Act I
Act II
Wiki
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Act III - Leviathan

No one could have foreseen the effects the merge between the human and Myth world would have had. Over the course of a week, those who had been pulled into the mess had been forced through trial after unrelenting trial - Each one shaving away yet more of their dwindling humanity than the last.

To survive, they forsook themselves and embraced power... And in the end, it was that rush to power which drove them, and their world, into destruction. Great engines of power, once sealed by the rogue deity Yahweh, were let loose on the human world by accident; It was a clarion call to battle for everyone who had changed until that day.

Enemies banded together as allies to fight the Nephilim, powers were unleashed and their very will was put to the test in order to save their world. At that time, they were at their strongest. Forsaking everything they had to gain the power to protect what they could...

They failed. The cost of that failure was their lives, and their world.

But a single planet is inconsequential. The human race is not what this legend hinges upon. From the very beginning, the only thing that mattered was that the Merge be completed... And if one iteration of humanity failed, then others would work just as well.

The merge would not be stopped - And thus, the Legend continued to be written. A new dimension. A new earth. A new humanity. Familiar faces with unfamiliar voices were once more dragged into the inevitable whirlpool of the Merge.

But no matter what world this Legend is told in, no matter what version of the story you hear, one thing never changes.

'It was another rainy day in Mumble...'

The man ducked under the swinging stand, it clanging into the other just long enough so he could grab them both in one hand.

“A good looking young man like you without a girlfriend? That’s shocking. I knew people who had already married at your age. But I guess that was a long time ago...” he stopped for a second, trying to remember the date, “But you’ve got to at least be looking, right?” he asked, not worried about the personal nature of his questions.

Rui was at a loss. This man dodged the second candle stand, and he managed to grab both in one hand. Rui tried to think up of one last plan before he’d just give up, when suddenly the old man asked him a question.

“Huh? Uhh, yeah, of course I’m looking. 15-year-old guys usually do look for one, unless they’re stuck into their studies, or are anti-social. I have one girl in particular on my mind. Although as of late... Another one came into my mind. Wait... What the heck? Why are you asking me questions like this?”

What a minute... If... If I could distract him long enough with this idle talk, maybe... Maybe I could use one of the candles nearby to burn the rope and run for it. At the very least, I’d get Luce out of her binding. Just keep on distracting him...

“Well, my exorcist hasn’t really been the most accommodating fellow, so I’m just trying to make the best out of a bad experience.”

He sat forward, interested in what the boy had to say, “One, and then another? Well, young hearts are fickle. What about them? And is the little thing behind me not cute enough for you?”

“Well, one of them I’ve known for the longest, and she’s really cute, and cooks for me. That’s the one that’s in my mind most of the time. And then there’s the new girl... She’s pretty cute, and she helped me out recently, so you could say it’s an admiration of sorts. If she asked me out, I’d accept it. And if Jeanne refused me for some reason, then I’d ask her out... Although, that would probably make me look bad since she’d be second place...”

Rui let go of the candle stands finally, it would do him no good at the moment. The candle stands fell down.

“And to answer your second question, she’s plenty cute. But I’ve never had the chance to fully interact with her. I just know she’s Jeanne’s friend. So what about you? Even though I can assume you’re not human, you’ve had to have had some experiences in relationships, right?”

“Yeah... placing does make you look pretty bad. I’ve got to say,” the man rubbed his chin as if pondering on something, ignoring the fact that the boy had dropped his weapons, as if it was expected. “Don’t worry, I’m sure if you look at it right, everything will be clear. You probably already know what to you are going to do. I strongly believe indecision is an illusion.”

“And that’s very sharp of you. I mean, I was kind of being a bit obvious, but still. Have to give credit,” he snickered condescendingly, “I was created being all I will ever be. Although it might seem like I am different than I used to be, that’s probably an illusion as well. Love would imply growth, and growth just isn’t possible for me.”

“We were all created, aren’t we? Just because you were probably created to do a specific job doesn’t mean you can’t grow to do something else. Hell, you can get better at your specific job as well. If you were new at something, you’d blunder at it. But over time, you’d get better at it, thus growth.”

Rui couldn’t believe he was having a sort of heart to heart talk with this man, the man who was, and still is, his enemy. Rui still hadn’t found his chance to get the candle nearby and burn the ropes. He needed for this man to talk and rant. But so far, Rui’s the one who was doing the talking and ranting.

“Hmm, although, this was unrelated to the growth you’re talking about, huh?”

The man couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “It really is a foreign concept to you, isn’t it? But I suppose I have just as much trouble imagining what free will is like as you must have imagining what life would be like without it. Like I said, I was created being all I would ever be. I don’t get any better at what I do, nor do I fall out of practice. I’m not in love now, so I’m sure I never was and will never be.”

“You know, I like you, kid. Sure, I’ve always liked humans. I wouldn’t be doing this kind of thing if I didn’t. But you came down here, fighting to get this girl. And with no apparent motives other than following your own ideas of what’s right? How unheard of!” the man was rocking himself back and forth in excitement, “Surely there is something you want to get out of all of this, right? Maybe impress those little girlfriends you were talking about earlier?”

“Something I want out of this? No. Luce was in danger, and there was no one other than me, and a couple of others that would even think of saving Luce. And I’m down here due to my sheer luck of being able to sneak down here without your friend noticing. Although, I guess it wouldn’t be called luck since I had to face against you.”

Rui sighed. “I know I’m weak. I know I can’t beat you, sir. But... I’m not gonna go back up there unless I have Luce with me. I promised Jeanne I’d save her, and that’s what I intend to do. I keep my promises.”

Although exclaiming that to him would probably do no good, would it...

“In any case... What do you intend to do with Luce? Why is she important that I can’t leave without her? Does she have some kind of magic within her that you just have to have? Or is she just some random pick?”

Braden walked around looking lost. His big blue eyes were filled with fear as he looked around frantically trying to figure out where he was. Braden had a small build, and looked around seventeen, but his personality made him seem like he was younger. His sandy blonde hair partially covered his large blue eyes.

Braden had left his apartment in hopes of exploring where he now lived, but he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going. Now he was completely lost. What made it worse is that it was raining and at night. The rain didn't bother him too much. Normally, he loved the rain. That did not mean that he wanted to get lost while it was raining though.

He was shivering from the cold. His blue jeans and grey hoodie were completely soaked through by now. Braden wasn't sure how long he had been wondering around completely lost, but he didn't even know what time he left. He considered asking someone for directions, but he was too shy to walk up to a stranger and ask for help.

The second time around, things were calmer.

Much calmer.

As Charlie woke up, he realized three things almost immediately. First, there were no unicorns. None at all. Secondly, he woke up somewhere inside a wonderland-esque forest and lastly, there was a sensation in his legs that pushed him to walk northeast. Without much time to further grasp the situation, Charlie's legs began dragging him away, slowing down only to avoid large stones and trees. Eventually, his legs brought him to the edge of a secluded pond that was golden in color. Just when Charlie thought his legs were going to stop, they sprinted and leaped straight into the pond, dragging the rest of his body with it. Right away, the liquid in the pond proved to be not water, but instead, a sweeter and sticker substance.

Apple juice, to be exact.

"I'm in heaven! This is the best dream evar!", thought Charlie as he continued swimming around in the pond. As he swam closer to the center, he prepared to submerge himself completely in the juice. Just as he began holding his breath, he heard a voice from behind.

"Human, what are you doing"

Charlie jolted and turned his head, only to see a unicorn at the edge of the pond.

"Oh snap, I spoke too soon," Charlie thought as he began swimming towards the opposite end of the pond as fast as possible.

"Human, stahp!" and if possible, Charlie began swimming even faster. He was almost there-!

Just as he reached the edge, he heard the unicorn shout "STAHP" from behind and suddenly, it was right in front of him. With nowhere left to run, Charlie clenched his eyes shut and prepared for the attack.

"Stop looking stupid and get out of my pond"

Slowly reopening his eyes, Charlie hesitantly stepped out and distanced himself away from the unicorn. It appeared to be mildly intelligent and able to show restraint, considering it didn't pulverize him already. Maybe he had a chance to find out where he was and maybe even escape this mad dream world!

"Now tell me, human. What were you doing in my pond and why are you here."

"I'm Charlie and.. I don't know anything. When I woke up, my legs brought me here and into the pond. I tried to swim out, but you came and now, I'm trying to find out where I am and how to get back. So ...who are you?"

"Well to put it simply, this is what you would refer to as what's left of The Myth World. Mythical creatures all of kinds reside here, and you just happen to be in unicorn territory. There is a reason for you being here though, and I think I know what it is. But our time is limited so before you start asking anymore questions, I'll answer your last and possibly next question.

I know all of this, simply because I am you."

The moment the last word of that sentence was spoken, the world began crumbling away just as it had the first time. Charlie began falling and as he looked up, he saw the unicorn mouth the words "Until next time" and it faded to black along with the rest of the world.

There are some minor problems with the prototype, it needs an external power source, a normal battery could only power it for 1 to 2 shots and the prototype can only withstand 6-8 shot before it broke apart.

After a dinner and some scribbling, Hanz start to build a pack of plasma batteries.

A lot of variables at one time, even for Knoll to work out.

First, the needles coming up from the ground, thankfully given pause by the boots the Shaman had brought with him. He'd have to thank the one who produced them when he got back.

This lead to the next variable, the fact that the Dryad was not going to face him in combat, but stealthily attack from the foliage. A good plan, and something that Knoll had anticipated. He had a way to suss out his opponent's location, but it would take a bit of time.

As of now, however, the third variable was now barreling towards him. In their incapacitated state, Cindy and Lucia were actually hindering his attack strategy, but Lucia's attack could aid him in at least one of the ideas he had. Instead of using his own methods to get rid of the airborne toxin, it would appear she would do it for him with her electrical discharge.

He would, however, have to use that energy saved to keep from being killed, however. A decent tradeoff, but not one he liked to make on the fly.

Pulling out a slip of paper from his belt, he found a place between the needles and quickly forced the rune to the ground. Containing an Earth rune, similar to the one used in the trap Cindy was in, he used it to quickly raise a wall of earth angled so that the pair of attackers would hit it and veer off their intended path. He would then step in the opposite direction, avoiding the attack while not having to dive out of the way and being stuck with the needles.

While this was taking place, Knoll pulled the notebook from his pocket in order to start his plan to deal with the Dryad.

David saw the man’s repeated attack coming, and ducked down to avoid it, quickly following up with a tackle and knocking Andrei to his back. David, now in a position of power over his opponent, took full advantage of it and began to strike at the pinned man relentlessly with his baton.

On the defensive, Andrei put forth his best effort to shake the man off while protecting his head, but the attacker wasn’t letting up. The constant strikes on his arms and chest were taking more of his focus to withstand than he thought, and the occasional shot for his head kept him constantly on edge. Knocking the man off by strength alone was looking like less and less of an option. So he tightened his grip on his knife, and as soon as David struck his chest again, he trusted it to the side of the attacker’s throat.

David was quick enough to notice though, and quickly smacked the man’s hand with his baton, knocking the knife across the room. It was now or never for Andrei. He didn’t want to use this so soon. He wanted to keep it an ace in the hole, just in case the two had friends around, but he might not get the chance if he didn’t take care of this man first.

David’s preoccupation with Andrei’s armed hand was his chance. Andrei slipped his left hand into his pocket and grasped the small totem he had taken with him before he ascended from the basement to investigate the noise. He grabbed David’s baton with his right hand, and a quick jolt shot up his arm, surprising David long enough for Andrei to force the man off.

David uncontrollably let go of his baton, the muscles in his arm twitching and seizing up, his fingers no longer fit to hold the weapon. Andrei was sly. He knew if he stayed subtle, any onlookers would have trouble guessing exactly what he did. With David now on his knees, his body not doing as he wanted, and his mind racing trying to understand what just happened, Andrei was once again in a position of power.

“I really don’t know what you are doing here, but I can’t have you screwing things up for me,” He placed his right hand over David’s forehead, fully intending to fry the man’s brain completely, but paused.

“...Damnit.” he said to himself, placing a finger on the man’s head instead, sending a light jolt instead, causing David to loose consciousness. He was already going to have blood on his hands. He wanted to keep the casulties from this night to a minimum, and he figured he could always find another way to deal with the intruders later. Maybe Belial would have a way after he started being more cooperative.

---

The fight ensuing inside the house seemed to move by so fast to someone on the outside. Jeanne hardly had time to shout his name before David was on the floor. He turned to Kane, tears welling up in his eyes.

“We have to do something, and now! Rui ran through their. He’d try to get Luce out no matter what. She has to be down there. One of us should go down and check on them and the other should keep mister Andrei as busy as possible.”

just a random comment but in order to gain incredible power you must make great sacrifice

When Bjorn finally did fall, asleep, he fell gratefully into the darkness. Only to have himself perfectly "awake" and feeling uncomfortably warm, his feet having the feel of ashes beneath them.

Looking around(everywhere except behind him), Bjorn saw nothing but charred, desolate earth around him, albeit with a few streams of lava pouring from the scattered volcanoes.

Then looking down at himself, he saw himself translucent, and was a little freaked out.

..." Am I dead?... Or is this just a vivid, vivid, dream?" Bjorn said to no one in particular"

And was incredibly surprised when a low booming voice answered him from behind.

"You are neither dead, nor dreaming, piece of me. Although, this is the first time i've hallucinated a fragment of myself me. Or perhaps this is not a hallucination. I do not know. I'm too old."

Spinning around, Bjorn saw a huge humanoid figure, maybe 15 meters tall, and definitely male sitting cross legged. His skin appeared to be molten, and his hair little more than a blazing mane of fire.

"W-w-w-who are you?.." Bjorn stuttered, he was a brave man, but seeing a giant apparently composed of fire was quite unnerving for him. More so when he was in an apparent wasteland which looked like it had been devastated by some sort of inferno.

The giant laughed at this question and replied,
"I am you and you are me. Don't you remember piece of me?"

When Bjorn replied in the negative, the giant laughed again and spoke once more.

"We have much to talk about then, piece of me. And not too much time to speak."

With that, the giant began a lengthy explanation explaining to what he figured was a piece of himself who he was, while Bjorn grew more and more bewildered.

In Mumble, Bjorn's body heated slightly, and his injuries began to heal at a rate much faster than what an ordinary human should have been able to heal.

It was the middle of the night, about 12:00.

Who was this Rui, anyway? Kane didn't quite remember all of the people Luce interacted with, but he figured Jeanne was one of the few people with a more vested interest in her, much less some guy. Was it even a guy's name..? In any case, this was probably one of the beneficial situations in which he would let that slide.

He recognized the one who won the fight as the gym teacher. It was someone he usually didn't pay much mind to - a very generic, upbeat sort of guy. The one you would never expect to be the perpetrator of this kind of thing, which is probably usually how these cases go.

Their brawl was over quickly, but it ended in a peculiar manner. The other one seemed to have some fight left in him, but a second later he was completely out cold. It was too unrealistic to think Andrei did one of those pressure point moves from the movies... maybe he had a taser or something? In any case, it wouldn't be a completely straightforward confrontation.

These thoughts ran through Kane's head in lieu of listening to Jeanne's panicking, as they had reached the same conclusion in the end either way. They needed to get to Luce as quickly as possible, but they also needed to handle Andrei. With the two of them, they might be able to overpower the man, but it was probably not a worthwhile gamble.

"I'm going to keep him busy. You go and find Luce." He reached his right hand into his jacket pocket, tightening his grip on something metal. With his free hand, he vaulted himself over the windowsill, pieces of broken glass clattering as they shattered under his feet. Certain that the noise would have caught his attention, he wasted no time in charging at the gym teacher.

--

"Ahh-"

That wasn't the direction she intended to go in. Not noticing that approximately half her body mass was having trouble staying together due to the sheer velocity after impacting that wall of earth, she found herself and Cindy spiralling above the treetops. And still going up.

The airtime started to clear her head a little bit, at least. "Cindy! Cindy, are you okay?" She shook her friend, as if the turbulent flight wasn't already enough shaking.

“Damn it!” Andrei turn to the noise by the window, knowing it had to be more of these people. Although it was anticipated, he had wished he had more time to deal with the one in the basement. Knowing Belial, he’d just as likely hand over the girl as he would defend her.

As Andrei stood ready for the charging boy, Jeanne slipped right by him and raced into the basement, not looking back at his teacher who was being so friendly just a few hours ago.

Jeanne catapulted down the stairs, attempting to tackle the unfamiliar man who had his back turned, but missed by a mile when he avoided the flying gymnast effortlessly, causing Jeanne to crash into Rui instead, a pathetic “Ow...” being all he could say about it.

An unexpected surprise had befallen Rui. Jeanne had jumped down and landed on Rui. It was speaking of the devil, since Rui had been talking about Jeanne for a while with the mysterious man.

“J-Jeanne…” Rui uttered with his panted breath. “What the heck are you doing here…”

Rui then realized that he had not covered his body. His body was still illuminating the room, glowing brightly. Oh, the embarrassment that Rui felt currently if and when Jeanne sees him.

The gym teacher took a stance in the defensive. Perhaps he wasn't as aggressive as Kane had assumed; whether that was a good or a bad thing had yet to be seen. As he closed in, he leaned to the left, opening with a blow aimed at his right kidney.

“I told you I’d be coming with help, didn’t I?” Jeanne said with a nervous smile, trying not to look as scared as he actually was, “You know, rescuing Luce and you and David,” he paused, noticing Rui’s odd complexion, “What’s with your skin?” he asked, tilting his head to the side curiously.

“Jeanne?” Belial asked, wondering if the coincidence was too good to be true, “We were just talking about you! This is her, right? She seems so energetic. And from the position you two are in, certainly willing, which is always good.”

“I don’t know what you are...” Jeanne began, before he realized what he was referring to. As quick as he came in, Jeanne rolled off Rui, sitting next to him, glowing bright red in the face, “What do you mean by willing?” he asked, voice shaking, “Rui, who’s this jerk?”

---

Andrei did his best to dodge, leaping back further than one might expect someone to with such limited movement. Chances are this was the last group. They wouldn’t be smart enough to hold off in waves, and chances are he wasn’t going to get two separate groups of home invaders tonight. Andrei didn’t think he needed to keep anything up his sleeve anymore.

He pulled the totem out of his pocket and gripped it tightly; visible electricity could be seen around his hands. Without waiting for the boy to respond, he dashed at him and through his weight into a left hook.

The man pulled out something from his pocket, and electricity arced around his hand. Regardless of the form, it was more or less what he had expected - some sort of concealed taser. He didn't have time to question how it worked.

Andrei closed the excessive distance he had made between him and Kane, swinging towards Kane's upper body. The unwieldy way the punch was executed, and from such a distance, gave Kane the opening he had been looking for. Simultaneously ducking low and bringing both his hands up in a boxing position - the right of which tightly gripping a pair of brass knuckles - he let loose a straight right punch towards Andrei's midsection.

Andrei didn’t have time to properly avoid the young man’s strike. Being limited in options, he did his best to take the jab. It was a good shot, the kid was strong, but Andrei stayed up, and grabbed Kane’s forearm, sending a jolt though him when he did.

When he had a firm grasp, he sent his knee into the boy’s gut.

Shit..!

His right arm muscle was sent into spasms from the shock, the sensation reaching far enough to cause him to buckle. Now off guard, Andrei managed to land a clean hit right in his stomach, lifting him momentarily airborne from the force, his arm still gripped tightly by whatever was giving off that electric shock. Fighting the urge to throw up, Kane found his body crunching downwards.

In a moment of lucidity and desperation, he grabbed a hold of Andrei's outstretched arm. His stance shifting from buckling to crouching, he violently pulled himself up, intending to bash skulls.

There was a brief moment where he regretted the decision, with little time to slow or brace for impact.

Breaking and entering, trespassing, contributing to the delinquency of a minor... Oh, Alice is 18 now. Scratch that last one off then.

The kids had broken in through the windows, and Alice looked about ready to do the same.

"Alright, Anton let's go!"

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait..."

"?"

"... Wait. WHY are we breaking into this place?"

"... Rui's in there! I just know it. I've got to help him!"

Ah yes... RUI. The twerp she got into a fight for. What kind of name is "Rui," anyways? Probably some punk-ass... asshole.

"Ok, at the very least, let's just try the front door. It's not breaking and entering this way, right? Just entering. Aha ha ha..."

Anton's nervous laughter was met with an irritated glare from his sister. Anton walked towards the front door and reached for the doorknob to open.

Stop.

"Stop? You say something, Alice?"

"What's the hold-up here, bro? At this rate I'm going to LOSE!"

Taken aback by the voice, Anton took a step away from the door. As he did, he noticed something... off about the door. After taking a few seconds to let his eyes adjust, he noticed some sort of energy placed upon this entrance.

"... Alice, are you seeing this?"

"Seeing WHAT? Look, if you won't open the door, then I-"

Before she could finish, Anton grabbed her hand. He gave her a stern glare and looked into her beautiful blue eyes.

"Alice, there's something off about this. I mean it. If you seriously want in, we're going in the side."

"A-Alright..."

After giving the side windows a careful examination, Anton vaulted into the building. He looked around for any signs that they'd been noticed before helping his sister in.

It was not far into their exploration of the home that Anton and Alice stumbled upon Kane and an unknown man. Kane was reeling back, probably from a punch delivered by the older guy.

"Alice, stay back! Hey, get away from Kane!"

Anton pushed his sister behind him and walked in.

Let's see if I'll be adding assault to the list tonight.

Andrei staggered back from the unexpected blow to the head. What kind of person does that? Before he could retaliate, two more entered through the window.

“Damn it,” he cursed under his breath as the man approached. Head in his hand, he shouted back, “Get away from him, this is my house!” He pointed his arm out at the new man, palm flat and facing the floor, “Get out.”

A white bolt shot across his arm, continuing thought the air and right straight towards the approaching man.

“Oh, right. Help…” Rui said, remembering the situation.

Wait, if it’s two on one, maybe we’d have a better chance of saving Luce now, hopefully… Although this guy’s too damn strong.

“Oh, this ‘jerk’ is… I don’t know his name, but this jerk is here to stop us from taking Luce for whatever reason. I’ve been having a hard time beating this guy… I really didn’t want you to come here though Jeanne. I can’t let a girl like you to fight. Wait a minute… Where’s Luce’s brother?”

"... So then, that should cover much about what the me that is you needs to know. You know very little for a fragment of me."

The giant humanoid fire-thing standing across from Bjorn finished his long monologue, but it was vague enough to the point where it gave Bjorn more questions than answers.

At first, all Bjorn could do was stare at the giant, as he tried to process the information given, prior to saying,

"So... I am a part of you?"

To which the giant responded,

"Yes. You are a part of me. However, the me that is you seems to have been... disconnected from my self for whatever reason. In addition, i seem to have made a fragment of myself out of weak flesh; The me that is you has no chance of withstanding my power. But that is okay. The me that is you seems to be changing already, becoming something that can endure my power. Not sure how long it will take though. Could take many ages. Could take a few days."

Bjorn digested this, with a grain of salt as he thought in his head about his memories and what he had known of his own existence, prior to saying out loud to himself,

"God damn. I must be going crazy."

To which the giant responded,

"Yes. We are a little crazy. It comes with age you see, and insanity is the only thing keeping us sane."

Meanwhile, in the "Real world" Bjorn's physical body was rapidly healing itself, and by the time Bjorn awoke, his body would be completely rejuvenated, in as much a human body can be rejuvenated, anyway.

In the chaos that Lucia's impact into the earth wall caused, Knoll ripped the page from his notebook and forced it into the ground as he did with the earth rune, hoping that he had enough stamina to cast the rune he had written.

In the ground surrounding him, a rune etched itself around the Shaman. Two circles with diameters of 3 and 6 feet with intricate designs between them, it glowed with a dark purple hue. The center of the 3 foot circle where Knoll stood was untouched, but began to glow as well with the rune's effects.

Within the influence of the rune, both on the surface and below, the vines and needles the Dryads controlled began to wither, their energies being drained.

Within the rune, Knoll seemed winded but still in control of the situation. Even as the rune began its work, he had already taken a bit of charcoal from his belt and began drawing another rune on the back of his left hand.

Lightning?! No time! Alice!

With no time to think, Anton rushed towards the bolt, arm stretched towards it. It he stood his ground the electricty could have traveled through him and to Alice. Avoiding the shot would have carried the risk of Alice behind him getting hit.

"ALICE, RUN!"

The bolt connected, and the lightning strike flowed through his arm. Anton had figured a strike to an extremity would be safer than letting the shock connect with his chest directly.

He also figured it would hurt like a bitch. He was correct about this as well.

Yelling out in pain, Anton's charge forward was immediately halted by the bolt. He fell to the floor, his body spasming.

"ANTOOOOOOOOON!!!!"

Alice stood, paralyzed with fear, trying to grasp the situation.

This wasn't supposed to happen! This can't be happening! Oh god, Anton, please-

Kill him.

W-What?

Kill him. Right now.

R-Right... I should do that.

Alice's expression changed from one of terror to one of rage. As she opened and clenched her fists, the rain moved from a typical drizzle to a complete downpour in the immediate area. The sound of the rain began to pound on the roof of the building.

"I'll fucking kill you," Alice whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.

Her breathing quickened with the pouring rain. Alice let out a scream.

"I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Without a plan or weapon she rushed straight at the man ahead of her.

Matt stared into the small muddy pond at an abandoned park located in the city of Mumble. The rain droplets created ripples in the water, but they did not touch the mysterious face peering back at Matt.
The mysterious face belonged to an old man with flowing white hair that hung down to blend in with a matching white beard. He called himself Jon.
“Jon?” Matt asked skeptically.
“Ya, Jon.” The face replied.
“You’re really going to stick with that?” Matt asked.
“…Yes.”
Matt stared blankly at the face for a minute or so. “Ok, well good luck with whatever it is you’re doing. I’m outta here.” He said while waving to Jon. Matt got up and started to walk away when he heard Jon shouting at him.
“Hey! Hey! Get back here! YOU AND I ARE CONNECTED!”
“Now that’s just creepy. You know, you’re a creeper! I don’t need to be talking to illusions of an old man in a pond! Have you ever been to a looney bin? They are NOT a nice place.” Matt shouted.
“And yet you are shouting at the pond in the middle of a park.” Jon mused.
“…I hate you.” Matt mumbled.
“Come on, what have you got to lose? Your sanity? You never really had any.” Jon coaxed.
Matt went back and kneeled down next to the pond.
“Good,” Jon said, “Now, you see a big crossroad is coming up in our lives. You will soon receive powers-“
“I’m out.” Matt said as he started to leave again.
“Wait, wait wait. You don’t want power? Humans have killed each other over power for millennia and you’re just passing it by when you don’t have to do next to nothing to receive it?” Jon asked.
“Oh my gosh, have you never seen Spider Man? ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ I don’t want any responsibility, so I don’t want any power. Good-bye.”
“You can’t escape destiny!” Jon shouted.
“Destiny is a myth!” Matt yelled back.
“Oh ya, well so am I.” Jon said, but Matt did not hear it over the thickening rain.

“Oh, I suppose this ‘jerk’ hasn’t introduced himself yet,” the man scoffed, apparently at himself, “I am called Belial. I’m a King, actually.” Belial’s face lit up with a smug smile, “I’m kind of a big deal in certain circles.”

“Um...” Jeanne still couldn’t bring himself to get used to the situation, despite Rui’s explanation. “Kane’s upstairs, said he’d keep Mr. Andrei busy for us...” He had never been in a fight before, and the thought of one made him nervous. The thought of Rui fighting made him nervous. “And I didn’t come down here just to watch! However we do this, it’s going to be the two of us, understand?” The fact that he was glowing didn’t seem nearly as important as avoiding a fight. In fact, he was kinda hoping he could get him to join the circus as well; could be nice to spend more time together.

“...I don’t think we should fight,” his timid body shook, “But we can’t let you keep Luce. I’ll... I’ll fight you before I let that happen.”

Belial snickered, “Oh, is that right? Maybe you should listen to the boy on this one. He seems to have your best interests in mind.”

---

Andrei let out a sigh of relief when the man in front of him went down. He felt more secure with both the grown men on the floor, so all he had to do was take care of the kids. Though that brawler would probably be his biggest obstacle, better zap him while he was still recovering.

Before Andrei could focus his attention on the brawler, he noticed that the panicked voice of the girl accompanying the new man had suddenly changed, taking a drastic turn towards the furious. He quickly held his hand out towards the charging girl, but it seemed like he had gone as far as he could with the totem without allowing it some cool down time. He didn’t have time for frustration, though. He could always hold off a little girl with his own strength and give the object time to rest.

Rui took a deep breath in, and picked up a candle stand again, ready to fight. He turned and said, “Jeanne!” Rui then mouthed the following words, “Free Luce.”

Rui took an offensive stance, knowing it’s futile, but Rui would try his hardest to fight Belial, long enough ao that Jeanne can get Luce out of the ropes.

Rui then ran towards Belial, making a slashing motion with the candle stand, aiming towards Belial’s chest.

“Free Luce.”

With only a moment of hesitation, wondering if it was right to leave Rui to fight alone, but he knew this was the right way. He had to get Luce out, then he could come back and help Rui.

Jeanne rushed over to Luce and quickly examined her. She seemed fine. Sleeping maybe, even through all this noise. Her arms and legs were tied down to the table by her wrists and ankles, so the restraints would have to go first, so Jeanne started looking for any knots to undo or something to cut the rope with.

Meanwhile, Belial could only manage a chuckle at Rui’s bravery. “Oh right. Your one of those,” he mocked, grinning condescendingly at Rui’s candle stand. Once Rui swung, Belial turned in his chair, making it so all that was hit was the back of the seat. Like before, the strike was deflected in a bright flash, immense heat being released, melting the end of the candle stand. Hot drops of liquid metal sprinkle across the walls, stairs, and desk, starting a fire in the basement.

Belial spun around Rui and headed towards the rescue attempt. Before he even knew what was going on, Jeanne was kicked to the floor, Belial placing his foot firmly on his head, applying pressure occasionally to keep him scared, causing Jeanne to whimper as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“So, Mr. Hero,” by now, the stairway was blocked off by flames, and the fire on the desk was getting bigger, “what are you going to now?”

Alice continued her enraged charge, nearly stepping on Anton has she ran.

He raised his arm to send a bolt of lightning, but seemed to decided against that method of attack, instead bracing himself.

Finally in range, Alice opened up with a swift knee to the groin, aiming to make this man suffer.

Not satisfied with just a strike to his manhood, she followed that attack with a quick punch to the face, aimed at his left eye.

"You are going to pay, you goddamn asshole!"

Alice's shouts had roused Anton, causing him to roll over on the floor.

Weakly, he looked at Alice attacking the mystery man.

Goddammit, Alice, run. Please.

Underestimating the girl was a mistake. She seemed to be something of a pragmatist, striking Andrei swiftly in the groin, then again in the eye while he was stunned.

Andrei caught himself before he hit the ground, and quickly swung upward at the girl while he was rising, aiming for her solar plexus.

Meanwhile, smoke started to rise up from the basement.

Holy shit.

After regaining his composure from the headbutt, Kane was momentarily stunned by the sudden newcomers - particularly the insane, feral girl who began to ruthlessly beat on Andrei.

Unfortunately, it was shortlived, and he seemed to be gaining the upper hand once more. What's more, the smell of smoke wafted up from the basement, where Jeanne went to retrieve Luce. Cringing in mild frustration, he realized that Andrei probably wasn't working alone.

Wasting no more time, Kane quickly closed the distance between them, snapping a kick towards Andrei's midsection to suppress his counterattack. In the brief second his intervention bought, he barked in Alice and Anton's direction,

"Downstairs, now!"

Damn, not enough!

Her successive attacks connected, but the man recovered from the blows quickly. He was close to the ground and striking upwards. She was too close to evade the attack.

Alice tried to get back, away from the attack, but she also realized she was likely to be struck. The strike had definitely reached her body, but didn't actually connect with her body. A quick glance down saw his fist reaching through her abdomen. She didn't feel any pain, or anything at all from that part of her body. It was as if her torso had become immaterial, allowing her to avoid the blow.

What in the- Not important right now!

Backing further from the man, she noticed the boy on the ground get back up. As soon as he was up he kicked at the man.

"Downstairs, now!"

"I don't need-" Alice began to argue against his order, but she was interupted by Anton, who had managed to get to his feet.

"Alice! Listen to him, alright! Let's move!"

"Anton, I... fine!"

Realizing this wasn't the time to argue about what to do, she turned to run towards the nearby stairs. Before doing so, she turned back and delivered a quick kick to the mystery man's face, directly to his nose. The rain eased from the downpour back to a drizzle after she delivered the cathartic strike.

Alice ran to Anton and supported him as he stood.

"Kane, I hope you know what you're doing," Anton said, giving a solemn glance at Kane. He turned back, and he and Alice descended the stairs.

Something wasn’t right. He wasn’t hit that hard in the head. He shouldn’t be hallucinating. But despite this, his hand clearly went through this girl’s abdomen like it was air. Before he could figure out what was going on with her, a surprise kick connected with his back, laying him out on the floor, coughing for air.

“Downstairs, now!”

He was too slow. He didn’t get back to the other kid in time, and left his back open to him. Then he smelled smoke, and knew exactly what was happening. “Belial...” he said to himself, right before the vindictive girl kicked him square in the face.

This was bad. There wouldn’t be any point in this if the familiar goes rouge and burns the house down. Even if he managed to get out alright, the publicity wouldn’t be good at all, and no way could he explain why these people were here. Andrei knew how the world worked. Because of who he is, who his family is, the police have been dying to get him on something. Anything. And he needed to succeed; he needed to free his sister from this trap they were born into. He couldn’t leave her behind. And to do that he needed to finish this before Belial burned everyone in the house on a whim.

In the guise of holding his nose, he brought his totem up to his face. His nose wasn’t bleeding as much as he needed it to be, so in desperation he bit his lip and let the blood flow onto the object. The crumpled man mumbled something to the object under his breath, words that didn’t have much meaning to many people anymore. He slowly got up to his knees, trying not to make any sudden movements while he did so.

“Sorry, kid,” he whispered, hoping he’d still be audible to the tough kid standing near him, “It wasn’t supposed to go this far.” He let the words hang in the air for the moment, before black electricity began to show around him; on his arms, and the floor around him.

In an instant, he lifted his hand up towards the boy, and loosed a black and blood red bolt towards the boy’s head.

The man held up his hand after uttering an ominous statement. Kane's eyes widened immediately - he was well aware that in desperation, the losing combatant would pull a lethal weapon as a last resort. Before Andrei finished raising his arm, he juked right - just in time to glimpse black electricity arc near the spot he stood at a moment ago.

Not even calling into question what kind of crazy weapon it could have been - the moment the opponent makes an active attempt on his life is the moment he would subconsciously justify excessive violence.

His target's body still prone as he closed the distance, he lifted his right fist and both his feet left the ground.

A sudden, minor tremor in the earth disrupted the floor of Andrei's house, the impact only slightly cushioned by his shattering spine.

With somewhat unintended ferocity, the blow from Kane's entire weight focused on his brass-knuckled fist punched Andrei's entire limp body through to the foundation of his house, where it left a jagged crater in the cement itself.

A few moments passed before a dazed Kane pried his fist out of Andrei's still form. Finally given a chance to observe his surroundings, he found it hard to swallow the magnitude of what just happened. The collateral damage from that final blow only slightly eclipsed the gut-wrenching thought that he just brutally killed a man, albeit in self-defense and for a good reason.

He backed out of the foot-deep crater and back onto the undisturbed floor. Doing his best to shake it off in favor of more pressing matters, he made his way for the staircase.

“Oh, so it’s over already?”

With a heavy sigh, Belial took his foot off of Jeanne’s head. The scared boy quickly up and scooted away from the man, towards Rui, never taking his eyes off of Belial as he did so, looking at him with a mix of fear and desperation.

Picking up on Jeanne’s cues, Belial spoke up, attempting to make himself clear, “Oh, don’t worry. You won. I’m leaving.” He held up his index finger, and as if calling it all back to him, the flames that were spreading thought the basement flowed through the air and to his fingertip. “See, no more burning to death. I’ll even untie your friend, see?” and like he said, the man cut the rope around one of Luce’s wrists with his fingertip.

" So going over what you just said... Eventually i'll be able to control fire?" Bjorn said, accepting that he was going mad, and he might as well roll with it. After all, there was nothing to be gained by refusing madness. It would have come on anyway.

"Yes, piece of me. I do not actually know why you're so weak in fact. When i created you, you should have had the same strength as I, the same power, and such like abilities. Yet you do not. You are weak. Your flesh is weak. And you cannot call to flames."

Bjorn digested this. Well, that was good to know. The fact that while going mad, he would at least be a super powered mad-man.

"Huh."

fire Giant;"Too much to chew on, part of me?"

Bjorn; "Yea. Sort of. First i nearly got my ass handed to me during the day, and now.. I'm here talking to myself. I guess."

Fire giant; "Accurate enough. Though you shouldn't have lost. Despite your opponent being a vampire."

Bjorn; "Wait, he was a what?"

Fire Giant; "A vampire. You know. Those blood sucking, super-human creatures of the night. Pale skin combined with that strength for that physique is a dead give away. Although, I suppose it could have been some other form of undead, but it's typically vampires that are the smartest of the undead with that appearance. Still. They are nothing to my power. You shouldn't of lost. Except you are weak. Hopefully time will remedy that, but if not, I have apparently created a weak me. That's a new one. A weak me. Hah!"

Bjorn "Well... That explains a lot... Anyway, when can I get out of here?" With that, Bjorn gestures to the surrounding area.

Fire giant; "Hum. Technically you are a part of me, so where we are now should be your "natural" state."

Bjorn "So... You don't know."

Fire giant; "You could say that. I know many things, but you are new to me. Perhaps I have reached a new depth of madness. Perhaps not. I am not sure, me."

Bjorn; "Well... That's just great. So that's it for me being stuck here for eternity then."

Fire Giant; "Perhaps, perhaps not. All that is left is for us to wait and see. After all, I have time, much time, if nothing else on my hands. "

“I-is this really happening…?” Rui said, puzzled and out of breath. “Thank goodness…” Rui hugged Jeanne as soon as the battle was over.

Rui then quickly let go of her, knowing that Jeanne was now safe. He went over to pick up Luce. Rui then walked back to Jeanne. “So Belial… Are you really gonna let us go like that? If so… I hope we never meet again. Or at least, you’ll be on our side… But that’s being hopeful…”

Or until I get stronger to actually have a chance to beat him…

“Y-yeah...” Jeanne said, confused at the man’s sudden change of heart, but happy that Luce was being let go. Being embraced by Rui was a nice bonus, too. Unfortunately, they had other things to worry about, and Rui left to retrieve Luce from the table.

Once Luce was by their side again, Jeanne immediately went to her side. “Luce? Luce! Can you hear me?” the girl seemed fine, with only some marks from the ropes as the only sign she had been in danger just a moment before, but she wasn’t waking up, “What’s wrong with her?”

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. The charm will wear off by tomorrow, giving her a chance for a goodnights sleep,” Belial then turned his attention to Rui, who had something of his own to say, “Oh, don’t worry, you are free to go. I don’t have a reason to continue this, Andrei being gone and all. Actually, without him, I don’t have a whole lot of time left here, and I’m obligated to carry out his last request with that little time I have left. And I doubt I’ll be seeing earth again in your lifetime after tonight.”

“Oh, but as a farewell gift, I thought I’d share some info with your group, if you care to listen,” he surveyed the room, seeing only the three young teens in front of him, “This isn’t all of you, is it?”

---

The dimly lit bedroom was lightly furnished and very practical. The only think on the walls were various guns, and the only pieces of furniture in the room were a desk, a nightstand, and a bed; each fairly modest. In fact, the nicest things in the room would have to be the tailored suits in the closet and the Soviet military coat hanging on the rack next to the door.

Anya was lying awake in bed, doing her best to forget about her worries and fall asleep, but couldn’t help but make things worse for herself when she kept looking over at the picture framed on the nightstand. Two fair-haired children were smiling in it, with three adults sitting behind them, an older man, and a husband and wife. Irritated with herself, she finally sat up in bed. “What am I doing?” she asked herself with her hand on her forehead, her long, platinum blonde hair falling over her naked upper body, “I just need to talk to him.”

“Mistress Anya!” the door to the bedroom swung open as a small girl in her late teens or early twenties rushed in. She had clear gray eyes and auburn hair cut above her neck. “We have a situation! Security has just told me...” the girl trailed off, face red and hand over her eyes, “Mistress, you’re indecent!”

“Well, Natalia,” Anya got out of bed and headed inside her closet, not worrying to cover herself for the trip. She figured she didn’t need to; she was wearing bottoms, after all. “What did you expect? You did barge into my room in the middle of the night,” she took one of the dress shirts and slipped it on to ease the jittery girl’s mind, “And please, for the thousandth time, drop the ‘Mistress’. Now what was it you wanted?”

“Oh, right. It’s about Master Andrei. It seems there was a break in of sorts and... Well I don’t know if I should be the one giving you the news, but...” Natalia looked around nervously, but swallowed her doubts and just stared at her mistress straight on, “I regret to inform you that Master Andrei has been killed.”

The moment the news reached her ears, Anya averted her gaze. She silently walked back to her bed and sat down, staring at the floor. Natalia tried to say something to her, but Anya couldn’t hear any of it. She looked back at the picture framed on her nightstand, but for how long she spent staring at it, she wasn’t sure.

“Mistress Anya? Master Boris had wanted to speak with you. Did you hear me?” Natalia’s voice finally reached her.

“Uncle would have something to say, I suppose.” Anya wiped her eyes and stood up, “You’ll accompany me, won’t you Natalia?”

Too long to...Read the whole thing. Its....Too...Long. My eyes. They burn. From staring at white and black contrast all night. Oh god...(Seriously though, what I HAVE read is really good)

As Anton and Alice rushed down the stairs, the entire house began to shake, the epicenter of the quake seeming to originate from the room they had just left.

Alice turned her head and looked back to where they had left the two fighters until Anton urged her forwards.

"Alice, please. Kane will be fine."

I hope.

Reaching the basement, Alice noticed Jeanne, an unconcious girl, some man sitting in a swivel chair, and most imporantly, Rui.

"Rui!"

Wasting no time, Alice dashed towards Rui and hugged him, pressing her ample breasts against his face as she did.

Wait a second...

Alice's bosom had never been so large, and yet, at the moment, she realized that they had increased in size since she started following Kane and Jeanne.

Oh god the chest pains! I thought they were due to heartache and concern for Rui!

And yet they'll help you win him over...

... And yet they'll help me win him over. Excellent.

"Oh god, Rui I was sooooo worried about you!"

Before Anton could raise his objections about the situation, he noticed something... strange about the man in the chair. The sensation was familiar to when he saw the door earlier.

"... Belial," Anton stated, unsure of why he said the name.

Kane hurried down the staircase, albeit at a somewhat subdued rate. His attention was focused on his right hand, and the fact that it appeared to be completely unharmed. Not even bruised from taking the force of such an impact. His arm didn't show any signs of pain, either.

The sounds of the fire died down, the sudden silence leaving only a faint rumbling noise in his ear.

A rumbling noise...?

By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, his expression was that of irritated uncertainty, which was only further augmented by the situation before him. Jeanne, holding an unconscious Luce, and some boy - presumably Rui - were huddled together and facing a sleazy looking man in a swivel chair. The tension in the room appeared to be significant, but the man seemed relatively harmless judging by his distance and relaxed pose.

Signs of a scuffle were obvious, though. Scorch marks lined the room, but the fires that caused them were inexplicably absent. Various furniture lay strewn about, broken, and some even half-melted.

He arrived just in time, however, to see Alice attempt to asphyxiate Rui with her cleavage - something entirely contradicting the atmosphere - and anything Kane would have had to say about any of this was lost to pure confusion.

He decided it wasn't worth trying to figure any of this out, if he could avoid it. Eyeing the man in the chair suspiciously, he tried to draw as little attention to himself as he could, slowly making his way across the room to Jeanne and Luce.

“Right, well that seems to be everybody. Fantastic,” Belial couldn’t help but give a thorough once over of the strange group, “On to it, then. My helpful tip.”

While Belial drew out his time in the spotlight, Jeanne’s eyes were glued on Rui and Alice, having been embarrassed by Rui ever so shortly before, he couldn’t help but be a bit envious of the display she was putting on, no matter how ridiculous it was.

“Well, you see, Andrei hired me to do a job, and while I wasn’t able to see it through to the end, I did put into motion some small steps to help him in his goal. The one you all should really concern yourselves with involve those; there, there, and there,” Belial said, pointing at seemingly ordinary corners in the ceiling, “You see, Andrei’s sister is a bit of a busy body. You think running a large criminal organization would give her more to do, but no. Apparently not. Anyways, when Andrei bought it not too long ago, I was no longer inclined to alter the video feed, other than editing myself out of it, of course. So smile, you are all on camera.”

Jeanne looked frantically around the room, trying to see the cameras he was talking about, but if any were there, they were well hidden.

“You can be sure they’ll be very interested in all of you. Especially our glowing hero and punch-out over here,” the man in the swivel chair mocked, “And while I’d love to stick around and watch the struggle, I have places to be and people to see.”

And with a quick ‘bye’ and a friendly wave, the man was gone, disappearing into thin air.

An image of a familiar man bent unnaturally into the floor, as well as several unfamiliar people ranging from young high school students to grown men standing around the home, froze on the screen “As you have just seen, it appears that Andrei was the victim of a home invasion,” said the old man in the front of the room to the small group in the dark room, “Though the inclusion of children makes me uneasy in that regard. That is why I believe we should leave this matter to the police.”

Everyone in the room looked like they were attending a funeral, all very somber and dressed in black suits. Anya sat in a simple folding chair as she stared at the screen with a cold look on her face, Natalia standing diligently next to her, trying to seem professional but still averting her gaze from the image of a mutilated friend. There were two other men in the room. The one operating the projector, standing in front of the room, was an elderly man, but like an old tree he was strong and imposing in his age. In the back of the room, standing silently against the wall, was a well-built man with his arms crossed and head down, his golden hair falling over his face as he stood vigilant.

“You can’t be serious, Uncle,” Anya spoke up, “The police know full well of who we are and what we do, and I’m sure they are aware of Andrei’s connection to us as well. Despite his best efforts to separate himself from us, I doubt the fact that he is my brother will go overlooked by them.”

The old man ran his gnarled fingers through his grey bread, “What are you implying?”

“They are going to treat his murder as if it was some act of gang violence. They aren’t going to see him as an innocent man who was killed in his home, but rather as a member of that illegal arms-dealing family who finally got what was coming to him,” Anya leaned forward and glared at her uncle, “If we don’t do something, I believe it is likely my brother will go unavanged.”

“Your father was always hot-blooded, but I expected better from you, Anya,” the old man said, his voice ripe with disappointment, “You are supposed to be running this business, not going on vendettas. Andrei wouldn’t have wanted you to fuss over him so much.”

“Master Boris, if I may speak,” Natalia chimed in, waiting the old man’s nod of permission before continuing, “I think there may be more here than what is immediately apparent,” she approaches the screen to better illustrate her point, “This boy here... doesn’t he seem to be glowing?”

“Isn’t that just distortion?” Anya asked.

“No... no I don’t think so. See here? His light affects the others in the room, and shadows are being cast away from him,” she moves across to the other side of the screen when something else catches her eye, “And here, these burn marks around the entrance to the basement... if I recall correctly, Andrei refused to take any of our merchandise, and none of these assailants seemed to be equipped with any sort of incendiaries, and Master Andrei’s body is imbedded in the floor. I can’t imagine that being achievable by human strength alone,” she moves once again to a different part of the screen, “And here, in the basement. What exactly to you think that pattern on the floor means?” She steps away and looks at the odd circle for a moment, “Master Boris, didn’t you say the recording seemed altered somehow?”

“Everything seemed normal up to about an hour ago, but the serene home was replaced by a crime scene suddenly and without explanation,” Boris takes the recording back to just before the sudden change in content, then lets it play, “Like whatever was keeping us from seeing what was going on just suddenly decided to stop.”

“See, all of this makes me believe that Andrei and his assailants may have had access to things we’ve never heard of, and investigating further on our own should prove lucrative,” she shoots Anya a quick smile, knowing that this information should give her enough leeway to at least get a begrudging blessing from her uncle.

“Exactly right!” came an unfamiliar voice from an unfamiliar man sitting in his own personal swivel chair, appearing out of nowhere when no one was looking, “Sharp girl! Very sharp!”

The moment the uninvited guest made himself known, the man leaning against the back wall sprang to life, instantly positioning himself behind the intruder, shotgun pointed at the back of his head.

“Nikita! How did he get in here?!” Boris shouted, reaching into his coat for a gun of his own, Anya and Natalia doing the same.

“Not sure,” the guard responded, “If he used the door, I would have seen him come in. Should I kill him?”

“What for?” asked the man in the swivel chair, who now had every gun in the room pointed at him, “I just came to talk. I didn’t mean to interrupt your little powwow.”

“Let’s not be too hasty, Nikita,” Anya spoke up, standing and approaching the new man, “We can at least see what he has to say before we shoot him,” she knelt down to be at eyelevel with the sitting man, “So, what is so important that you had to surrender your life to tell me?”

“Well, I was employed by your brother. Although he didn’t get the chance to give me a proper job, he did ask me to make a delivery in the last moments of his life,” making sure he wouldn’t be riddled with bullets the moment he reached for it, he slowly took the book from inside of his suit jacket and handed it to Anya, “For your eyes only, Lass. Should have notes in it, and I’m sure once you read what’s inside, you’ll understand exactly what that smarty-pants girl was talking about.”

As soon as he handed her the book, Anya started skimming through it. She recognized her brother’s handwriting in the notes, but the contents of the tome struck her as nothing short of ridiculous. Magic and spirits weren’t something she considered to exist in the realm of reality, but her brother’s words encouraged her belief, and he was never one to pull pranks.

Anya took a deep breath, “From what my brother has left me, I assume you are Belial, and you won’t be staying with us for much longer, correct?” without waiting for him to answer, she continued, “That is a shame. I would have liked to ask you a few things.”

“Sorry, but you gotta leave them wanting more,” the man chuckled as his body began to turn bright and translucent, “Though I’d love to see you exact your revenge, I’m sure Andrei advised against employing me, right?”

She gave a slight nod, “Yep, says you’re nothing but trouble. We’ll manage, though. I’m sure.”

The man fell into a fit of laughter as his chair reverted to a throne of flames and he continued to disappear into the air, “As promising as that is, I should let you know, smarty-pants was right. Something wasn’t normal about those people. Couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I’d keep my guard up.” And with his final warning, the man was gone.

The others in the room stood in silence, awed and afraid of what they had just seen; the air remained tense. Nikita investigated the space the man was formerly occupying for any signs of it being some kind of trick while Natalia looked at her Mistress for answers, but all Anya could do was flip through her brother’s notes. Finally, Boris spoke up to break the silence.

“Care to fill the rest of us in on what Andrei had to say, Anya?” he asked, hoping to gain the same enlightenment about the current situation as she has.

“Tomorrow, Uncle,” she responded as she stood up and headed for the exit, “I’m tired, and I want to get a bit more reading done before I turn in for good.”

“Oh, but one more thing,” she paused, “Natalia, could you do me a favor?”

“Of course, Mistress. Anything,” the girl responded diligently, still showing signs of shock from the disappearing man.

“That group that Uncle Boris suggested we call in to deal with those competitors; are they still in the city, by any chance?”

“Yes, I believe so. They should be finishing up their job tonight, though. But what would you want with them?”

“Fortune’s Soldiers is what they called themselves, right? I want you to tell them that I have another job for them,” Anya walks over to Natalia and places her hand on her shoulder and gives the girl a small peck on the cheek, “Thank you, Natalia. I’m counting on you.”

“Y-yes Mistress!” she blurted out like a nervous soldier responding to a superior officer, Anya’s friendliness catching her off guard.

Boris’ face showed obvious unease at the implications of keeping the mercenaries around, “You plan to declare war against these people?”

“Of course not, Uncle. I’m just taking precautions like Belial suggested,” she said as she continued her way out, “If these people do end up being more than they seem, I want to be ready is all,” she turned in the doorway and smiled at her upset uncle, “Wasn’t it you who told me I should make a habit of being over prepared?”

A large cargo ship floats silently on the dark blue water, moored to the bollard in Mumble harbor, void of life so late at night. Sitting outside of the highest room on the ship, looking over onto the deck from the balcony, is a lone man in his late twenties cleaning a bolt action rifle. He whistles a lonely tune into the night air, but stops when the door behind him opens.

“Things went pretty well tonight,” said the dark haired woman as she leaned against the wall next to the man, “Don’t you think so, Benny?”

“That I do, Tanya. That I do,” the man smiled familiarly at the girl, then taking his rifle and looking through the scope to the deck bellow, “I saw everything from up here. That plan of yours was did the job very well.”

Tanya smiles self-assuredly, “Stella and Santiago were enough of a distraction. Dangerous, but not too much so to make anyone think anything was up, giving Liam the opportunity to cut the power and Blair the perfect chance to cut off the escape. Then, all that we needed to do was let our stowaways do the thing they do best. Murdoc, Warren, and Heath did exceptional down there as expected, and you and Fletcher were great on support. And of course, we wouldn’t have gotten the inside information to make this possible without Andrew or Evangellese.”

Tanya draped her arms around the man’s shoulders, and kissed him softly on the cheek, “But the plan is only as good as the team, and you’ve put together one hell of a team, Benjamin Bishop.”

Bishop lowered his rifle and smiled back at the girl, “Suppose that’s why Fortune’s Soldiers are in such high of a demand as of late.”

“Oh, speaking of that, Anya has another job for us. Or, at least I think so. That mousey girl she keeps around called and told us to remain on standby, with the promise of being paid for our time.”

“Oh, is that right?” Bishop asked, turning around to face his lover, “Anya always pays well. Might as well see what she has to offer.”

“I was worried you’d say that. I think we can all use a vacation.”

“Alright, but since we are already here, we might as well finish this up. After that, I promise we’ll take some time off,” He smiled, and the two leaned to kiss each other.

The moon comes out over the romantic rendezvous, shining its light on the scene of tonight’s massacre: the cold, wet deck of the ship, spotted with corpses, blood mixing into the ever-falling rainwaters of Mumble.

Rui tried to also look for the three cameras, but to no avail. Sigh. Rui wasn’t out of the woods yet, Rui could tell. There’d be more hardships to come, and this wasn’t the worse yet.

Rui then saw three other people, Alice and her brother, and a young man he can presume is Kane.

“Kane, here.” Rui then placed Luce into Kane’s arm. “Phew… Now that that matter’s over… I guess it’s time to go right? No use in mulling this thing over right now. I guess… I’ll see you guys later. Sorry…”

Rui was tired, Rui had to leave. He had to get away from this night of weirdness. He went through the battle torn house, and left. As he walked down the street, into the night, and coming near his house, his glow finally dissapated.

He made no attempt to sneak into the house. Rui’s parents had waited on him all night. They hugged him as soon as he came in, yelled at him, and sent him to his room.

Rui finally slept, his body healing itself at a fast rate.


It was Saturday. Rui woke up extremely rejuvenated, but he still remembered the events from last night. And he remembered Belial’s words.

Rui dialed Jeanne’s number into his cell. “Hey Jeanne, wanna come on a date with me today?”

Still too shaken by the previous events to be surprised about the man disappearing into thin air, Kane eyed the corner of the room with contempt. It was just their luck that Luce was kidnapped by someone with gang affiliations, and that he was the one who murdered him. Given how well gangs were typically known for diplomacy and forgiveness, it was rather unlikely he'd be able to explain himself to them if the need arose.

Rui didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation, and he had left before Kane could advise him otherwise. He hoped it would be hard to identify the group, but precautions would have to be taken nonetheless.

At the very least, Lucia appeared to be unharmed. He wondered briefly about Andrei's motives for kidnapping her in the first place, but it was unlikely he would ever find out now, short of risking a confrontation with that crime ring.

He gave the general location of a camera one final glare before turning to leave. As he walked by Anton, he muttered a cautionary "watch your backs" - though he was sure it was understood.

...

"Huh...? A haircut?" Lucia rubbed her eyes as she tried to make out the time on the nearby clock - it was about 10 in the morning. "I don't think I know how to..."

"Luce, how much do you remember of last night?" Kane asked from the bathroom, trying on a rather large hooded jacket.
"Last night? Well... I went to the gym afterschool and... hm." Her thoughts trailed off. She remembered hearing voices here and there, but nothing was really clear.

"That's fine. Anyway, we're also dying your hair."

"What??" Luce grabbed her head as if her hair would fall out at that statement. "But I like my hair this color!" she whined.

"Trust me, you'll look fine in black. Do you have your friend's phone number, by the way? The french one."

"Jeanne?" Luce got out of bed, squinting as she felt a mild headache. "Yes, I do. Are you two friends?" She sauntered towards the bathroom, fumbling through one of the drawers for scissors. "Yeah, let's go with that. Can I borrow your phone after we're done?"

"Sure! Now then," Lucia snipped the scissors with a benevolent grin. "what shape do you want it?"

Kane silently began to lament his decision.

It was early morning in the real world when Bjorn's somewhat transparent body began to fade even more in the "myth world".

"What the hell is going on now?" Bjorn said to no one in particular, but his new fire giant friend heard him and helpfully provided an answer to the rhetorical question Bjorn had asked.

"You seem to be fading from this reality. Ceasing to exist in this place, as it would be. Perhaps I have grown tired of you and you're being erased as we speak. "

"Gee thanks." Bjorn said as he closed his eyes and felt himself fade and he felt darkness close in on him.

A moment later, he woke up in his room, and sat bolt up right.

"Well. That was a lucid dream."
Bjorn said to no one in particular, and failing to notice that his wounds had miraculously healed over night. Bjorn was then about to think over his "dream" when his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"So you still exist Part of me."

"Oh Christ sakes. I guess I'm still going mad then." Bjorn said upon hearing that voice.

" We all go mad at one point or another me. And look, you seem to be healed! Be thankful, weak me."

"Well.. At least that's one good thing about going mad then..."
Bjorn commented as he got up out of bed and examined his body.

Indeed, it seemed he had completely healed. Well then. It seemed he would be able to do some investigating much sooner than he had anticipated.

As Bjorn began to get ready to go outside, Bjorn decided to take full precautions and wore all of his gear, although most of it was hidden beneath the "normal" clothes he wore, and his weapon was his body- plus his special gloves which would somewhat augment the impact of his fists as well as prevent them from taking too much damage from the opposite force that inevitably resulted whenever Bjorn punched something.

Unfortunately, while Bjorn did this, his new "friend" happily chatted away in his head, commenting on how different it was to have a piece of himself that seemed to be autonomous.

As Bjorn got ready to leave his safe-house, He muttered to himself, "Shut it you. I would like some peace and quiet from time to time... And what was that woman's name that I needed to look for..?"
The first part was directed at Bjorn's new friend. The second part was a rhetorical question directed at Bjorn's self. Bjorn's new friend answered both of the questions regardless.

"You should be looking for Anya. And there will be enough peace and quiet to last a life time when we're dead! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

With that laughter ringing in his ears, Bjorn left his safe house to look for the woman who bore the name his "friend" had mentioned.

As he went, he thought to himself,
"At least going mad has SOME benefits."

To which he got the reply,
"Yes, the benefit that you no longer care about anything!"

Hanz woke up and slowly pulled his head away from the table. In front of him, one big cylinder and a few small ones glow dimly. He somehow knew that the cylinders are plasma batteries, but last thing he remembered about them last night, was struggling to make out the blue print he somehow had in his head before he fell asleep.

Hanz spent a few minutes investigating the one of the small battery before he stopped poking at them, fearing that it would explode and caused a 1/100 miniature nuclear explosion.

Since today is his first time shopping for grocery, Hanz took a quick cold shower and get dressed before he went out.

“Mmm...” Viki eyes slowly opened as her mind returned from her dreams. Like countless mornings before, she found herself using Resha’s bare skin as a pillow. She nuzzled her a bit, not wanting to get up just yet, figuring it would be alright to sleep in on a weekend. She didn’t have anything to do, today, anyways.

“Oh crap...” she mumbled to herself, rolling around in bed as if she was trying to forget the plans she made yesterday, weighing her options. Her groggy mind seemed to think spending all day in bed was worth blowing off the cute boy from school.

“Ugh...” she said, sitting up, “Damn it, Zane. You better not have spaced...”

A hand snaked out of the covers slowly and moved with a blind precision above Viki's shoulder, fingers flexing outward experimentally before it latched onto the younger girl's neck and used it as an abrupt fulcrum to jerk the rest of it's body out from the warmth of the bed and into a sitting position.

As with most fulcrums, the force used to pull her up was appropriately used to slam the other girl face-first back into the bed. The diminutive girl yawned careless of the shock or discomfort she had inadvertently caused to achieve her setting-up position, long lavender hair spilling across her body and down onto the sheets.

Idly, the still sleep-addled girl contemplated her body's ability to simply autopilot it's way until the mind was fully awake. Her lips formed a thin smile as such casual routines were discarded in favor of forcing herself awake.

'Engage.'

The thought meant nothing, but the reaction meant everything. In the course of time the single phrase drifted through her weary mind, Resha's body surged into the waking world and her heartbeat quickened dramatically.

Her grip around Viki's neck tightened as she flipped over to straddle the girl on the bed. Her body was awakened at a rapid pace - too rapid, her mind still needed time to catch up and fully sort out the body. If she tried to stand and walk now, vertigo would ensue undoubtedly.

"Zane sounds interesting." She chirped with faux-interest, unfocused eyes gradually calibrating as she used Viki for a focus, her senses dialing themselves down from the overdrive she had sent herself into previously.

The rapid movement was what mattered - By both habit, physical and mental. Now came the acclimation, and Viki's slip up provided a good excuse.

"I believe you left something out of your day last night."

Was it cheating to use self-hypnosis in order to wake up faster? Probably. It certainly cheapened the act, and would dilute it's.... Well, she had a lot to do today anyway. An early start would pay off in the long run.
-----------

This was... Unexpectedly resilient resistance. The drugs were having strange effects on the Contractor's hostage, and this Shaman was quickly proving to be a very effective time-buyer.

With a second's hesitation, the Dryads retreated to regroup and report back. They had what they needed for now - This mission wasn't a total failure.

“Ow ow ow!” she cried out while Resha was dragging her down to help herself up. Before she could ask her ‘what gives?’ or even check if she was even properly awake, Resha straddled her and made a frightening comment.

“Zane sounds interesting. I believe you left something out of your day last night.”

Viki smiled nervously as she looked away, “N-no one... just a classmate. Thought I’d try and... work on my grades a bit. He’s supposed to let me borrow his notes.”

Resha hummed as a show of contemplation, wondering just how convenient it was that the day after those annoying upstarts made a mess of the bakery that Viki found something of interest in her classes. On one hand, the timing was rather perfect - Perhaps the upstarts were very thorough?

On the other hand...

'Paranoia is like a drink...' she thought to herself, allowing her customary slight smile to slide comfortably into place on her face, like a veil or particularly familiar piece of armor. If the boy wasn't a threat, then he was either a study partner or an interest...

She stared down at Viki for a few moments longer before leaning back and stretching her arms out childishly, the dull crack of her arms and spine working out their kinks accompanying the proper flow of blood through out her body as nerves and vessels had pressure adequately distributed.

So the question was how willing she was to get involved in this. Normally... Well, she had other matters to attend to now. Worst case scenario Viki found herself killed in an alley by Zane's deviancy and she would need to acquire adequate compensation. Second worst case scenario, Resha became an aunt.

...And she would need to acquire adequate compensation.

Resha's thoughtful purring resumed after stretching, letting her arms fall languidly at her sides. Really, Viki seemed to just be a good reason to generate excuses in general. A positive side effect of their relationship, Resha was sure.

"So I should be interested in your grades instead?" A small part of her thoughts were devoted to keeping Viki talking while she thought deeper on what she would do today, lending her voice a slightly absent-minded curiosity that belied her usual focus.

Hanz emerged from a hatch in the kitchen of the mansion, wearing a trench coat over his usual attire.

'I hate this weather' Hanz thought to himself and pulled the coat's hood over his head. He walked past the bullets riddled mansion while trying to remember what his butlers and maids usually bought, before he realized that he couldn't cook, and gave up on fresh ingredients.

Viki sat up a bit, trying to gain as much control as someone being pinned can have, “I don’t want you to have to worry about that,” she looked past Resha for, towards the door to the living room, “Maybe find the freeloader a job, instead? Would give me time to focus on other things rather than him.”

Viki looked over at the alarm clock. 10ish already? What time did he say he was going to be over?

“I’ll probably be going out later too, by the way,” she said, trying to sound like it hasn’t been on her mind or like she was asking permission.

"Your responsibility." Resha responded absentmindedly, rolling off Viki when she noticed that her half-hearted teasing wasn't going anywhere else. It had served it's purpose though, she was fully awake and ready now.

In short order she was dressed - The room may have been ill composed, but it was a structured madness that Resha understood intimately. "Yes, I'll be busy as well." The diminutive lavender haired girl allowed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail for casual utility and securing the hairband snugly at the base of her neck. "Which just leaves your... New pet."

That was a fair term for her apparently homeless nephew. "Maybe he should go with you to pick up your notes?" She offered with a cruelty born of inherent pleasure taken from schadenfreude. "He will need to be enrolled after all, so seeing the new schools content may be helpful."

“I did say I would take care of him, didn’t I?” Viki groaned, but was relieved her interrogation was over.

Resha got out of bed, saying she had things to do that day, and got dressed as quickly as she usually did. Viki was about to get out from under the covers too, until Resha suggested taking Ryu along with her for the day.

“I don’t mind helping him get acquainted here, but I don’t know if my notes will help him any,” she said from the bed, rolling back over and burying her face in her pillow, “Pretty sure we aren’t in the same grade.”

She had gone from being excited for her day ahead to wishing she had stayed asleep in the span of 5 minutes, “You sure we can’t just get him a job at the bakery? He’s old enough to drop out, right?”

"Purposely sabotaging the future of your pet is prohibited." Resha replied casually, "And if he gets a job anywhere it will be where you can look after him - not me."

She paused, stretching to one side long enough for her back to crack audibly. "Mm... Besides, the Bakery is probably still trashed from when the mafia attacked yesterday. Poor Ainlisle." She shrugged, "Such a nice girl, I'm going to have to look into it for her."

“Isn’t that dangerous?” she asked, perking her head up at Resha’s absurd plan, “Why not just leave that sort of thing to someone else? Like the cops? Or let Ainlisle sort out her own problems?” Viki was almost pouting, making a face like a sad little kid.

“What am I supposed to do if you end up getting hurt?” she said, making sure Resha couldn’t see her face, “Ainlisle has other people in her life, doesn’t she?”

Resha waved carelessly, "Oh please, the mafia don't exist in Mumble." She laughed at notion briefly, her soft smile quirking up into a gentle crooked smirk she had the grace to flash back at Viki as amusement twinkled across her eyes.

"No, nothing so amazing." She sighed, straightening out her clothes, "An insurance company paid us a visit recently, and considering the quality of the neighborhood lately... Well, Ainlisle is feeling uneasy." She looked down to make some last second checks, "She asked me to look into some of our options while she tidies up."

“Alright...” Viki said finally, only remaining unconvinced out of her own stubborn attitude, “I guess we need to eat, and you are the only one bringing money in...”

Viki rolled out of bed and started looking around for something to wear for the day, “When do you think you’ll be coming back? I don’t really want to be stuck in the apartment alone with your nephew for too long.” She finds some clothes in the mess of the room and throws them on the bed to differentiate them from the rest of the things scattered around the room, “Just because I took pity on him doesn’t mean i forgot about his perverted habits.”

"Hm..." Resha shrugged, "That depends on what comes up. Best case scenario I get shipped out to Honolulu to discuss turning Le Grande Gateaux into the next starbucks."

She snorted softly, "If I don't run into anything interesting, I should be back by the evening. I'm just supposed to be meeting people and finding things out today."

“Well, at least he’s a decent cook,” she said, getting dressed.

“Oh right, are you going to have breakfast before leaving? We can get the freeloader to cook, again.”

Viki spied the clock again, still not sure when she was supposed to meet Zane. Perhaps she should call him? “I’m not exactly sure when I’m going to leave, but I’m sure I’d wait a bit if it meant a hot meal.”

"Business waits for no woman, I'm afraid." Resha intoned in a mockingly disappointed manner, "I'll see you later - Try not to fool around with your new pet in the meantime."

Resha slipped out of the bedroom with that, quickly making her way across the smaller apartment and escaping out into the hallway - And in short order, even further into the rainy city of Mumble.

Knoll had readied his rune, nearly had enough energy drawn from the Dryad's vines to cast it...then the energy influx began to fade. As if those who were casting their spells stopped casting them. Was this a sign that the threat was over, or that the enemy was on to his strategy?

The rune beneath the Shaman still drew some natural magic from the nearby plant life. Not enough to do damage to them and not enough to fuel any drastic spells, but still something. He could utilize a little to start clearing the air a bit, while still having enough to replenish his own energy. If this wasn't the end of the battle, however, he would have to come up with another plan.

Keeping the rune on his left hand, he began drawing up another on the back of his right. A much simpler rune used for wind-based magics. Pointing his right hand to the sky, a gust of air shot up through the trees, hopefully taking a majority of the airborne toxins with it.
_______________________________

Vincent's bedroom was an absolute mess. Posters hung haphazardly on the walls, drawers half-open, various odds and ends scattered around the floor. A large pile of clothes sat on the bed, moving slightly and muffling a faint snoring sound. How the boy got under that pile to sleep was anyone's guess.

From underneath a discarded sock, an alarm clock went off, playing the intro drum solo for Van Halen's 'Hot for Teacher'. As the percussion echoed through the room, the pile of clothes began to move in time with the beat. When the cymbals crashed, the pile exploded, casting jeans and t-shirts in all directions as Vincent was now standing on his bed.

Eyes still closed and wearing only his Guitar Hero boxer shorts, he took up the stance of a veteran rocker just as the guitar solo began. He rattled against the non-existent guitar, picking strings as if they were right there in his hands. Just as the guitar solo finished with a loud final chord and the rest of the instruments rushed back in, Vincent kicked the lamp on his nightstand, who's cord was tangled around the same cord for the alarm clock. This had the unfortunate effect of unplugging the radio and ending the one-man rock show.

"Aw, man...and here it was just getting awesome." Vincent sighed, jumping down from the bed.

After putting on a pair of jeans and Van Halen t-shirt he assumed were still clean enough to wear, he then emerged from his room in an attempt to find something to eat.

As Bjorn walked from his safe house, he suddenly realized that he was very hungry.

"Of course you are. Healing your body's injuries as fast as they have healed requires a lot more energy from you than if they were to normally heal. There is no sudden input of energy from our of no where. All energy comes from somewhere!"

"Gee thanks, Mr. me." Bjorn muttered to his "new friend".

He then figured that the best place to go would be to a shop that happened to be in the general vicinity of the Grand Gateaux, that sold food cheaply and in a variety no matter what the time of day. Unfortunately the food wasn't as good as that of the Grand Gateaux, but Bjorn figured it would have to do seeing as how that particular bakery had recently been attacked and would still need some repairs prior to reopening.

So Bjorn headed to the area of the Grand Gateaux. If he saw any of the thugs from yesterday (unlikely, seeing as how they were literally carted away in a truck), he could have a "conversation with them", and looking for information in that area was as good as looking for information in any other area, especially when Bjorn had no leads, and wasn't in the mood to cash in favors, or spend money to get some.

"Shit." What a first thought of the day.

Ainlisle opened her eyes suddenly, before shutting them again. The dull light shining through her window was suffering and stung to look at so abruptly. She still had the bakery being wrecked to deal with after she got up, and ... well no, she could always just inform her parents about what had happened to it later - they weren't in town right now anyways. She sighed a little tiredly, before finally convincing herself to get up.

She pulled her hair back into a long ponytail, and left the house dressed for work - towards the bakery. The day had seemed incredibly long yesterday, and today she wished for it to be over.

"..I had a weird dream last night too..." she muttered absently, looking to the rainy sky.
---
" T.... U.... "

Zane sat alone in the kitchen, scrolling through the contacts on his phone. An empty plate sat on the table before him as he picked the name he wanted to text. He glanced to the time in the corner of his screen in thought.

"....How early do chicks wake up around here anyways..." He tilted his head at the screen slightly, before typing. If anything, she'd see the message when she woke up, right?
"Hey viki what time do ya wanna meet up?"

"Zane, I'll be back late, " a deep voice called from the hall.

"Yeah - see you later dad," Zane replied holding up a hand and giving a short wave.
---

A pen fluttered over a crisp piece of music composition paper, silence filling the room aside from a quite hum. The night had passed without much disturbance, and Ivan looked over the paper in front of him tiredly.

His fingers traced over the paper lightly humming along with the notes written on the page.

"Ivan."

A woman's voice, pervaded his clouded thoughts, and he sat up, his ice blue eyes changing from its usual dreamy look, and looked around as if searching for someone.
The sparsely decorated apartment only had silence and familiar sights to lend him, the only other sound aside from the rain outside were the melodies in his head.

"....Imagining things..." he giggled quietly to himself, and stood up, rolling the paper up and sticking it into his pocket. "Where shall I go today..? ahahahah... "

Resha casually strolled up to Le Grande Gateaux, the rain soaking her hair and clothes down as she surveyed the damage. The window was still broken, very little of the broken glass remained, and a pile of damaged trashcans stood as a testament to Bjorn having been thrown around the day before.

Quite the impressive feat for someone of his size. If that kind of raw physical strength was something he didn't even think twice about using, then what kind of freaks was she dealing with? At least he seemed... Easily distracted by theatrics.

She sighed under the rain, her childish body sagging under the crushing weight of exasperation. Overly powerful theatrical freaks. This was probably karma for her activities - Someone, somewhere, thought this would be funny. Would getting...

'No...', Resha shook her head slightly and straightened up, a slight smile sliding across her face as she did so. She needed information before she continued on and this was the first place she could think of to try and get some.

"Good morning, Ainlisle."

And information or not, her boss was still here. With the bakery having been attacked just yesterday, there was probably much to do still before it could really be open for business again. Or maybe they just ward off the broken glass area and sell things anyway?

She skipped over to Ainlisle relatively quickly compared to the casual stroll she had been traveling at until then.

"So what kind of plans do you have today? Did you find out anything interesting about those guys from yesterday?" She peered up at Ainlisle curiously, playing the role of inquisitive and cute to a T.

"It looks... alright," Luce examined her now jet-black hair. "It looks kind of uneven in places, but it does look nice!" She beamed a half-patronizing smile at her brother. He wasn't too concerned with the quality of his work, though - as long as she was less recognizable, it was good enough. "It's not like you cut my hair evenly either," he responded idly while searching through Luce's phone. "It's not a complete mess, though."

She pouted, her compliment hardly reciprocated. "You do it yourself next time, then!!"

He smiled. At least she wasn't questioning it anymore. He finally found Jeanne's number in her contacts list; he needed to make sure they took similar precautions. Copying down the number, he sent a message off of his own phone:

"Watch yourself in public - lay low. Tell Rui too.
And don't worry; Lucia doesn't remember what happened.
-Kane"

In the meantime, contrary to his own advice, he had no intention of staying indoors. Wandering around town helped him think - and after what happened yesterday, he had a lot of things to consider.

"I'm heading out. Call me if you need anything."
"Kay!"

I wonder how the bakery's doing.

--

The contractor wasn't responding, no matter how much Lucia shook her. Landing on the ground weightlessly, her head mostly clear of toxin by the time they hit the ground, she finally spotted Knoll. "Mr. Penlizard!!" She ran over to him, still carrying an incapacitated Cindy. "You should watch out - there's a monster nearby!"

Though, now that she mentioned it, it didn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

"I think it might have hurt Cindy...she says we need to leave, quickly!"

--

It's been a long-ass week.

First the landlord gets on his case about the rent, when he was only maybe a week or two late. Then he gets fired from his job for "beligerent conduct" - he's normally a nice guy! He wouldn't hurt a fly, on any other day, seriously. And then there was the bar fight he started that night...

Aaron took another drag from his cigarette. He quit smoking - or at least, tried to - over a month ago, but the stress piling up recently compelled him to start again. He just needed to catch a break. Start fresh. Just take a breather today, maybe stop by the bakery for breakfast. The more he thought about it, the more he resolved to turn over a new leaf, starting now. Nothing could mess up this day!

"Oh."

A disheveled man in a cheap black raincoat stood in front of the broken window of Le Grand Gateau, smoking a cigarette and looking rather nonplussed. Trying to seem undettered, he mumbled to the nearest employee, "You guys, uh, open?"

Hanz walked aimlessly unable to decide where to have breakfast and buy some home for dinner.

The sound of rain drops hitting his hood made it easier for him to lost in thought.
It's weird that after he lost his family in an unusual manner, all he has been thinking about is how energy flow and how to harness them.

Then Hanz found himself not far from a place that looks like it has been attack by terrorist. It's a bakery where his sister usually get him some delicious bread with weird name. The bakery also has a name that's hard for Hanz to pronounced.

'Looks like the city is only a few steps away before descending into anarchy'

Hanz walked toward the bakery to check if it's open or not, even though judging from the damage it may not open for business.

Groaning as he started moving, David realized that he could move his body again. As he rolled over onto his hands and knees, he realized two things: 1) That he had lost consciousness, and 2) That he was somewhere completely different. Looking around he noted that it looked like he was in a library - an old majestic one.

"Oh, you're finally up. Well, I guess that's to be expected after being electrocuted like that."

Looking around for the voice, David saw nothing except shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls. "Don't bother, you won't see me. Basically, this is a space I made inside your head for the purpose of filling you in while I can. Before you start asking, yes you're still unconscious in reality, and I don't have any idea what's happening to you right now - I need you aware in order to know what is happening to you."

"I'm sure by now you're wondering who I am and what my interest is in you, so I'll try to explain this as simply as possible. I am essentially the personification of the Library of Alexandria , and I need you because I wish to continue existing. Obviously you're not my counterpart due to the whole personification thing, but you do somehow have the ability to fill the void that was created years ago."

"As I was created due to Library becoming so renowned, I am somewhat different to other beings in the other realm. Essentially, my existence was and is fueled by the existence and knowledge of the Library instead of being completely separated. As you already know I was destroyed many, many years ago, but I managed to persist on due to the knowledge about my existence, albeit in a much weaker form. Somehow in that state I managed to reach out to you, and since then I have felt my former strength slowly returning."

"Now, based off the mere fact that I exist and that I'm situated somewhere else that isn't the ruins of the Library, we can extrapolate that there is another realm that exists, which most likely contains other beings who also possibly have counterparts. As evidence of this theory, we can use that boy from yesterday who was emitting light. Now I can tell you that magic has been floating around for a long time, but what was happening with that boy was definitely not magic - hence there has to be another cause, and I doubt that the human genome has mutated to the point where you've become anglerfish."

Suddenly the library started shaking as if it was just hit by an earthquake, books, scrolls and shelves falling on the floor. "Looks like we don't have much time left here. Basically I'm using you to restore myself, however you won't get shortchanged on this. To be frank you won't come out of this unchanged, but unlike the glowstick there won't be any downsides for you. When you get out of here try reading a nearby book without opening it. I promise that as I get stronger what you receive in compensation will also get stronger."

And with that final statement the scene faded to white, causing David to lapse back into unconsciousness.

--

When he was finally able to open his eyes again David noticed that he was somewhere else entirely. For starters he was in a bed, a softer one then usual. Pulling himself up into a sitting position he noticed that the comforters were also unusually soft and fluffy. Looking around the room David took note of the disorganized piles of clothing laying around the room, a hammock hanging up in a corner, and an unfamiliar ringtone echoing out from somewhere.

Then he felt something move next to him. Looking down he saw something he didn't expect - Jeanne laying face down into another pillow. She was still under the covers, but it could still be noticed from her shoulders that she wasn't wearing a top or a bra. Startled by this revelation David flushed and quickly got out of the bed, noting thankfully that he still had his clothes on. With this movement another issue came to mind - pain. His right arm had bruised and he was sore all over, causing him to hiss with his teeth clenched. This seemed to rouse Jeanne as she moved and murmurer something he couldn't hear. With more immediate things in mind then the potentially awkward conversation that was probably going to occur soon David then started searching for the source of the ringtone, narrowing it down to one specific pile of clothes.

Just as she finished messing with her belt and finishing off her outfit for the day, she heard a light bing from her phone.

“Oh, so he didn’t forget,” Viki picked her phone up off the nightstand to type her reply, only at the end remembering to amend it to mention her possible tag along.

-go ahead and come over, and we can decide where to go from here.
oh and we might have a tag along. i have a cousin (?) to look after apparently, but maybe he’ll be distracted by something shiny and leave us alone.-

She was sure to add where she lived, and sent the message while she exited her room and wandering into the kitchen. The free loader was still asleep, but leaving him home alone wasn’t a very attracted prospect, considering his... ‘hobby’.

She took a fresh peach from the fridge before making her way to the couch. “Hey,” she said, shaking the guy on the couch with her foot, “Hey, get up.”

---

“Yeah, that looks about right...” Anya double checked her book, making sure the circle in the middle of the floor was just right. Set around the circle were several chalices of water, and next to Anya was a small pot of what appeared to be mercury. Standing behind her were her four most trusted partners, those who had seen the demon’s visit just the night before.

“You don’t actually expect any of this to work, do you?” Boris stared at the elaborate set up, “Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to assume Andrei new someone with military technology connections that we’ve never heard of than this magic garbage?”

“Might as well see,” Natalia chimed in, looking out on the scene in front of her with a smile, “If it doesn’t work, no harm, right?”

“Correct,” Anya spoke up as began to unbutton her shirt, causing Nikita to look away out of respect. “If anything, we would have wasted five minutes,” she drew an elaborate circle on her sternum with the water, before finally giving her full attention to the set up in front of her.

She took a deep breath. “Thee I invoke, the Bornless one. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens: Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day. Thee, that didst create the Darkness and the Light.” Even it’s just slight, the water in the chalices around the circle began to glow and move, “Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust. Though didst make the Female and the Male. Thou didst produce the Seed and the Fruit. Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one another.”

The water was now flowing up out of the cups, circling slowly around the center. Dispite the reactions from her companions, Anya only continued calmly. “Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether; upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient to Me!” The water crashing into the triangle at the other end of the circle, swirling there in place as the mercury next to her rose up out of the pot like a snake and darted to the mark Anya placed on her chest, carving into her.

Despite her obvious discomfort, she continued, “Hear me and give me dominion over the spirit of my choosing!” the water on the other side of the room was raging in place, and the mercury had finished its job and settled back down in the pot, “I invoke thee: Gaap!”

The water released an incredible amount of energy from the other side of the room, knocking Natalia and Boris off their feet; Nikita was braced for it and Anya seemed to be immune. Steam shrouded the room, and the silhouette of a figure rising from the triangle could be seen thought the shroud.

“My, what an elegant princess I have for an exorcist this time around,” came a calming voice from the figure as the water in the air began to clear. There stood a naked young man, slim and regal, with bluish green hair, flowing like water over his shoulders. “I am prince Gaap, one of the Four Kings of Hell,” the man approached Anya, kneeling down in front of he like he was a knight her she is queen, “And I’m sure it will be a pleasure to serve you, my Princess.”

Anya placed her hand on the prince’s head, “The pleasure is all mine,” she said, casting a friendly smile down onto her new familiar, then turning her attention to the rest of her comrades in the room, “Alright, who’s next?”

---

“Excuse me,” the slender young man in the yellow foreign, rather feminine garb entered, making his presence known to the small group inside. There was a young, quite blonde girl in a sharp red cloak accompanying him.

“If my guess is correct, and by the looks of things, I think it is,” he commented, looking at the broken window with disdain, “this is the bakery that was trashed by a group of thugs yesterday, correct?”

---

“Hmm...” Jeanne purred as he rose up out of the blankets and sat up on his bed. Eyes half opened, he rubbed his hair and let out a long yawn.

“Oh, good morning David,” he said, still fairly out of it, “Can you get my phone? My legs don’t seem to want to move yet.”

Hoping that his face still wasn't flushed, David turned back, noting with relief that the covers had moved up with her. "I think I know where it is, it shouldn't take too long."

Rummaging through the isolated pile he found it after moving aside a leotard and the uniform she had worn yesterday. "It says here that Rui is calling you. My, aren't you popular." With a small smirk he then threw the phone to her.

The phone hit the still sleepy Jeanne in the forehead and fell onto the blankets in front of him. Slowly, he picked it ups and answered with a quiet “Hello... Rui?”

Although it couldn’t be heard what was said on the other line, it was obviously some great news. “Really?!” Jeanne shouted, instantly waking, shooting straight up and now standing on his bed.

“Yeah! I mean, sure. That sounds great. Um... just make your way over here. I should be ready by the time you arrive.”

Jeanne just smiled as he hung up his phone and fell back onto his bed, laughing a bit. “Sorry David, but i might have to leave you on your own today. I got a date.”

Then came another chime on his phone, this time a text message, “Lay low?” he asked, guessing he was talking about the business from last night. His thumbs poked away at the keyboard, typing his reply:

-Alright, will do. Rui is supposed to be coming over, and we were going to go out, but I’ll tell him what you said and we’ll decide on what to do from there. Tell Luce I said ‘good morning <3’!-

Jeanne pressed the send button with a smile, set his phone down on the nightstand, and looked up at the ceiling with his arms behind his head, humming joyfully. “So David, what are you going to do today?”, he asked, seemingly forgetting that he hasn’t told David of his true gender yet.

When Bjorn got to the general vicinity of the Grand Gateaux, he was in for a surprise. Like yesterday, there seemed to be quite a crowd gathered around.

"Well. Maybe They're still open after all..." He said to himself as he began striding toward the bakery.


"Or maybe the scene is just attracting that much attention."
Bjorn's new friend had to helpfully provide.

“Aw damn,” Matt muttered as he clutched his head. He woke up leaning against an alley wall with a hangover. After his little ‘talk’ with the pond by moonlight, he saw that creepy old man in every puddle and body of water in the city, which was everywhere after the heavy rain.

He had two choices: go crazy with the paranoia of seeing imaginary faces stalking him wherever he went, or find a bar and drink. He chose the latter, although he had never been a drinker, even if most his old friends used to be. One little shot had the effect of drinking a whole keg on him, and judging by the severity of the headache, he downed a few before he stumbled into the alleyway behind the bar and slumped against the wall.

Matt picked himself up and swayed from the surge of pain to his head, then stumbled out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. He walked for about a block in a daze before a speeding car drove by and hit a puddle, dousing Matt in dirty water.

“Screw you!” he shouted, but the car had already sped away, “I hope you crash, jackass.”

Matt started walking again before he realized that his hangover was gone, in fact his head felt clearer than it had been in months. He smiled to himself. Maybe I should splash myself with cold water in the morning more often he thought.

As Matt walked on, thinking of what to do next, he didn’t notice a drop of the dirty water that landed on his face move unnaturally against gravity and up towards his ear.

“Ah! Matt said to himself as he reached a decision, “I’ll go to that bakery that everyone’s been talking about, what was it called…Le Grande Gateaux. It’s only a block away.” Matt’s stomach growled as he headed over to the bakery.

When Matt saw the large crowd surrounding it, he was disappointed. He had hoped that since it was early in the morning…well, he actually had no idea what time it was, but he wanted food now. He shoved away the thought of going to a different place. He didn’t this city too well yet, and he was too lazy to walk to another food place anyways. He tried to make his way through the crowd unnoticed.

“Awesome” Rui said to Jeanne. He then hung up the phone and set it on the table. He then got ready, dressed up, wearing a black jacket with white linings, a white shirt underneath that. He wore blue skinny jeans to go with it and some black shoes. “I hope I don’t look like I’m trying too hard…”

Rui then put the phone into his jean pocket. Rui then went down the stairs. “Hey mom, don’t make me lunch, I’m going out on a date.”

“Oh man, my son out on a date? What a pimp.”

“DEAR! Don’t say that.”

“Oh god, dad…”

“ANYWAYS DEAR. Be safe. And don’t be out too long like last night.”

“I won’t make any promises I can’t keep, BYE!” Rui then rushed out of the door.

As Rui ran down the street, on his way to Jeanne’s house, he remembered last night. As he ran, the events came back to vividly. Rui snapped out of it after 10 or so minutes, when he arrived near Jeanne’s house.

Rui went up and knocked on the door. “Hey Jeanne! I’m here!”

Her grey eyes surveyed the mess from the previous day's events tiredly. She hadn't been able to do much in the way of getting this sorted out other than cleaning up what she could before returning home. Trying to find out anything on the people who had come and instigated the mess was a rather futile effort, and by the time she'd given up it was too late for her to do anything but sleep. She stare absently at the mess for awhile longer before deciding to section off the area with the glass. It wasn't like the ovens or the displays for the food had broken, anyways.

"Good morning, Ainlisle."

Anny turned her head and nodded to the lavender haired woman.

"Morning Resha..." she tilted her head slightly, and looked around the bakery once more. "I was going to keep the Bakery open today, but just get this area sectioned off... " she gestured to the remains of yesterdays events, " ...No, I didn't. I tried to, but I couldn't find anything.."

"I'll section this off for now.. so Resha, could you go check on the things in the ove-- " she began, before looking out the broken window to a disheveled man standing there. " ...Yes we are - Uh... don't mind the mess, we're taking care of that."

It seemed like this Saturday was going to be busy again, despite the broken window - she'd definitely have to call to get that replaced once the day slowed down a little... As she went to get the area warded off, another person... no, a couple of people, had walked into the bakery. A rather curious looking pair - but honestly they've been seeing a lot of curious people lately...

" Yes, it is," Ainlisle replied in a businesslike tone. " May I help you with something...?"

---
"Ah... well, can't be helped if we do have a tag along.." Zane sighed a little, picking up his baseball cap off the table and setting it on his head. He paused and laughed for a moment. "What's with the question mark... "

" K, ill be on my way there now" he replied to her text quickly, and went to walk out of his house. She didn't live too far from him, but it'd still be quite a walk... Well, whatever, a little early walking in the morning didn't kill anyone. ...Well, no maybe it did - but that's irrelevant.

He stretched his arms over his head, then took off in a brisk walk towards Viki's place.

---

If it weren't for his quirks - Ivan Nacht would look simply like a well dressed individual, well suited to his profession. Although, creative minds aren't without some sort of issues, and he himself was no exception. His hands danced over imaginary keys of a piano in front of him, and he hummed along with the tune he could only hear.

Each step he took was in beat with his humming, and he looked around a little disinterested at the surroundings. Something was missing from this city, wasn't it? Or perhaps something was being taken away to add to it? He giggled to himself as he mused over the thoughts - what could be going? What would be added then? Perhaps ... no, no, that isn't possible? or is it?

"If only, if only... " he muttered to himself, the steps taking him down familiar roads, his hands still touching the invisible keys with care, " There was someone much like her around to ask. Ehehehe... hahahaha.. HAHAHAHA. "

"What do you need to ask?~" a voice that reminded him of bells chimed through his thoughts, and he tilted his head in wonder. Often he thought he heard someone speaking to him in his head - sometimes many people, but this one was unusually clear in tone.

"My, my, my... am I hearing things?" His eyes twinkled with a hint of curiosity, the dreamy look in them still present.

Alice opened the door to the apartment, struggling with the few bags she was carrying.

Had to go buy new bras. This is getting to be a real pain. At least it gave me an excuse to go shopping though.

"Still not up yet?"

"W-Wha...? I'm... I'm not sleeping..."

Anton arose from the couch, letting the blanket covering him fall to the side, and exposing his naked body to his sister.

"ANTON, WHAT THE HELL?!"

Blushing, Alice turned as fast as she could away from Anton, lest she gaze upon his masculine form.

"What's the big deal? My clothes were wet last night and it's more comfortable. When you pay the bills you can pick when I'm naked," Anton teased, before grabbing some clothing for himself.

"Ok, ok, you can look now." Wearing boxers, Anton opened his cell phone. "I'm texting Kane. We should get together and decide what we should do about last night. Good thing I got his number last night."

"We can't just leave it to the police," replied Alice, hesitantly looking towards him again.

"This is bigger than the police. Not to mention, that guy's sister, whoever Belial was talking about... she has connections. She knows who we are."

Alice hated to admit it, but her brother had a point.

"So I'm texting Kane. Hopefully we can meet later and discuss what's going on."

Fingers rapidly tapping at the phone, Anton typed and sent a message to Kane.

"Kane, this is Anton. We should meet and discuss what happened at that house."

"Alright, and while you guys have your little secret meeting I'm going to try and go out with Rui today."

"What? No no no no no nooo. You're coming with me. I am not letting you just run around when we've got Mafia or whatever wanting to kill us."

"Ugh. If Jeanne wins him over I'm murdering you."

Ryu wakes up to Viki's foot rubbing his forehead. "APPLE JUICE!" He yelled out. "Oh it's you Asian girl, Ohayōgozaimasu!"
Ryu notices he has morning wood, "Dayum" he said, with a proud look on his face. He then remembers Viki is right there. "DON'T LOOK, WEIRDO!"

"Trashed by thugs, huh?" Aaron stepped through the large, open window, in lieu of using the door. "Rough luck, that. I've been having a bad week myself," he stated in consolation, as if anyone had asked.

"Nice of you to stay open, though! You guys sell coffee, right?" He idly looked at the bottom of his foot, realizing his wet shoes probably tracked in some of the smaller shards of broken glass.

--

Kane walked alone through the streets of Mumble, keeping his hooded face angled downward. The perpetual rain showed no signs of letting up, as usual. He felt compelled to show disdain at the weather - to say something along the lines of "that's stupid," or "should have brought an umbrella" - but after years of living in this city, it would just be redundant.

These thoughts were moreso to distract from more pressing issues. He looked at his right hand for the umpteenth time, as if he had missed something - but nothing seemed abnormal. Clenching his fist a few times didn't seem to indicate anything odd about his musculature, either. Kane knew his own strength, and even for someone who didn't, what happened yesterday was absolutely abnormal.

He briefly considered visiting a gym for further inspection, when he felt his pocket vibrated. Shielding his phone from the rain, he read Anton's text message, which asked for them to meet up and discuss yesterday's events.

As much as he really didn't want to interact with him, it was the more pressing of two matters. It would behoove them to find out more about who they were dealing with, so they could prepare for the worst if need be. He sent a reply:

"where"

--

Lucia spent a few extra minutes messing with her newly colored hair. It wasn't that Kane had done a bad job, but it just took some getting used to. She simply didn't feel like the real Lucia without her brown hair!

What had possessed her brother to give them makeovers was beyond her, but she usually didn't question him. He had done a great job of taking care of her so far - it was already four years since they left home, for reasons she often avoided thinking about. She trusted him completely, though it was often both unstated and nebulous where he acquired the means to keep them sustained.

She prepared to make some breakfast. Despite her sociability at school, she had surprisingly little to do on weekends. She felt inexplicably tired as well after last night, though for what reason she couldn't tell - so she began to plan her day around a relaxing afternoon at home.

▒ ▒▒ ▒ ▒ ▒ ▒▒

On second thought, maybe she would follow Kane's example and take a walk around the city.

"Time to go exploring!" she said to herself, in her usual enthusiastic demeanor, before leaving the house, a bowl of cereal half prepared on the table.

“Knowing these busy bees, they’ll stay open through Armageddon,” Jamie added to Bjorn’s comment as he came down the street, “How you doing, Thor? Planning on getting beat up again today?”

Jamie chuckled a bit, “Let me know before it happens, though. I probably better record it.”

---

“Well...” the kimono clad boy said, scrutinizing the girl who stepped in front of him, “I heard the owner was young, but I wasn’t expecting a child,” he finally said, words sounding odd from someone who themself didn’t look older than 17.

“Oh, pardon, that was careless of me to say,” he smiling sincerely, “Let me explain myself. I am Akino Kirinso, and I’m here on behalf of the Heavenly Gardens Social Club to straighten some things out with you.”

---

“Mister Bishop, good of you to make it,” Natalia smiled, Nikita standing close by, providing a nice visual contrast as well as acting an escort.

“Well, you do pay well,” Bishop said coming down the hall, flanked by Tanya and another man in blue jeans a white t shirt and aviator shades. “So, where’s Anya?”

“Mistress Anya is preparing to go out, but she left me with instructions,” the girl reached into her bag and pulled out a catalog, handing it to the mercenary, “We have reason to believe this job will have you running into some strange people, and to prepare for you for such strange people, we are willing to prepare you with some strange artillery. Please have your team choose from the weapons listed there in here.

“What is this?” flipping through the catalog, containing drawings of decorative circles, odd names, and even odder descriptions, “Amon? Eligos? Agares? Your Mistress wouldn’t be pulling some kind of joke, would she?”

Natalia couldn’t help but giggle a bit, “I can assure you she isn’t. In fact, why don’t I prove it,” she turned to Nikita and nodded, “If you would?”

“Right...” the man nodded, placing his right hand on his left shoulder, “Sabnock.”

The air grew thin, compressing as a large armored figure with the head of a lion appeared in front of the man, “You called, my exorcist?” came a hollowed voice from the lion-headed knight, standing obediently, facing his master.

The man in the aviators let loose an impressed whistle, “Damn, you saying we all get one of those? Hahaha, sign me up!”

“Warren! You should wait your turn!” Tanya scolded, pulling the man back.

“So Mister Bishop,” Natalia ignored the other two, speaking directly with the man in charge, “Should I sign you up for an exceptionally strong one? There are a few that stand out...”

“This one,” he interrupted, “Barbatos will be fine.”

“A-are you sure? There are several stronger ones here...”

“No, I don’t want to grow dependent on it. This one looks like he’ll compliment me well, so that’s that.” Bishop turned and looked at his two companions, “I expect the rest of you do make a similar decision.”

---

“Don’t call me ‘Asian girl’, freeloader. Didn’t I tell you my name? It’s Viki.”

If she was going to be stuck with him all day, she might as well try and like him. Might make things easier.

“I don’t speak Japanese. Look, I’m going out today, and you can’t stay here by yourself, so get dressed,” the text from Zane chimed in on her phone, confirming he was on his way, “Yeah, we’re leaving soon.”

Surely, if she kept yesterday buried deep down in her mind and hoped it didn’t develop into some sort of psychological issue, maybe she could get along with this spaz.

“Dayum,” he guy on the couch exclaimed, bringing Viki out of her head. At first, she was confused at what he was so excited about, but following his eyes down, she noticed what he was referring to.

The freeloader was apparently proud of his size. Viki wouldn’t really have known whether or not his pride was founded or not, she didn’t have a point of reference, but even if she did, her head wasn’t working quite right at the moment.

“Wha-wha-wha-what the hell!” she shouted, face bright red with rage and embarrassment.

“DON’T LOOK, WEIRDO!”

His frankly ridiculous words broke her out of trance, “As if!” she shouted, kicking Ryu in the forehead, completely forgetting her previous plans of making peace and quickly turning around. “Just get dressed! If you aren’t ready soon, I’m locking you in the hall till I get back!”

In front of the bakery, Hanz looked inside the establishment to check if it's open.

It's someone in a foreign looking garment that first catch his eyes. The whole scene looks like an important Yakuza boss was surveying a recently acquired property.

Hanz decided that it's best to not get involved, and wait outside for now. He took his phone out and browse for recent news he has missed since he start living in the basement.

"I am inclined to agree with you, Miss Lucia. Although I'm sure that our escape will be hindered somewhat by Miss Cindy's condition." Knoll said, letting the rune's effects fade once he had regained his energy, "I can pull some reagents together to make a remedy, but I'll have to take her off your hands for just a moment."

Taking the Contractor in his arms for a few moments, the Shaman look changed to that of contemplation.

"Pretty standard weight for her size..." he said unconsciously, setting her down as he looked back to Lucia, "Do you know if she's allergic to anything? Pollen? Possibly shellfish?"
_______________

Vincent rummaged through the refrigerator, trying to find something to eat. A pizza box caught his eye, dinner from the night before that he didn't get around to, apparently. Taking a slice in his hand and one now stuck in his mouth, he grabbed a soda and proceeded to crash on the living room couch.

Mom had already left for work before he had gotten up, which she did so often that it was abnormal for them to actually see each other most times. She worked more often than not. She had to in order to keep up with the bills.

Dad had been gone since Vincent could remember. Skipped town before Vincent was born, from what his mom told him. Never really mattered too much to the boy, no matter how much the school psychologist may have thought otherwise.

Slouching in the sofa, eating cold pizza, flipping through TV channels. A lazy Saturday morning to be sure, and completely normal for a lot of guys his age. For Vincent, however, this was staging mode. His mind already trying to come up with things to do more awesome than just sitting around flipping through 2000 channels with nothing on them.

Bjorn replied absently to Jamie, "No, I don't plan on getting beat up today; I plan on eating and then looking for Anya, and searching for some answers about the "new gang" in town, as well as that fellow I fought last time. Queer amount of strength he had."

Bjorn paused for a moment while his "friend" echoed, "And you're a loser for losing to him! Such a weak foe. I hope that the you that is me can withstand my power soon, part of me."

Bjorn looked a tad "distracted" at this comment, and muttered something to himself prior to speaking directly to Jamie,

"Well, looks like the bakery is still open today. Want a bite to eat? I'll pay for this, at the least."

Then, without waiting for an answer, Bjorn walked down and strode into the bakery.

He greeted Resha with a simple good morning, and then asked for a muffin. A big muffin. Preferably chocolate, but any muffin would do, under the assumption that the bakery was in fact still open.

Resha perked up from the backroom, having wandered off to help Ainlisle as the others arrived. It seemed that even a squad of thugs wasn't enough to deter the crowd of customers for the Gateau. All the better really, if the customers barely even sneezed at something like that then this place was probably here to stay through thick and thin.

Comfy job was comfy, and if Resha had anything to say about it - It would remain that way. With this in mind, the exotic strangers talking to Ainlisle naturally drew her interest, even more so when 'Heavenly Gardens' got mentioned. The smile on her face threatened to appear genuine as she kept herself busy getting the morning baking started.

The perks to working in a bakery; Once a batch was started, you had very little to do besides make the next batch. If you kept batches ready in advance, it was just a matter of placing them in the oven and waiting. She slipped out from behind the counter, echoing back a gentle greeting to Bjorn as she quickly pulled together a blend of coffee and gathered a broom and dust pan.

With the cleaning tools in one hand and the coffee in another, she presented Aaron with his request in a nearly absent-minded action coupled with a soft smile while she moved past him and began sweeping up the remaining glass shards. "You'll need to talk to Ainlisle regarding payment," She murmured as she left, "Sugar and cream are on the counter."

She stopped, turning to Aaron and bowing her head demurely, "I'm sorry, we're a little short handed this morning..."

Her sweeping started not long after, but she made a point to act as omniscient as possible - Straightening the tables and counters she passed, arranging her circuit in order to check on the baking merchandise, and keeping herself studiously appearing busy.

"The first muffins of the day will be out soon, Bjorn." She addressed him while simultaneously sweeping and checking the packets of sugar, cream and butter which sat on each table. It was the multi-tasking efficiency of someone who had worked a serving job for years of her life. This wasn't even work anymore, it was an auto-pilot routine for her body as her mind focused elsewhere.

"Thanks," was all he could get out before the diminuitive girl hurried back to her duties.

Hard-working girl. And pretty cute, too...
Not that he'd be interested in someone so much younger than him. He was already nearing 30 - almost beyond the age where it would be inappropriate to lust after high school girls. Almost.

The other employee seemed busy, so he figured he'd just wait before paying. He took a seat in a booth, sitting sideways so he could put his feet up on the rest of the bench. For how busted up the shop was, there sure were a lot of people showing up - and not only that, they really seemed to be a ragtag selection. Who even wore an asian dress like that in public?

He mentioned something about a social club though - and suddenly his optimism from earlier kicked back in. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence. Why wait to look through newspapers and ads for a new job? They never worked out for him before. He could take care of it right now. Working at a social club didn't sound bad - he could pull it off. He always prided himself in his charisma, after all.

"Heavenly Gardens? I've heard of them!" he brazenly interrupted the boy, in an attempt to shimmy his way into the conversation.

--

"I dunno!" Lucia threw her hands up in an overexaggerated shrug, beginning to wonder just what sort of remedy involved pollen and crabs. "Is.. there anything I can do to help? I don't want Cindy to get hurt - we need to be quick!"

There was little to do except wait for the muffins to be baked, so Bjorn sat down and waited.

Bjorn's friend evidently got bored of talking, so it was a peaceful rest for Bjorn, perhaps one of just a few peaceful moments Bjorn would have in the times to come.

Ryu walked to the fridge to get some nice cold apple juice. Afterwards, he put on a hoodie and some pajama pants.
"Yosh, all done! Where are we going anyways?"

"There are some blue flowers nearby, usually indigenous to this area. If you get me a few, I can use some of my ingredients to make a potion to bring her around." Knoll said, taking off his knapsack and rummaging through the vials within, "With luck, she will be on her feet in moments, and we can set off from there."

The man in front of Matt ordered a muffin, which sounded like a good idea to Matt, except maybe one or two more...or ten.

After he ordered his muffins(he only had enough for two) he went and sat down next to the man who ordered in front of him. Matt scanned the crowd and saw that most of the guys were staring at a girl dressed in asian attire. He snorted and thought:vultures.

Making sure that no one was watching, he scooped up a big handful of sugar packets and shoved them into his pocket.

“Right, well let me get this straight. Plan for you is to find Anya, find something about a new gang, and something about that guy who beat you up yesterday, all while not getting beaten up yourself?” Jamie counted his friends objectives off on his fingers as he sat down across from him.

“You don’t think you might be shooting a little high? I mean, sure, breakfast is going fine so far, but I wouldn’t take that as an indicator for the day to come,” something in the room caught his attention, and Jamie motioned towards the exotic figure in the yellow kimono, “But what do I know. Things may be as easy as you think they will be, considering your first clue just walked in the door.”

---

“You’ve heard of us?” commented Akino, “Frankly, I’d be surprised if you hadn’t. The companies owned by the social club have served as the backbone of America for generations. Railroads, steel mills, automobiles, electronics, and military contracts, and those are just interesting ones,”Akino practically bragged as if he had built the country up himself.

The girl in the red cloak tugged at the man’s coat, trying to get his attention, “We built a country, Mister. You should thank us,” she tilted her head to one side, and looked at him with longing eyes, “Want to buy me a toy?”

“So, what is it you needed to interrupt me for?” Akino asked, speaking over the little girl, “I’ll assume it’s important, considering you couldn’t wait.”

---

“Jeez... What is wrong with you?” Viki asked, not really expecting an answer from him, “We might be going to the arcade or the beach, but I’m not sure,” Viki looked back once he said he was dressed.

“You don’t have any normal cloths to wear?” Viki asked, sitting on the floor. She didn’t think she was going to be able to sit on that couch ever again. “If you had a bicycle helmet, it would complete the look.”

Anton's phone rang, indicating a text message. Flipping open his phone, he saw it was a response from Kane.

"where"

Concise and to the point. Kane didn't seem the social, outgoing type.

"Alice, you have any preference on where we go? I figure we can get lunch while we decide what to do."

"I don't care WHERE we go, but I do have a preference on WHO we go with."

"Well in that case invite that damn glowy kid. Damn."

"... That's a great idea, Anton! EXCEPT I DON'T HAVE HIS NUMBER, ASSFACE."

"... I'll ask Kane if he has it. You're so cute when you're angry~"

"You know that bakery, Le French Gateaux or something? Well there's this Chinese place about a block away called Wang Hun Lao. We can get some lunch while we talk about this."

Anton closed his phone, but, trying to get on Alice's good side- But both her sides are good of course, and looks like she still has some growing to do. Both her sides will only get better~ -he quickly sent another text to Kane.

"Oh, and invite that Rui kid if you have his number."

"Alright Alice, let's leave so we can get over there.

---

Yawning, Archer brought a carrying case of coffee to Juliet and Cattleya, who continued looking at the scene of the crime.

Looks like a summoning ritual and sacrifice were planned for the night. The guy upstairs is the homeowner, and with all the detail that was put into the ritual in the basement, it seems like he or someone else with access to the home would have been the summoner. Judging by the windows and the signs of struggle, it seems like someone broke in and stopped him.

Archer slowed his walking as he thought about his choice in words. "Stopped" was putting it lightly, given that the man had been completely pulverized, and the impact had caused damage to the area surrounding where the punch would have landed.

Looks like our suspicions were right on the nose about this city. I've contacted HQ already. I can only hope they're quick about responding. The eggheads are usually really excited to find shit like this.

Quickening his pace, he returned to find Cattleya and Juliet still investigating. It was an unspoken understanding between the partners that they lead Cattleya to believing that the occurance was simply a break-in, but she's smart and seems to have already caught on about the true nature of the situation.

And if she learns anymore she'll have to disappear.

Grimace soon replaced with a false smile, he greeted them as he passed under the haphazardly placed police tape surrounding the entire building.

"Hey. Why aren't the local police here by now, anyways?"

Juliet, scratching his beard, explained, "Well, we called it in, but when we mentioned that Bob and Steve, those officers in the helicopter, were the ones helping us secure the scene, and the officer on the phone seemed very hesitant to come over and help. Turned out well for us, didn't it?"

"I guess so. And where are the duo? That Bob seemed so... enthusiastic about gift wrapping this place with tape."

"Sent them to get us some anhydrous water for some chem testing. I figure that'll give us some alone time with this place for at least another few hours," Juliet grinned, proud of his deceptive errand.

"You're truly incorrigible, Juliet." Archer handed him a coffee and held one out to Cattleya. "And what about you, little lady? See many crime scenes where you work?"

"Yea. Pretty much, Jamie."
Bjorn commented as he sat back in his chair and waited for his muffins to come.

"And yes, it looks like I have a clue already, but first i'd like to eat."

He paid no attention to the new comer, there was no reason to at this point.

Cattleya hesitantly took the cup of coffee offered to her and placed it down on the floor, “No, can’t say I have. All this investigating and yellow tape is new to me, other than what I’ve seen on the news and on crime dramas and such,” she pulled a flask out of her lab coat and took a swig, “And you shouldn’t get me coffee in the future. I won’t drink it.”

She traced a finder along the marks drawn into the floor, “I’m far more interested in these, anyways. What do you make of them, Archer?”

“OOO, that sounds fun. Let me make some bento boxes.“
A thought suddenly came into his mind as he was frying some chicken tempura.
“We are going to be alone..“
Ryu's face lights up with red.
“So.. is this like.. a date?“

The smell of fried food filled the air, luring Viki away from her spot on the floor and into the kitchen. Despite how much she wanted to hate this guy, the smell of his cooking always took her mind away from that.

“A date?” she asked, now standing behind him to get a better look at what he was cooking, “I don’t know... It might be...” her faced slightly flushed, thoughts on her encounter with Zane yesterday.

Oh right, but the third wheel...

“Well, if it was going to be a date, I don’t think it is anymore. Never heard of a date between three people.”

---

A knock at the door, “Hey Jeanne! I’m here!”

Jeanne sat right up again, “Oh, that was quick,” he said to David as he rushed off into the living room, not giving him a chance to respond.

The living room was just as messy as the bedroom, clothes scattered around the old couch, and some even hanging on the ceiling fan. Jeanne unlocked the door, about to open it until he realized he was still only wearing pajama bottoms. “Haha... oops,” he said, re-latching the door, opening it just a bit as he stood behind it.

“You got here quicker than I thought you would... I haven’t gotten a chance to get dressed yet,” he said peeking outside, the cool air form outside biting at his bare shoulders, “Count to five, then let yourself in. You can hang out on the couch till I finish getting dressed, k?”

He unlatched the door, then ran back to the bedroom, looking for something to wear, “Sorry, David. I would have liked to go with you today, maybe help you get acquainted with the city, but I can’t pass this opportunity up!” he through a red long sleeved shirt and a pair of black pants on the bed before rushing off to the bathroom.

The sound of brushing could be heard from the open door. “Maybe you can go pick up your things? I leave an extra key in the nightstand you can use,” he said in between brushing and rinsing, “Damn, gotta pee...” he said to himself, the sound of a stream hitting water now mixing in with the sounds of brushing.

After a flush and a final rinse, Jeanne came back out into the bedroom. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, but you can call me if something comes up,” he said form the other side of the bed as he got dressed, “I’ll leave my number in the kitchen before I leave,” he pulled the shirt over his shoulder, only slightly having trouble finding the hole his head was supposed to go through.

“Alright, wish me luck,” he said finally, leaving the bedroom into the living room and shutting the door behind him.

“Good morning, Rui,” he blushed slightly at the idea of a date, “W-what did you want to do today?”

“Haha, morning Jeanne.” Rui saw Jeanne’s face light up. He thought it was so cute that she blushed. Rui’s heart thumped hard, he was having a hard time breathing. This was his first date.

“Hmm… Let’s go to an Amusement park first, to have some fun. And then after that, we should go to the bakery near the school for lunch. I hope you don’t mind that, Jeanne.”

This date wasn’t all fun and games, though. After this date, when they were at the bakery, or even better at the park or somewhere quiet, Rui would discuss with Jeanne about last night’s events, and where to go from there.

But since it is a date after all, Rui thought he might as well have some fun with Jeanne, at least for a little bit, before serious things would happen once again.

Rui then took held Jeanne’s hands, the way couples do, and said, “Shall we go?”, smiling as he did so.

“A date..“ whispered Ryu.
His face lit up in red.
“I don't even find this girl appealing in any way at all.. but why am I so nervous?“
“We..Well let's go“
As Ryu was about to walk out the door he remembered that Viki suggested to wear a helmet to complete his outfit.

He then went to his suitcases and found his dad's old motercycle helmet and put it on. Ryu then went out the door and waited for Viki.

“You know, we have to wait for Zane to arrive, right?” she said, going to take a seat on the couch, but stopping when she remembered why she was staying away from it in the first place. She shuddered at the thought, and then took a seat on the floor, “so you can chill out for a bit.”

“And I was only joking about the helmet, you know that, right?”

---

“Ah, so you decided to show up? Good,” the man in the aviator shades said to the small group that entered the dimly lit room, “I had a feeling y’all would be as eager for some action as I am.”

The girl with bleach blonde hair and dark skin standing in the lead of the three who entered spoke up, shrugging her shoulders, “The contract is all but assured, right? So no harm in starting early if you ask me. I’ve got a new rain resistant formula to try out, anyways. Better get the bugs out early.”

The man in the aviators laughed, “That’s our Blair!” He spit a thick, brown liquid out into the trash can next to him before continuing, “How ‘bout the rest of ya? Liam? Stella?”

“And wait for Murdoc and Heath to take all the good kills? Not likely,” added a young man dressed for physical labor, in old faded jeans and a black t shirt, a lanyard hanging from his neck, “They always act like hot shit, but that’s only because I’m never given a chance. Glad at least you are looking out for us, Warren.”

“Guess even The Gravedigger is capable of compassion. And you know how I hate sitting around doing nothing,” said the beautiful woman with a bored yawn, “So let’s just do this already.”

“Perfect,” Warren said as he stood up and headed towards the door, “Anya has been supplying us with intelligence on the targets for a while now. She’s practically begging for us to give these new toys she lent us a try. A heads up: Word is she is keeping an eye on target No. 1 personally, so I suggest looking into the others. Me, I got dibs on No. 2. You all can go nuts. I don’t want to go and tell you all how to do your jobs. Just get going.”

---

Once she could get past his blushing, Jeanne’s face was dominated by a big smile the whole time she was at the amusement park with Rui.

Since he skipped breakfast, he got a smoothie there, and made sure to try every attraction possible. But nothing that came before could top what he saw at the end of a long row of prize winning games.

“A Ferris Wheel!” he said, face lighting up, “Come on, Rui! That one has to be next!” Jeanne took his hand and raced off to the ride, like it was going to disappear any second if he didn’t get to it quick enough.

He pulled Rui in and took a seat next to him, switching from looking out at the city to gazing at his companion as the seat ascended, not being able to decide which should be his focus for the perfect memory.

The attractions were all so fun, but what made it fun was being with Jeanne. Then, when Jeanne pulled Rui into the Ferris wheel, Rui thought Oh, this could be a good time to talk with Jeanne… Certainly it’s better than the Bakery, where I first planned to confront with Jeanne about this. I hope it won’t ruin this date…

Rui saw that Jeanne couldn’t decide what to look at, him or outside into the city. Rui smiled, thinking it was so cute. Jeanne was so cute. And lovely. He wanted to protect all of that. He had to do it.

“Jeanne, do you know why I wanted to go on a date with you today? It wasn’t just to have fun with you. Trust me; I had a lot of fun. But … The reason why I asked you on a date was because of yesterday. I realized that … We’re all in danger, and that there would be no time to have fun like this. So I wanted to have this one last time where we do something like this.”

Rui took a deep sigh, his chest felt relief over spilling his guts out in front of the woman he liked, and quite possibly love. “Now, Jeanne, sorry for taking advantage of this date and talking about something serious. Let’s have some more fun, and then we’ll settle it all afterwards, okay?”

“Honestly, I was hoping to forget about all that,” Jeanne looked away nervously, eyes fixed on the floor, “Luce is safe, so I was hoping everything would go back to normal. I guess that was a pretty silly thing to expect.”

The ride stopped for a moment, letting passengers on the opposite side of the wheel get off, but seemed to last forever as the two sat up on the very top.

“That was pretty selfish of me. I think I’ve been doing a lot of selfish things lately. Leaving David alone, ignoring Kane’s advice, and... that other thing,” tears began to well up in his eyes, “I want to stop, but I’ve just been so scared. This all just seemed so much easier. Like I said, I want to stop, and I will soon, but it’s ok if I’m selfish for just a bit longer, right? Just till I can work up the courage I need to move on, right?”

“Oh, but you had fun today,” Jeanne looked up at Rui, the tears in his eyes now rolling down his cheeks. He noticed, and shyly wiped them away, “You had fun today with me, and nothing can change that, right?”

“Jeanne… You’re a strong girl. It’s fine to be selfish, if it’s just for a little while.” Rui’s breathing got heavy. His chest tensed. “And yeah. I had so much fun with you. Jeanne.” Rui leaned in closer.

Sh-should I be doing this…? Is it right for me to do this to innocent Jeanne?

“Oh just do it already, you wimp.”

“What the… Not this voice again! Not right now.”

“Hurry dude. Your chance is slipping away from you each second you keep talking to me.”

“Goddamn it!

Rui then held Jeanne and kissed her. Her lips was so soft, it felt so great. They felt like heaven. This was Rui’s first kiss and it could never be better. Rui closed his eyes, his heart beating faster, feeling like it was going to bump out of his chest.

“So… This is what a French girl’s lips feel like…”

“If it’s a French girl, you should go for a French kiss.

Rui contemplated on moving his tongue into Jeanne’s mouth. Would it be right? Would it be wrong? Would this be infringing on Jeanne’s morals? Or would she not mind? Would it be against Rui’s own morals? Or should he just do it, for the sake of living in the moment, not knowing what might happen next.

Rui was mesmerized by Jeanne’s sweet French lips. He couldn’t help what his mouth does. His tongue entered Jeanne’s mouth. It was like entering a new area, new territory for Rui’s tongue to explore!

“Thatta boy.”

Just shut up already, damn it why would you come back now of all times…

Rui’s tongue moved on its own, heading towards Jeanne’s tongue slowly.

“What. A. Pimp.”

Just then, Rui’s tongue stopped as his touched the tip of Jeanne’s tongue. He managed to get control of his tongue at the last second, due to the voice’s remark. It reminded him of his dad earlier today making that similar remark, and turned him off. Rui released his lips from Jeanne.

Rui turned aside, and panted heavily. Man oh man oh man…

“What a wimp.

His words were encouraging, his embrace was strong, and his kiss was tender.

All the worries in Jeanne’s mind melted away as Rui’s mouth met his. At first he was surprised, but it didn’t take long for him to just close his eyes and enjoy what was happening. He was even a little excited when he felt the tip of his tongue touch his, and was a little upset when he pulled away shyly.

Jeanne couldn’t really judge his shyness, though. He himself was bright red by the time Rui pulled away, and for what seemed like forever all he could do was stare at his companion’s back.

“Rui,” Jeanne scooted up next to the boy, leaning up against him and resting his head on his shoulder. If Rui could be brave, Jeanne had to be too. “Thank you.”

A few more moments past, and the ride still hasn’t moved. Jeanne really didn’t want to mention it, but it was starting to become concerning, “Do you think something’s wrong? I mean... we haven’t moved in a while.”

“Attention! Attention! The park will be closing for the day do to a police investigation! I hope you all enjoyed your time here today! Please visit us again!”

The people down below started to file out, and soon they were all gone, the ferris wheel stayed stationary. “Rui... something isn’t right.”

“Bingo!”

A clang came from one cart away, and when Jeanne looked over to see what was happening, he saw a man dressed in faded jeans, a black shirt, and a lanyard around his neck standing on the ride.

“Oh, lucky me. Target two and six, both in one place. Sorta romantic, right? This calls for music, right?”

He snapped his fingers, a noticeable electric spark on them signaling the start of generic carnival music playing all across the park.

“Sorry I don’t have anything more fitting. This is all the park has on record. But that really doesn’t matter,” he pulled a handgun fitted with a suppressor out of his waistband, “Your all going the be worm food in a sec.”

The man started firing shots into and around the cart Rui and Jeanne where in, “Man, I hope Warren isn’t pissed about me taking his mark. But I can’t very well just kill one of them, right?”

Jessie managed to land a job a while back, at an amusement park. It wasn’t the highest paying job, but it was something she managed to get, and it paid enough so that she could score some cash, both from the job itself, and just stealing it from little kids.

Jessie was on ice cream duty. She had to push the cart full of ice cream and cones and sell them to the little kids. It was hard to jack their money, but there was some merit to it, she could hide some of the cash she made from her boss and hide it in her pockets.

She was pushing the cart around, when she finally stopped near the Ferris wheel. Suddenly, the announcement came that the park would be closing because of a police investigation.

“The fuck? The police got here fast. Fucking park manager must have caught me or something. Wait a shit… Something ain’t right. The Ferris wheel stopped. The fuck is that… Is that… That punk from school? And his bitch? Makin’ out? Oh man, this is a riot!” Jessie has some leverage to mess with Rui now that she caught him.

Suddenly, a man stood on top of the stopped Ferris wheel. He pulled out a gun and shot at the cart Rui and Jeanne was in. “What in the fuck… Why would anyone want to shoot at that punk…” Jessie was surprised. Rui wasn’t any kind of trouble maker. He was a nerd, a geek, a freak. Just a loser in general. And someone was firing at him? It made no sense.

But Jeanne felt something, some desire in her that wanted to kill this man. That’s right, kill this man, for trying to steal her prey. “My prey… He’s mine, punk!” Jessie shouted at the top of her lungs to the man firing the shots. Jessie then grabbed an ice cream cone from her cone, and threw it at the man. She grabbed two more in each hand and threw them again. She continued this barrage of cones at the man, trying to stop him from shooting at Rui.

Meanwhile, Rui ducked under the seats, although he knew this cover wouldn’t last. Rui didn’t know what to do. He was helpless in this position, and what’s worse, Jeanne was also in trouble. He then heard sounds, sounds of something other than the bullets hitting the cart. He also heard screaming. It was obviously roars from a girl. But it was familiar somehow…

“That can’t be…”

Ainlisle raised an eyebrow at being called a child. The person standing in front of her didn't look that much older than her... Wait, did they say ...?
"...I see," Ainlisle replied, tilting her head slightly. "I'm Ainlisle, but you're probably aware of that already..."

"Heavenly Gardens? I've heard of them!"

Ainlisle turned her head to look at the person who'd interjected themselves into the conversation, ready to retort - but looked to Akino who had begun speak to the man. Oh, she hadn't heard of the organization prior to yesterday...

"Honestly..."

...hearing that they were so extensive was a bit surprising, considering her own research hadn't turned anything up. In any case, she was curious as to why he'd suddenly butted into the conversation, and raised her eyebrows while waiting for a response to Akino's question.

---

Zane ran a hand through his golden hair as he walked up to the door, checking his phone to confirm the address.

"Pretty sure this is right.. " he said to himself, then knocked calling out to whoever would be inside. "Helloooo? Viki, are you there? "

He dropped a hand to his side again while waiting for someone to answer, and looked at his surroundings. Well, this was a fairly nice area, it seemed.
---
"Not at all! You hear me loud and clear right?~ "
"...How interesting, I suppose I do..."

Ivan giggled to himself, before walking to an interesection, and sticking his hands into the pockets of his coat. A silence dawned on his mind for once, as he strolled towards the busier sections of town.

It's weird how Hanz hearing got better everyday since he start all the sleep walking thing. He overheard an interesting conversation coming from inside the bakery.

'Might as well search for this heavenly garden thing', Hanz thought to himself and start typing into his phone. It sounds like a name for secret organization in chinese martial arts movies.

“Right, but back on track,” Akino turned his attention to Ainlisle once again, “It has come to our attention that your establishment was assaulted yesterday, by a man claiming to belong to one of our organizations. Is that correct, Ms. Ainlisle?”

“To tell you the truth, we’ve had problems with him before. While we’d like to do something about him, police work isn’t something we are really allowed to get involved in, and protecting non-clients would be a conflict of interests. That said, he doesn’t seem to bother the same people twice, so I doubt you’ll be seeing him again. Nevertheless, our boss is the sympathetic sort, and sent me down here to see if we needed to offer any aid. He feels partially responsible, considering the man is using our name.”

---

“Oh, that’s him,” Viki shot up from the floor and opened the door, “Uh... Hi Zane,” she said, blushing nervously, “Hope the walk wasn’t too long.”

She looked over at Ryu, “Oh right. This is the company I said we might have. I would have said something yesterday, but I only found out about him last night. Oh, we’re all ready, but you can come in for a bit if you want...”

---

As soon as he saw the man pull the gun, Jeanne ducked down, trying to find as much safety as he could in a metal box being shot at suspended several feet above the ground. He had never been shot at before, and it all seemed so unreal. He didn’t even notice that he started crying again.

“You know, this is kinda boring,” the man attacking them paused his assault, “From the big deal the employer was making about all this, I was expecting a little fight. Target 2 was the glower, so what gives?”

Before he could start his attack again, he heard a roar from down below, followed by a... ice cream cone? “Your prey? This kid have more than one contract out on him?” he asked. “Hey! Crazy girl! Someone hire you too?!” he shouted, making sure she could hear him.

Bjorn listened discretely to Ainlisle and the other man talk.
So the man who attacked yesterday was a rouge huh... Or it could be the crime family was simply doing its best to cover up after its plans had been foiled.

Bjorn wasn't sure.

Well, there was the issue of payment to be going over with Ainlisle, so Bjorn figured he may as well insert himself into the conversation, using asking about the bill as a pretext.

Bjorn got up and walked over to Ainlisle, just far enough away to make it clear that he was waiting on Ainlisle, for a moment of her time.

If nothing else, Bjorn would at least get his bill settled, however Bjorn had a hunch he may get more information than he had expected.

"Maybe you will. Maybe you won't. Who's to say?"
The voice echoed in Bjorn's head again, inwardly, he sighed, although outwardly he made no further motion.

Jessie continued her onslaught of ice cream cones. She didn’t give up, even when the man tried to talk to her. Her animalistic side obviously came out. But this was different. She ignored all senses, and only focused on sight, her muscles began to strengthen. Each ice cream cone she threw became intense and ferocious; the next cone she threw faced the back side of the cone and headed towards the man’s head, all the while Jessie’s scream became louder and louder.

Meanwhile, Rui tried to make sense of this all, when he came to the conclusion, Belial’s words came true. This must be the sister going after Rui, and subsequently Jeanne. The shooting came to a halt, and Rui knew that this was his chance to run, and hopefully find something to fight this assassin with.

“Jeanne, you okay? This guy stopped, we should go now!”

But Rui’s plan of running was obviously flawed, how the hell would he get down from the Ferris wheel? And another thing would be that there would be nowhere to go.

“Dude, you are fucked.”

“This isn’t the best time for your smart-aleck talking, ‘dude’.”

Rui began to felt something; it was akin to the last time. And the same result from last time came, he glowed.

“Goddamn, could this have come at a worse time,” Rui commented. Rui took the chance to stand up and look at his surroundings, since the guy stopped shooting. Rui checked, but there was nowhere to escape.

“Sigh. I guess it can’t be helped. I… I have to beat this guy. Somehow, I will beat him.”

Rui then opened the door of the cart, in a manner as to not attract the man’s attention. Rui then slowly climbed to the top of his cart, all the while trying to not make any noise. Luckily, Jessie was still throwing a barrage of ice cream cones at the assassin and keeping his attention towards her. Why the assassin was not shooting at Jessie, Rui didn’t know.

Rui then took a deep breath in. He didn’t know what the hell he was going to do, but he was going to do it. Rui was glowing, and hopefully this’ll do something to assassin, if anything.

Rui then jumped towards the assassin, in a diving motion. Somehow, his legs felt powerful when he made the jump, attributing towards the speed at which he was going and this would also attribute to the intensity of the body slam at the assassin.

The girl below continued her onslaught of empty cones, not reacting at all to the man’s words. She had decent aim, but even a cone to the head was still just a cone. “Oh, I guess not, then,” the man pointed his gun towards the rabid girl, “Damn, what a mess.”

Jeanne let Rui know he was fine with a slight nod. Or, he let him know that he wasn’t injured. He didn’t exactly consider himself ‘fine’. Not in this situation. The fact that Rui started glowing again didn’t seem as much of a pressing issue as Rui’s new plan to get away. Sure, it seemed like a great idea. The attacker was distracted, and it seemed like it was now or never, but could Rui really make it down? Jeanne was sure he could, he had practiced, but Rui?

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea...” Jeanne said quietly, but Rui leaped for the assailant before Jeanne could make his concerns heard.

“Oh, so he does glow, after all?” the assassin said, and without turning towards Rui’s tackle, he held out his free hand to the boy, and zapped him away with an arc of electricity, changing Rui’s course from a well-aimed tackle to a course straight to the ground.

“Rui!” Jeanne’s concern was written plain on her face. He didn’t even know what he was doing. Time seemed to slow down as he watched him plummet to the ground. All he could do was reach his hand out to him, hanging halfway out of the cart of the ferris wheel, and wish he could reach him.

He couldn’t reach him, right? Then why did he feel a tug? Why did Rui stop falling and start swinging.

“W-whats...” Jeanne could only muster a single word as he breathed heavily, trying to understand what just happened.

“What the hell are you doing?” the man with the gun shouted, almost as confused as Jeanne was, “Well, at least you two are starting to make things interesting.” He pointed his gun towards Jeanne, “But I’d like to see you catch a bullet.”

Without thinking, Jeanne put his hand up; not really thinking it would do any good, “Please!” Without really knowing what was going on, he suddenly felt a tug on the other end, and when he pulled his hand away, the gun was pulled out of the attackers grasp.

Jessie finally ran out of ice cream cones to throw as she tried to reach for more things to throw. There was nothing left but the ice cream itself, the scooper, and the cart. Jessie reached for the scooper and then threw it at the man, with the same precision as the last cone she threw at the man. She was too focused at the man to notice that Rui nearly fell to his death; her animalistic side was hungry and found a good prey.

Meanwhile, the shock of the electricity made Rui dizzy and out of it, at least for a little bit before something caught Rui out of nowhere. Rui was confused, what was holding onto him? It felt like a strand or thread wrapped around his body. Rui tried to get himself uncaught in it, by swinging around. Suddenly, it unwrapped around him, freeing him and he jumped onto the ground.

But Jeanne was still in danger. Rui looked up at the Ferris wheel to see that the assassin was unarmed, his gun was away from his hand and hanging by something invisible, likely by the same thing that saved Rui.

“What the hell is this… It can’t be…” Rui had guessed it was from Jeanne, since it couldn’t have been from the assassin, and no one else was on the location, besides Jessie. Rui glanced at Jessie, and to his horror, she looked like an animal, or some kind of monster. He could hear her growls and her eyes are blood shot red. He didn’t feel safe going near her, so he didn’t.

Damn, what am I to do? How am I going to save Jeanne…?

“I’d say that girl doesn’t need any help, Rui.”

“Of course she needs help. She’s a helpless and innocent girl. I think I’m his original target. She’s gonna get hurt because of me…

“I doubt it. For some reason… She reminds me of someone… In any case, I can tell she has this down, so just leave it to her. And if not, there’s that animal… girl… thing. Hmmm…”

“But… I just can’t… There must be something I can do… First, I need something to fight him with…” Rui desperately tried to find something that could be used as a weapon. He looked every which way around him. “Hmm those poles from these tents will do. It’ll also give me some reach.” Rui took down the tent and took all four of the poles along with him, setting three of them aside, just in case he’d lose one, he has another for back up.

“Alright, I’m ready…” Rui took a deep breath in, ready for battle.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out like what happened last night in the basement, Rui.”

“Don’t worry, voice in my head. This won’t. I got this.”

“If you say so.

The man was dumbfounded when his gun flew out of his hand and fell to the group below. Before he could curse the girl across from him for whatever it was she did, he was interrupted by an ice cream scooper whizzing by his head, noticeable distorting could be seen in the air as it passed by, forcing it to change course slightly.

“Still at it?” he said looking down on the girl below, “Two of you down there, now... and one still up here. And me without my gun... Well, I guess that’s what’s he’s for,” the man reached into his lanyard and pulled out an odd coin on a string. He held it firm in his hand, and the air in front of him began to distort even more, “Let’s kick some ass, Furfur!”

A beast flew out of the distortion, down to where Rui and Jessie were standing, and hovered a few inches off the ground, the great wings on its back remaining still. “Yes, My Exorcist,” it growled in a rough voice. It looked something not unlike a faun, with the lower body of a deer and the upper body of a man, only instead of a man’s head like fauns usually have, Furfur had the head of a deer as well, complete with tall antlers, electricity occasionally arcing between them.

“Kill those two, would ya?” the man on the ferris wheel commanded, and as soon as he finished his sentence, his familiar below darted towards Jessie, ready to thrust the talons at the end of its hand through her chest.

“Sorry to leave you waiting, cutie. Now, where were we?” the man asked, turning his attention back to the other cart.

“Wait... where’d you go?” he darted around in paranoia, looking for the missing target who seemed to have slipped out of the now empty cart while he was bothering with the two down below.

Jeanne didn’t go far. He couldn’t just leave Rui behind. So, he managed to hide himself under his enemy’s cart, chanting ‘courage’ under his breath in an attempt to psych himself out. He had a feeling he knew how those threads works, or at least enough to make some use of them. Worrying what they were, exactly, would have to come later.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and extended his right hand out in front of him. He could feel the threads past the tips of his fingers, and now imagine them gliding up and around the cart, to were his attacker was standing.

“Well, I can’t really blame her for running,” the man on top of the cart said to himself, a smug smile on his face, “Going to be a pain in the ass to go out and find her again. But I guess the glowing kid will do for nowAGGGRH!” the thin wires around one of his arms and his throat tightened, pulling at him from behind, “Damn... it...” he cursed, grabbing what he could of the invisible thread and trying to give the ones around his neck as much slack as possible.

Jessie reacted instinctively and dodged the new enemy’s attack by jumping high up into the sky that seemed impossible. Rui looked over and couldn’t believe his eyes. Jessie then landed on top of the cart, and mumbled “A new prey has arrived… I was getting too hungry trying to get the other one down, but now I have you….”

Rui then jumped towards this new enemy, this demon thing with a deer’s head. Rui literally jumped, his leg strength was stronger than ever before, it closed the distance and before Rui knew it, Rui was within striking distance of the deer demon in an instant.

Rui then slammed his metal pole into the deer demon, with all of his might, the metal pole felt lighter for some reason, and he felt the metal pole crashing into the deer demon, hard enough to send it flying.

Jessie looked over to see who took her new prey. Everyone was taking her prey today, it pissed her off immensely. To her surprise, it was Rui who took her new prey. “Ru…i…” Jessie mumbled quietly. Jessie growled, and then proceeded to say, “I’ll go after you next Rui. But for now, that one and the guy up top are mine. I get to eat them, you hear me.”

"Hm?"

Assaulted? Organizations?

Ah shit. That kind of social club.

He immediately shut his mouth, attempting to withdraw from the conversation, with decent success - they had already begun to ignore him again. The last thing he needed was a run-in with the mob.

He got the picture, but it seemed like the tall, viking-looking man didn't. As he walked over to the group, Aaron discretely intercepted his path. Walking up next to him, he whispered, "Hey buddy, you'll wanna wait a minute - I think these guys are with the mob!"

Or at least, he would have liked it to be more of a whisper. He misjudged the man's height - he was one hell of a giant! - and had to compensate for the distance by speaking louder.

--

i dont. meet you there

Kane put his phone away. He was already heading towards the bakery to see what became of it - it was an uncannily popular spot, so it was rather unlikely that they'd close shop unless the place burned down. Though, he had no intention of actually going in. If luck wasn't on his side, he might run into those gang members again - and who knows, they might even be affiliated with the ones that would be after him.

He adjusted his hood at the thought, making sure it obscured his face enough. In hindsight, changing his hairstyle didn't make him look especially different, unless their surveillance cameras happened to have a low enough resolution that his face wasn't recognizable. He wasn't about to bet on that, though.

He stowed these thoughts as he turned the corner. Sure enough, the bakery still had a broken window, and as he expected, there seemed to be people inside as if nothing had happened. Although, the owner - Ainlisle, was it? - was discussing something with some odd looking people. A boy in an oriental outfit, a blond girl in a red cloak, a shady-looking older man, and the giant from the fight yesterday. Given that the latter was there, it was enough of a sign not to get involved.

After that quick observation, he crossed the road, heading toward the meeting place with Anton.

--

"Blue flowers, got it!!" Dutifully, Lucia ran off to search for them. Less than a minute into her search, she felt a familiar presence fill her head once more.

Fuly! How was your trip?

It can hardly be called a trip. I am omnipresent.

Whatever! Did you find out anything??

Relaying their thoughts back and forth, slightly addled by imagery of flora as Lucia searched for blue flowers, Fulgora managed to explain the gist of the situation. Earth seemed to reset, as if its destruction was merely an illusion - but things were different. It was the same world, but it had marginally altered conditions. To top it off, the world merging process had reverted to an earlier stage as well.

Lucia nodded, half-understandingly, until Fulgora got to the part about her doppleganger.

Wait, there's another me???

Yes... though, I would not call her the same 'Lucia'. You are unique.

Aww, that's sweet of you, Fulgora!

I meant literally. You exist as an entirely separate entity; she bears only your appearance. Your spirit is intertwined with my own - I cannot discern hers.

Can I go meet her? I wonder if she likes the same things as me!

While that knowledge is of the highest priority, I believe you have business to take care of with your friend, first.

Oh, you're right - blue flower!

Erring on the side of excess, she picked her 23rd blue flower and began to make her way back to where Knoll was waiting.

Bjorn chuckled a little bit at the other man's attempt to tell him information he already knew, but otherwise continued to stand still, waiting for Ainlisle speak.

Oh, he knew that the other man was part of a "group" so to speak. He also knew that this new group needed a lesson taught to them, in some aspects, for their lack of subtlety.

More than that however, Bjorn wanted to know more about the group for reasons of his own.

"Wondering how the hell they have vampires huh?" A voice echoed inside of Bjorn's head.

He tried to pay it no mind, and for the most part, succeeded.

Knoll was in the process of grinding the ingredients he had, the charred strips of what appeared to be animal hide (of what animal was anyone's guess) and what seemed to be the shell from some kind of crustacean, into the beginnings of a potion when Lucia showed up.

"Ah...oh my! You have been busy, haven't you? In truth, I only needed two or three flowers, really..." he said, chuckling softly at her childlike innocence, "I think I will go ahead and bundle the rest of these and add them to my stock. You have my thanks for being so thorough, miss Lucia."

Adding the last ingredient into the mix and grinding the mixture into a paste, he then added a bit of water from his canteen to round out the potion.

"Alright, that should do it." the Shaman said, picking Cindy's head up, "Now, once you drink this, you should feel much better. Not only will this mixture help you resist the poison and disease that troubles you, but it will also restore your health and stamina. A helpful mixture I found during my research on alchemy, if I do say so myself."

As he spoke, he carefully poured the potion into Cindy's mouth, a little bit at a time to keep her from choking on it.

As soon as the metal pole connected, Furfur loosed an electric attack from his body, sending a current through the pole and into Rui’s body, killing any follow through he might have intended with his initial attack.

Once the demon steadied himself again, he turned his attention to the actual target. The girl had seemed like more of a threat, but his master was clear; they could always leave after the deed was done.

Coating himself in electricity, the beast charged the boy, claws ready to tear open his chest.

---

Akino really didn’t know what to say to the man’s accusations. He hadn’t given any reasonable person to believe that he was involved in anything other than simple business. Maybe he had just heard part of what he was saying, and jumped to conclusions? Either way, it only took one idiot to start a panic, so some kind of damage control was probably a good idea.

“See, this is exactly the sort of thing we are having trouble with,” he said, mostly to Ainlisle, hoping to reassure her against these accusations, “One person runs around with a bunch of tugs, does an awful job of threatening some small businesses, decides to use our name, and overnight we are thought to be some organized crime group. It really is discouraging how quickly a good reputation can be spoiled.”

---

“Sun’s up, sleepyhead. Aren’t you already late for work?” Minnie had crawled underneath Diana’s covers, hoping to catch her roommate in her skivvies, but was understandably upset to find her fully dressed, “Hey, what gives?”

“Long night, too tired...” Diana mumbled, turning away from her roommate, “I don’t give a damn right now, taking the day off...”

The tired detective would have liked to say that she was called out late at night to secure a crime scene at some teacher’s house, and after she did all the grunt work involved, she was sent packing at around 4 in the morning by some special agent assholes. She would have liked to say that, and that busy work is killing her enthusiasm, but she didn’t. She just groaned irritably and nonsensically.

“Poor baby,” Minnie consoled her as her hands darted around under the covers and under Diana’s shirt, “But it must be uncomfortable sleeping in all those clothes, let me help...” she said smiling playfully, unhooking her roommate’s bra.

“Stahp...” Diana groaned, pushing Minnie away with a hand sloppily against her molester’s face, too irritated that she was being kept awake to really care about the sexual harassment.

Minnie fell off the bed and onto the floor below, astonished she could be ignored so thoroughly, even if it happens almost every morning, “We had a deal, remember?! In the morning I’d either get delicious donuts or a delicious roommate, and I don’t see any donuts.”

Diana grumbled Resha’s name, along with a few other words that couldn’t quite be deciphered, as she rolled over to her nightstand and jotted something down. After a short pause, she got out of bed, handed Minnie the note she jotted down along with her car keys, and pushed her roommate out of her room, ignoring Minnie’s protesting. Once out, she shut the door to her room, an audible click could be heard as she locked her door and plopped back down on her bed.

“This isn’t exactly what I’d call ‘fair’,” Minnie pouted as she searched for her outside shoes, forgetting where she left them in the two months since she actually left the apartment. “She thinks I won’t go. I’ll show her. Going to go joy-riding in her stupid dike car,” Eventually, she decided to give up on the shoe search, opting instead to just tie up a bathrobe, slip on some slippers, and grab an umbrella.

“I’m gonna buy all the donut, and she isn’t getting any!” she grumbled to herself as she traveled to the elevator and headed out into the city.

---

“Well, you’ve seemed to have settled down. That’s good. We can actually start now,” Sid stood up for the first time, stretching his arms out over his head.

Alex only looked up at the young man in disbelief. “What do you mean, ‘we can start now’? I thought we had already started. We’ve been sitting here looking for that beacon for... for... for I don’t know how long.”

“Well, it felt like about a thousand years to me,” Sid said, continuing his stretching, “So very relaxing.”

“A T-thousand years? Relaxing?! What’s the point of even looking for the beacon if everyone has died of old age?”

“Oh no, it’s only seemed like that long. We can hold eternity in an hour here. It’s pretty convenient. Don’t have to worry about running out of time. And don’t get bent out of shape. You needed to calm before we could start looking. Now that we are, we can do something else while we look. Unless you’d rather just sit under the tree some more?”

“No, no,” Alex said, standing up, “Multitasking is great. Let’s do that. So... what was it you had in mind?”

Sid smiled, “Well, I was concerned with your outlook on humans. It’s so... bleak. So I thought I’d enlighten you,” Sid let out a playful chuckle, “Sorry, forgive the pun.”

Alex ignored his partner’s odd behavior, “So again, what did you have in mind, exactly?”

“Oh right,” Sid put his hands together, smiling, “I thought I’d show you just how much our human bodies are capable of.”

Rui could not feel anything after the volt went into Rui’s body. Rui then got on one knee, he couldn’t move at all, due to being paralyzed. Just then, the glow then turned a slight change of color, from golden to chartreuse.

Rui saw the deer demon charging at him, its claws coming straight at him, aiming for a kill. Unlike Jessie, he couldn’t dodge this attack. Even if he could remove his paralysis, he didn’t think he could do the same thing, jumping out of the way.

Jessie then got off of the ice cream cart and picked up the cart and chucked it at the deer demon, as if the ice cream cart weighed like nothing. The strength at which she chucked it was at her greatest, her animalistic personality has finally overtaken her own personality, and she was in the animal zone. Her target was now this deer demon, and only the deer demon.

Rui couldn’t believe his eyes, how Jessie wasn’t scared of this thing, and just threw it at it.

Bjorn figured now was as good a time as any to ask the man a question, since he had overheard the accusation against his group.

"So then, who the hell was the guy who came here yesterday?...
And what the hell was he?"

Bjorn asked those two questions in a steady voice. To know more about his enemy would be a good thing, however if possible, it would be better to know about what the hell they were doing...

And perhaps, to find a new contact.

Although Bjorn didn't like what he heard about the gardens, he figured he would have to put business first. This wasn't the first time he had gone against what he would have liked to do, and doubtless, this would not be the last time Bjorn would go against his conscience...

Survival above all.. Bjorn thought grimly to himself.

"Ah, but what is survival if one can't enjoy the days one has?" The other voice asked him in a quiet, serious tone. Then the other one seemed to go into a brooding silence.

Was that an actual chemical? That... that can't be normal. No, she must just have peculiar tastes when it comes to containers.

"Ah, well more for me then," Archer replied, starting to sip at his coffee.

"It's good that you don't drink it. Do you know what kind of chemicals they put in coffees from the major chains? Luckily I've been trained to resist their caffeine based forms of suggestion," Juliet commented. After taking his own cup of coffee he returned to scribbling nigh incomprehensible notes in a small journal.

"As for the marks, Cattleya, my dear, it looks like this man was setting up for some cult or ritualistic killing. Judging by the state of the victim, it seems like he was the one setting this up, but several people broke in and put a stop to that. The police informed us that the man, Andrei, was likely tied to local organized crime, so this was most likely the result of gang violence."

Juliet began snapping pictures of the sigils and state of the ritual room. "These markings are clearly related to the Templars. Nothing more than delusions from an organization attempting to gain power over the Illuminati."

"Well Juliet, I think we've gone over this place all we need to. Best let Mumble PD give this scene a once over. As for you Cattleya, it seems Mr. Andrei here may have been, at the very least, contributing to the murders and kidnappings in town. Has this satisfied your curiosity?"

---

"I'm so happy we decided to head to the carnival, Steve. You think we'll find that water stuff the CIA agent needed?"

"Bob, he wasn't CIA. And ‘anhydrous water’? He may as well have sent you to pick up elbow grease."

"Oh, why? Will we find the hydra water at an elbow grease emporium?"

"... Anhydrous. And no. Anyways, buy me some cotton candy."

"Ah, you've got it, buddy."

"Attention! Attention! The park will be closing for the day due to a police investigation...

Bob and Steve stopped to listen as the message droned on. Everyone around began to leave the park, mumbling their complaints.

"Steve, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we the police?"

"That we are."

"Are we investigating today?"

"Are we ever working, much less investigating?"

Looking up, the two officers noticed an ice cream cart thrown at a surprising speed.

"... Did you see that?"

"Yes, I did see that, Bob. I suppose we are investigating today."

The duo began to dash towards the area of the carnival where they saw the ice cream cart projectile launched from.

---

Anton took a quick glance at his phone and was partially satisfied that Rui wouldn't get to have lunch with Alice today.

"Did Kane reply? Is Rui coming?"

"Uh... Hurry up, we'll be late."

"Can we stop by the bakery after for dessert?"

"I'd rather not. Last time I walked in and asked for a drink and this unnervingly straight-faced girl would only offer baked drinks."

"How does baking a drink work?"

"Not very well."

Walking down the street, the Chinese restaurant came into sight, as well as what looked to be an angsty teen with his hood up.

Ah, but that's the angsty teen that we're meeting!

"Hey!" Anton shouted, waving towards Kane while approaching.

At the last moment before the cart impacted, Furfur sent a current through the air at the projectile in an attempt to slow it down before it connected. Target priority has changed: If his master’s request was going to be honored, the girl would have to be incapacitated first.

Before the dust could settle, the demon shot out towards its new target, the trail of electrified air barely keeping up with it as it honed in on the wild girl, screeching furiously with claws extended.

---

Akino looked at the inquisitive man with a puzzled look, “I thought I already answered that; he’s a man who has been harassing people while impersonating our group.”

“Unless you are interested in the details? I don’t know why you would be, but I don’t see any harm in satisfying your curiosity,” crossing his arms and closing his eyes, he looked as if he was trying to recall some information, “You asked who he was? Short answer would be a name, and eye witnesses seem to recall him introducing himself as a Domenico Sellari. He’s a man who, like I mentioned before, is extorting people for money by pretending to be a part of our group. But beyond that, we don’t really know who he is.”

“As for what he is,” Akino paused and smiled condescendingly at Bjorn, “I would guess an Italian male in his early to mid-twenties? I apologize if that obvious answer isn’t what you are looking for, but I really don’t know what else you could mean.”

---

“Well, if we could link him to more than one of the disappearances, than yes. Yes it would. For the disappearances, anyways,” Cattleya saw Juliet taking photos of the crime scene and quickly stood up and began taking her own pictures before leaving with the two men, “I have to admit, though, I was a tad more interested in the murders and assassinations than I was in the disappearances.”

“And besides, I was having fun. Don’t you fellas want to show me a good time?”

Bjorn snorted at that.

"Yea right, an Italian guy in his mid twenties without any exceptional body build tossing a couple hundred of pounds around like it was nothing."


Bjorn had to think on a couple of things now, but at least he had a name to the person he was going up against... If nothing else.

He would take the man at his word for now, there was no reason to stir up any more trouble than he needed to, but he suspected the man was hiding something.

Bjorn remained standing where he had been standing to think, and waited a moment to see if the man would respond to what he had just said.

If the man did, perhaps Bjorn could get some more information out of him.

If not, then Bjorn would attempt to strike up a conversation with Ainlisle and see about getting his bills paid in advance.

“Oh? Did you get beaten? My condolences,” Akino said, “Though I have to admit, it is comforting to know that we aren’t being bested by just some ordinary thug.”

“I have to say, you sound almost enamored with him. Jealous, maybe? Maybe you can ask him his secret if you happen to find him. Or you might just get beaten up again.”

---

“What humans are capable of?” Alex scoffed, “They pointed their guns at us because we were different, but when things were at their worst, they were nowhere to be found. This rampant paranoia and cowardice is exactly why I wanted to shelter the others who were changing.”

“No matter how much you or your friends change, a part will always remain human,” Sid commented with a smile, “There is this special spark that we have, that when nurtured right, can persevere through the worst hardships and snap back in surprising ways.”

“What do you mean ‘we’? There’s no way you’re human,” Alex responded, “No way you’d survive in here if that was true...”

“Nope, 100% home grown human,” Sid flexed a thin arm and poked at his barely visible bicep, smiling, “I’m as tough as they come, though. Yes. Very strong,” he makes a fist with one hand, and frantically karate chops the air with the other, “Strong.”

“Well Sid, you’ll have to excuse my skepticism,” Alex chuckled, his hand over his mouth.

“Tsk tsk, don’t believe me? Not very smart to underestimate your opponent, but I forgive you,” Sid casually folds his arms behind his head, “And to show my good faith, I’ll give you the first shot. In the interest of fairness.”

Whether he serious, delusional, or just trying to mock him, Alex couldn’t tell, but he figured he might as well play his game, being bored from sitting around all day, why not?

“Alright, but you asked for it!” a black mass rose from the expansive abyss behind him, flowing in and coiling around Alex.

“I don’t really want to hurt the poor guy...” the mass formed a hollowed out fist, “This should be brittle enough to just scare some sense into him.”

With a smirk, Alex sent the large, dark fist to Sid’s right, hoping the weak attack wouldn’t be too much for the guy to handle.

“That can’t be all you’ve got,” Sid stuck his right hand out to the side, holding his open palm outwards, and as if he signaled for it to stop, so the attack did, “Things hollow! You wasted a gift. How thoughtless,” He said, shaking his head in disappointment.

Without so much as a twitch from Sid, the piece of the abyss, Alex’s only weapon, shattered into fine crystals, filling the air around the two with a faint sparkle.

Realizing he may have been wrong to underestimate the calm man, Alex quickly reached back to summon more of the abyss, but when none came, and he instinctually turned around to see what the problem was, he saw that the sanctuary was now incased in a white crystal dome.

“I told you not to take me so lightly, and you wasted the chance I gave you,” Alex snapped back at hearing Sid’s words, seeing the calm man looking at him like a disappointed parent, “But no one is irredeemable. It might just take a different kind of approach to teach you your lesson.”

Sid held his hand out in front of him, and as if out of nowhere, a shining translucent sword appeared in it.

“Damn it!” Alex cursed under his breath. He didn’t have much to work with, but it had to do. He pulled a black sword out of the palm of his hand. His body was made out of the abyss, so it was a decent replacement, but he only had so much, and every bit he took out for a weapon, he lost mass keeping himself sturdy.

Sid seemed to have caught on very quickly, “Oh dear, doubt you’ll be able to keep that up,” he smiled, “better find a new technique soon!”

“Yeah, that or just beat you before I need to.”

“There you go underestimating me again. I guess we’ll see how far that strategy will take you. Let’s get started.” Sid took a stance, but then paused.

“Hold it, I don’t want to miss this oppurtunity,” Sid cleared his throat, “Class is in session!” he shouted, starting off towards Alex with a smile on his face, “I always wanted to try a one liner!”

Bjorn figured he wouldn't get any more information out of the man, so he snorted again, just so the man would know he got a response, then turned to Ainlisle and asked her politely about how much the muffins he ordered would cost.

There is not much Hanz could found from the net about this organization, it might be a small newly started group or a secret society.

For the first time in this month, Hanz feel hungry. Without his favorite activity to distract him, he decided to enter the bakery and get whatever products they have available, even if they are yesterday leftovers. As long as he could go back to his workshop as soon as possible.

Hanz stepped in the bakery and went straight to the counter ignoring everyone along the way.

"Yes, that's correct," Ainlisle replied, tilting her head at the person in front of her. "That's good to hear, I'd rather not deal with him again.. Oh.. is that so?"

She glanced to the broken window at the front of the store, and sighed a little internally. If they were going to offer aid, she could at least use it to get that fixed. She glanced to the man who'd laid an accusation against the man in front of her, and just shrugged in reply to Akino.

"Well... I'll take your word for it for now then - ...as for aid, If you guys could do anything, I'd appreciate that getting replaced,"

Ainlisle gestured behind her to what was left of the front window, giving a professional smile.

"Ah..." She listened a little attentively as Bjorn stepped in to ask questions, glancing between him and Akino.

---

"Nah, it wasn't!" Zane smiled brightly to Viki, and glanced inside towards Ryu. "Yo,"

Zane waved slightly to him, completely ignoring the random helmet he was wearing, then returned his gaze to the purple haired girl in front of him. "Ah, it's cool - nothin' you can do if you didn't know he was gonna be around to begin with, right? "

He smiled, and shook his head a little. "It's cool - If you guys are all ready, let's get going. "

For the contractor, the mixture being forcibly poured down her throat by a talking hill tasted like mud. It was enough to make her want to spit it out, to gurgle the mud right back at the hill that had ensnared her with it's... hilliness.

Gradually the serum worked it's effect upon her body though, neutralizing the dryad toxins and hallucinogens that had kept her trapped in a nearly delirious dream state - Allowing her addled senses to readjust and realize that she wasn't being held down by a hill and being force-fed mud.

She was being held down by someone she didn't like, nor trust, and being force fed some ungodly concoction that tasted worse than mud.

Quite abruptly her throat constricted and she sealed her lips shut. It took a moment for her amber eyes to refocus and she very deliberately considered fountaining the disgusting mixture in her mouth back up at him. It was a great idea, not a very mature one - But she was a child.

In the end, no. Besides, it'd just fall back onto her face. These thoughts flashed across her rapidly paling face as she stared at Knoll with a disgusted expression on her face for several long moments, eventually shoving him away as she rolled over to face the ground and spit the miserable medicine in her mouth clean out - Gagging and gasping as if trying to will every drop of the liquid from her mouth.

Her stomach heaved with each arching of her back, coughing out saliva and what remained of the potion. It didn't take long until she collapsed back onto her heels and glowered up at Knoll and Lucia, "Ugeh." her tongue stuck out petulantly, "blehg." and whatever she tried to impart to them was lost to the world.

She glared as hard as she could, though.

Knoll stumbled backwards, landing on his back as Cindy pushed him away. He figured she would have a distaste for the potion, considering it was not formulated to be tasty but to be effective. But an outward show of force? Might have had something to do with being attacked not a few moments ago. This was a stressful time for the young lady, so cutting her a bit of slack would be a good idea.

"Well, at least you've regained some of your faculties..." the Shaman said as he picked himself up and dusted the dirt from his cloak, "Hopefully you'll regain mobility soon, as I assume these dryads were simply a scouting party. More will come hunting you two, so I suggest we get moving as soon as possible."

“Well, I can’t say I have much experience with this sort of thing, but if you hire someone to replace the windows, we’ll be happy to take care of the bill,” Akino looks around at the crowd in the bakery, “We were prepared to cover any business you might have lost because of the incident, but it looks like you are still quite popular, even with the cold, wet air getting in.”

While Akino was talking about boring things with the smelly lady and the ugly man, Rosey had wandered off to look around the shop. The other people seemed curious about Akino and herself, so she held her head up high as she walked towards the counter. The things they had in the display case where all bread based sweets, but the faces she made while examining them would have led you to believe she was looking at worms and bugs.

Akino let out a heavy sigh, “But the expense records have already been filled out, and I have other things to attend to this afternoon,” he pulls a small stack of bills out of his sleeve, and holds them out to Ainlisle, “Just think of it as a sign of good will.”

---

“Yeah, I’m ready,” She looked back at her new cousin, “You’re ready, right? Don’t forget those lunches you made.”

She turned back to Zane, who was still waiting in the doorway, “Oh right, this is Ryu. He’s from Japan or something like that,” she turned back towards the inside of the apartment, “Hey, don’t forget that lunch you made.”

---

“You know, this place is a death trap. I should know,” said the dark-skinned young girl with the short haircut as she looked around at the people and the bunks in a local hostel, “Do you have a lot of experiences with these sorts of places, Amy?”

“It’s pronounced ‘Ah-me’. And no, I can’t say that I do,” Answered an odd, tall man with wild red hair in a sharp red leather coat, “The intel says we should be able to find him here, but no one here seems to match the photo...”

“Maybe he’s at work. Let’s check the guest book. Might get a lead.”

“Will they just let you look at it?”

“Who knows. Though I doubt anyone will try and stop me. Not when they are running for their lives, right?” the girl slyly kicks a small canister under one of the many bunk beds while no one is looking, “Place was going to burn down anyways. Shouldn’t really matter when,” she giggles as flames poor out from under the bunk, and within 5 seconds half the room was on fire.

“Fire! Fire! Everybody run!” she shouted, even though everyone had already noticed and begun to evacuate. She walked calmly to the book opened behind the counter and started flipping thought the pages, “It’s so nice that they cleared out. Now I can take care of this in a stress free environment.”

“Blair... I don’t think that’s normal...”

---

A large crowd had gathered around the yellow tape outside of a family home in a residential area. All the windows were broken, the door was busted down, and the walls were panted with an ominous ‘I’ll be seeing you soon’.

“What’s going on here?” Warren asked someone standing in the back of the crowd.

“Looks like something happened to the Murasaki family. Someone was saying they saw blood inside. Thing is, they seem to be missing, and whoever did this obviously wanted to be noticed.”

“Murasaki... right. Didn’t they have a son? Any word on him?” he asked, pretending he was familiar with the family.

“Someone said they said they saw him going out this morning, so hopefully he’s alright. Don’t know what he’s going to do now, though...”

“Well, that’s a shame. I hope he’s alright, but I ought to go finish this run of mine. Got some coffins to deliver.”

Ryu waves at Zane “sup”

He then grabs the bento boxes and makes his way to Viki and Zane

"I think it'd take a lot more than the weather getting inside for them to stop coming," Ainlisle mused to herself.

If anything, the recent addition of baked apple juice to the menu had brought in more regular customers lately. She supposed it had a certain quality in taste (or maybe it was the item as a whole?) that made it addictive, even if it was a rather odd item to see on any menu...

However, the person in front of her brought her attention back, pulling out what looked like a considerable sum of money and holding it to her.

"Eh?" She reached over and took the small stack in her hands, looking over the bills " I.. ...Well, alright then... Thank you. "

Ainlisle nodded politely to Akino, looking over the money again.

"It certainly seems more than enough to cover getting the window replaced.."

---

"Oh, I see," Zane chuckled, adjusting the hat on his head. "He made lunch?"

Zane went to lead the two of them back out onto the streets of Mumble, looking up at the buildings of the city. Even though he'd been here awhile, it was still something for it to be raining day after day to him.

"This place is gonna get sunk like Atlantis with all this rain.." the thought came and went... although, it wasn't a thought in his own voice. Not one to be bothered by this though, Zane dismissed it as his imagination, then looked down at the girl next to him and flashed a smile at her.

"Where do you wanna go? Maybe an arcade or something?"

Kane looked up at the two approaching figures. When he realized the taller one was calling out to him, he frowned. So much for laying low. They were completely recognizable.

The faster they got inside, the better.

Taking a quick precautionary glance back at the bakery, he opened the door for them.

"Get in."

--

Cindy's horrible wretching finally put Lucia's mind at ease.

"Hooray, you're all better!!"

As the contractor resigned to glaring angrily, she became serious again. "But now isn't the time for celebrating, Cindy," she lectured, "Gnome is right - the monster could come back any minute. We need to leave," she grabbed Knoll and Cindy by their arms.

"Now!"

In an instant, the three of them seemed to vaporize.

--

Aaron glared above his coffee cup as Akino spoke. Spoiling a good reputation, they said - exactly the sort of thing a mobster would say. It was textbook duplicity, and he wasn't falling for their act.

As these thoughts occupied his mind, he failed to completely follow the rest of the conversation properly. Something about a rogue agent, some italian guy being a dick. Typical mafia talk.

When Akino flashed his wad of cash, however, he jolted a bit (spilling a little coffee) as he remembered something. Quickly setting down the cup, he reached into his pocket and felt around for his wallet.

Yeah...that figures.

Empty, aside from what he identified as old receipts.

W-well, the owner looks like she's pretty busy, anyway. Wouldn't want to bother her over something so small...

He quietly got up from his seat while the three were still talking, and headed for the door.

--

Thunder rumbled through the clouds, almost a minute after a bolt of lightning struck the distant forest, and an instant before it struck the top of a dilapidated building.

"We're here!" Lucia announced, completely unphased by the sudden recombination of her molecules. Walking to the edge of the scorch mark they left on arrival, she surveyed their surroundings.

Dark, off-color clouds blanketed the horizon as far as could be seen. Beyond the rennaisance-style cityscape, the nearby plains seemed barren and eerily void of live. Beyond the dried grass and leafless trees towered an enormous mountain.

Lucia's smile faltered, slightly.

This is the closest populated location within a few miles. It will take them a while to reach you, assuming they know which way to go.

Fulgora... what is this place? It's a little creepy..

The town of Susurrare.

Below the domed temple, a crowd was already starting to gather. Their entrance was far from subtle.

"I am by no means bet-ergh!" Her response was cut off nearly as rapidly as her ability to decide how gravity and space-time worked. Saying she was disoriented and confused upon arrival at Susurrare was not quite accurate.

where as before she had been on the ground as circumstance, now she lay seamlessly flat against the surface beneath her, fingers having pierced clean through it's exterior and gripped tightly to it much like a cat hanging from the ceiling would refuse to obey gravity.

Her hair stood on end, though whether from shock or being shocked was debatable, with wide and unseeing eyes that stared out into the distance - A fine indication that while her body had made the journey, her mind was still getting there.

That kind of abrupt, alien traveling was entirely not something someone should be exposed to. It was not something she had even remotely been prepared for, even if she hadn't been attempting to recover from toxins.

The roof cracked at that point, her fingers digging through it like a knife against Styrofoam, for all the world resembling an individual who fervently believed the sky looming above them was going to attempt to swallow them whole.

Which it just had. Then spat her out here.

Never again.

Kane frowned, seeming to show displeasure at Anton and Alice's arrival.

"Get in."

"Oh you'll love this place, Kane. They've got the best sweet and sour chicken."

They sat at a table near the back. Anton took his chair and moved it closer to Alice.

After placing their order, Alice asked, "Where's Rui, Kane? I thought he'd be coming..."

"Oh damn it all, I guess Rui just couldn't make it. Damn shame. ANYWAYS, how've you been Kane?"

Anton let out a loud "OW" after Alice kicked him in the shin under the table.

"Alice, we can't play footsies now. Silly you."

His comment was met with another sharp kick.

"Anton, enough! Can we just deal with business for right now?!"

"Aha ha ha... Alright, Alice."

He turned back to Kane, a serious look on his face.

"Kane, are you really alright though? After what you did last night... And I don't know about you, Alice, but something's happening to us. Kane and I both have been able to use these bizarre abilities. There's something big going on in this city."

"Big bro..."

Bjorn stepped back, and waited politely for Ainlisle to finish her conversation.

There was no need to provoke an organization he knew little about, but there was still some research to be done... He would look up that woman.. what was her name again?

" It was Anya." His friend helpfully replied.

"Thank you." Bjorn said silently in his head.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm... fine."

At least they were sensible enough to sit in the back, and not by the window. Though I would have preferred a seat closer to an exit as well.

Sitting down at the table, he removed his hood and thought on Anton's words for a moment. They claimed to have 'abilities' of some sort - could the phenomena he witnessed even be called that? Did that mean they had gained some sort of superhuman strength as well, or... no, it was plural. That must mean there are other unexplained phenomena to watch out for.

Kane felt uncomfortable indulging more details than were necessary. Accomplices to murder or not, he had no reason to put much trust in people he barely knew. What they were doing now was already all he felt obligated to do to pay off the debt he owed for their help.

"Whether or not that is the case," he began, "the more immediate issue is that we may be targeted personally. You heard that guy from yesterday - Andrei had ties to a criminal organization." He idly opened the menu as he continued. "That kind of threat shouldn't be taken lightly. You're way too conspicuous. You both need to lay low until it blows over."

The chicken does look good.

He closed the menu and looked at Alice. "I wouldn't even go to school for a while, if I were you."

It seemed as though the young lady he had tried to recover was now going through a fit of some kind. This could have been a side-effect of the drug she was on previously, of which the potion would have the ability to neutralize. Considering the timing, one could easily use some...deception, to try to coax information out of her. Something Knoll hadn't tried for some time.

"Listen, I can help you with what you are going through. But, you have to answer a few things first." he said, walking around Cindy as she clung to the ground, "Why is it that you do not trust me, despite my every effort to aid both you and miss Lucia? How is it that you know so much about the research I have spent months, almost years, trying to uncover? Why is it that you are pursued by creatures that, for all intents and purposes, would be dispatched for targets who's importance is vital?"

Asking these questions to someone currently coming down from a massive, drug-induced psychosis would yield little, but at least the questions would be out there. Possibly distracting the young lady from her current predicament.
_________________________________

Vincent grew tired of the various shows he casually flipped through. The only reason he did that was to waste time while he ate. Now that the pizza was gone, he had no reason to watch T.V. anymore. So he turned it off, grabbed up everything he needed, and headed out into the rainy expanse of Mumble, as he was prone to do when he was bored.

Stepping out into the streets after Zane, Viki put up her hood to keep the rain off her head. While she was used to the sound water pattering on the streets, she never did like getting caught out in it. Being cold and wet was something she didn’t think she had to deal with after she started living with Resha.

“The arcade should be fun, as long as it isn’t too crowded,” she crossed her arms as she thought, “and I guess we can just decide what to do later from there.”

---

“Well, if we are done here, I really should be going,”Akino smiled at Ainlisle as he started out the door, but stopped to place a card down on the checkout counter, “In case you need to speak to me again, you can reach me personally with the number here.”

“Come along now, Rosey,” Akino called back, the little girl promptly catching up with her guardian, who opened a floral patterned umbrella as he stepped outside, waving at the crowed inside before he started down the street.

---

“Well, now we know that target seven was in fact staying at that place, but…” Blair flipped through the pages of the registry book while Amy walked beside her, holding up an umbrella that the two shared the space under.”

“But he has no reason to return there, now that you burned it to the ground, correct?” Amy said, trying not to sound too critical.

“Ugh…,” she let her head hang solemnly, “If you knew this would happen, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I never said I knew this would happen.”

“Don’t talk back,” she said closing the book and putting it away in her backpack, “At least we know where he works. We can always check at the school. He apparently works there. As a librarian, it seems.”

“It’s Saturday,” Amy replied.

“…Damn it.”

"I'm conspicous?" Anton asked, a bit taken aback by the statement. He thanked the waitress that brought their food and began to scarf down the chicken.

"Don't go to school?! But how will I see Rui if I'm not there?! You're off your rocker." Alice, already annoyed with her current company, turned to her food.

"Now Alice, I think Kane's onto something here. Maybe you and I should just lounge around at home and have some wholesome sibling bonding time."

"I'll passh," Alice grumbled, her mouth full of rice.

"So what are you going to do, Kane? Stay at home with your parents? For how long? Mafia don't seem the types to stop holding grudges. Not to mention, that guy last night, Belial, is a demon. I know it sounds crazy, but I just know somehow. This won't go away if we put our heads in the sand."

Alice's thoughts turned to Anton's remark about abilities. She reflected on her experiences with phasing through things.

I wonder if this is something I should mention...

Of course not. Why worry him?

... Quite the argument, Voice in My Head.

Kane clasped his hands and rested his chin on them as he listened to Anton's response. He had a point - it's not likely something like murder would simply 'blow over' in the eyes of a criminal organization. But what other feasible option did they have?

"So what do you two suggest, then?" He leaned back and crossed his arms. "You want to try and challenge the mob?" Ridiculous as the statement was for people in their position, he did seriously consider the thought. There was a rather heavy gun ban in the city, so that reduced their potential threat significantly - at least, in public areas. But even if they could handle even a large group of thugs, they had no information, no leverage, and no way to go on the offensive. It was a silly idea.

"Or would you seriously try and reason with them that a 'demon' set us up?" He didn't want to believe Anton, but it would be unwise to rule anything out. He was right, after all - the events of the night before were too strange to explain all at once with common reason. But it changed little for their situation - in fact, it's likely things were worse than previously believed. "We don't exactly have proof. None of us here are charismatic enough to convince them without it."

"nuh-uh." she muttered retort was rapid, "Not trusting you. You'll make this worse."

If anything, giving her a solid and tangible entity to focus her ire did seem to lessen her instinctual shock-reaction to being transported by sky-sucking plasma - A fact that became apparent as she paused and noted her position on the roof of where-ever they had landed.

Almost delicately she eased her fingers out from the craters on the floor, only to comfortably slide them right back in and pull herself to a sitting position low to the ground. Shock or no shock, she had just been sucked into the sky, she wasn't about to let go of her grip on the ground just yet. No... The sky might still be waiting.

"And like hell you're trying to help us." She hissed back at Knoll as she situated herself, "and what could you possibly be researching?" her ranting carried on, head swinging up to follow knoll's pacing with a defiant look in her eyes, "I neve-" Only for her mouth to click shut audibly.

Silence reigned for a second before she attempted to gloss over her slip up in a way only a child could, "N-None of your business why they want Lucia!" she let her eyes drop back down to the roof, a half-hearted mumble of "...or me." floating through the air.

"Well unfortunately, now that I've actively defied those who pursue you, it has now become my business." Knoll sighed, shaking his head, "I would assume that, even if I were to leave you both to your own devises and continue my work in solitude, they would capture and interrogate me for information. And, considering I have none at this point, it would only be logical for them to kill me simply for knowing about their attempts to capture you and miss Lucia."

From the fact that she was now back to distrust and outward aggression towards the Shaman, it was apparent that she was coming around. Faster than expected, actually.

"You have information on my research, leaving you would be a death sentence for me, and, without my spells and tonics, you may not avoid their grasp for much longer." he said, kneeling down to look her in the eye, "As much as you may hate it, miss Cindy, you are effectively stuck with me. So why don't we just make the best of the situation we've been haphazardly thrown into?"

Knoll then smiled warmly.

"Who knows? Maybe someday you'll tolerate my existence." he chuckled.

"No." Her response was flat, and brokered no room for alternate interpretations or arguments. If ever there was a more solid rejection - Not only of his offer, but of knoll himself - his very sense of self may have been called into question.

Finally turning her attention from Knoll, out towards the rest of the city, the contractor leaned forward as far as her grip on the ceiling would allow in order to get a better view of just where they had landed. Not that she would know where they were anyway, but knowing the surrounding land wouldn't hurt, right?

She had no way of knowing if the organization could track them through sky-sucking plasma or not. She hedged that they probably could.

"..." she wondered if maybe running from here regardless of whether or not they could track them was a good idea. This place didn't seem all the welcoming.

Or... not-creepy.

At all.

"Where the hell are we...?"

Knoll looked up with Cindy's response, surveying the scene himself. After the events that brought them to this point, he hadn't given their destination much thought.

"I'm not quite sure. I haven't been to very many civilized areas in my travels, aside from the Shaman Academy. This town is different from the ones I remember." he said, scratching his chin, "Although, I haven't seen any city from this vantage point, either. Interesting..."

For all intents and purposes, the Shaman seemed to take the rapid electrically-induced teleportation rather well. Probably because he had an acquaintance delving into a similar study back at the academy. It was unfortunate that this same acquaintance ended up teleporting himself into an active volcano. The dangers of scientific pursuits an all that.

"Miss Lucia, you wouldn't happen to know our location, would you?" he asked.

"Not charismatic enough? I have plenty of charisma! Huge tracts of it," Alice argued, choosing to ignore the actual point being made by Kane.

Anton pointed a piece of chicken at Kane using his fork. The emphasis he put on the word demon indicated his skepticism at the idea.

"You DO know what happens to the skeptic in horror movies, right? 'Oh, there's no such thing as demons,' he says, right before his spine gets pulled right out. I know it's crazy, but I just know it's true. And I know we can't challenge the mob... What if we go to the police, have them put us under protection or something? It'd be a start."

He talked a good talk, but Anton was doing his best to mask his fears about this situation. Organized crime likely looking to kill him and his dear sister, and the likely existence of demons weighed heavy on his mind.

"Well, I'm out now, but..."

Lucia ended up at the local supermarket before she could think of a plan of action. She had never been good at foresight, but rare was it that she would act on impulse with no thought at all.

With no other options coming to mind, she resigned to doing the weekly grocery shopping a bit early. It was her turn, anyway. Usually, she and Kane would alternate buying groceries every monday, after school. Such was the routine they had developed over the last few years living alone in the city - she could hardly remember a time when she wouldn't help out as much as she did. For a good year or two, Kane had taken it upon himself to keep up with maintaining their apartment.

It was a little nostalgic, every time the thought came to mind. Knowing only blissful ignorance growing up, she was completely unaware of their true circumstances at home until they had to leave. She wondered how her parents were doing.

Her idle reflections seemed to halt at that thought, as they often do. Thoughts returning to reality, she shook her head at the chocolate bar she had picked up. "I don't need this," she muttered, and tossed it over her shoulder without thinking.

"Oops!" she turned around, realizing her mistake, but suddenly had a sharp headache.

▒▒ ▒ ▒▒▒ ▒ ▒

"Let's just leave.." she mumbled aloud to herself, mildly frustrated.

--

"Look, it makes little difference what that guy was. What matters is what he did, and what he can do." He leaned forward in order to lower his voice, "you said you're familiar with movies, right? You should know the first thing these groups do is manipulate authority. This isn't a movie, of course, but how can we be sure they haven't done just that?

"It's risky, and it would give away our information, assuming they haven't already identified us by anything but appearance."

The waitress came by again, forcing Kane to break the tension and let it all sink in. After placing his order, he waited a moment before resuming.

"...But you do have one point. It's not as if we have any better options. We either reason with the crime ring itself, risk faith in the police, or simply do nothing."

He sighed. He wasn't really expecting anything better - the situation was pretty terrible to begin with. It stressed him out, regardless. Why did they have to target Lucia, of all people?

Begrudgingly, however, he felt slightly better that he wasn't alone in dealing with it, questionable as his accomplices were. "To be honest, I can't tell which option is best. Whatever you do decide, however, I hope you're prepared for the consequences."

--

"'Su-zu-rare', I think she called it," responded Lucia quickly, her thoughts more focused on the crowd below. Calling to the others from the other side of the rooftop, she pointed downward - "I found people!"

A clamor arose from the dozens of people gathered at the foot of the temple. Worried, even frightened looks stared up at Lucia. Their whispered tones indiscernable at such a distance, almost as if too afraid to speak up, they waited expectantly for something to happen.

Glancing about nervously, Lucia attempted to dispel the tension. "S..Sorry about the roof! We kind of landed in a hurry!"

Their tone picked up, to the point key phrases could be picked out.
"The work of a god?" "More demons?" "...from the mountain?" "Where are the guards??"

Lucia turned back around toward Cindy and Knoll, shrugging.

--

Lucia leaned against the wall just outside the store, shopping bag in hand and head in the other. She had been having these headaches all day, and it wouldn't have been so bad if it was at least consistent.

As the last throbs of this current fit wore off, an alarm drew her attention to the door. A lady stood confused, hugging her purse close to her person as a security guard questioned her. He reached toward her, but was met with somewhat violent protest as she swatted his hand away.

Another guard approached, reaching for his handcuffs. The woman turned anxiously, and the first guard took the opportunity to grab her purse - the most suspicious object on her.

A struggle ensued, resulting in her bag falling to the ground, its contents sent sliding across the floor towards Lucia. She reached down to pick up what was near her, and held it up to return it to the policemen-

-but they were too wrapped up in restraining the woman, who had begun to kick and scream in frustration. All eyes in the store fixed on the scene, and the lady was brought back inside.

Lucia, dejected, looked down at what she had picked up: a chocolate bar.

She looked back at the closed doors of the store. "Well," she reasoned to herself, quietly, "I wouldn't want to interrupt them for something so small, right?" She turned to walk away, grinning ever so slightly.

"Susurrare? I've heard of that town. Some Shaman in the Academy have traded with them in the past, if memory serves." Knoll said, "I've never been here myself, but I've heard it's a quaint little town."

The Shaman then heard the murmurings of the townsfolk below. With the spectacle the trio put on getting to this point, it would be logical that these people would be on edge.

"I would suggest that we find a way off this roof, first and foremost. With any luck, we can find some lodgings for the night." he said, looking for any kind of doorway inside the building they were currently on top of, "Once miss Cindy is rested up and we get some necessary supplies, we can plan our long-term strategy against your pursuers. That, and I can possibly get back to my Alchemy studies."

Finally turning away from the crowd, Lucia looked back at Knoll. "Okay - I think I see an inn from up here." She turned to head over to the nearby ladder, leading down into the building. "Quaint though, hm... I'm not sure, but I think they'll be friendly enough!"

--

"What manner of spectres are you?" An older man bellowed, pointing accusingly at the trio exiting the temple, standing slightly apart from the semicircle perimeter of the mob that had formed.
"Ah... what?" Lucia smiled back, as friendly as she could muster in the tension. Responding to their speechlessness, the man expanded on his inquiry. "A terrible omen has spread from the mountains that threatens to overtake our town - of what significance is this to you? Be you demons? Spirits? Gods?"

Lucia fumbled for a quick response to his badgering, "ah, well, I think Fuly is a god, kind of...?"
Yes, but I don't think-

A sigh of relief appeared to spread over much of the crowd, as the murmuring intensified again. The man in front simply nodded. "Then our prayers have been answered. Please," he straightened his posture, clasping his hands together and lowering his head, "Will you three stop this plague before it reaches us?"
All eyes focused on the trio at his words, and the murmuring was reduced to a whisper.

Lucia surveyed their audience, and finally the old man, before turning to her companions.

"Wha," she shrugged.

What? Gods? This was not the situation Knoll was expecting. But, if these people needed help, it would be wrong not to offer assistance.

"A plague from the mountain, you say? What kind of plague?" he said, keeping from correcting their 'god' classification for now in order to keep things civilized, "If there is anything we can do to aid you, I assure you we will make every effort."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" The old man bowed his head further, the crowd echoing him with variations on the phrase 'praise the heavens!'

"It started no more than a fortnight ago. The mountain visible from here - Mount Etna - all signs of life began to fade from its slopes. Trees withered, animals fled, and the rocks began to dry... townsfolk sent to investigate return injured, or exhausted of mind and body..."

Lucia tried to listen intently, but began to drift her attention off when the mountain was mentioned. From her vantage point, it really did seem unnaturally dark. The skies above it seemed thick with uniform, grey clouds.

Do you know what happened?

No. I have seen this before, but was too preoccupied to pay it any mind. Is seasonal death not a common occurrence for you mortals?

Well, yes, but...

"...Not only this, but the darkened landscape has spread outward, and is now almost half way to the town itself. I fear for what might happen, or what demonic force is responsible."

The man held his tongue, awaiting the gods' expert opinion on the subject. It was not his place to make suggestions, especially after so harshly accusing them at the start.

"Mount Etna?" Knoll said, rubbing his chin in contemplation, "If memory serves, an event like this happened on that mountain before, a very long time ago. I remember one of the historians from the Academy speaking about it."

The Shaman stared out at the mountainside, his interest piqued.

"If this is the same phenomenon, it is of historical significance and should be studied further." he said, "Although we will require some supplies, and somewhere to rest before departing."

"This really doesn't sound like our problem." The contractor spike up from her spot behind the group, peering out at them dubiously as well as her tenacious grip on the frame of the door would let her. "We should probably just get going. Like... Now."

She paused, glancing up at the sky.

"Preferably before the sky eats us again. Or the Organization figure out where we are."

"But these are good people. Good people who have helped the the Shaman Academy for years. If they need help, then it is my obligation to give it." Knoll said, turning back to Cindy, "Besides, if we help them, they will be more apt to aid us. In addition, the Organization would not suspect that those they seek would go into a situation like that. It might throw them off our trail, allowing us to more easily hide from them."

"Eats us..?" Lucia parroted her friend quietly, nearly stifling a small chuckle.

"...Yes, of course," the old man responded to Knoll, "we will accommodate you as you see fit. Clear a path!" He motioned to the crowd, who swiftly rearranged themselves to allow passage into the town. "The inn is this way, if you will find it suitable. Please," he beckoned them all to follow.

"Relax, Cindy," Lucia whispered comfortingly. "I don't know what Mr. Gnome is talking about, but Fulgora said we're a few miles away, right? Your friends might be fast, but they can't be as fast as her!" She spoke with pride of her unseen patron goddess.

She held out her hand, in an effort to convince her to release the poor door frame. "Come on!"

"Yeah, well..." She trailed off, as if trying to think of some reason to disagree - She found none. "....Stupid mountains."

Her head hung in defeat, "Fine, whatever. As long as we don't have to go up the mountain, I don't care what we do."

"We are in your debt, divine ones!" The townspeople had amassed at the edge of town to bid the trio farewell.

"Thanks, guys! We'll fix your mountain soon!" Lucia waved goodbye to her new friends, each one of whom she had taken the time out to greet personally while Cindy had been recuperating. Less than a mile away lay their destination, and even closer than that was the edge of the blight.

It was almost surreal, seeing the contrast on either side. On the dead side, the trees still had dried leaves hanging onto them, but the branches themselves seemed ready to snap at the touch. The grass was almost grey, matching the color of the grave-like soil. There wasn't a single bird in the sky.

And on the other side was Lucia.

"I've never gone hiking before! I don't think I've ever even been to a mountain in my life! Hey, Cindy, are you excited?" She beamed at her friend, who didn't seem to be in the same degree of high spirits. "What that man said about something in a cave halfway up the mountain - I bet that's where we're supposed to set up camp!"

The townspeople had provided them with enough supplies to last them at least a couple of days in the wilderness. The old priest warned them of the potential danger, citing superstitions about the sacred mountain that commoners dared not approach even before this crisis. In privacy, however, he mentioned an artifact located in the center of the mountain - a ward, meant to drive off evil - believing its failure to be the cause of the recent corruption.

"How about you, Mr. Pentagon? You like camping, right?"

"Well, when you two found me, I was camping for quite a while. I don't mind doing it, although the bed at the inn was much more comfortable." Knoll said, inspecting the scene in front of them, "This is fascinating. It's like the life of this forest has been drained from it. Almost akin to a runic Drain spell."

The Shaman proceeded forward, the crunching of the dead grass under his boots breaking the dead silence of the forest.

"If what the priest said was true, the entrance into the mountain should be in this direction." he said, continuing towards the mountain, "With any luck, I can decipher the ward and possibly fix it."

She had just said that anything was fine as long as they didn't climb the mountain. Climbing the mountain was effectively getting closer to the sky. The sky which just tried eat them, and then spat them out elsewhere.

So of course the first thing they did was climb the mountain. Of course she had to come with them, did that know-it-all bastard expect her to let Lucia be left defenseless with him?

No. He probably did think that, but she wasn't about to give up that easily. She'd conquer her fears for Lucia and defend her from all manner of creepy old men.

"Thisisabadidealetsgobacktothevillagewhyarewedoingthis." Which is why she was currently clinging to Lucia like a lifeline and being absently pulled up the mountain by the other girl's enthusiasm. "Ichangedmymindweshouldn'tdothisIthoughtIsaidweweren'tgoingtodothiswhyarewedoingthis."

She was not having a good day.

"Hm? What was that?" Lucia turned to her friend, who was attached to her sleeve, unable to parse her mumblings. "Sorry.. you have to speak up a little!"

Your friend is only partially correct.

You could understand her?!

Not that one - the male. The life was not drained from this land. It was expunged.

Sponged...

Destroyed, and corrupted. I advise you to watch your step - even I am not entirely sure what has taken place here.

Yeah you're right, this slope is kind of steep...

"Hey guys, Fulgora says..."
As Lucia spoke, a nearby bush rustled slightly. It was uncommon for the local predators to be immediately aggressive to passerbies, at least not without an attempt to ward them off their territory.

Its hiss was only slightly more audible than Lucia's voice, alerting to its presence only moments before it sprung - its target, the furthest back in the group.

"...just worried we might fall off the- Cindy!!"

What.

That is what the amber eyed contractor wanted to ask - Her attention snapping to Lucia in an instant. Were they going back down the mountain?

Thunder rumbled across the sky at that moment and all thought fled from her mind as she threw herself bodily to the ground with enough speed to leave an audible Thud behind her, incidentally causing the massive snake that had lunged towards her fly clean over her and head straight for Knoll.

Knoll had heard the rustle and turned around, his hand already grabbing for one of the rune sheets he had prepared. Calculating first that he would have to put up a defense for his two companions, his reaction was only quick enough to realize that he was the one who needed defending. Not difficult to change, actually shortened the casting time necessary.

With a quick motion, the paper hit the ground. A spell that would raise a block of earth up between the snake and the Shaman. With the closeness of the attack, the block would almost catch the snake under the chin, knocking the attack away and causing it some damage.

It worked perfectly. With a noticeable rumble, the slab of earth ejected itself from the ground a split second before a fatal wound could be inflicted by the massive black serpent. It hissed as it recoiled, hurriedly repositioning itself a distance away.

At a closer inspection, the snake was about the size of an anaconda - reaching about 20 feet in length, and as thick as a small tree trunk. It was still agressive, but cautiously so. Its eyes fixated on the trio, waiting for any further movements.

"I don't like the way it's looking at us.. maybe we should go-"
As if to interrupt her, a second snake slithered out from in front of them, cautious as the other one but nonetheless blocking the path. They were flanked on both sides.

Lucia bounced a little, clearly frustrated. "We're trying to do something, please go!!"

Two snakes now, on either side. Normally this wouldn't be problematic, but with the obvious degradation of nature in the area, drawing magic to fuel rapid spellcasting would be next to impossible. Knoll would have to rely on simple spells used effectively in order to keep from exhausting himself before the end of their task.

Using the simple earth rune already on the ground, the Shaman used the earth underneath one of the nearby trees to break its roots in strategic locations, forcing the tree to begin to fall between him and the snake behind him.

With the other hand, Knoll began drawing a rune on the back of the hand currently casting the spell, setting up his next move behind the wall of earth he had already summoned.

"Miss Cindy, Miss Lucia. If you can aid me with the serpent behind us, I should be able to deal with the one in front." he said rather calmly.

Another afternoon where Vincent wanders into the only music store in the city. The only one because no one buys CDs anymore, and the owner is too stubborn to just pack it in and sell his lot out for another coffee shop for the hipster crowd.

A staple in the store only by the fact that he's in there so often yet has no money to buy anything, the young man was already perusing the latest batches of 'antiques', while the dejected man at the counter only sighed.

"You going to buy anything today, Vince?" he grumbled over the music playing over the speakers.

Vincent held up a CD in response.

"What about these guys?" he said, half paying attention, "They any good?"

"...I...I guess, if you're into that sort of thing." the man at the counter sighed, only half paying attention to the young man who half paid attention to him, "Look, can't you just go home and download these songs illegally, like all the other kids?"

"Don't you need internet for that?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Well, I don't have the internet. So I guess I can't."

"What kind of kid doesn't have the internet these days?"

Vincent looked up and pondered the man's point for a moment.

"I dunno." he shrugged, returning to perusing.

The man at the counter sighed again.

"Apparently the same kind who doesn't have money to buy CDs, either." he grumbled to himself.

Vincent then took a pile of CDs from the rack and headed back to the back where a listening station was set up. The owner thought it would be a great idea for people to listen to some of the music to see if they liked it before purchasing it. Now it just drew a few customers and one regularly broke school kid. The only reason the owner still allowed Vincent to do so was that maybe...just maybe...the boy would finally buy something.

A constant optimist, that man. Even in the months that Vincent continually listened to songs without buying a single CD.

And, just like every other time, the young man would listen through stacks of discs, almost absorbing every song he heard.

Well, at least he was out of the rain for a bit.