusing with a terrifying clarity for a moment.

Kane.
High defenses.
Status... ?
Unknown.
Threat?
Unknown.
Power...
Unknown.
Tool.
Wing.


Her wing flapped forward rapidly, aiming to crash into Kane at a velocity and suddenness that would have have likely been able to flip a car.

Alex let out a quiet chuckle. "She's like a kid with a new toy," he said, only half aware that Zane was still in the room. Lucia's enthusiasm for everything new and shiny was rather refreshing in this somber environment.

The distinct sound of a lot of metal being put under a lot of stress could be heard from the back. "Hm, guess someone is making progress." Alex stood up and began to walk towards the rear exit. "You can come along too if you don't want to sit here alone." He said to Zane before continuing down the hall.

Diana was asleep leaning next to be bed. She was apparently much more tired then she let on. Artemis was just glad she was getting the rest she needed. But having a sleeping head of hair to brush and play with was also bonus.

After getting bored of the short blond locks she got it in her head to play with the long dark hair on Minnie's unconscious head. Getting in bed next to her, she closely examined the sleeping girl's hair.

"So pretty..." She said to herself as she started brushing Minnie's hair, humming a TV commercial jingle as she did.

"Oh Di," Minnie mumbled to herself, rolling over and wrapping her arm around Artemis, "You're so playful tonight..."

"Hehehe, I'm not Di silly," Artemis giggled.

Minnie's eyes popped open at the sound of the little girl giggling. "Oh crap..." she said to herself putting her hands up in the air and sitting up. "I didn't do anything, I have lawyers and stuff..."

"Bouncy..." the young goddess said to herself with awe.

"Huh?" Minnie looked down and noticed that the only thing covering the upper part of her body was some strategically placed bandages. "Hey Artemis, where did my PJ top go?"

"Oh that? It got bloody and torn so we threw it out. But I saved your robe," Artemis reached over to the side of the bed and pulled a floral pattern robe onto the bed. "It is pretty... I wish I could wear it..."

Minnie looked like she was talking with an annoying baby sister, "Well, I need it... So too bad." She snatched the robe from the pouting girl and threw it on.

Minnie leaned over to pick Diana up off the floor, but was obviously having trouble. "Damn," she said panting, "I need to work out more..." She said finally giving up and heading for the door. "She doesn't look that uncomfortable anyways.

-----

"I see you~" Jamie sang to himself as he sat on top of a building with a pair of binoculars. "Right address. Plentiful amount of freaks. Check and check." He lifted a radio to his mouth, "Violet Sparrow, come in Violet Sparrow. This is Beetle Churchill, I have found the location of the targets."

In a parking garage not to far from the safe house Viki and her current group of strong-arms sat around a tank with a small radio buzzing in reports from their man on the field. "Those names are really stupid, you know that right? And I really don't seem why they are necessary."

"Come on, can't you let me get my jollies if I have to sit in the rain." Jamie snickered over the radio. "Now are you going to shut up and let me give my report, or do I have to tell Grant you aren't playing nice?"

"Lets just get this over with..."

"Alright then Little Bird," Jamie began, obviously having more fun annoying her then he should. "I see four of them outside as it is. One made of metal, one with a rocky arm, an unimpressive looking guy, and a little girl. None of them match the description of this Alex fellow."

"Well? No visual confirmation yet? Aren't you supposed to be finding out if he is home or not?"

"It will get done. Don't worry your pretty little head."

Viki snickered. "You make a lot of promises for someone I haven't seen any results from. Why are you doing this again and not just me?"

"Because," Jamie started, standing up, "last time you and your little battalion went out all you did was make a bunch of noise. Even with a tank, you couldn't even take out any of his underlings. So the new plan is me." Jamie put his binoculars away. "Oh, and don't forget, I have super powers and you don't~" he teased in a sing song voice.

"Fuck off freak. These weird powers have been nothing but trouble for us."

"Sounds like jealousy coming from some powerless bird who misses her boyfriends attention. Now something seems to be happening, and I'm fed up with waiting. Turning the radio off, bye bye birdy."

Viki could be heard shouting obscenities up until Jamie powered down the radio and tucked it away in his backpack. He was already down the stairwell by the time he hung up on her, skipping merrily to his next destination. A large black locust was perched on his shoulder, buzzing away.

"You'll tell me when it's a good time, right bug?"

Kane barely had time to lift his arms up to guard his face before he was struck full-force with the wing. After all that mellow, unsure talk, he was caught completely by surprise at the sudden attack.

It hit him dead on and pushed him backwards through the safehouse hallway, though by reflex, he remained anchored to the ground by his feet. The resulting drag tore up the floor for a good ten feet into the hallway before he finally lost momentum.

Lucia's expression shifted from amazement, to surprise, to fear within 2 seconds of the attack. After another moment of staring at the spectacle, she turned towards Resha. Within the 3rd second, her expression shifted to anger. The sparks around her began to intensify, as if in response to her mood, and she clenched her fists. The clouds overhead started to darken as she shot a glare towards the metallic figure.

Kane was still in shock. It took him another few seconds to lower his arms, which chipped from that powerful blow. After coughing up a bit of blood, he stared up at his aggressor, partially in anger and partially in disbelief. It took him about three seconds to assess the situation, wondering if he had said something to anger her.

In the same way he couldn't think of any reason, he couldn't think of a proper response. He stood there, staring at her with a grave expression. He was still dazed from the blow - the human parts of his body took on huge strain from withstanding the blow - but this time he was ready for a second attack if it was required.

An uneasy silence swept over the tense situation, neither sure what to expect next.

Resha's eyes split between Kane and Lucia,

Kane.
High defenses.
Confirmed.
Status... ?
Tentative.
Ally.
Threat?
Negative.
Power...
Earth.


Girl.
Status?
Unknown.
Relation.
Ally. Kane.

Reassess.
Status.
Neutral.
Weapon.
Electric.
Threat.
Unknown.
Intentions...
Tentative.
Hos...ti...l-


Resha's eyes shifted completely to Lucia, taking in her angered posture and the sparks that were running across her skin.

Su..bd..u-

Like static in her own mind, the Resha's clarity faded and her higher thought clawed its way back onto the surface - She understood, intellectually, what had just happened. Like one would recall the events from a book they had read.

In that similar vein of recitation, she knew Lucia was angry, of what she had done to Kane for no reason other than he was an unknown and she had needed to test her capabilities.

"Kane?" She hazarded, her wing fluidly extending back to separate herself from Lucia in a defensive manner while she held view on Kane. Her voice was a far cry from her actions, and she had not connected that what she had struggled to do previously was almost a second nature now. Confused and unsure about what had actually happened, even though her memory played it back clearly... It was like watching it from third person.

She kept her eyes on Kane, she may not have anything to say to him right now, but - "Settle down, sparkie." She called out warningly across the metal sheet that is her wing, "I don't really want to hurt you." or get hurt myself.

"Yup, exactly like the Greek Goddess," Zane replied to the metal woman, his friendly smile unwavering.

"Oh, yeah, no problem!" he responded to Alex. He was glad to help somehow, even if it was just bringing someone back to the safehouse.

He blinked as a tiny brunette took off down the hall, and tilted his head curiously. She seemed kind of familiar... Wait no, how could she be? He didn't recall ever meeting her before... Maybe Hermes knows her? Well. Details. He'd figure it out later, maybe. If he remembered.

.....
.....

"Hm, guess someone is making progress." Alex had stood up and began to walk towards the rear exit. "You can come along too if you don't want to sit here alone."

Being adressed snapped Zane back to reality, he'd spaced out, having started to wonder if this same sort of thing was happening back home. Well, maybe it wasn't and this city was just weird. It hadn't stopped raining in the time he'd been here anyways...

"Alright!" he followed behind Alex towards the rear exit, hands behind his head. Wouldn't do to be alone around here anyways, he supposed. "So-- " the teenager began, only to be cut off by the stone dude from earlier being thrust into the hallway by something.

"Woah! Stone bro? What just...? " his eyes flicked from Kane outside to Resha.

Vincent watched the display in front of Alex's house, perched on top of the stone that held the Wendigo bone. The metal chick and the rock guy were having a little tussle as the others seemed to just amass around them. To him, it was extremely amusing.

"Damn, this is my kind of party!" he said loudly as he laughed, "Classic Rock verses Heavy Metal! This is awesome!"

A few witty comments were exchanged between Kane, Resha, and the Lightning Girl.

Just a bit of harmless teasing between the two.

... Harmless teasing immediately followed with harmful assault.

Anton ducked to the ground, avoiding the swing of Resha's blade wing.

She crashed into Kane, pushing him back into the safehouse. Lightning Girl looked pissed off, ready to test whether or not Resha could conduct electricity.

"Resha, what's wrong with you?!"

There's something... off about that woman. Something... too analytical.

---

"If you're going to ask every girl you see with a big butt that passes by to marry you, then just bring Noel back."

Alice, turned around, putting her butt towards the group.

"Oh, I don't think my butt's too big. I think it's just the right size! What do you think, Rui? Oh, and you too, Mr. Not Leon."

And if I have to hang around this bitch for much longer I'll just tear her goddamn head off.

"I also suggest leaving that creepy ghost here."

"Did I offend you or something? Jealous that this cute guy's proposing to me?"

Before Alex could reach the end of the hall, Kane came skidding back down. Resha, looking cold and empty was standing at the other end of the attack, not saying a word. Maybe this had something to do with what that contractor was saying earlier. About her being a weapon.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked Kane, now with his guard up and his gaze fixed on his attacker.

If she was really awakening as a weapon like the girl said, then things could get ugly fast. Lucia seemed like she was ready to retaliate for Kane's sake as well. Probably not the best idea to have a death match on our hands.

"What the hell is going on!?" Minnie shouted coming out of her room, visibly frightened from all the noise. "I wake up half naked in a strange room and find a battle royale in the hallway... Di's friends are obviously crazy. What is wrong with you people?"

Ignoring the woman for the time being, Alex stepped in front of Kane. Resha has seemed to come to her senses for the time being. But the little girl was still ready to strike. "We aren't going to have a problem here, are we people?" he said addressing the crowd.

"Damn, this is my kind of party!" the clearly disturbed man sitting on the rock said. "Classic Rock verses Heavy Metal! This is awesome!" Crazy new guy probably wont be much help controlling this situation.

"Woah, who's the buzzkill over here, eh?" Vincent said, sliding from the rock and landing near the group, "Just looks like these guys are havin' a little fun. Blowin' off some steam, that's all."

"Besides, at least they're getting a fight in. From my count, some of you didn't participate in the big bout against the big beast." he continued, in a sort of cocky manner, "You're welcome, by the way. I didn't have to save everyone from that thing, but, hey, I'm a nice guy who just happens to be awesome."

Alex's intervention snapped Kane's thoughts back into motion. This was Resha - whether she had a reason to do this or not, it was not something in-character for her. Something was obviously wrong, as evidenced by the sudden shift in tone immediately afterwards.
"Nah..." it was certainly a problem, but not in the way Alex was suggesting. He grinned and spoke between strained breaths. "Pro'lly just..mood swings."

Despite Resha's words, and despite the newcomers to the scene, Lucia's gaze neither faltered nor shifted. The sparks seemed to be calming down, however, though her fists were still clenched.

Shit. Alright, this isn't working at all.

Noa was thrown across the street, stumbling and rolling about the pavement like a ragdoll. He took a minute to grab at his own neck, checking if he was still breathing.

"Good show."

He turns and stands to look at the old man rolling his wrists and throwing his knife aside. His entire body tenses, cautious for what to happen next, and yet...

The old man simply... stands there? The geezer was looking photographer with a sense intrigue, like he was some sort of anomaly (which he technically is, but that's besides the point). To be honest, the look was a bit creepy.

"Who are you?" The guy asks, shaking his gloved knuckle.

"Hey... that's... sort of what I want to ask you-"

Step...

"Shit, he's moving-"

A mad bull's charge. The stranger rushes toward him and swings his right in a wide hook. Very easy to see coming, Noa thought, but not when the bastard was going at 50-something miles an hour and you're a cripple. He held his left arm up to block the punch, but the sheer force of the damn hit was enough to make his entire body crumple.

A shift of weight, a counterclockwise turn, and a forceful back kick later, he was grounded. Now he lays on the floor, coughing up a torrent of blood from his collapsed lungs with every drawn breath. The old man raised him by the neck, still wearing that intrigued face of his.

"You're not an ordinary human."

"... Awesome observation skills."

"By now, your neck should have been suffering from necrosis. You shouldn't even be breathing at this point. However, surviving that much trauma and still having consciousness..."

Crack.

"Neck! Neck! Easy on the neck!"

"No displayed ability. No trace of a being active within. The only thing extraordinary about you is your ability to survive. Similar to a cockroach. Now, tell me, who are you-" The old man chuckles. "Oh, right, I seem to have forgotten that your trachea was... right."

Noa mouths a 'fuck you' and begins to weakly kick him from his suspended state, but the old man didn't seem to notice.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the rider of the red horse. You may call me 'War'."
__________

Shaky.

The APC was rocking pretty hard. Expected; rocket splash damage did that.

With all the moving about, a few heavy objects somehow managed to break loose and drop inches away from the two SWAT team members.

Looks just like Christmas. It was a pile of heavy boxes, all opening and revealing a ridiculously large amount of ammunition upon dropping. There were enough explosives and equipment here to allow either A) a small militia, or B) two people who have watched too many Rambo movies, downed one case of beers too many and is unfamiliar of the concept 'conserving ammo' to wage war on a small bunker...

... and succeed.

Of notable mention was a box with two large machine guns, both affectionately tagged 'M249 - S.ordid A.ss W.recker'.
__________

If the two SWAT members looked outside the window, they would witness a goddamned swarm of smaller mantipedes, all ready to wreck all sorts of shit.

From the sounds of it, the military is fighting a losing battle. Most of the men have been killed via the larger mantipedes toppling the nearby buildings housing the heavy armaments. With tons of concrete falling on those down street level, this battle doesn't look like it's swaying in their directions. Some of the buildings behind the two SWAT members looked wrecked as well, the mantipedes now actually moving through the buildings and downright surrounding the small squad.

The only ones left now or those closest to the APC, who are slowly running out of ammo, and the snipers on the rooftops. More infantry tried to desperately climb above the debris, but had barely enough power to push through the assaulting mantipedes.

Looks like they're on their own for now.
__________

"Welcome back to 'What Science?'! For the last segment of the show, we cover questions asked about centipedes and plasma!"

Rina tosses and turns, mumbling incoherently. The TV was left on

"We were asked about the use of plasma as a weapon. Of course, the heat it requires to form is a very big hassle, making a weapon which can sustain it very, very difficult to make. In fact, even if we have technology to even make one, the amount of heat released to vent the weapon will downright kills us! Not to mention the amount of energy that is lost on distance. It's practically a flamethrower or a shotgun you'd see in video games!"

The announcer on the show disappears to show several videos of plasma weaponry in science fiction.

"Plasma tends to 'explode' on contact, and with how little energy it needs, at best, it can leave a small burn! There are also several materials very highly resistant to plasma, such as bulletproof vests with ceramic inserts! With this, it looks like we won't be using plasma weaponry for a while now!"

Rina falls off the couch, now sleeptalking about 'plasma TVs'.

"Did you know? The largest centipede in the world can reach up to a foot in length! Speaking of feet, the amount of legs a centipede can have range from fifteen to a whopping one hundred ninety-one! Multiply that by a thousand, and that's more than how much I get paid to scream very loud facts toward our viewers!"

A small child walks up to the announcer, tugging at his lab coat. "But mister, how about mutant centipedes?"

"Why, little Billy, we don't know if mutants exist at all! If that were true, then all we know about biology goes out the window! For example, they can very well grow in mere minutes rather than follow conventional breeding laws, along with growing some sort of invincible super-chitinous carapace. They can very well spit acidic spit!"

"Join us again next week, when we discuss the impossibility of giant monsters! Can their energy sustain their size? Also, human homeostasis! Is it plausible for skin and bones to change composition without the human body ceasing to function correctly? Skin of stones and iron, don't even think about it!"

The TV turns off.

"Stupid... bluh... Fuck physics..."

She didn't respond to his jab at her sudden violence, choosing instead of almost visibly retreat in to herself while the wing shielded her from view.

"Sorry," her voice came out much more flippant than her appearance revealed, "muscle twitched. Still getting used to this wing." She shrugged the situation off lightly, wrapping the wing around her like a cocoon while she briefly composed herself before unfurling and tucking it neatly at her back.

A cautious smile painted her face, "So, now that we're all gathered, what are we doing next?" The rain continued to fall.

"I wake up half naked in a strange room and find a battle royale in the hallway... Di's friends are obviously crazy. What is wrong with you people?"

Okay, so one unconcious person was awake -- and thought everyone was crazy. Fantastic, more p-- wait, Hermes get out of my head.

"We aren't going to have a problem here, are we people?"

Alex seemed to be taking care of things, so Zane turned to face the woman who'd just come out of her room.

"Uhhh, just relax miss! Like, bro's taking care of things! This probably isn't so bad!" He blinked in a moment of thought. "Oh, how are your injuries?"

The plasma pellets used charged vacuum contained air rather than bullets or solid objects, therefore they wont do much damage unless they managed to explode in the centipede's unprotected flesh.
Even if the pellets managed to do so, it wont do as much damage as the plasma charged bullet that decapitated the centipede.

Seeing that his attacks almost didn't do any good against the centipede, Helpless Man #1 re-holstered his sidearm and looked for something sharp or pointy and switching cover at the same time.

Well, he found a dull replica spear lying in the rubble behind the house he's tossed to. He just calmly pick it up and charge at the trashing centipede.

"Huh? Oh, I'm feeling better I guess... Being alive and all is a nice plus." Wait, I don't know who this is.

"Um, who are you exactly? I don't think we've met." She said crossing her arms and tilting her head.

"Well, glad everything is alright. Just try and be more careful everyone. We have enough injured as it is." Bull shit it was mood swings or muscle twitch. Something is happening with this girl. Sure, something is happening with everyone, but they are at least in control of their actions. If only there was some way of knowing what set her off. "You did good getting that body of your's to listen to you in just a few short hours. Why don't you take a break."

Alex walked over and put his hand on Lucia's shoulder, trying to calm her down. "You alright kid? Be careful, we don't think straight when we are angry." That's right, we shouldn't let the little things get to us.

Speaking of letting things get to us.

Like a fly buzzing around his ear, the rowdy man seemed to be their for no other reason then to annoy. "You know, that gives me a good idea." Alex stepped away from the girl and towards the boasting man, "Not many of us were fighters before all this happened. I'm sure we could all use a little practice." He sized up the boaster. Just seemed like any other kid with a pop culture fixation. Of course looks alone can't be trusted anymore. "So if you don't feel like hitting the hay just yet, feel free to get accustomed to your new found abilities or just punch stuff."

"How about you?" he stopped in front of the boasting man. "You seem like you're itching for a sparing partner."

"Good to hear. ...huh? " Zane blinked, and after a moment his blank look was replaced by his usual smile again. "Oh yeah, we haven't really met before. I'm Zane! Nice to meet you, Miss... ? "

"Break..." She muttered, shooting a glance at Kane before turning and walking away at some balance between 'I don't want to be here' and 'I'm in no hurry'.

The rain was probably cold, but she couldn't feel it on her metal skin. Her hand reflected the cloudy skies and her own face in it's dull surface, her eyes unflinching watching as she clenched the fingers into a fist and relaxed them again.

"One step forward..." She muttered, sighing heavily under the rain. "Making myself useful isn't any good if it just explodes in our face when we need it later."

"Well, look at you. Mr. I-think-I-know-what-I'm-talking-about." Vincent chuckled as he judged the new face, "Since you seem to be the one directing traffic around here, plus the fact that you were absent during the fight against the bone beast a while ago, you must be the infamous 'Alex'."

He continued to laugh as he now circled the apparent leader of the band of misfits.

"So, you missed the main event, and now want to challenge the most awesome dude on the planet to a sparring match? That's some funny stuff, man. Seriously amusing." he continued, stopping between Alex and the house, "Alright, my man. You got yourself a match. I'll even play the better man and let you choose the time and place. Not that it'll matter much, considering how awesome I am."

"Young Lord, thou hast no idea of the abilities of thy opponent. Dost thou have to be so brash?"

"Eevul, don't worry about it." Vincent said over his shoulder, "You know I live in the moment. So let me live in the moment."

Alex's hand on her shoulder snapped Lucia out of her temper, and she nodded at the suggestion to lay off. As soon as his hand let go, she turned her head in disdain and blinked out of sight with a fizzling sound.

Kane had since regained his composure, straightening as he got used to the new pain in his chest area. He wasn't sure what to say about Resha's outburst, so he let her sulk in the rain a bit. Anything could set her off, apparently, so he'd rather not test it.

This guy on the other hand...
"Yo." He approached the loud newcomer with irritation, cracking his stony knuckles more out of habit than intimidation. "You wanna beat up Alex, be my guest - but who the hell are you supposed to be?" He assessed the man: nothing impressive. A common punk with more ego than he could back up - something Kane was painfully familiar with. Subconsciously, his expression became further irritated at the thought.

A light flashed in front of Minnie and Zane, an irritated brunette walking out of it in a hurry. She walked between the two without so much of a glance, heading straight for the room Diana left Ainlisle in, promptly shutting the door behind her. She sat on the edge of the bed her friend occupied and began the sulking.


Broken glass lay on the floor. The rain drizzled through the shattered windowpane into the ruined room. Sheets of the bed were torn savagely, and the wallpaper was simply ruined. On the ground below stood the figure of a girl on all fours.

Fenrir had won this bout. Completely inhabiting the body of his supposed human equal, he stood and let out a vicious laughter, manifesting in something of a cackle due to said body. Triumphantly, Jessie's body straightened up as wolves began to emerge, as if leaking from her shadow.

Tonight there would be a feast. But first, there was a business deal to be handled.

With inhuman speed, Jessie sprinted down the street, accompanied by her ever-growing entourage of shadows.

"My name is Vincent Demarco. And, with my partner and all around great lady Eevul, I roam the countryside telling the glorious tale of my awesomeness to all." Vincent said quickly, not missing an opportunity to introduce himself, "One day, everyone will know my name, and I will be the most recognized man on the face of the planet. Because that, Rock Dude, is my destiny."

"Oh, I'm Minnie. Di's friend." She said looking nervously around. "I don't really know what's going on... I just didn't want Di to go off by herself again," Minnie said mostly to herself, "and then that monster showed up, I get hit in the shoulder by something, and wake up in a house with a Mexican standoff going on in the back yard."

"It's been a long day. But since you love living in the moment, I suppose the place and time can be here and now. I was already dragged to hell and back, showing you a thing or two should be no problem at all." It was about time he shut this Vincent fellow up. Couldn't have anyone challenging his authority and go unchecked. Could tear the group apart. Plus he had new, prospective members who haven't seen him in action yet. He needed a good excuse show off and win them over. Like the time he saved Kane and Resha from that giant or when he finished of that corpse tree, Vincent would now be made an example of.

"Since I'm such a nice guy I'll let you call uncle any time you think you've had enough." Alex's body flickered like a shadow dancing to candlelight. The floor around the empty lot slowly turned much darker then it already was at this late hour. "Alright Super Star, your move."

Vincent fell silent for the first time in...well....ever. This Alex guy thought he was better than Vincent was. More awesome than Vincent Demarco? The thought of something so unthinkable almost made him angry.

But angry wasn't his style. This Alex guy wasn't being arrogant, he was just misinformed. He didn't know how powerful Vincent was. How could he? He chickened out of the first battle.

A guy like this had to not only be told how awesome Vincent Demarco was, but be shown as well.

Vincent took a wide stance, digging his back foot into the grass. He held his right hand up, close to his face, as he exhaled slowly.

"Young Lord, this is not a sound plan. Thy opponent may have abilities that thou art not prepared to deal with."

Vincent seemed to disreguard his partner's words, taking in a deep breath as his hand clenched into a fist.

"Listen to me, Young Lord. Engaging another for nothing more than personal glory will get you nowhere. Think before you act."

By this time, if Eevul's words didn't get through to him, they wouldn't. Vincent was too determined to show the others just how awesome he was. And this bout with Alex would be the stage upon which to do just that.

Vincent's hand whipped forward, opening his hand towards Alex. His scream followed, lashing out with both debilitating volume and sonic force. The grass under his back foot scraped away revealing fresh dirt as the recoil from the concentrated scream began to force Vincent backward.

Resha's head snapped up at the skin crawling scream she heard back towards the safehouse, her body reeling around completely and striding back even before her mind had fully processed where it had come from.

"What if it's another one of those things..." she muttered to herself as her body's autopilot was slowly fought against.

It means nothing.

Doubt entered her foot steps, but she continued to run back. "I can't help them anyway, I'd just hurt them-"

Then I will cut them down.

"I won't be able to stop the damn thing!" She growled, more to herself as her rebellious mind struggled to shove her indecision away and fully grasp a hold of the reigns to her body.

I am nothing without a purpose though.

Her foot steps splashed through the water, swinging around the corner in time to see the new comer attack Alex.
Her shoulders sagged under the rain. It was nothing serious then.

So she didn't need to help.
"Not that I could if I did..."
I am nothing without a purpose.

Helpless Man #1, charged at the centipede at inhumane speed, thrust the spear into the gap of the centipede's carapace and jumped 3 metres away from the centipede as a lightning struck at the spear , frying both the spear and the centipede.

After that Helpless Man #1 stopped moving and then collapsed on the ground.
Seconds later, he stand up with confused look and confused how he ended being surrounded by smaller centipedes.
Two of them then jumped at him, and he helplessly covering himself with both his hands.

The centipedes hit his helmet and threw it off his head, revealing his blonde hair, and the other centipede ripped his sleeve while trying to cut his right hand off with its jaw.

But something is off, he didn't feel any pain coming from his right hand, only from the hit his head took from the first centipede.
Helpless Man #1 swing his right hand around trying to throw the centipede biting his right hand away but it won't let go, noticing more centipedes are moving closer at him, he decided it's better to run first ignoring the centipede that still biting on his right arm.

Thus, he ran as fast as he could, jumping over rubble, dead bodies, wreckage, etc.

Vincent held his hand out readying an attack.

"Oh, this should be fun."

The sonic blast hit the smiling Alex full on. Although his feet stayed perfectly planted on the ground, the rest of him bent backwards in the blast. Visibly damaged, but still grinning.

Kane wasn't caught directly in the blast, but the force of the shockwave was still powerful given his short distance from Alex. Like before, his feet remained planted, but it was as if he was being dragged backwards.

Though flinching from the sudden noise, his stance and expression was largely unchanged from irritation as he was lost in thought.
Sound amplification...? Resonating with the air to make shockwaves? What is he, a banshee?
The implications of this ability were vast, though he somewhat doubted the guy had the wit to make use of them.

Alex's fortitude was nothing less than impressive, though.
Given what I just felt was only peripheral... how the hell is Alex still standing?
His gut wrenched slightly, imagining just how inhuman Alex had become over the last few days. To assess both that and this newcomer, though, he took a step back to spectate.

"Nice to meet you, Minnie!" He tilted his head at her in a way reminiscent of a curious child, and then cast a reassuring smile to her. "Just relax, miss, You'll probably be safe here. Where's Diana anyways...? Oh! Wait you said you don't know what's going on? "

"Gah!" the force of the shockwave quickly knocked the teenager off of his feet and on the floor. He sat back up promptly, looking up and back towards the fight. Much to his surprise, Alex was still standing even though he looked kind of.. hurt? Damaged?
Woah, did he take that on full force?

"Alex is a pretty cool bro, dude."
Zane stood back up, brushing himself off.
"Pay attention, moron. "
A look of annoyance crossed Zane's face for a moment, then just as quickly disappeared.

The scream lasted longer than one would think, considering the intensity displayed. Holding a note was one thing, but a note this loud and damaging was another entirely. After a good ten to twelve seconds, Vincent dropped his arm, cutting the attack off entirely.

Yet, even after this vocal display, the young man didn't appear winded at all by it. In fact, he seemed very energetic as he began....hopping.

"Yeah! That was awesome!" he said loudly as he laughed, not stunned at all by the fact that Alex was still standing, "Man, I haven't cut loose like that in a while. Feels great, dude!"

"Young Lord, thou should be concerned about the lack of damage on thy opponent."

"Eevul, calm down. So what if the dude's still up? I got more where that came from. Tons more!" Vincent responded out loud, "That's why I'm awesome!"

"Oh, Di's fine. She's sleeping in the room right- Crap!" Minnie as knocked on her face by a loud shock wave. She looked back to the yard. "What was that? Who are they? Why is he screaming like a girl?" The questions kept coming as she sat there shaken. "I should of just stayed sleeping."

Alex remained bent backwards and perfectly still, as if the life had left his body and instead of going limp it stiffened up. He was silent, but still grinning.

"Well, that was something." Although the voice came from Alex, it was unclear whether or not he was actually talking.

Then came a sudden crack, like a piece of wood being snapped in half. Alex's left arm had fallen off, black smoke coming from the place on his body it was once attached to. The man, with visible cracks running across his skin straightened himself up, looking his opposition dead in the eye, "Now, lets find out what you are afraid of."

In an instant, a long thin needle shot out of Alex's eye and pierced the eye of the man across from him, going all the way through the back of his head. Blood began to seep out of Vincent's head, traveling down the length of the dark pin in his face. One, two, three more shot out from Alex's knee, stomach and chest, and all three pierce the man opposite in the same spots on his body as the spots they originated from. Then came more. Then more. And then more until there were too many to count, leaving a bridge of barbs between the two men.

After a second that felt like an eternity, all the needles retracted at once, causing just enough shock to snap Vincent back into reality where, other then being shown his own gruesome death, he was physically untouched. All the while Alex still had the same grin etched on his face.

Vincent was shaken back into reality, his breathing quickened due to the trauma but was quickly regained upon the realization that it apparently wasn't real.

"Young Lord! Thou art alright!" Eevul said, her tone much more intense than other times, "I had thought I had lost you."

"Eevul, what was that?" Vincent said out loud, amidst a disbelieving chuckle.

"I would think that it was an illusion caused by your opponent, affecting the both of us considering our close ties. I had wondered why the Astral Slide technique failed to work when I saw the attack coming."

"So, it wasn't real, then?" Vincent asked.

There was a slight pause.

"No, Young Lord. It wasn't real." Eevul responded, confused as to why this needed clarifacation.

"Oh....Well, cool." Vincent shrugged.

Apparently, having the attention span of a goldfish saved the young man from any long-term effects. Aside from mild confusion, Vincent was no worse for wear.

"So that's all you got, Mr. Big-shot? Making things that look and feel real, but aren't?" he said, almost mockingly, "At least my screams are all real, all the time."

With that, Vincent took the same wide stance he had taken previously, taking in a deep breath.

"It was an act of mercy. See, I'm not exactly as used to my powers as I would like to be, and if I did start attacking at full strength I could very well kill you. You may not think much of me, but I'm not exactly about to throw away the life of a good fighter, even if that fighter is an arrogant blowhard."

The arm that had fallen off began to melt into the surrounding shadow, "But I am a bit disappointed. For someone who is so big on himself, you sure do ask for your other half's advice a lot."

While he was inhaling, a dark fist shot out from the ground beneath Vincent, smashing into his gut with the density of lead and the force of cannon fire. "And just so you know, I am more than capable of real attacks too."

Vincent's attempt at a scream was turned into a very audible 'Oof' as all the wind was knocked out of him. The shot threw him into the air a little, putting him on his back.

Rolling to his side and trying to force himself up, he was barely able to catch his breath as he took to a knee.

"....Eevul....what the hell?...." he choked out.

"I did not use the Astral Slide only because the young man said he wasn't going to kill you. That, and I believed that you, Young Lord, needed a lesson in humility."

"A lesson in humility coming from the banshee who only sings for kings and great heroes, huh? That's kinda funny." Vincent continued, coughing a bit as he stumbled on his feet.

"Do not be cross with me, Young Lord. I only wish to convey that being great is not all about prideful confidence. Frivolous battles for nothing more than personal glory will accomplish nothing."

"Well, Eevul, that's a great lesson. Really inspiring stuff." he said, shaking off the cobwebs and facing Alex once more, "But, now that I'm in this 'frivolous battle', I'm gonna have to see it through. 'Cause, no matter what, I ain't one to back down from a good fight."

Eevul knew she had no chance of talking him out of this now. In what little time she was bonded with him, she knew that his overwhelming confidence wasn't a byproduct of the powers she bestowed on him, but was already instilled within him from the beginning. He wouldn't quit on anything he had his sights on, no matter how impossible they seemed. It was almost beautiful in a reckless, hasty, stupid sort of way.

"Alright, that was a good one. Knocked me on my ass for a second there, but that ain't happening again." Vincent chuckled, getting his wind back, "Now that you've seen my Tenor, how's about we drop it down a bit. Give this battle some Bass."

When he said 'Bass' he vocal pattern dropped rather sharply, and a slight pulse rippled through the ground like the thump of a speaker. He put both arms up in a sort of boxing stance as well.

Extending his arm, he punched at nothing but air, shouting the word 'Boom'. It wasn't ear-piercing, like his other attack, but loud nonetheless. With it, however, was a heavy pulse, centered squarely on Alex. It hit with alarming power, more than the scream did, but it only lasted for a moment. A concentrated burst instead of a continuous blast.

Despite mouthing off like a spoiled punk, there may have been more to this guy than Kane first guessed. He was about ready to lose interest when Alex landed that hit on him, but seeing him get back up with somehow renewed vigor made him blink. The fight was becoming worth the watch.
The man returned fire with a cannon-like blast of his own, excess force radiating outward just like before. Though his body remained completely straight while spectating, looking down at his feet, Kane noticed a groove 2 feet in length from where he stood. Upon realizing this, he smirked. He was almost jealous that Alex was the one sparring him.


This was the danger? This was the source of anguish his vessel traded her freedom to be rid of?
A womanly spectre was wiggling her ass in front of the one called Rui, accompanied by inconsequential others. Fenrir was so astonished, he took a moment to let bewilderment overcome his hunger. But only a moment. He resumed his feral charge down the road at the group, without even the courtesy of greeting them, short of a single, bone-chilling howl.

The distance to the group was only about one block, and a sea of black wolves was hardly something one could miss spotting.

Resha flinched under the residual sonic from Vincent and Alex's fight, the vibrations running through her body and causing several distinctly unpleasant sensations to rise up beneath her skin.

Not the least of which was her growing dislike for Vincent. For reasons she didn't understand, the longer she stood and watched this mockery of a fight between the two of them, the stronger her negative opinion of Vincent was becoming.

He should shut up.
He should know his place.
He should learn humility.
He should be taught shame.
He should get hurt.

The thoughts passively floated through her mind as she watched, her eyes narrowing in annoyance that was gradually mutating into loathing.

That bastard, flaunting his powers... Treating all of this like a game. He didn't know what they had given up for this.

That's not it.

All the noise he was making was grating her ears. If he kept this up, then even this place would be discovered and they'd be forced to move again.

No, that's not the reason.

She shook her head as the deep bass sound bottomed out, turning and walking away from the fight in irritation. One way or another, this new guy wasn't someone she expected to like any time soon.

Not like she fared all that well even with people she did get along with. Resha rolled her shoulders and flexed the wing around her body like a cloak, walking out and away from the safehouse and the fight - out into the streets she had been scared of walking through up until recently.

A wry smile worked it's way across her face as she took to walking aimlessly through the night in order to distance herself from the situation back with Kane.

'Well,' she thought to herself humorously, her eyes glancing out across the rainy streets with what she personally considered to be a predatory air, 'At the very least, any thing I run into now will be freak-on-freak instead of me just running away.'

Yes, these streets felt safer now that she had started to show signs, and gradually started to accept, that she was just as much of a freak as the others. If they could take care of themselves and fight like monsters then she could do it to now right?

Only monsters should fight monsters, and since she wasn't human anymore that meant she didn't have any reason to run now - right?

'Right.'

Astraea found herself wandering the rainy streets of Mumble lost in thought. A soft white glow emanated from her body, illuminating the ground around her for a couple feet.

I guess being a human glowstick has its uses.

She kept walking aimlessly. After all, she had nowhere to go; She left it all behind the moment her "power" presented itself to her.

After all, who'd want to be friends with a freak like me?

She chuckled to herself, wishing away the bad thoughts and grabbing the glowstick necklace she wore as a sad attempt to make people think her glowing was some sort of 'natural'.

Looking up, Astraea saw the figure of a person wearing a cloak.

I may as well ask where the hell I am... Astraea sighed and walked up to the figure.

"Excuse me, could you please tell me where we are?"

Resha turned curiously to look back at the slightly glowing woman who had spoken. She arched an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't make a comment. "Where we are?" Turning her mind instead to the question - A great question, because she really had no idea either.

"Ah, lets see..." she looked up into the rainy sky thoughtfully as the woman got closer, "To tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure either." She grinned flippantly at the girl, a self-inspired feeling of supreme superiority slowly being nurtured into existence.

She could beat this girl up and leave her to die in a ditch and there was nothing that could stop her! It felt good to be the top predator around. Maybe being a freak wasn't so bad.

...Not that she would or anything. That's mean.

"I kind of woke up nearby a while ago, so I'm not to sure of the area myself. Figured I'd go for a walk and see if something looked familiar," She responded, turning fully to face the girl as the light came close enough to reflect off her metal wing-cloak thing. "What are you doing out this late? Trying to find a rave?"

"A-A Rave?!" Astraea laughed, and then remembered that she probably looked like she had just taken a bath in glowstick juice. The laughter abruptly stopped.

She looked at the woman in front of her, who seemed to be wearing a cloak made of solid metal. "Is your clo-" She started to say as she noticed the fact that the woman's face was also made of metal. "Thats a nice mas-" Her arms too.

Astraea subconsciously backed up a few steps. "Are you... human?"

Resha's smile expanded, she had spent the last few hours angsting over the question and worrying herself... But she had her answer now, and it wasn't like her to hesitate after she got that.

Might as well go full tilt with it.

"Nope." Her smiled widened to reveal a metal mouth lined with shiny, sharp teeth.

Out of nowhere, Astraea hugged the metal woman. "Whoa! Someone else like me!" she squealed.

Get it together, girl. I just hugged a woman who could literally rip me to pieces with her teeth!

Astraea jumped off of the metal woman and apologized. "Sorry! I dont know why I did that."

She took off her glowstick necklace and tossed it to the ground. "This is just how I am! No raves needed!"

Resha blinked blankly at the response. It was as if all of her wonderful budding self confidence had been tossed aside by the walking glowstick.

'And she hugged me.'

"So you're a glow in the dark girl." Resha stated in a perplexed tone, trying to wrap her mind around how that made this girl anything like her... And generally just regain her shroud of self-assurance she had up until a few moments ago.

Top predators don't get hugged!

"Congratulations. I think." She tilted her head quizzically, "But I'm not a walking flashlight, so human or not - We're different."

The light surrounding Astraea visibly dimmed as the metal woman's statement hit.

We're different? We are. She's strong. I'm weak. Different.

As the happiness that filled her faded, the light surrounding her gradually went out.

Astraea smiled, not noticing the change. "I guess we are different, huh? Still though, there's something wrong with both of us, right? That makes us alike enough to help each other out, doesnt it?"

And the world just got darker, Resha fought off the urge to cringe back at the feeling that the girl had taken her blunt statement more personally than she had intended.

Still, her cheek twitched. "Somehow I don't think you can help me..." she muttered with a sigh, the sight of rain falling on the constantly starting to poke at the piece of her which had taken Arietta under her wing.

under her-

"But I guess its fine like this." Her metal wing unfurled from her body partially, creating an opening for the glow-in-the-dark girl to escape from the rain in.

'After all, how long have I spent hiding in the shadow of Miracles and Alex?'

"My name's Resha." She stated simply, both as an introduction and as an invitation.

A soft glow returned around Astraea as Resha unfurled her wing a bit.

But how long until she decides I'm useless and kills me off?She could do it pretty easily.

Shocked by the sudden unwanted thought, Astraea's mood darkened and she faded away into the darkness.

If I cant trust her, then what can I do? She wouldnt betray me anyway. She's nice.

She faded back into view, and a soft glow once again emanated from her body. She stepped into the umbrella created by Resha's wing and smiled warmly at her.

"I'm Astraea!"

"Weird name." she commented, curling the wing back around her and pulling Astraea closer in the process. "Even if you are a flashlight, wandering around this late is dangerous. Just what were you trying to find out here anyway?"

She had an excuse, Alex's safehouse was somewhat near by. But that just made things more odd for this girl, who was walking around past midnight near a gang leader's little pimp-hut.

"If something besides me had shown up, you may have been dog food. Even if it was a normal thug."

Astraea squealed a bit when Resha pulled her closer, and the glow around her grew a bit brighter.

"I left home since I didnt want to be a burden on my parents. Who wants a freak as a child, right?"

Of course not. Who would want a human glowstick?

Astraea chuckled a bit as her glow dimmed down again.

No, it wont do any good thinking like that. Resha is here. She wont throw me away.

"I'm glad it was you I met."

"I'm not into girls, sorry." she responded disinterestedly when Astraea had mentioned she was glad to have met her, the words held no real bite to them however.

They walked for a while, aimlessly following the streets as Resha tried to get an idea for where they were and keep her mind distracted from the situation back at the safehouse.

"Every parent wants a bright kid." Resha stated offhandedly, the humor coming to mind before she registered what she had thought. "They'd be more worried you vanished with this town like it is than if you were a literal spot of sunshine in their life."

Astraea blushed, and her glow turned pink. "I didnt mean it like that!"

"I wonder if they'd actually be worried."

Of course not, I'm a freak.

For some reason, the thought of her parents not wanting her comforted her, and her glow grew brighter.

"Hey, Where're we going?"

Resha deigned not to comment on whether they'd be worried or not. She didn't know this girl's situation at home, so as far as she knew they really wouldn't be. Not her place to try and convince some random girl to go back home, anyway.

"I told you I woke up near by, right? So I don't know where I am either." She shrugged habitually, the wing-cloak unfurling slightly before she could snap it back into place with an irritated grunt. "Before I go back, I wanted to see if I could get an idea of where this is... I've lived in this city long enough to say I have at least a passing familiarity with most of it."

Well, she hoped that was true. She never really deviated outside of her usual routine - so she was mainly relying on hearsay from her coworkers and the hope that something she recognized would be close by.

"... Hey, why are getting all pink?" It would be her luck to pick up a lesbian homeless girl.

"Pink? Wha-?"

She finally took notice of the color of her glow.

Oh great. She probably thinks that I'm into girls now. Good job, light.

"EW! I-I'm not like that! I like men! M-E-N!"

Her glow changed back to white.

"Stupid light." She mumbled to herself.

She looked around the street they were walking on. Nothing looked familiar. "This is the other side of town from where I live. I dont know anything about this place. Kinda creepy, to be honest."

'That sounds like a suspiciously energetic denial... Considering I didn't ask her that.' Resha mentally drawled, her half lidded eyes staring down at the girl next to her before rolling back towards her surroundings.

'Oh well, at least she's not questioning me just randomly waking up near by.'

Their footsteps broke out of the back alleys and onto a main road, the street lamps illuminating the quiet rainy night and giving Resha a better view of the area. In the distance she could see some buildings that may have been familiar, but it was both far too dark and far too rainy to make any concrete decisions.

The street name may help though. She looked from one side to the other to try and find the nearest sign. "So besides being a walking lamp, what do you do?" She asked casually to keep some idle banter going.

It occurred to her that having a glow in the dark girl and a metal girl walking the streets this late was probably suspicious. Well, there was nothing she could do about being suspicious - But blinky could pass herself as some crazy teenager with body paint.

If they ran into someone this late, it could get awkward.

Zane let out a whistle, watching the fight. This was the first one he'd seen in a few years, except this was way more interesting to watch then the petty schoolyard fights the punks in class indulged in.

He heard Minnie asking questions, but he'd for the most part tuned her out to watch the fight.

...Damn, this sound bro was pretty legit as well.


----

The surroundings were a lot warmer than what she last recalled being in.
Actually. The last few things she recalled was hitting pavement in the rain, and bits and pieces of a dream that didn't really make much sense to her still half asleep mind.

Ainlisle tried to open her eyes, still heavy from sleep. She rubbed them open, sitting up slowly. Her hair was still damp, as were her clothes.

I.. really. need to change clothes...
Again.

She jolted, looking around the room.

"...Osiris?" Her eyes then landed on the sulking girl sitting on the edge of her bed. "...Lucia? "

"Oh, would you look at that..." Jamie said quietly to himself from a safe distance as he watched two super-powered individuals fighting. "They called him Alex. That has to be the guy."

"What's that?" He said to the empty air around him. "Girl's leaving? Maybe..." He pulled out a radio from his backpack. "Violet Sparrow, do you read me?"

"Stop calling me that freak. What do you want?" buzzed back the radio.

"There has been a change of plans."

-----

"You've shown a lot of determination. To be honest, I didn't expect a whole lot out of you when you first showed up, but you've proven you are worth something after all."

Vincent took his stance.

"This fight has gone on a little longer then I would of liked, but one last attack couldn't hurt." Alex smiled, standing up straight and not even bothering to brace himself for the attack.

The blast Vincent fired this time was much stronger. Most likely meant for a single target. The attack impacted, sending Alex back with it and smashing him against the brick wall behind him, creating something of an impact crater with Alex's limp form laying in the middle of it.

-----

The sound of chains echoed in the empty street as Jamie approached the two girls. "Hello?" he called out to them, "Can you two hear me alright?"

The young man came into view, an assortment of chains and knives hung off his baggy black pants. The upper half of his body was dressed rather plainly in comparison, with only a plain black short sleeved shirt. "You two are different too, right?" he said cautiously, not wanting to scare them away.

"I've... been following you for a little bit." He said addressing Resha, holding his hands up in the air so show he had peaceful intentions. "I don't mean you any ill will, I just wanted to make sure you didn't start eating children or something."

"Can never be too sure these days, can we?"

"Ho?" she drawled in response, her eyes scanning the new guy with feigned disinterest. Before she would have been more cautious, but...

She wasn't stupid. Her body as it was now, it was like she was wearing a full suit of armor. Some random punk off the street was as much of a threat to her as flashlight girl was to that eldritch horror Alex.

'Oh yeah, astrae...astir... astarotte...That girl isn't exactly bullet proof is she?' She frowned slightly, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder while they were both still concealed behind the wing-cloak.

"The last thing to follow me down a street was a lot more dangerous than you, and it got a one-way ticket to hell," She responded confidently, even though Alex was the one who technically ate it. "What makes you think you'll be any different?" She smirked at the random chain-fetish guy, trying her best to replicate that same aura of freakish power that Alex and Kane had created when they stood their ground against those monsters.

If she couldn't stop something of this puny level, then she really was useless to the group. As a second in command, or even as a helper, this was just basic level stuff... No more being dead weight.

"Well miss, my bible studies may be a bit rusty, but if I remember correctly only those who have committed terrible crimes were sent to hell, and all I've done was say hello." He smiled and tilted his head like he has just seen something cute, "I get why you are paranoid miss, but I mean you no harm, just figured us freaks should stick together."

He spotted the glowing girl being sheltered beneath the other's wing. "I'm not too much different from glowworm there. Got nowhere to go in this harsh world. Just thought I could use the protection of others like me." He lowered his arms and crossed them over his chest. "I may not look like a kitten, but from the looks of you, you know better then to judge others by their appearances."

'Us Freaks?' the thought wandered through her head, her teeth gritting against each other while that irrational irritation from earlier with Vincent began to surface again.

Why?

Was he a friend or a foe? Did it matter? She could ignore him and keep going. Or fight him here? What was the point of fighting him though, he wasn't hostile.

'Geez, I should have gone back to bed.' she wanted to respond with some witty comment about his religion, or maybe that kitten comment, but she couldn't think of anything. 'Everywhere I go tonight it's been "us freaks should stick together". How many of these people are there in this city?'

If this keeps up, her fragile confidence booster of being an armored super amazon amongst a sea of puny flesh bags would be tossed aside pretty quickly.

'Think Resha, witty response. witty response. Oh!'

"And from the looks of you, it seems you enjoy metal. I'd be happy to donate an extra pound or two if you don't scamper off."

'Yeah that was goo- No it wasn't, that sounded a lot better before I said it.'

"Wha..." Such an odd thing to say. "Miss, if I didn't know any better I would think you were coming on to me. Not too used to making threats, are we?"

Jamie began to walk towards the two girls, "Well, at least I know now that you aren't too dangerous of a person. Well, unless you just kill madly without threats or warnings. But that's unlikely. Even the oddest of oddities still retain some of their humanity."

He's going to attack us. I'm going to die.

The man walked closer. "I'm not too much different from glowworm there."

Not... Different? Liar. I should kill him before he comes closer. Make him hurt for trying to trick me.

Astraea's vision blurred and her thoughts grew more and more clouded as the glow surrounding her started to turn red.

But how to do it? Hurry, he's getting closer.

"Hmm?"
Hey, where's Resha goi-

WHAM.

Kane's eyes widened and his focus returned to the Alex - or rather, where he once stood. Spinning around, the man who once held his ground had made a sizeable crater in the side of the safehouse.

The smoke and debris made it hard to see if Alex actually survived the hit, but Kane was left speechless at the force of the blow itself as he waited for a result.


Lucia took a break from sulking when Ainlisle woke up. "You're awake!" She excitedly jumped off of the bed, turning to face her. "You aren't dead, and that's good!" Perhaps that could have been worded better, but she didn't really think about it. "Everyone already came back to the safehouse, except for Cindy."

A huge crash shook the safehouse briefly, and Lucia visibly contained herself when her irritation resurfaced. "Things are happening outside, if you want to look. Are you okay now?"

As Vincent watched Alex slam into the safehouse, his initial instinct was to let him and everyone else know how awesome that was. And he was about to, until Eevul chimed in.

"Keep on your guard, Young Lord. Thy opponent will take advantage."

"Yeah, I got it, Eevul." he said, "Fool me once, dude. I ain't buyin' it this time. Bring your A game, 'cause I'll knock it right back down."

He still had his boxing stance, not just looking at the limp form of Alex, but in a wide arc in front of him. Seemed he wasn't as arrogant and stupid as he made himself out to be.

Tch, this guy... "Look, I don't particularly have anything against you." There was an unspoken 'but' in the silence that ensued, "You're just creepy and offensive."

Kind of like Alex in that regard. Why did she keep running into creepy people who appear out of the shadows and act too friendly for their own good? It was suspicious!

"So I'll repeat my offer for you get lost or get stabbed. I don't really care which one you choose."

For all she knew he was a perfectly normal guy, and if she were alone then she might have been a bit more welcoming.. However, he was currently a creepy and friendly jerk walking around past midnight in the city of weirdshithappenshere - And she the glowstick to think about. Only one of the two of them was essentially impervious to injury, the other was a nicely lit up target.

Helpless Man #1 kept running into the city while the mantipede still trying to bit his hand off.

Lots of strange things happened at once, him losing his memory and his body was acting on its own, an ongoing aliens/monsters invasion, people meet their death in a gruesome manner.

"WHO AM I? WHRE AM I? WHAT IS HAPPENING?"
Unable to cope with the reality, he just kept running and shouting.

"Look, you don't know how long I've spent trying to find someone to help me out. I understand your concern, but I can't just quit. There are some really nasty things out there." Jamie kept advancing, only showing a slight concern when the little girl started glowing. "Honestly, I'd rather buy it from getting stabbed by you then end up as part of one of those fleshy things."

-----

So he's learning.

"Guess the same old trick wont work twice," came a voice from the crater. Before the dust cleared, the mangled, armless form of Alex lifted itself up and began to limp back towards the battleground. "But like I said, this has been going on for much too long."

A large dark arm coming from the space directly behind Vincent grabbed the back of his head, lifting him about 4 feet into the air and positioning him so his face was directed upwards to the sky. Two more arms branched off at at the same time and held his arms behind his back.

"So, we done buddy?" Alex asked his suspended opponent, finally getting back to his original position before he was blasted back.

A thin smile formed on Astraea's lips. Violent thoughts pushed their way into her head as she lost herself in irrational bloodlust.

He should die. I should cut him open and bleed him! Right down the back! Tear out his spine!

Astraea couldnt hold back a giggle. Her shoulders trembled slightly at the thought of the man in front of her dying painfully at her feet.

I can see it now... Blood... Everywhere!

A fountain of blood and organs spewed out from the man's back.

Astraea's eyes widened and she couldnt help but gasp at the sight.

D-d-did I just do that? Wha-?

Her head started spinning as she regained control over her emotions and the glow around her turned to a dark mist

I killed him? B-bu-but... I didnt do anything!

She looked back up at the figure of the man, who was standing there as if nothing had happened. There was no blood, no evidence that what she had just seen had actually occurred.

She looked up at the metal woman beside her, searching her face for any sign that she had seen the massive amount of blood and guts that had spewed out from the man's back.

"You're awake! You aren't dead and that's good! "

Ainlisle nodded slowly to Lucia, still waking herself up. Felt like she'd been asleep forever, but she wasn't feeling extremely tired like she had been earlier.

"Yeah... Are we at the Safehouse?" She tugged at the damp clothes clinging to her. How long was she stuck in the rain before they got here? Also...

" Osiris... What day is it?"
" Still the same day, girl. It's just later in the evening."
"Oh.

Ainlisle moved to get out of the bed, and looked at Lucia.

"Except for Cindy..? Where'd she g--!" She began, catching herself before she fell to the floor in surprise at the safehouse shaking. She blinked at her friend, a bit confused at the irritation that was a bit evident in her expression. "Things? Another fight..? Wait, who's fighting? ...Oh. Yeah, I'm fine now."

---
Zane blinked watching the fight. Damn, everyone's powers seemed pretty hardcore. He hadn't really gotten into a fight since coming into contact with the messenger dude, and assumed he'd gotten off easy thus far.

Speaking of the messenger dude..
Zane's face flicked with annoyance for a second before returning to his usual relaxed expression. He could hear Hermes' thoughts faintly in the back of his mind...

"Relax man! " Zane thought, slightly exasperated.
He wasn't used to listening to such stressed out people. At least not in his own mind.

Resha's body tensed, a single step back and widened eyes were her only reaction to his the weird sight - Especially since no sound accompanied it. Outwardly, she had barely moved, a small thanks to her cloak for hiding what flinching she had done.

However, it vanished swiftly, leaving nothing but the night behind. She watched Jamie for a few more moments before sighing - Whatever the hell had just happened, he didn't feel it and he wasn't giving up on getting closer.

And now the runt was anti-glowing. Oh for--

She casually bopped the glowstick on the back of her head, pushing her back and out of the cloak so that she could stand between her and the creep. "Settle down kid," she mumbled lightly, turning her eyes to focus on Jamie. "What kind of help are looking for?" He was still far enough way she could pretend he wasn't going to be a creepy stalker.

So she wouldn't do anything unless he kept trying to get closer.

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

In the dark allies of Mumble, between Resha and the Safehouse, the ground itself began to change. Curling in on itself and rearranging lazily - Without being noticed, the streets labyrinth of streets were beginning to morph into something entirely different.

"Well, if you two happen to know were I could find a place to stay, that would be great. See, I'm not from around here and I got kinda lost when the neighborhood I was staying in got wreaked by a big ugly beasty, and I'm tired of squatting with the homeless. I would of went looking for a military camp somewhere but... well are either of you familiar with that one american comic book series with the super-powered mutants that are treated like second class citizens?"

He noticed the small one was visibly shaken up by something and wasn't looking alright. "Oi," he called out to the girl, tilting his head to get a better look at her, "You alright back there glowworm?"

Resha bopped Astraea on the head, and pushed her behind.

Astraea felt sick to her stomach. The sight of blood and organs spewing out of the man's back replayed endlessly in her mind.

"You alright back there glowworm?" The man's question startled her.

"I... I.. I'm okay" She replied weakly, and descending further into the darkness that surrounded her.

I want to disappear.

She hid herself behind Resha so that the man couldnt see her.

“Good god, finally you respond, although you ignored me...” Rui said, his head down, saddened that he was ignored. Alice then shook her butt at Rui.

“What the... God no... Someone save me from this horror... Please...” Suddenly, a howl came about, something that sounds like it’s coming from the heavens. Rui turned to look around, not giving Alice another look. He then saw in the distance a river of shadow wolves running towards him. “Shit, it can’t be... Jessie?!”

He then squints his eyes and wipes it just in case it wasn’t her. But it was, judging by her signature wolves. And even more so, it was Jessie leading the pack. She didn’t look like herself though. She looked feral. No, she looked even more feral than before.

“This can’t be like last time... Where she went out of control... Where she turned into that big wolf and demolished everything... I can’t let this happen again. JESSIE!!”

Well at least she was settling down now. "If you want a place to stay then there are plenty of hotels, you must have some friends if you lived in town." She replied testily.

'There's also Alex... Should I bring him back? I have that glowstick kid but I doubt she'd be any use. More dead weight from me.' She stared across the gap at the chain-laden punk. 'If he can do something good then he might be worth it. But wait... Is bringing all the strays I find back to a secret safehouse really the best idea?'

"I only woke up around here recently, not even sure where I am right now-" She replied, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do- Wait, didn't he say his apartment got ruined by something? "-Where you were staying last... Can you describe what destroyed it?"

This could be interesting.

With the cold rain dripping onto his emotionless face, Arthur continued trudging through the streets of Mumble. He shakes off his fatigue and snaps back to reality after being lost in his own thoughts for a great deal of time.

"Your mind is restless." Michael resonated into Arthur's thoughts. "The one we are searching for... He will sense your feelings out. At your most base emotional level, he will attempt to appeal to you, ultimately driving lesser men into relinquishing their will."

Arthur frowned. "So... We're going to see this guy because... What you want to feed him my brain? Sorry, but unless you're planning on forcing me, you're outta luck."

"I simply mean to make you aware, that as we talk to this being, he will attempt to probe into your memories. Your desires, your regrets, your triumphs, everything. He will then attempt to manipulate you. He prefers to think of it as a test of mettle." Michael responded.

Arthur continued to trudge through the grey puddles, wrapped in his shoddy coat. "Captivity training couldn't break me... Neither will 10 minutes with a psychic freakshow."

"A hotel is out of the question. See, I wasn't exactly thinking about money when I ran for my life earlier. Wouldn't of done me much good anyways. Most of my money was still in pound sterlings." He let out a soft sigh, "Sorry, guess I forgot to mention. When I said I wasn't from around here I should of said that I came from abroad. I was staying with my aunt for the short time I've been here."

"I only woke up around here recently, not even sure where I am right now-" the girl had began, taking a quick pause. Mulling something over perhaps? "-Where you were staying last... Can you describe what destroyed it?"

"Oh that thing..." Jamie started, feigning distress at the idea of remembering what would have been a very traumatizing even to any foreign boy who just lost his dear aunty. Luckily for him, Grant was a very careful man when he had a cool head, and the constant reports from the countless sentries he had patrolling the city made recalling the events of the city a breeze. Jamie could have come from anywhere he wanted, he had the intel to back it up. "Well, it was big, fleshy looking. didn't really have a definite shape. Seemed to kinda mold itself depending on the situation. Ever seen The Blob? It was kinda like that."

Glowworm seemed... scared? What an odd reaction from just saying hello. Jamie had seriously started to wonder if everyone was so suspicious. Maybe the weary traveler ploy wasn't the best gambit when dealing with what appears to be a paranoid schizophrenic.

As soon as the hand grabbed his head, Vincent let out another bass yell, but the arm had already forced his head upward. The shot passed over Alex, still hitting him with a decent jolt from the exterior of the main blast, which ripped through the side of the safehouse, taking with it a generous chunk of the roof as well.

He thrashed about for a while as his arms were pinned back as well, trying to force his head back to where he could get a good shot at Alex, but it wasn't working.

"What's the matter, kid? Can't take anymore of my Bass, so you use your parlour tricks to try and make me submit? I knew you couldn't handle how awesome I am!" he said loudly, sounding surprisingly confident even in his predicament, "You can hold me up here all day, bro. I'm not giving in to your little shadow game. You want this to end so badly? You call it quits!"

The centipede suddenly released his arm and skittered back toward the outpost to rejoin the swarms.

With the centipede gone, Helpless Man #1 regained his composure and instead of running he's now walking while looking around the area, lots of derelict buildings, ransacked shops and there was rotten smell as well .

'Why am i here anyway? Am i not with the army? Why did they point their weapons at me?'

not to mention other questions running about in his little human's brain.

He just keep walking aimlessly as the rain soaked his clothes.

And then he caught a glimpse of something blue under his torn right sleeve. He gasped and tore the sleeve off. At first he thought that the centipede has poisoned him, but to his surprise there were blue scales covering his arm.

It was the scales that protect his arm from the centipede's sharp jaw.

He checked his other arm and found the same amount of scales covering his left arm.

Couldn't take more absurdity of what's happening around him, Helpless Man #1, confused, exhausted and hungry, went to sit against the wall of the nearest building, while looking up to the lead colored sky

Resha's eyes narrowed, she hadn't heard of anything even remotely fitting that description...

But she had been out for a while as well. If she had some way of getting in touch with the others she might have been able to cross check the dubious statement... As it was, the decision was left entirely up to her.

How tempted she was to just shoo him away like another random homeless person.

But... "I don't like you." She stated neutrally, yet her tone held a note of resignation. "But I guess can't tell you to shove off." She gradually flexed her bicept, trying to replicate the feeling she had when her wing had exploded outward.

...Yes. There, she could feel it - slowly - The metal was emerging from her nails while concealed within her wingcloak. Finger nails changing into elongated razors.

She gingerly slid her wing open partially, allowing her hand free to emphasize her point - The hand having actually gained various jagged and curled razors along side the main nail-razors... Which had formed oddly, creating a serrated effect instead of the clean and sleek look she had wanted.

Too late to change it now, she'd run with what she had. "If you make trouble, then I'll end you." She opened her palm and let the metal on her hand twirl into itself and twist into random jagged shapes around her hand.

Oh.. that was interesting. 'Wait, don't get distracted by your own hand!'

Her piece said, she pulled her hand back into her cloak and turned away from the homeless guy dismissively - Silently calming down her racing blood.

"Just some people," she replied curtly. "I don't want to watch them anymore." She sat back down on the foot of the bed, facing away from Ainlisle again.
"When she told me about the worlds merging together, I thought it was going to be more fun than this." She let out a long yawn, showing fatigue for the first time. Without warning, she fell back onto the bed, eyes closed. "I like it better here though..." she dozed off, no more than a minute after her energetic talk.


Kane's smirk disappeared again. The entertainment was over.
"Oh, shut the hell up. You lost, kid." He stood up and stretched, suddenly stopping like he remembered something.
"Hey, Alex, I'll be right back."
As he headed out the same way Resha had exited, he turned and pointed mockingly at the man suspended in mid-air. "Don't go anywhere!"

She looked at the ghost girl and chuckled.

"No. I would rather stay, you know, alive and in the flesh. You can have him I guess. 'Cute' doesn't really cut it when it comes to having giant creatures attacking us."

She pushed aside her wet bangs, and shook her head. She guessed she could use some "entertainment", but she just wished she could go home to her apartment. She didn't like being soaking wet in the rain. Her head turned to Rui as she decided to ignore the ghost for now.

"Oh sorry. I guess I just felt a little irritated at first. I guess rain really does help calm the nerves down."

She walked over to him and pulled him away from the ghost girl. He seemed upset about something, so she patted him on the back with a small smile. She assumed it was about Jessie. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Don't worry. If it's about your girlfriend, I'll help you look for her."

Suddenly the sound of a howl echoed through the air. Her head quickly turned towards the source of the howl. She squinted her eyes and looked. There were dark creatures running towards them. They looked like something resembling wolves.

“This can’t be like last time... Where she went out of control... Where she turned into that big wolf and demolished everything... I can’t let this happen again. JESSIE!!” She heard Rui exclaim.

"Wait. That's Jessie!?"

Her exclamation sounded particularly loud for some reason, so she covered her mouth. She took a step forward to take a better look at the incoming crowd. To her, it didn't really matter if it was Jessie or not at the moment. All she wanted to do was avoid being trampled by those things.

"C'mon. We should get out of here for now. If we want to help her, we should get out of here and figure out something later. We can't help her if we become roadkill on the street."

"Don't leave yet, Hard Rock!" Vincent yelled down to Kane, "Show's just starting!"

"Young Lord, I believe it is time for you to graciously admit defeat. At this rate, thou art only fooling thyself."

"No Eevul, I got this." he said, still struggling, "All I need is a beat...."

As he said this, his hands began clasping in rhythmn. Closing his eyes, his head began to rock to the same rhythmn. It was slight at first, but a tremor was starting to build across Vincent's body.

Vincent's last attack smashed through the side of the safehouse, taking off some of the roof, and waking Diana and Athena.

"What..." Diana mumbled from her spot on the floor. She had half a mind to ignore any and all noise and just falling back asleep until Athena jumped off the bed and raced down the hall holding a baseball bat she picked up from the corner of the room. "Oh boy..." she said getting up and walking after her.

"Kane is right, even you should see that you are clearly at my mercy. If you were any other enemy I would of bent you like a pretzel, torn you limb from limb, or just smashed you into the ground til you were nothing more then a stain. But unless I am wrong, we're just sparing. And I don't want to start killing potential assets."

"What's that..." Alex asked himself softly when he noticed a vibration in his head.

"Oh now you are trying to be subtle," Alex said realizing where the feeling was coming from. The dark mist seeping out of were Alex's arms used to be suddenly solidified as two long, lean shadow arms and began striking Vincent repeatedly in the abdomen, "Those arms aren't about to let you get away with anything like that. You should of kept your techniques a secret, but you decided to show off." Smaller arms, basically fingers with hands on the end of them, grew off the arms restraining him and began to pull Vincent's fingers back, slowly bringing them closer and closer to the back of his hand.

"You tipped your hand way too early. I doubt I'll be getting any more surprises out of you."

-----

"Oh I won't be any trouble miss" Jamie said as he decided to finish closing the gap between him and his new friends.

"Nice and intimidating miss. You must be a pro." Jaime said with praise while he chuckled quietly to himself at the idea of someone trying to scare him off with a blade or two.

It was surprising how Vincent faired in this situation. He showed signs of distress as his fingers were bent back, flickers of pain as he was punched by the phantom fists, but still he seemed to rock his head to an inaudible beat. Even going so far as to tap his boots together in sync with that rhythmn.

As he did, however, it got louder. In what felt like an eternity for him, but mere seconds to the outside world, the beat eminated from his body. Almost like he had become his own speaker.

The Rejection Pulse. Vincent hated using it, considering the start-up time it took. Twenty seconds if he had the beat quickly, hastened only when under duress. Under most circumstances he would be dead before it would do anything significant, leaving Eevul to rely on the Astral Slide to get him out of harm's way.

This situation was different, though. He couldn't get into a fight like this and just punk out. He was going to make a statement, even if it left him with little to stand on.

The pulse grew in intensity, beginning to slow the assault from the punching arms and forcing the smaller hands to break away from his fingers. Then it got more intense, throwing the punching arms away from their target and forcing his restraints loose. After the shadows let him go, he hit the ground on one knee but still kept the beat going, forcing the rest of the pool of shadows back.

Once the shadows were far enough away, Vincent looked up at the shadowy form of Alex, choking out a somewhat painful laugh as the pulse subsided.

"See? Whatever you throw at me, I'm just gonna throw it right back in your face!" he said, rather confident in his beat-up state, "You know why? 'Cause I'm Vincent Demarco! And I'm just that...!"

With that, his overall injured body couldn't hold him up anymore. Having expelled most of his stamina taking the punishment he did, he was unconsious before his head hit the ground.

But at least he did what he sought to do. If he wasn't going to win the fight, he would end it on his terms. No one would tell him to surrender except his own body.

The repeated thrumming from the direction of the safehouse started to simmer out, so either Alex beat him into unconsciousness or he accidentally blasted himself through a wall.

Resha couldn't even comprehend Alex losing to him, so gaping was the distance between their power levels in her mind.

"Fine." She grunted, turning and walking back down the way she had come initially - No closer to figuring out where they were currently. "I'm going back before I pick up any more stragglers out here."

She walked past Astraea, with a nod of her chin to get the girl following. She wasn't that far from the safehouse, maybe a five or ten minute walk. She just needed to remember which turns to make.

Well, she had a general idea of where it was anyway thanks to beatbox boy. "Follow if it suits you."

This entire ordeal was a complete waste of time, she should have just gone back to bed.

Helpless man #1 woken by noises that suddenly assaulted him. The sound of the rain hitting the ground and other surfaces, distance gunshots, explosions, footsteps, other smaller noises that overlapped by the louder ones.

He tried to close his ears with his hands to no avail as the noises continue to assault him.

"Aaaaarghhhh" unable to withstand the noises, he shouted, which add more suffering to himself.

He then banged his head on the ground while both his hands clawed on his head, hopping that at least he'll pass out and unconscious or maybe woke himself and no longer in this nightmare the next time he open his eyes.

And the noises stop, the same time as his hands grab something felt like small horns on his head.

'fuck, now i have horns and scales, what next? tail?'

And as he relaxed his grips on his horns, the noises came back. And he tightened his grips again to suppress them while looking for his torn sleeves, and wrap them around his head like a bandana.

The vibrations stopped, and with it, so did Kane's increasingly pounding headache.
"Finally," he muttered. Alex must have shut him up already.

Kane was already about a block down the direction Resha left in, yet the recent vibrations felt as if they were right next to his ear. It didn't help that his sense for that sort of thing was amplifying it.

Speaking of Resha, there she was.
..And she made friends.
"Yo, Resha,"
Those two look...interesting. Better ask about it.
"Who the hell are those?"
Oh, wrong tone. Whatever.


They didn't seem to be moving from their spot. Disappointing, but it did make things easier.
The distance between the wolf horde and the group was quickly diminishing, but the ever-impatient Fenrir took advantage of that rather than waiting another moment.

The girl looked like easy prey.

Grinning madly at the thought of feeding, the hivemind of the pack appeared to move on its own. A wave of wolves leaped out of the pack, seeking to crash down on the woman all at once.

Resha bit back the urge to flinch at the tone, looked like he was still upset about being wing-smacked. Still, her first reaction was- "Astraea and some guy." She introduced shortly, the hand which she had morphed into a series of jagged blades earlier being jerked back towards the two of them carelessly.

Oh, she still hadn't fixed that. Her statement was cut off as she took a moment to curiously look at her hand again.

"The girl is a walking glowstick." she muttered under her breath to Kane as she walked over to him, "Dunno about the guy though. He's just annoying."

Her wing cloak stayed in place obediently this time, no sign of it trying to finish the job it had started with Kane earlier. Her hand was still a bit too sharp and pointy for casual use though, so she opted to simply look him over skeptically. "You okay by the way?"

A short period of silence, like her statement was going to be continued but reality was buffering before the audio restarted. "Listen, sorry about the flipping out and trying to drive a metal pole through your face thing earlier. I've been under a lot of stress lately." She shrugged, flippantly brushing it off with a backhanded apology.

"Runt, jerk, this is guy is Miracles." She had turned to introduce her tag-alongs to Kane.

The descriptions were less than satisfactory, but he supposed there really wasn't much more to say. She was gone for all of 10 minutes or so anyway, he didn't expect a full profile of each of them, nor did he really care to hear one.

He flinched a bit, unconsciously, when she walked closer, taking a slight step back. It took him a moment to shake off the sudden apprehension. He simply attributed it to not being used to Resha appearing so much lighter.
Er... metallic.

"You okay by the way?" To this statement, he simply blinked. That also wasn't expected. After a moment, she followed up with a strangely straightforward apology, then moved on to introducing the other two without giving him time to respond.

"So runt would be Astraea then? That's an odd name," he stated, smirking a little at the child. His face went stoic again when he turned to the man with a chain fetish, and after a moment decided he didn't want to talk to him.
"Anyway, you probably didn't mean to nearly kill me, I guess... That whole metal thing seems hard to get used to." The more he spoke, the more a sharp pain in his chest began to be apparent. His arm twitched to grab it, but he refrained from doing so. "...Didn't even hurt, anyway."

"Oh?" She intoned skeptically, looking him over carefully. It was too dark to really see him, and even if she could; it wasn't like she had experience seeing if people were injured. Even less so if they were rock people. "Then I suppose I'll just have to try harder next time." she responded.

Word play she was fine with, it set her at ease to know he was still fine enough to casually go back and forth like this. But that didn't mean she wasn't worried.

Like hell he would know that, though.

"Miracles huh?" Jamie said stepping between Resha and Kane, holding out his hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Jamie."

"You two seem to know each other rather intimately. Young lovers perhaps?"

-----

"Damn, not enough..." Alex cursed to himself as his opponent started to pulse. The structure holding up Vincent began to disintegrate. The arms striking him started to fade away.

Then he fainted.

"Guess I pegged you too soon," he said as he knelt down next to the unconscious man.

"MONSTER!" A young feminine voice shouted from behind him.

"Wait wha-" Alex started to say turning back towards the voice, only to get a baseball bat to the face.

"This city is full of you dark creatures, isn't it?" she said boastfully standing on top of Alex's chest. She turned towards the group behind her, "You all just stand around while this monster assaults a man? Have some courage for Zeus' sake!"

"Oh!" she squealed falling on her bottom. The thing she was standing on suddenly crumbled, leaving her flat on her ass.

"What is wrong with you?" Said a voice coming form the shadows in the corner. "Do you always attack the people who gave you a roof over your head?" Alex walked towards the girl, looking slightly annoyed.

"Dumbass what is your problem?" Diana yelled from the hall.

"Sis..." Artemis said poking out from behind the shouting detective, "That scary villain man is our friend..."

Minnie just stood there, with her face in her palm.

"Oh um..." Athena blushed as she looked down at her knees. "Sorry Sir."

"So runt would be Astraea then? That's an odd name."

Hearing her name snapped Astraea out of autopilot. She looked up at the man talking..

"GAH!!!" Astraea screamed at the sight of his rocky-ness and ran to Resha and held onto her leg. She peeked her head out for a second, and saw him grinning at her.

Oh my god, he's going to eat me. Mr. Miracles is going to eat me.

Astraea tightened her grip on Resha's leg and hid herself once again, the darkness surrounding her deepening, obscuring her form from view.

Resha glanced down curiously, the impact of the girl barely even registering to her and effectively distracting her from most of Jamie's comments.

"Say that again?" She responded, her deformed hand being held open like an iron maiden inviting it's next occupant. "Do I need to remind you about what happens if you end up being a pest?"

Damn little girl, not like she can be passive and let miracles deal with it while she had some glowstick attached to her leg. Was she afraid of Kane? ... The thought rolled around in her head briefly before being dismissed entirely. If the girl wasn't afraid of her, then kane was a cakewalk. He was just a rock.

She turned her attention to Kane. "How did Alex and the punk's showdown go?"

Kane was good at ignoring Jerk, and other jerks like him. It was second nature when one had to deal with them so often.

"Hm? Oh, that?" That was actually concerning, how abrupt the sound ended. "I wonder if that dipshit's even still alive," he said with only the vaguest concern. "Anyway, you takin' these guys back or what?"
Neither of them look like they would survive for long if we didn't. The small one..er... the little girl looks completely vulnerable, and Jerk looks like another typical punk.

"I guess I am." She shrugged, "The girl's harmless, and the other one is like a clingy homeless guy."

She took a cue from Kane and opted to ignore him for now, closing her iron-maiden like hand and letting it drop to the side. "So where did you come from anyway?" She finally got around to asking, her attention turning back towards the surroundings.

The alley she thought Kane had come out of no longer existed. In fact, neither was the one she had just walked down. How did they get to a dead end? "Must not have been paying attention..." she grumbled, walking out of the dead-end they had somehow ended up in.

"You can lead us back, right?"

"Where did I.." he was suddenly alert, and his brow arched. A feeling had been prodding at the back of his mind, but the headache from Vincent's vibrations ended up like ringing in his ears, and the feeling was dismissed as white noise until now.

"Something's around," he started in a puzzled manner. "No.. something was moving around us, wasn't it?" He looked around. Their surroundings were indeed different than he remembered, but it didn't quite register. "We haven't moved from this spot though..." he walked towards the unfamiliar dead end and placed a hand on it.

Subtle vibrations were shifting around them. He couldn't tell whether they were from the buildings nearby, the pavement, or underground...or all of those. He wasn't used to sensing these things, but this was on a different level of confusion. "We might have a problem."

"Problem." she repeated monotonously, the last thing she needed tonight was more problems. "So you're thinking architecture decided to make us miserable and actively screw with us?" She queried archly.

She walked back over to where Kane was touching the wall, examining it under the rain with a critical eye to try and understand what it was that had set him off.

Just to make sure, she knocked on it. "Looks pretty stationary. I don't even think you could move an entire wall without making any noise."

She turned to walk away on the tile floor.

He turned around to answer her remark. "Would you be surprised? 'Cuz I wouldn't, some crazy shit happening in.."
...
"Are those tiles."

The effect was getting more noticeable as he got more acquainted to the idea of non-stationary surroundings. Unfortunately, trying to work out what exactly was going on made him dizzy.

"And people say Europeans were stuck up." he said walking past the new guy who ignored him. "And really, I'm no jerk. Honest."

Moving walls? Architecture that doesn't stay put? This was all new to him. Hopefully it didn't impair Viki from getting her job done. "What's this now? We have trouble?"

-----

Viki was sitting in the tank by herself while her men fooled around outside as they waited for their time to shine. She hummed quietly to herself as she looked at an old photo of a teen male and a young girl, both smiling for the camera without a care in the world.

She sighed to herself as she shifted her weight a little. "We can go back soon," she whispered to herself. "No more of this crazy stuff. Just easy living, like you promised."

An alarm from a watch hanging on the inside of the tank went off, alerting her to what she needed to do. She grabbed her megaphone and popped her head out of the hatch. "Alright boys, it's time we got this done! Lets go!"

Resha's eye quirked curiously as she humored him and looked down at the beautiful and spotless tile floor that she was walking on. "...Yes." She answered slowly, poking at it with her foot.

It resounded normally, with the smooth and featureless walls around them. "Okay, we might have a problem." she admitted, hanging her head back in frustration.

The ceiling several stories above her, stretching out as far as she could see did nothing to alay her frustrations. "Oh for the love of- No! This isn't happening! It's way too impossible!" She stamped her foot down angrily, clenching her bladed hand towards the buildings as if they had personally insulted her.

"Has to be drugs. Or Alex. That bastard is doing this, he's got to be." He could make shadow thingies, this didn't seem too farfetched. "Some kind of shrine conspiracy, that contractor, even aliens. Why couldn't it have just been aliens."

Her grumbles became more and more indistinct as she angrily paced back and forth in the pristine hallway they had somehow ended up in.

Pretty floor..

Astraea was looking down at the floor, which was now completely made of tile.

Are we here already? That was quick. I should have been paying attention rather than thinking the entire walk...

Astraea felt a surge of happiness flow through her body, which physically manifested itself by way of making her skin glow again. She smiled and looked around.

Resha and Mr. Miracles were looking mad and were looking around.

"Whats wrong, guys?" she asked with a strangely happy air.

Then she around. Everything seemed so unnatural. It gave Astraea a bad feeling.

She looked at Kane. He looks so strong... I want his powers.

She looked down at her own puny little arms, which were now made of skin colored rock. Astraea grinned. Whoa! I have the power to copy powers, huh? Lets try the creepy chain guy

Astraea stared at the chain guy intently for at least ten seconds and looked at herself again. No change.

Stupid chain man probably has no powers. Pitiful.

Astraea flexed her 'new' fingers. They feel so... natural... Like they arent even made of rock! This is amazing! Her grin widened, and she let out a small giggle.

"...awesome!"

Apparently, it took much less time for Vincent to come around from being unconsious. It seemed his unusual amount of energy wouldn't allow him to stay down for too long.

Rolling to his side, he coughed as he brought himself to at least a sitting position. The bruises along his chest and stomach were already beginning to show under his tattered Led Zepplin shirt.

"Did thou learn a lesson from this, Young Lord? That stratagy and focus are better tools than brute force when dealing with situations. Even ones as pointless as this."

"Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, Eevul. Right again, as always." Vincent grumbled, "He got lucky this time around. No way it happens again."

"I would not suggest openly combating this 'Alex' until you know more about him and his intentions. Did you not feel the malice behind the attacks you suffered? Even if he took this as a sparring match, his counterpart might not have. It may be darker than the shadows he commands."

There was a pause.

"Wait, those were shadows?" Vincent said, confused, "To be honest, I had no idea what that was. Just thought it was kind of weird how the dude grew black arms and stuff."

There was a pause on Eevul's side now.

"Young lord....."

Even when the horns has been covered, the noises around him was still loud and annoying but bearable.
Helpless man #1 can filter sounds he heard, lots of footsteps was getting closer, another beating noises and crumbling building was heard from another direction and the army still engaging the centipedes.

'at least with this stupid horns i can get away from troubles, i'm tired'

He then began waking slowly to the direction of footsteps he heard,hoping to find other people and maybe someplace nice to spend the night.

Shon

Some crazy shit indeed.

Suddenly, they were indoors. There was no mistaking it - something or someone was fucking with them. Kane blinked as Resha angrily stormed around the room, too wrapped up in thought to note how uncharacteristic of her that was.

What is it this time then, some kind of supernatural carpenter? Are we up against Jesus?

Maybe it's just an illusion...

Kane looked at the wall again quizzically, rubbing his chin.

No...this is real stuff. Even if it was just really convincing, I would have felt otherwise.

"What's wrong, guys?" A happy voice chirped in. Kane shot her a look before going back into thought. She was just emitting this aura of cheerfulness that distracted him, so he paid her no mind.

He considered options and possibilities. He could probably break down the wall, that's always an easy answer - but he didn't want to risk it collapsing in on them. Not yet, at least. Last resort, at most.
...Second to last. Third to last, tops.

They could just try to leave, but the walls might reform around them again once they let their guard down. So far, it's always been out of their line of sight, so maybe if they were alert...

...but what if something was trying to trap them? Resha could have fallen into a trap just before he got there; an ambush is a definite possibility.

Perhaps the threat was already here, given that line of thought. The chain guy looked suspicious, though not nearly smart enough to pull something like this off. And the little girl was unlikely.

The happy little girl, smiling like nothing is wrong.

Why is she so happy in the first place? Maybe she has something to do with it?

"Hey, runt, was it?" He addressed her without turning around. "You don't notice anything weird at all, seriously?"

“Ah, you brave soldiers fought valiantly, seems I’ve missed all the kill. Ah well.”

“It’s because you got lost, you bastard. I was hungry.”

“Sword, you must learn to obey me.”

“Muerte, I swear...”

“In any case, I must find my companion. I hope he too isn’t lost.” Muerte then breathed in. “Helpless man number 1!!!! Where are you!? Speak to me if you aren’t dead yet!”

Muerte waited for a second there. After no answer, he began to move forward. “Well, I must find him. He’s the closest thing I have to an ally here.”

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

“Oh my... Where... Am I...?” Jessie said weakly. Her vision blurred, she tries to move around in what appears to be empty space. But she finds that she couldn’t. She felt something cold wrapped around her nude body. “Wh-what... Is this...?”

Jessie finds that the only part of her body that could move is her head. With her vision, now clear, she moves her head to see what had bound her. Chains. Chains had bound her; leg cuffs bounded her and were attached to the endless darkness. Handcuffs similarly bounded her. And chains had surrounded her body, tightening it, but oddly enough, it didn’t even feel as tight as it should be.

“What happened...? Why... Am I here? What did I do...?” Jessie asked herself. The last thing she remembered was being in her room, feeling worried for Rui. And that’s when... Fenrir made his appearance. “That’s right... I asked Fenrir to take over my body... So that he could protect Rui...”

Jessie’s vision changed. What she saw wasn’t darkness. Now, she saw the streets of Mumble. And she saw the ghost girl. Jessie then got angry as she saw the ghost girl near Rui, shaking her butt towards him. “Why the hell is that bitch...” Jessie then saw herself moving, not knowing why. Beside her are her wolf minions. “Why... Am I moving...? And why can’t I feel myself moving...? Could... This be Fenrir!? Am I seeing what Fenrir’s seeing?”

“I can feel it... Fenrir’s thoughts and his hunger... He wants... to eat the ghost girl... I will... let him... If it means she’s finally out of Rui’s life.”

Jessie then sees a wave of wolves leaping out of the pack, heading to attack the woman.

“Yes... Kill her. Eat her. Destroy her. Make sure... Nothing remains.” Jessie’s head was clouded by animalistic tendencies.

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

"C'mon. We should get out of here for now. If we want to help her, we should get out of here and figure out something later. We can't help her if we become roadkill on the street."

“You don’t understand, do you... That thing is Jessie. She’s here... In her wolf form... Like that other time... Why though... Why?” Rui doesn’t understand why this is happening. He hasn’t much time to react. And there isn’t anything he could do in his current state. “Maybe... You’re right... Maybe...”

Rui decided to clear his head. He decided to listen to the girl and get out for now. But then, as Rui decided to run away, a wave of shadow wolves makes its attack. They leaped away from the pack and were coming down, like a heavy storm of large shadow wolves. It looked like their target was for Alice, but since she was near Rui and co., they were going to be caught in the attack.

“Damn it... Jessie. JESSIE!”

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

Along with the thoughts of hunger Jessie heard and felt, Jessie also heard a yell. This yell was familiar. But Jessie couldn’t put her finger on who it was. “... Rui...?” Was it Rui, Jessie thought that yelled out to her?

“Yes... I’m sure of it. Rui! It’s me, Rui! I’m here for you! I’m here to protect you! Can you hear me!? Ruuuuuiiiiii!”

"I guess that double was about ready to anyways." Alex said leaning down next to the confused Athena. "Don't sweat it too much, fight was over anyways."

"Oh, alright then," although this man was her apparent benefactor, Athena still thought something was off. With all she has dealt with, she knew people usually have dark appearances for a reason. Either they are evil themselves, or they were cursed by those in charge. "Sorry either way." She said standing up and dusting off her bottom.

Alex stood up and walked over to Vincent. "You okay man? Didn't hit you too hard I hope?" He asked with a worried smile as he held his hand out. "I could use tenacious people like you. But if you are going to stick around you'll need to show me that you are capable of more than just making a lot of noise. Ever play on a team before?"

Diana stood back and watched the group from the hall. "At least everyone is capable."

Artemis tugged at Diana's shirt, "Hey Di, weren't we supposed to be leaving? Not that I mind it here or anything, I just thought I'd help you keep track. You seem to have problems with that..."

"We are," Diana relied. She didn't want to hang around someone like him. She had convinced herself that Alex was a bad man. But Minnie still needed some time to recover, "Or we will. Soon." But having a place to sleep was always nice, and it isn't like he is killing people. That noisy kid is still alive after all. God knows Alex could of done much worse. She's seen it with her own eyes. Diana let out a sigh, "Or we might. I don't know, ask me later, okay?"

"Alright Di," Artemis said smiling, "You know what's best after all."

-----

"Seriously kid, what is wrong with you?" Jamie asked after Miracles questioned her. "Ever since you've shown up all you've hopped around between stupidly happy, pissing yourself scared, and clinically depressed. I am seriously starting to question your mental fortitude."

He let out a deep sigh, "I get the feeling you guys see a lot of this," he paused, pointing up at the ceiling, "this shit."

The wolf things looked like the last thing she saw before passing out and awaking up days later in a hospital. She was finally regaining some memories of what happened before she was knocked out cold for days. If only she had her motorbike, she would be able to get out of this crazy city.

'So were these those shadowy creatures that attacked me that day?'

She looked at Rui. It looked like he was coming to his senses to not be driven by emotion. However, it was too late. They were too close. Were they going to be swallowed up by the pack of wolves?

There wasn't any time to waste. She had to do something. There was no way she was going to die now. Adrenaline rushed through her as she tried to think of a solution.

'Don't panic. Remember your abilities.'

She listened to the voice and nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated. If she was able to make use of her power to make the wolves go right past them, they would have enough time to get away.

She opened her eyes and held her hands out. It wasn't necessary for her to do so, but it helped her visualize better. The space rippled like a droplet falling into a pool of water. She was able to make it in the nick of time. The wolves had reached them, but instead of stampeding them all to the ground, they passed right through them.

"I bought us some time. Let's go!"

She grabbed Rui's wrist and ran away from the ever increasing crowd of wolves. If Leon didn't get out of there in time, that was his problem. Right now, all she cared about was getting away safely from the wolves and ghost girl. While they made a run for it, she swore she could hear Jessie's voice, but the pack of wolves drowned out the voice before she was able to listen carefully.

"Leave her be," Resha idly interjected when the chained guy had questioned Astraea, "She's a pre-teen glow in the dark girl, did you expect her to be calm and collected?"

She had finally stopped pacing around, choosing instead to slowly reform her iron-maiden hand into a normal appendage while they were otherwise unthreatened. "But yes. This one doesn't seem to be actively trying to kill us, so I'd say this is actually one of the lesser instances of weirdness we've run into since this whole thing started."

The serrated blades on her hand were gradually sliding back into her metal skin, but the mass hadn't changed - The metal was just spreading out over the figure of her hand and making it bulkier.

She raised an eyebrow at that.

The shadow wolves closed in on them. But suddenly, they just happened to pass through their bodies. Rui was shocked. How did it happen? Who did it?

Then, immediately after, Leon’s friend grabbed Rui’s wrist and ran from the wolves. He had no choice but to follow. He ran as quickly as he could.

“What the hell, Jessie... Why are you doing this...”

Rui wanted to turn back and try to save Jessie, somehow. “Maybe... Maybe if I could get close to her... Then maybe I could talk some sense into her. But... I’m useless. My powers are useless in the rain. And I’m still a bit tired from earlier.”

Rui then noticed that it was just the two of them. “Hey... We left behind your friend, Leon. I wonder... Why’d you do that? Jessie probably ate him... Shouldn’t we go back there for him?”

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

“Rui ran away... He’s safe now at least... He’s with that other girl from the hospital... But, can I trust her? I only met her at the hospital after all. Is she really trustworthy? I want Rui to be safe. He must only be with me to be safe... Anyone else must die...”

Jessie’s thoughts are getting clouded for every minute; every second Fenrir controls her.

“I... No ... She did save him... She... I...”

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

Muerte walks around, centipede corpses lie around. “Geez, they really handled this situation pretty hasty, don’t you think?”

Muerte had no plan of action. He was lost. “Maybe... I should go look for the golden boy. I wonder if he’s around. I wonder...”

Muerte then sighted a figure, looking similar to his ally Helpless man #1. “Heeey, you there!?” Muerte shouted. “Are you... ARE YOU MY COMPANTION? HELPLESS MAN #1?”

Muerte then walked towards the figure.

The wolves were an extension of Fenrir's consciousness. He was able to tell immediately that he missed his target, but it left him perplexed nonetheless. The prey was still in plain sight, how could they escape..?

The group ran away. That was good, as long as Rui was sa-
No, Fenrir's rage overtook Jessie's thoughts at a missed kill. He was able to slaughter dozens down the road on the way here, how could one small group of people escape?

Having passed through the group, Jessie made a U-turn to face her prey once more.


Kane impatiently broke from thought. It's not like there were many options to consider. He pounded his fists together loudly and turned towards the group. "Well, we're still in the same place, someone just dropped a fucking mansion on us. Unless you guys wanna just walk out the front door, I'm'a start breaking shit."

He pounded his fists again, this time followed by a small quake that cracked the floor around him. "Any objections?"

Resha waved her hand carelessly, "Break away Miracles, as long as you get us back then I'm satisfied."

"This place is kinda stuffy, isn't it?" Jamie looked upwards, then at the wall nearest Kane, "Let's see what you can do."

He smirked at the consent. "Well alright then."

He turned towards the pristine wall. In the time he had his hand on it, he became fully aware of the nature of its composition - the inconsistencies, its strength at each different point, and exactly how to manipulate it. Kuldr had passed on an amazingly detailed sense to Kane. A sense that he was sure the golem never used to its full potential.

A bit excited that he would finally get to use it in full, he started bouncing as if in warmup. He took a moment to fully imagine his task, tracing out the path he would move the wall. Finally, clenching both his fists, he slammed them both into the wall simultaneously.

A resounding thud occurred, two oddly straight lines running up the sides at relentless speeds. Before they reached the top, they both turned and abrupty met at the center. With about a one second delay from the initial punch, the entire wall gave way and burst outwards violently, exploding from the relatively organized shape into several huge, jagged chunks.

Kane squinted, both at the thunderous sound and the cloud of debris that followed, and looked on proudly at his handiwork.

"Hah!!"

"You're fatigued." Michael resonated suddenly into the caverns of Arthur's psyche. "I knew you were going to say that..." Arthur returned. "I had a feeling that you were about to speak... And that it was going to be those words..." Michael sat silent for a while, as if in thought. "I couldn't say."

Arthur became a bit frustrated at his reply. "You couldn't say? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Aren't you the all-knowing super power here?" Michael responded in a more grim tone. "I am hardly all-powerful, Arthur. Although it's true I am set apart from others of my kind, my powers have their limits. And when I reach that limit?"

Arthur continued, stone-faced, into the rain. "Then you push till you die..."

Michael emitted a singular laugh. "It was fortunate I ended up with you."

The wall debris froze in midair, even the dust which had created the cloud ceased to move as if time had stopped in front of Kane.

And all too quickly, the wall slammed itself back into a singular and unbroken piece as if to mock Kane's efforts.

Resha gawked at the scene slack jawed, her mind trying to wrap around what had just happened - When a tile next to her foot launched itself from the ground and smashed into the back of Kane's head with enough force to smack his face into the wall he had just broken.

The strange house otherwise didn't react.

Resha cautiously edged her way over to Kane, keeping her eyes on the structure around her. "It didn't appreciate that." She muttered helpfully, "you okay?"

Ainlisle looked to Lucia, about to respond to the out of character irritation she expressed when talking about what had occured outside, but...

The petite girl had dozed off, finally showing exhaustion for the first time since they'd met.

"Geez... " Ainlisle tilted her head and smiled slightly at her friend. "How did you run out of energy just now?"

She had started to reach over and pull a blanket over Lucia, before hearing another loud sound. And subsequently dropped the edge of the blanket she was holding.

"...Osiris what was.. "
"I suggest that you check it out yourself."
"...."

Hesitantly, she left the room and headed out down the hall, noticing a few other people heading down it before her.

------

"Woah, damn!" Zane exclaimed while watching.

Looked like the living boombox had lost this-- wait, stone bro was going, where was he... Well, didn't matter, Zane shrugged. Figured the Stone bro could take care of himself.

Oh man. This sound was getting to his head, mostly in the form of an annoying buzz... and the pulsing sound disappeared, as the young man approached where Vincent and Alex had been fighting.

"... And I'm just that -- !" and with that, Vincent fell to the ground.

Then a blonde blur ran past him, pouncing on Alex and attacking him with a bat.

"....Oh, Athena...? " Zane said in a slow moment of recognition. "...Good to see she's well, at least."

He turned to look at Diana and Artemis as he heard them.

" Hey Diana, Artemis!" he grinned at them for a moment, and blinked behind the girls, noting someone else coming down the hall.

-----

Ainlisle walked briskly down the hall towards where all the noise was. She heard Diana and Artemis yelling from the hall, and was soon met with the backs of Diana, Artemis and Minnie. And... someone she didn't recognize standing closer to the doorway.

She cleared her throat a little, and blinked at the group before her.

"Uhm... Diana? What's going on? "

"OW." Caught off guard and unable to avoid or simply deflect the projectile, he failed to keep his footing as it smashed into him and hit the wall - the wall that, by all rights, should not still be standing. "Motherfuck... what the hell just happened?!" He spun around angrily, holding his forehead, noting the spot where the tile flew from. "Did the god damned building just hit back? I know it did not just do that!!" He was expressing anger at what should have been an inanimate object.

Rather than fly off the handle though, he inhaled and calmed down. "So that isn't going to work."
He looked to Resha and that jerk. "Any other ideas?"

"Seriously kid, what is wrong with you?"

More than you know, asshole

Astraea shot the creepy chain guy a glance and walked towards Resha in an attempt to distance herself from the stupid chain guy.

The sound of a wall crumbling and exploding resonated through the hall. Astraea snapped her head towards the sound just in time to see the wall Kane was standing next to explode, stop, and then rebuild itself.

Then, a tile flew and hit him in the head.

Astrea fell to the ground laughing and clutching her sides, creating a series of cracks in the flooring where her elbows landed.

The cracks along the ground snapped back into place in a similar manner, silently mending themselves beneath Astraea.

Then a tile fell from the roof and smashed itself onto her face.

Resha, for her part, simply held her hand above her head as she continued to speak. "Ideas... Well if we can't break out, then our only other option is to walk out, right?" She glanced back at the others, "Unless one of you can teleport us somewhere."

"Nah, you just got a lucky break. That's all. Hell, if I had been 100%, this thing would have lasted for days." Vincent said, taking Alex's hand and getting to his feet, "The boss battle from earlier wore me out more than I thought, though. So, when I get back to full strength and you work on your game a little bit, we can do this again. Until then, I'll take that one as a Draw."

Dusting himself off, he chuckled a bit before continuing.

"As for sticking around, I believe that awesome people should stick together to bring their own awesomeness up. And those two ladies there are awesome. I mean, you should have seen how, with my help, of couse, they totally fried that alien bone thing up." he said, pointing to Dianaand Artimus, "So, the question isn't if I'm joining you, but if you are going to roll with us. 'Cause, hey, with awesome like we have, we can even bring a guy like you up to our level. No promises, though."

With that, he just walked towards the house like nothing had happened, leaving Alex to ponder on what the hell Vincent was talking about.

"Anyway, you guys got anything to drink around here?" he said, off-handedly, "'Cause I am parched, dude."

While walking to the direction of the footsteps he heard a while ago which now turned to what seems to be people running about panicking or fighting, a familiar voice shouted at him.

“Are you... ARE YOU MY COMPANTION? HELPLESS MAN #1?” and as he looked back he saw Muerte walking towards him half running and he waved at Mueter.

"YOU OK PARTNER?" reply Helpless Man #1

"YOU OK PARTNER?" replied Helpless Man #1.

“I am glad you are alright, my friend. Where have you been?” Muerte finally neared Helpless Man #1. He had the look of relaxation as he found his friend seemingly unhurt. “The military cleaned up those nasty beasts, wouldn’t you say?”

Muerte looked at his friend a bit closer. Did he always wore those gloves? Wait... Why is he wearing a cloth...? Did someone hit him in his head?

“Hey Helpless Man #1... What happened to you? Why are you wearing that cloth on your head? Did something hurt you?! I shall kill the monster that did this to you? And peculiarly, when did you wear leather gloves...?”

"Huh? Oh this?" Helpless Man #1 showing Muerte his blue scales covered arms.
"These scales protect my hand when the centipede bit me, and there are horns on my head, and could you lower your voice? i kind of hearing everything around me 2 times the volume from normal."

As he explained his transformation to Muerte, he noticed how Muerte's expression changed.

As Helpless Man #1 talked about his transformation into a creature, no a demon, Muerte’s facial expression changed. His face changed from happiness at seeing Helpless man #1 safe, to a sad and disturbed look on his face. Muerte said to himself he was prepared to kill this man. But, now it seems that the situation had changed. Even so, Muerte tried to grab his sword.

Can I do it? Can I really kill my companion...? NO! I must kill him. I shall kill him. This kill... Shall be for you. This... Will be to repay the kindness you’ve given me.

“Helpless man... I shall end you, right now.” Muerte uttered these words as he grabbed his sword and swiftly attacked Helpless Man #1.

Suddenly Muerte raised his sword, and bring it down directly to Helpless Man #1's head, as if trying to end him as quickly as possible by splitting his head and maybe his body into two.

Instinctively, Helpless Man #1 raised both his arms and used the side of his arms which covered by scales to block Muerte's attack.

As the sword hit his arms, it produced metallic ringing sound and sparks. The hit is strong and heavy. Helpless Man #1 successfully blocked Muerte's attack, the asphalt road cracks and he fell to one knee.

"Wha.. what are you doing? Are you crazy or something?"

Helpless Man #1 managed to block Muerte’s bifurcating attack with his scales on his arm. It produced a ringing sound and managed to make him fall down to one knee. Muerte didn’t look surprised, as he expected that Helpless Man #1 would be a bit different than his other prey. But the result would be the same; Helpless Man #1 would die.

"Wha.. what are you doing? Are you crazy or something?" said Helpless man #1.

“You’ve been infected, turning into a dirty creature. And now, I must do my god given duty and send you to heaven, by killing you. Only through my sword can you be cleansed. Only by my sword, can you go to heaven. Now die. DIE HELPLESS MAN!!” Muerte shouted this with all his heart. He pulled his sword back and continued his attack. He attacked unlike other battles.

He attacked with rage instead of his normal calm demeanor. He attacked with more feeling and passion. He tried to slice up Helpless Man #1.

Failed in killing helpless man #1 with a strong attack, Muerte now began to attack with weaker but faster slashes. Helpless Man #1 try to block frantically, but lots of slashes got through, further tearing his clothes, showing more scales on his body, and cut some of his unprotected body, like chest and abdomen while arms, shoulder, neck, thighs and legs are almost fully protected and completely unharmed.

The scales on his arms that protected him on Muerte's overhead slash are the only scales with noticeable damage.

Feeling pain only from his chest and abdomen, Helpless Man #1 focused his defense around that area. And charged at Muerte while covering his head too, and unleashed a punch with all his might to Muerte's face.

Muerte didn’t have enough time to dodge Helpless Man’s counterattack. The counterattack consisted of a direct punch to Muerte’s face. The punch, coupled with Helpless Man’s new scales and newfound strength, was enough to send Muerte flying and in a world of pain.

Muerte crashed down in a place somewhat near the current location.

“Damn. He’s stronger than even the Golden Boy. I need to take this seriously even more now. The only place I damaged him was when I first attacked him. I guess fast and weak aren’t gonna cut it. I’ll have to attack with more power to even make a dent in his new armor.”

Muerte got up and ran towards Helpless man. He jumped and then swung his sword downwards towards Helpless man.

“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!! I SHALL KILL YOU HELPLESS MAN”

Muerte’s fury was apparent. He was not gonna let Helpless Man live, unlike what had happened with Golden Boy.

Helpless Man #1 sent Muerte flying back a few feet but he got right up as soon as he landed and then went for a stronger attack trying once again to kill Helpless Man #1.

Surprised by his own strength and lack of fighting experience, Helpless man #1 let his guard down and unprepared, as helpless feeling filled his mind rooted him to the ground and unable to get his body to move, waiting for his death, given to him by his partner.

Then his counterpart took over again, like it did few hours ago.

His eyes turn blue and glowing, and easily side stepped Muerte's strong but slow attack. As Muerte crashed on the ground, producing a crater n the road, Helpless Man #1 open his palm and strike Muerte's head, right above his left ear.

As Muerte headed to finish off his former ally, Helpless Man #1 managed to dodge the attack, sidestepping. Muerte crashed into the ground, making a crater in the road. Helpless Man opened his palm and struck Muerte, knocking him out. Just before the attack, Muerte saw his former partner’s eyes, now blue and glowing. Muerte thought he was going to die.

“What is the feeling... This sense of death coming from him... What a monster... Am I really this weak...”

All of these doubting thoughts running through Muerte’s head as he lay unconscious.

“I wonder... If I survive... Could I strengthen myself...? I... Need to strengthen myself... And my resolve... If... I want to send them all to heaven... If... I want to save Helpless Man from this evil...I must live on.. All of those monsters in that other world.. They were weak, compared to Helpless Man #1. Compared to Golden Boy. I’ve found true strength. I’ve found true enemies. I must live on. I MUST. I can’t let anything like this happen anymore. My rage... Took over for that moment. And now, I have paid the price...”

Muerte soon trailed off into the darkness, lying there defeated.

Helpless Man #1 regained his senses after his body knocked out Muerte and confused, again, by what happend while he lost consciousness, as if someone else is in his body. At least he's not dead because of that.

The footsteps are getting louder, like a mob of a hundred people running to get away from something or chasing something.

'It might be bad leaving Muerte lying there unconscious, but he tried to kill me, and said stuffs like sending me to heaven, maybe he's just shocked at my transformation'

With no more time to think, Helpless Man #1 picked Muerte up and easily carried him on his back and wield Muerte's sword with his right hand.

Helpless Man #1 entered the nearest 3 story building and directly went to the top floor, laid Muerte on the couch, put his sword on the table and then went to the roof.

There on the roof, as he looked down, he can barely saw anything more than 20 feet away, without light and with the rain still pouring down, further reducing visibility.

But then he caught a glimpse of some people running from what seems to be a large pack of wolf.

"OW!" Screamed Astraea as her vision started to fade and gratuitous amounts of blood gushed out from where the tile had impacted her head, staining the ground in a wide arc around her.

The glow surrounding her slowly faded away and finally disappeared altogether when she lost consciousness, along with the blood that surrounded her and the rocks that coated her arms.

"Michael, Look I'm not in shape like I used to be. I'm really getting tired here. I know we've been on the march for nearly 30 kliks, and I'm just not in my prime anymore." Arthur stopped and put his hands on his knees, huffing the humid air.

"It's okay. I think... That we're here." Arthur furled his brow. "Huh?" He looked around him, left and right. "We're at a bus stop, Michael."

"Well... Have a seat on the bus bench then." Michael responded. "You needed a break anyway, right?"

"Right..."

So Arthur sat. Hands in the air, he leaned back on the uncomfortable and cold bus bench, popping his back a few times. He was enjoying the shelter that the aluminum bus stop cover afforded him from the rain. Not that it helped much, he was already soaked to the bone. He closed his eyes for a few moments and wiped the dripping water from his face.

"I hope you weren't expecting a very long break, soldier." Michael chimed in when he was just getting used to the seat. "Of course, of course." Arthur rolled his eyes. "You're not gonna be too happy when my ass falls off and you can't continue your damn quest or whatever it is that you're doing." "I'll keep that in mind." Michael replied.

"It's not like we have a choice anyway, Arthur. Look." Arthur looked down the street from his seat to see a lone city bus, barreling through the rain drops at a slow and steady pace. The bus emitted an eerie aura that put Arthur on guard.

The bus lumbered to a slow, screechy halt in front of the bus stop. Arthur stood with his wits about him, prepared for anything. As the air brakes released with a hiss, the jointed door slowly drug itself open. A black fog rolled from the bus steps and poured onto the ground in front of Arthur, beckoning him into the shadow.

"Looks like this is the one we want."

Rui ran and ran as far as his legs could take him. He didn’t notice that Jessie had made a U-Turn to come and attack Rui and Leon’s friend once again. Rui tried to think of something. Some place to hide and evade Jessie until they were well rested. But where?

Rui sighted a nearby building that doesn’t look occupied. “Oi, let’s go there, hurry. If we don’t, we’ll be running forever!” Rui then looked at the building to make sure there weren’t any apparent people living there.

“Hm, it’s a bit dark to see anything. I’m pretty sure we can rest there.”

Rui then looked to see if Jessie was still chasing them and looked back at the building for a bit of a closer look. “Hmm, there’s... A figure right there... On the rooftop... I wonder if they’d mind if we could hang in there.”

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

Muerte was in his own world at the moment, knocked out from the short skirmish with his former companion turned demon, Helpless man #1. Muerte was unsure of his strength since that short fight. He would soon doubt that he had the powers to eliminate each and every filthy creature out there.

Soon, a white light shown itself to Muerte. With a deep and menacing voice, it said to Muerte, “Do not doubt yourself my child. I am here to save you from the darkness.”

“Wh-who are you?” questioned Muerte.

“I? I am your Almighty God. I am here to strengthen your values. I am here to help you prove your worth. I shall show you the light. I shall give you power. By the end of this adventure of sorts, you shall gain the power to slay these beasts in my name. Now, are you ready?”

“I... I am ready, my Lord!”

“Good, we shall begin. We shall journey into your past. And uncover your insecurities and weaknesses. To overcome them is to have power.”

A walkway soon appeared before Muerte. Muerte walked and a flash of light appeared, with Muerte disappearing. Muerte showed no signs of being frightened.

In the outside world, where Muerte laid, resting, his body twitched for a second. It was hardly noticeable.

"Runt??" Kane looked down, reacting belatedly to the bludgeoning Astraea received from a ceiling tile. Almost immediately realizing the situation, he instinctively pounded his fists together like before. In an instant, an open-ended stone canopy deployed itself, smashing through floor tiles on its way up. It providing a barrier in case of future attacks from above.

Prepared for further projectile assaults, Kane's gaze shifted from side to side, monitoring any sudden movements through contact with the floor.
He addressed the other two. "We're gonna have to do somethin' fast if we do anything at all. Anyone see a door?"

"I suppose so, but they aren't following us are they?"

She followed after Rui into the dark building. It seemed like the electricity was cut. It wasn't so bad. They did need to rest after all. She was tried of being soaking wet. There was no way she was going to let herself catch pneumonia.

Unlike Rui, she glanced around before approaching the building to check if it was safe. However, the falling rain made it difficult to see anything.

"There is?"

She looked up, but couldn’'t see anyone. Was Rui imagining things? Hopefully, he didn't become delusional now.

"Um...Yea. Let's go check it out..."

'Be careful'

She nodded and headed up.

For some reason, she still didn't feel safe. It was like some sixth sense telling her to run because something was still following her, but she fought her nerves as she continued to walk up the flights of stairs.

They needed to get a good look of the city before settling down for the day. She hoped she had extra clothing in her duffel bag. She couldn't quite remember what was inside, so she could only hope. It was tempting to look inside, but she didn't want to become disappointed if she couldn't find anything.

Soon she reached the top and opened the door and stepped out, once again, into the cold rain. She looked back to see if Rui followed her.

"So what did you see?"

As his eyes get used to the darkness and his ongoing transformation, he could see a bit farther and clearer now.
The people he saw are now entering the building. And the wolves are rampaging behind them, still a bit farther away but closing in fast.

Helpless Man #1's sidearm is without ammo and so he decided to looked for something to use as a weapon and pick up nearby rusty iron pipe.

Then the door to the roof, 5 steps to the left of him swung open and figures of a man and a woman, which entered the building a minute ago.

"Um...Yea. Let's go check it out...,” she said. She then walked into the empty building. “Aiya, hold on, I’m still a bit tired from running away” Rui whined, still obviously fatigued.

They went into the building and continued onwards to the top. “I wonder who’s that figure on top of the roof... I hope he isn’t dangerous...” Rui and the girl finally made their way up to the top. The girl was the first one to reach the top; she opened the door. She turned back and asked Rui what’d he see.

“Oh. I saw a person on top of here. I wonder where they are...”

Rui then walked in front of the girl to check out the area. Sure enough, they found the person they were looking for. It was a man. He was about five or so steps away from them. He was holding what looks like a pipe, most likely using it as a weapon.

“Damn, we’re in trouble if he decides to attack us...” Rui said to himself.

Rui then erected his back, showing no fear. “Hello! Can we stay here for the night? We’re in a sort of a tangle; we were being chased. Please, help us!” Rui hoped the man didn’t answer with an attack towards the two.

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

Muerte has finally reached the end of the walkway. He soon appears in a giant area. It’s an area with lots of grass and wide-open space. It had an abundance of light. It looked familiar. But why?

“I have summoned thee here. Thou shalt train here. Thou shalt prove thy strength and willpower. And then we shalt move on to the next stage of thy training. Be prepared, my son.” God then disappeared.

Muerte had the look of confusion. Suddenly, mobs of creatures appeared out of nowhere. Muerte guessed that this was his first task, to kill all of these monsters. He pulled out his sword and took his normal stance along with his normal demeanor. He waited for the monsters to take their first move. He studied them.

After a while, one finally came up and attacked, visibly angered for the wait. Muerte made his move in an instant, attacking the creature. He disposed it in one slice. And then continued his attack towards the other creatures.

He sliced them all up in a matter of moments. Soon, new mobs appeared suddenly, with an aura radiating from them. Muerte could sense they were stronger than the last mob. He then made the first move, slashing the first creature he set his sights on, but this one came out still alive. Muerte was confused as to why it survived the first attack.

Muerte then noticed its counter attack just in time and jumped, dodging the attack. He then moved his sword into a downward stabbing motion. He stabbed the creature and the creature dissipated. Muerte then dropped a sweat. He readied himself for the rest of the creatures, as they charged towards him.

“COME ON CREATURES OF THE DEVIL. I SHALL PROVE MYSELF TO MY LORD AND KILL YOU ALL.” He then charged as well, attacking them.

Resha glanced around, stepping under the canopy quickly as she tried to see if anything had changed - And granted, something actually had changed. Where before they at least had a way out - Now the room was thoroughly enclosed.

"No, I think we missed our chance to esca-eep!" Her statement was cut off abruptly as she vanished from sight almost entirely - Her steel hand clamped around Kane's ankle being the only thing keeping her from having fallen into the gaping hole which opened up beneath her.

She had enough time to jerk her head up and open her mouth when the hole expanded to encompass the rest of them. The entire room's floor was retracting.

"Hey Zane," Diana replied to the young man. "Enjoy the show? I guess Alex likes making big first impressions."

Artemis looked up at Diana with a curious smile, "Now when you say that, do you mean him fighting that monster in the street," her innocent smile turned into a devious smirk, "Or do you mean that part about him keeping you in his room for a while?"

"Wait what?!" Minnie shouted up at Diana from her spot on the floor.

"Nothing! Nothing. Diana said with a bright red face, "Little thing watches too much TV is all, Haha... ha." Diana looked down at Artemis with an irritated look, "No more TV for you..."

"Uhm... Diana? What's going on?" Ainlisle was standing behind Diana with a curious look on her face.

"Nothing is going on! Jeez, why does everyone keep saying that!" Diana said turning around, her face again bright red. "Oh wait..." she said finally coming to her senses. "You meant them in the yard, didn't you? Sparing I guess. Showing off really."

"Miss," Athena came up and sat next to the still suspicious Minnie, "Are you feeling better? That was quite the injury you suffered."

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just a bit sore." She said rubbing her shoulder.

"Good to hear Miss. Please let me know if there is anything you need."

"Well, if we could just take some time to talk to each other, that would be nice." Minnie smiled softly at the little goddess.

Athena was clearly shocked by her kindness. "Any time Miss."

-----

The floor around them opened up, receding towards the walls. Jamie began to fall slowly down into the hole. "Well this is annoying..." A controlled current of air kept him from falling straight down.

-----

Up to their level. The man was clearly delusional. It's not surprising considering all that has gone on in the city the last couple of days. But he was strong.

Alex chuckled a bit, "Whatever you say Vince. And as for that drink," A bottle popped up into the air from out of the shadow on the floor, Alex catching it in mid air, "How's Vodka suit you?"

BOOM!

Suddenly the building across the street blew up. The hum of an unseen helicopter could be heard overhead. "Ladies and Gentlemen," A voice from a loud speaker shouted, seeming to come from every direction, "How the fuck are you? Having a good time? I hope so, cause Hardcore Viki is here to crash your party!"

"Definitely! First fight I've ever seen with people using their powers!" Zane shot her a cheerful grin, which faded into curiosity at the goddess' comment. Diana's quick denial at anything having happened caused him to wonder for a moment, before his thought being interrupted at someone talking.
"Uhm...Diana, what's going on? " The girl he'd noticed coming down the hall asked.
Ainlisle blinked at Diana's response, a bit more confused at the first part of her response, but then nodded a bit.
"Oh... Well, alright... I guess," she said, glancing outside. It was still dark out... " ...Wait, it's kind of late, isn't it? Why would they be sparring this late..?"
Zane looked to Ainlisle and shrugged. "Why not? You shoulda seen it! It was pretty damn awesome! Alex did some awesome shadowy things, and that sound bro did well, awesome sound things! "
"...Uhm. Okay? " She looked at the honey-colored hair boy. "Not.. to be rude, but who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Zane, nice t---"
"Ladies and Gentlemen," A voice from a loud speaker shouted, seeming to come from every direction, "How the fuck are you? Having a good time? I hope so, cause Hardcore Viki is here to crash your party!"
The young man and the teenager he was speaking to both looked around, in wonder and
"Woah, who's Hardcore Viki, bro?" No response.
"Goddamnit, I've only been awake a few minutes..."
"Troublesome event indeed..."

“Hello! Can we stay here for the night? We’re in a sort of a tangle; we were being chased. Please, help us!” The male one spoke to him.

Cautiously, Helpless Man #1 observed both of them and then replied.
"Well, be my guest, this is not my house anyway, the former owner might have been evacuated by the army, and could you helped me barricade the doors and windows?"

And then he herded both of them back down the stairs and closed the door to the rooftop.

"We'll start from the lowest floor."

Helpless Man #1 took a glimpse at Muerte, he's still sleeping like a baby, then went down to the lowest floor, pushed a cupboard and sofas to block the door and windows.

“Ah, alright. Thank you so much Mister.”

Rui then proceeded to move down to the lowest floor. Man, he seems like a nice guy. I hope it doesn’t turn out in the end that he doesn’t attack us...

Rui helped the man push cupboards, chairs, sofas, etc to block the doors and windows. Even though Rui was tired and fatigued, he had enough strength to at least do this task. But he did it at his own pace. Rui then called out to the man. “Alright, I’m done here. Let’s move on?”

Rui looked at the man while waiting for his answer. “Eh... I didn’t notice you wore some ragged clothes... What happened, Mister?”

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

Cutting down the last creature, Muerte stabbed into the ground and fell to one knee, holding onto the sword as to not collapse completely. Muerte’s body shows signs of immense pummeling. During the battle, Muerte tried to keep his cool while attacking the creatures, not even letting getting hit faze him. He remembered the time during his battle with Helpless Man #1. He couldn’t let that happen to him again.

“Thou art not done yet, son. Thou hast one more task to finish in this stage. Prepare thy self.” God’s voice was as menacing as ever. Muerte then tried to prepare himself for the next battle.

Two creatures soon appeared from darkness. The darkness shrouded them. Muerte was unable to make them out. But their body shape looked similar. One creature then summoned a pillar of fire around him and his creature companion.

The pillar of fire managed to reveal the creatures. Muerte couldn’t believe it. It was the Golden boy who had summoned the pillar of fire. The second creature had to be... Helpless Man #1.

The second creature then ripped his burnt but remaining darkness shroud to reveal it was Helpless Man #1.

God’s voice appeared once more. “Destroy them Destroy these two creatures to prove you are strong enough to be given my power.”

Muerte then charged with his remaining strength and attacked, with no remorse, with neither burning passion nor destroying hate. He kept his composure. He kept the reminder that if he had shown any feelings, he would lose once more. The golden boy charged as well, powering up fires into his fists and then attacking. Helpless Man #1 stood there, waiting.

“Eh... He’s not moving... Well, at least this’ll be easy then!”
Muerte focused on the golden boy. Muerte didn’t comment on anything to him, he didn’t make mention of any sort of revenge or anything. Muerte just attacked. The golden boy had not said anything either. He just attacked furiously, throwing punches after punches at Muerte, all imbued with fire.

Muerte found it odd however. From his short bout with Golden Boy, he could tell that Golden Boy’s attack wasn’t all about strength and power. He could tell that Golden Boy attributed speed into his attacks. But in this fight, it’s all about strength...

The Golden Boy then stopped his attacks. He jumped up far in the air.

“He’s gonna shoot fireballs at me. Predictable!”

Muerte readied himself for the attack. The golden boy then powered up what looked like fireballs. But it wasn’t. Golden boy then imbued his entire body in fire and then crashed down, like a human bodied meteor.

“Well damn. I have one shot at this hehe...”

Muerte held his sword horizontally. He readied as the Golden boy came nearer. Muerte then saw the right moment and jumped towards the Golden Boy. He swung his sword as Golden Boy came close to hitting Muerte. The swing was Muerte putting all of his strength in it. This battle was now a test of who had the power. The sword and Golden Boy’s knuckles clashed furiously. Muerte kept his cool, even while under the intense heat of Golden Boy’s body on fire.

Muerte was sweating a lot more now. “I... I... Have to end this now! Die cretin!”

Muerte gathered more strength and managed to slice off Golden Boy’s arm off. Muerte’s body flew by Golden Boy’s body after the slash, but Muerte then quickly turned his body around and let gravity take its course. His body then fell down near Golden boy’s body and as it did, Muerte readied his sword into a stabbing formation. When he got near enough, he then initiated the stab. Muerte stabbed into Golden Boy’s falling body and with gravity on Muerte’s side, the stab did enough damage to make Golden Boy disappear, like all the other enemies.

Muerte then fell down hard into the ground. He panted while he lay on the ground, finally knowing he could defeat the Golden Boy. “But... That wasn’t the real Golden Boy, was it ... And that also isn’t the real Helpless Man #1... Is it ... Hahaha God...”

The creature taking the form of Helpless Man #1 stepped up. He waited for Muerte to stand up.

“Well, this should be fun. I shall kill Helpless Man #1, and God shall reward me with his power. Let’s do this!”

Muerte stood up and took his stance, holding his sword with both hands.

"Vodka! Damn, you guys got the good stuff, huh?" Vincent said, surprised.

"Alchoholic beverages will damage thy voice, Young Lord. I would not suggest imbibing anything that would impair thy judgement either."

"Oh, don't be such a nun, Eevul. Loosen up a....."

Then, the explosion, followed by the loudspeaker. Both made the young man take a quick step back, but then immediately take up his wide attack stance.

"What the hell is that?" he said, looking in every direction for where the voice was coming from, "Friends of yours, Dark Matter?"

Kane's sense suddenly went black. It wasn't his sight though, nor any of his other 5 senses. Something just seemed cut off, though he wasn't sure how...
...at least, it would be a mystery if he wasn't clearly falling down a pit. Without time to so much as yell in surprise, his connection with the ground was severed abruptly. As the floor receded, he, Resha, and Runt were sent careening into a newly made abyss, along with their canopy.

Fortunately, that was within arm's reach.

As soon as contact was made with the box-shaped piece of earth, it immediately crumbled and reformed into a more dense shape, compressed as if ready to spring outwards. Not knowing how far until the ground, he tried to work fast.
"Hey!" He called to the one hanging from his leg, unable to see directly below him too clearly. "Can you reach the runt?"


Elsewhere, a young girl, asleep on a bed, shifted uncomfortably. Someone outside was making quite a ruckus, but she wasn't really in the mood to find out. Not like it was uncommon, anyway.

"Got attacked by a giant centipede."

Replied Helpless Man #1 and smile to the boy and took off to the second and third floor, pushing every things that are heavy enough to block the windows.

there are not enough stuff to barricade the third floor, but everyone knew wolves cant climb,therefor Helpless Man #1 decided to rest. Then he went to the second floor, where he saw a room that looks like a kitchen (there is a refrigerator in the room), and looked for something he can eat.

“Attacked by a giant centipede? That’s... Actually, with what’s been happening lately, that’s believable.” The man and Rui finished up on the first floor and proceeded to move to the second floor. They had worked hard and barricaded the second floor. Rui then wiped his sweat. He panted a little.

“Man ... That girl... I can’t believe she didn’t want to come. The heck. I got stuck doing heavy lifting...”

Rui then followed the man to the third floor. Rui looked around. There weren’t any more things to use. “Damn, I wonder barricading the first and second floor would be enough... Heck, I wonder if we can even stop Jessie with all of this... But it’s better than nothing. I suppose.”

Rui then saw the man going down to the second floor. “Hm. I guess he’s going to chill now that we’ve got it covered. Man, I’m hungry... Come to think of it, there’s a fridge in the second floor huh.” Rui then ran down with the man. “Hey, wait up, I’m coming with you!”

Rui caught up and joined the man in finding some food. “Man, today was a long day. I forgot that I hadn’t had any sorts of food today. Hey, I never asked for your name, huh. My name’s Rui. What about you? Oh sorry, if you don’t want to tell me your name. I just thought that we should get to know each other, since we might become friends and all, right?” Rui smiled innocently.

Rui searched the fridge, as his hunger was getting to him. He found some bread and water. He was contented with that and left whatever’s left to the other man. Rui then used his transformed hand to neatly cut then bread into pieces with his claw.

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

Muerte and the creature took many attacks towards each other, but both managed to dodge the other’s attacks.

The creature then changed up its movements, seeing how Muerte is getting fatigued. It attacked aggressively, but with less speed than usual. Muerte had trouble blocking it, with the creature actually making some dents into the sword.

“Ouch, Muerte. What the hell. I’m getting bent here, damn it.”

“I know, just bear with it for a while!”

Muerte tried to dodge each attacks the creature made, but he found his body getting too heavy.

The creature saw an opening and slashed at Muerte, tearing off a lot of his clothes and some of his flesh. Muerte is now wearing tattered jacket and shirt, and dirty black pants. His chest is oozing with blood. Muerte pants really hard, trying to recover from the attack. The creature then ran up to Muerte. Muerte then tried to slash at the creature, but he kept on dodging it. Once Muerte’s attack let up, the creature made his strike and punched Muerte in the chest.

Muerte took this risk of getting punched to instantly stab the creature. The creature then backed up. It wasn’t bleeding heavily, and it didn’t seem hurt at all. But Muerte now is bleeding heavily.

Muerte tries to feign how he’s not as weakened as he truly is.

“Damn ... It ... I... Don’t... Know... How long... I can... last...” Muerte said, panting heavily with each pause. “I’m at... My limit... Damn it all... I’ll have to finish this now...”

Muerte then waited for the creature to make his move. Muerte closed his eyes. He preyed to God to give him a bit more energy if any. He preyed to his sword. Muerte then opened his eyes. His eyes glow white now, for some reason. Was it God’s power? Was it Muerte’s hidden power? It was unknown. But Muerte found his inner strength and regained some stamina.

The creature saw this and immediately attacked. Muerte wasted no time and attacked as well. He knew there was some time limit to this attack and so did it in a hurry.

Muerte slashed furiously at the creature, while not losing any of his previous composure. Muerte made many slash marks at the creature, but the creature didn’t bleed heavily at all. Each and every attack Muerte made was of the quick but not strong variety. But Muerte knew it might weaken the creature if enough was made.

The creature then finally winced in pain when Muerte made his attack directly on the stab mark in the creature’s stomach. Muerte took this time to focus what’s left of his strength into his sword and finally cut down the creature. As soon as Muerte cut him down, the creature dissipated.

Muerte fell down afterwards, his sword bent and looked almost broken and his body lacerated and torn up.

God made his appearance again. “My Son, even though you used a bit of my power at the end, you managed to defeat the army of monsters I summoned. You pass this test, the test of endurance and strength. That power. wasn’t given during the battle. It was given before the battle. My Son, I must confess, I have watched you for a long time. I gave you that power in your time of need. And that power finally awakened during this part of the trials. But now it has disappeared. But I shall let you know, if you finish this last half of the trials, you shall gain most if not all of my power. You shall gain God’s power, to defeat the menace known as these demons. You shall kill the Golden Boy and this Helpless Man #1 with this power. But, I am getting ahead of myself. I shall heal you first and then take you into the inner depths of your mind. That place will be the place where you finish your trial.”

God then summoned a light that instant healed Muerte of his wounds and also repaired his clothing. The sword, however, was still bent.

“Hey, what about me??” the sword yelled.

“Ah you.” God said calmly. “You shall go over onto that stone over there. Muerte shall not need you in this final trial, the trail of the mind. You shall go over there, to be repaired and upgraded.”

Muerte got up and set his sword on the stone table, just as God had ordered. Then a walkway, shining white as before, appeared. Muerte walked on it and went along the path set up by the walkway.

“Once you past this trial, your mind and body shall be strong enough to handle my power. You shall become a human like God, my son.”

Helpless Man #1 let the boy took some bread from the fridge.

"Well, honestly i don't remember my name, but my partner upstairs called me Helpless Man #1, a joke maybe, but at least it was something."

And Helpless Man #1 searched the fridge after Rui walked away. He took 2 bottles of mineral water and 3 bars of chocolate and a bag with 5 apples in it.

"Let's go upstairs and share the food, your sister.. or girlfriend might hungry too" Said Helpless Man #1 to Rui.

'Mwerte might be hungry too...... why can't i hate that guy...?'

“Helpless #1 huh... Not really a name... Or even a cool name... But if that’s what you want to be called...” Rui replied. “Partner huh... Upstairs? Hm, I didn’t see him... Well, I get to meet him now then. Nice to know you weren’t alone.”

The man, Helpless Man #1 then made a comment about his current companion. “Wait wait, what? She’s neither my sister nor my girlfriend. She’s just a friend I met a couple of hours ago. And ... Your partner’s name is Muerte? Huh, what a weird name. If I recall correctly, Muerte is spanish for death... He must be hispanic or something...”

Rui then walked upstairs along with Helpless Man #1. Hate that guy? Huh, they must’ve had a fight recently or something... Nothing to question right now or anything...

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

“Here we are, deep in the recesses of your mind. This last trial is named the Trial of the Mind. In the last trial, the Trial of Strength and Body, we tested your physical power. Now, we shall see about the power in your mind. Whether you can bring yourself to do things that normal humans cannot do. You shall face your inner fears. When you pass, which I know you will, you shall be granted a great reward, to help you on your journey. I shall elaborate if and when you pass this trial. It is time. Begin my child!”

The walkway Muerte was traveling on disappeared. Muerte fell straight down into darkness. The darkness then went away to reveal another area. Muerte looked around. He recognized this place. This place used to be his home in Mumble. Muerte’s body now looks transparent. He walks around, trying to touch things, but couldn’t.

He found his mother and father resting, on a rainy day. “This couldn’t be... It’s... THAT DAY.” Muerte knew what time period he was in. He was transported a few days back, to when the merging happened and creatures appearing. Muerte was out during that time. The area then fast-forwarded, to when the first creature showed up. He saw an explosion in the area. Muerte couldn’t believe his eyes at the destruction happening.

What he couldn’t believe more was his parents surviving. He had tears welled up after seeing his parents surviving but severely hurt. The area then transported to the Creature world. His parents transported as well. He didn’t believe his eyes. He saw ... The filthy creatures smiling, physically merging in an instant with his parents.

He knew how the process of merging worked, from what his sword has taught him. He thought it was a slow process, but apparently not. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The creatures then talked, laughing and giggling about how dumb the humans were.

Muerte felt rage. He wanted to kill them. He then recognized the creatures. It was the first two creatures he ever killed. He then realized what they had said to him at the end of the battle.

“Son... Thank... You...”

Muerte shouted. He didn’t know it was his parents that were his first kill. God then appeared and transform the area into a blank landscape once more. “That isn’t the end, but I decided against showing you the rest. I shall tell it to you. The rest of the creatures you killed, were those weak-minded human friends and lovers of yours. They were consumed by these weak creatures, somehow.”

Muerte cried. He cried for the first time since he tasked himself to kill the creatures that were wreaking havoc on the Human world.

“Are you ready My Son? To take on my power to wreak revenge on those creatures? Has your mind settled?”

Muerte thought hard about it. He was ready. He wanted to kill each and every one of those dirty filthy humans. He wanted to do it for his family. He wanted to do it for his friends and former lover. He wanted to do it for the Human Race.

“I see. Now, discard this attire of yours, it reeks of the devil.”

“Yes... My Lord.”

Muerte discarded his clothes in a hurry. It was soon burned. God then summoned new clothes for Muerte. These clothes are white, angelic looking. They glow, having been given by God himself. Muerte also gained armor along with his new clothes. His hair color changed, along with his eye color. Muerte looked like a new man.

Muerte’s hair is now glowing white, with his eyes glowing golden. He wore white robes, with golden armor breastplate, knee plates, shoulder plates, gloves, and metallic chain mail to go along with it. “It doesn’t feel heavy at all...” Muerte commented on the new attire.

“Of course not, you earned this armor. It is yours, it is a part of you.” God then summoned the same stone table that took away his former sword. “Your sword has changed, to reflect your new strength and attire. But before that, you must be given my powers, and the power from my cherubs. The power of Uriel shall be yours to command, along with some of mine.”

God summoned a beam of light, hitting Muerte. Muerte then glowed even brighter.

“The entire power of Uriel is yours, as this whole trial has been to strengthen yourself for this. And with his power, you have gained some of my powers as well, for good measure. Now pick up your new sword, along with your new shield.”

Muerte immediately followed God’s command. His new sword had the dragon design on it, but the hilt wasn’t the same. It looked like a european sword, with a sword at the bottom of the hilt. The dragon’s mouth is gaping open. The hilt had no sword in it. But Muerte knew that it was a flame sword, the sword would conjure up a blade made of fire. He then rested the sword onto his belt.

Muerte also picked up his new golden shield and rested it on his back. Muerte felt more powerful, with his new power and his new armament.

“Uriel is within you, you may consult with him on whatever matters you may face. And he shall also relay orders I may have for you.”

Muerte nodded.

“Let’s see... You finished your trials and gained your new powers, you know how to use your powers hopefully... Ah yes. Your mission. Listen carefully, My Son. Your mission, along with killing all of the demon creatures, is to hunt down a certain ArchAngel. I want you, to search and find Michael. That will be your mission from me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, My Lord.” Muerte didn’t need to ask questions, he followed God’s every command.

“Good, now go down there and destroy every damned creatures in my Name.” Muerte then disappeared.

Back in the real world, Muerte’s eyes opened. He isn’t glowing as before, but his attire changed in the real world, as well as his looks. “I am stronger now. I will destroy each and every one of these creatures. I will cleanse the world of these creatures. In the name of God, they shall all be sent to hell, where they belong.”

Muerte then got up.

The room is still as dark as the night, Rui's friend is there, resting, and Muerte still knocked out.

Helpless Man #1 put the food on the short table in the middle of the room.

"Take and eat whatever you want, these are the last edible food in the fridge."

Helpless Man #1 then took an apple and pocketed a bar of chocolate and a bottle of water.He start eating the apple and realized something is wrong with Muerte.

"When did he changed clothes?" Helpless Man #1 asked Rui and his friend while pointing at Muerte.

“Ah, my friend Helpless man #1. And the golden boy as well. This couldn’t have been a wonderful surprise as I awake from my training.” Muerte smiled smugly.

“Eh... He looks similar... Wait a second... You’re that guy... That guy I fought in the Myth World... So your name... Is Muerte...?” Rui questioned

“That it is. Hahaha, I shall be able to get rid of two of my greatest pests in one fell swoop. God must have given me great luck. I gain more power and I get to kill you. Thank you, My Lord.”

“Eh... What the heck... So... Helpless Man ... You’re with this guy?!” Rui realized that Muerte, the man Rui had fought before, was a friend of Helpless Guy #1.

She watched as Rui went down the steps, following that strange man from the roof. She didn't feel much like moving anymore. Her legs were tired from all the constant moving she had today. She was fit, but she certainly wasn't fit enough to be running 10km marathons.

When she finally felt alone, she sat down against the threshold and stared out at the falling rain. There was so much going on, she almost couldn't process it. Now that she thought about it, she had barely gave anything much thought ever since she woke up from the hospital. It was as if there was just some inner voice telling her what to do and not to think too hard about things.

The adrenaline must had wore off now. She just felt extremely exhausted. She closed her eyes and sighed. The sound of the rain sounded so soothing at the moment.

"I should go lie down somewhere more comfortable."

She began to walk down the flight of stairs to find Rui. They seemed so long though. It was as though no matter how much she walked, she didn't go anywhere, but she kept going. She couldn't get discouraged yet. They probably still had a long ways to go before the attacks would disappear.

Before she would find Rui, she decided to see if her bag had any dry clothes. She walked into a bathroom and zipped open her bag. Her face lit up when she found some dry clothes and a towel. She had made the right decision the other day. Her past self must have wanted to go to the gym.

Without any further distractions, she changed into the dry clothes and left the bathroom to find Rui. However, she searched in vain. She just couldn't find him or maybe she just couldn't walk as much as she thought she could.

So she decided to just rest on a nearby couch and look for him later. Hopefully, he would still be here when she woke up.

A while later, she woke up to some mumbling noises. She looked up and saw something moving in the dark. She sat up.

"Is that you, Rui?"

“Wait what the heck... Where the hell did that girl go, she was here just a second ago, I could’ve sworn I saw her...” Rui looked puzzled as the girl disappeared. “Did she... Teleport... How the heck could someone sleep teleport...?”

“Wait a second, you said back then that you couldn’t hate this guy... I’m assuming you guys got in a fight huh... That means you guys were buddies, right? So... I’m gonna take it as you’re not friends anymore but you consider him as a friend... Am I correct? Well, it doesn’t matter. He looks intent on killing us both, so you’re gonna have to fight him. But the thing is, I’m weak under this rain. Well... Maybe... I did eat, so I got some energy back. I’ll try to transform fully.”

Rui then focused all of his small energy he gained from resting and eating a bit, and managed to transform. He wonders if he can hold this transformation for a while, while also managing to fight.

Muerte let the two have their talk, as he knew it would be their last. He then saw Golden boy transform and said, “Ah, ready for a fight of your life, eh? Well, let’s do this.”

Muerte grinned and pulled out his newly transformed partner weapon. The hilt then blasted fire, making it from a bladeless weapon to a fire sword.

Rui was surprised that the rain wasn’t putting out the sword.

“Ah, I see that look on your face. This sword, this sword is a sword made of heaven’s fire. It can’t be put by earthly water. Now Golden boy, time for you to face real fire.”

Muerte assumed a stance, and readied to attack.

*ACHOO!!!*

From behind a piece of furniture in the tiled room Anton poked his head out. His interest in the fight outside had lessened, so he had gone back inside, taking a long way around to avoid being caught in Alex and Vincent's crossfire. Standing up, he noticed Kane, Resha, and two other people in the room with him, standing underneath a stone canopy.

"Ah, what are you guys doin-"

Anton's greeting was interrupted by the floor below them receding into a pit.

"SON OF A BIIIIIIITCH"

---

One of the benefits of being a ghost was how easy it is to escape pursuers. With strange wolves attacking their group, Alice saw Rui and the bitch run off. Not wanting to deal with the wolves, Alice simply stepped into the ground, as if descending a flight of stairs.

Alice moved underground, walking in the general direction Rui had been running. She saw them take refuge in a building with some hobo.

She poked her head through the floor as the confrontation between the hobo, Rui, and some white guy began.

"Hi Rui! Need some help with this mean albino?"

---

"Bob, I must say, the way we escaped that APC surrounded by mantipedes was ingenious!"

"Aw, it was nothing."

"No, you really deserve praise for that, man. Who would've thought using a bottle rocket and a car battery like that could have saved our asses?"

"To be fair, it was only because you were able to use that molotov cocktail to distract them."

"Heh, that was kind of cool."

"The usage of a cow corpse was also quite creative."

The two continued walking down the street, away from the military outpost.

"... Bob, where the hell are we?"

“Eh... Alice?! How the... What the...” Rui was shocked that Alice popped up when she did.

Muerte looked a bit intrigued. There were now three combatants on the field, all for him to slay and send them to the hell they belong.

“Uhhh...” Rui was contemplating as fast as he could whether to accept her proposal or not. In the end, Alice would turn on Rui and kill him, along with Helpless Man and the other girl. “But damn it, I’m useless and I don’t even know if Helpless Man can even fend off this guy. Last time I fought him, he was really tough... And in my weakened state, I can even try to scratch him, this Muerte guy looks stronger than before.”

Muerte heard Golden Boy’s statement and smirked. He was waiting for one of them, any of them to make a move.

“Damn it, Alice, I’ll take your offer. Help me, please.”

Rui then thought about needed more people to help out. “Hold him off, I’ll try to find my companion, okay Helpless man and Alice?”

Rui then deactivated his transformation, preserving it for an actual fight. “I’ll be back.” Rui then ran down the stairs and tried to find the girl. After a few flights of stairs, he saw the girl, standing there, looking weird. “Oi, where the heck were you?! Anyways, there’s a battle up on the roof and we’re in need of any and all help. Let’s go!”

“Hahahaha, four people then” Muerte said, pausing for a second. “Four people to send to hell. In the name of God, I shall gladly do this. Then, after this, I shall go after the traitorous Michael. And then from there, kill every other demonic evils until the world shall be cleansed, ahahahah!”

Helpless Man #1 fixed his eyes on Muerte, he looks different, and he might have gone crazy too. And only God knows how he changed clothes in a blink of an eye.

Helpless Man #1 knew he could never beats Muerte, unless something in him took over again. But up until know it only happened when his life is in danger.

Suddenly a ghost appeared.......... and she offered help to Rui.

Rui accepted the ghost's offer and told him and the ghost to hold Muerte off and ran off to search for his friend.

"Well partner, you ok?" Helpless Man #1 couldn't thought of what to do and tried to spoke to Muerte instead.

“Haha, I’ve never been better. In fact, I’m feeling so much better that I can safely say, I feel heavenly. In any case, Helpless Man #1, I see that you’re a bit tired from earlier. I shall wait until Golden Boy comes back, but I might get impatient and attack you anyways. But being the gentleman that I am, I shall stave off such thoughts. Or maybe, I could attack this ghost girl. I don’t know her. I don’t care for her. I could just end her right now, but then you’d be at an even more disadvantage than you already are. And that won’t be fair.” Muerte laughed as he said that.

Muerte then sat down, as he patiently waited for the Golden Boy to come back with his friend to make the battle 4 vs 1. While waiting, he eyed on the ghostly looking girl. He examined her, to see if she was any stronger than Helpless Man #1 or Golden boy.

“Hah, she doesn’t look any special. With my new powers, I can end you all soon. Hahaha.”

Muerte then commented, “I hope this battle starts soon, I am getting soaked haha. Hm, you can attack me though. One of you should, I’m sitting down. I’m at a slight disadvantage, being somewhat vulnerable... Hahaha. Actually, you can’t even call this a disadvantage.” Muerte continued to gloat, talking about how he’s far stronger than before. He had a prideful face.

He could try to outrun Muerte, but he's a bit worried for the boy and the girl, he has to protect them, or try too. He felt the sudden urge to protect people he didn't know.

"I don't know about you partner, but i can't let you harm anyone"

After saying that, Helpless Man #1 side stepped to his right and kick a chair to Muerte, but the kick was too strong and broke the chair instead, surprised and panicked, He threw the iron pipe instead.

An iron pipe made its way towards Muerte, but he effortless grabbed it. “Hahaha, you decided to attack eh? Well then, it’s time to return the favor”

Muerte then stood up. He then charged towards Helpless Man #1, not even using his sword to attack. “Heh, I shall attack you without my sword. You’re not even worth it, in my current state.” Muerte then decided to attack with a series of punches and kicks. “Dodge that! Ahahaha!”

adrenaline rushed to his head, Muerte's punches and kicks looked a bit slower, rather than dodge, Helpless Man #1 blocked and deflected them, and on the last kick, he caught Muerte's leg and threw him to a cupboard.

At least he still has this inhumane strength.

He knew Muerte will not knocked out easily this time, so he prepared himself for another incoming attacks.

Somehow, Helpless Man #1 found the power to throw Muerte into a cupboard. “Ahahaha, this shall be interesting. You still have that demonic beast’s power I see.” Muerte got back up without a scratch; his training had improved his endurance along with the power of God and his archangel Uriel.

“However strong you may be, you will still not be able to defeat me. Using my sword right now would be over kill, ahahaha.” Muerte then walked towards Helpless Man #1. He got close, around 3 feet near him. Muerte didn’t attack him. He stood there, praying to himself. “Oh mighty Uriel, lend me your ears. Lend me your arms. Lend me your wings. Let I, a mere humble a human, have your power in this battle, to send this demon into hell. Grant me but a piece of your power.”

Uriel responded instantly, granting Muerte wings to fly. The wings were red and gold, like Uriel’s wings himself. He flew up in the air, creating a small gust. Muerte then stopped going up into the air, holding up his fist. His fist was now glowing bright with gold and red. He then flew down instantly, looking like a meteor. “Golden boy”, Muerte said quietly to himself. “I feel dirty for using your attack. But I’ll get over it.”

The second he made contact with Helpless Man #1, the entire building exploded, destroying it and reducing it into rubble.

Helpless Man #1 took the blast point blank, fortunately he's able to shield his head with both his hand, but half of his clothes burnt in the process and multiple shrapnel punctured his abdomen while the scales protect the rest of his body.

He was thrown off the building and crashed into another building on the opposite side of the road.

Everything is dark, he can't opened his eyes, and his chest hurt a lot. But then, he felt a warm yet violent presence. It was the first time he felt his counter part. Then the presence fade away after something that felt like it's saying everything will be alright.

Rui laid, visibly hurt and his clothes torn into pieces with only his pants still somewhat intact. He woke up in a matter of minutes, feeling aches and pain throughout his entire body. As he got up slowly, he looked around at the damage. “What the hell happened...” He tried to maintain his balance, but Rui found it hard to. His vision was blurry. After a few more minutes to recover his sight, he saw that the whole building had been destroyed; it was in rubbles.

But that wasn’t the only thing that shocked Rui. Rui observed the damage to his body and found that not only is his body damaged, but also now both of his arms are now transformed. “Is this ... Another permanent merge thing...?” Rui questioned. Rui then looked over to see that Muerte was not damaged at all. He stood there, grinning. “He did it...” Rui just realized. But Rui found that he couldn’t attack him. Rui was too weak and couldn’t measure up to Muerte as he is now if Muerte really did the damage.


“Ahahahaha, you pitiful demons. You couldn’t even stand up to that attack.” Muerte gloated full of pride. He looked over to the other building, where Helpless Man #1 was thrown. He could see that he did lots of damage to Helpless Man #1 with that one attack. “I’ll leave you to die. I don’t finish off demonic trash like you, unless you were at your full power.” Muerte turned to Golden Boy. “Not you too. Tch, you’re all weak. If you are able to survive your wounds then I shall come back to finish this battle. But for now I shall be off to do my other duty. I shall kill the traitor archangel, Michael. Wherever he is, I shall find him and kill him in the name of God. He has fallen low like you demons.”

Muerte finished his explanation of his future plans and summoned his wings again. He flew off, discontent with what had transpired. The demonic creatures he fought were weak.


Rui could only stand there, immobilize by weakness and by what Muerte had just said. “Michael eh... I have to find this Michael guy. From what Muerte had said, he must be someone from the myth world. He must be already merged with someone else. But I wonder who...” Rui tried to remember all of the people he had met in the past few days who could be Michael’s merge partner, but his wounds made it hard. Rui then sat down in the rubble, resting. “Damn it, I’ll... Think about this later. Muerte can wait. Right now, I’ll find Helpless Man ... And that other girl... And we’ll come up with plan of action.”

Rui couldn’t help but look at both of his arms. They were now green and furry with claws. “I wonder why... Maybe... This permanent transformation was reacting to Muerte’s attack... Or something. Well, in any case... I shouldn’t worry about it now of all time. It’s happening and I can’t stop it.” Rui then closed his eyes, exhausted from all of the events that day. “Just... Rest... Rui...”, he said to himself.