Earth

(Apologies for the terrible post, but lack of sleep is a bitch xD)

"How long until she's sent out, Sir?"

"Only a couple of hours. She's getting prepared as we speak".

"And the other?"

"She's also getting ready".

"You're sure she'll succeed?"

"Yes. She's been trained well".

"I'll inform the Admiral now".

The man left the room, leaving his conversational partner alone to watch the screen before him.

---

"The situation has become critical. We've received word from our contacts on the Continent that the Demon army is only growing by the day. Everything we've taken back is slowly being lost. Stihlholme is really the only place left that's not fully corrupt!".

A chuckle emanated from the man in the chair across from him. His dark eyes were lit with a fire burning with amusement. "You've obviously never been to Stihlholme, Davis. It may not be corrupt in Demon terms, but it's corrupt enough as is. Never have I seen a place so dirty and diseased. Arnold, you've seen the prostitutes that've twisted their bodies so despicably, haven't you? There was that one with the, what, four breasts? Just casually walking down the street winking at everyone and blowing kisses". The man takes a sip of his water, shaking his head. "A cesspool, Stihlholme, a bottom-of-the-ladder society at its finest".

Sitting at the head of the table was a man dressed even more elaborately than the rest, a dark smile on his face. "Stihlholme is, and always will be, the bottom of the bucket. Honestly, it'll only exist until the demon threat is removed. Then-". He pauses, sweeping his arms open in a gesture of superiority, "then Stihlholme will be ash". He tilted his head to the side, cracking it loudly, obnoxiously. Several others in the room turned to give him odd looks, and he merely returned their gazes with a curt smile. "The Scholar shall be on her way over to Stihlholme now. I do so hope her transportation goes.. well". He knew that she'd been purposefully put on a cramped, stuffy helicopter for the long, long journey to the Continent. He tapped his fingers on the table, and smirked. "Her... assistant... has already been sent a notification of her arrival. He seems capable, if not a bit... young". He turned to the female beside him, dressed in a black pin-stripe business suit, who simply shrugged nonchalantly.

"Lady Yasaka, do you have anything to add?".

The blue-haired woman looked out the window, watching the rain pouring down onto the ground far below. She let out a long sigh, slowly turning her head back to the group of people in the room with her ever so slowly. Thunder crashed and lightning lit up the room, and in that single moment her eyes glowed a brilliant scarlet. The corner of her mouth turned up, a smirk only visible to those who really took the time to look for it. Her clothing seemed to float off of her slightly, her hair moving in the non-existent wind that suddenly swirled around her and her alone. "I do so hope that our two toys are successful in their missions. The gathering of information on the Demon Threat and the capture of that pesky Chimera creature". Her smirk turned into a devilish grin.

"If things come to it, I suppose I'll just have to go over there and settle things myself".

---

The semi-port town of Stihlholme was quiet this time of night. Perfect.

The hooded figure stole through the town, moving quickly yet somehow remaining completely silent as they slide through alleyways and flew over walls and obstacles with inhuman ease. The figure leaped into the air, landing soundlessly in the middle of the street. It looked up, finding its destination almost straight away. Reaching into a fold in its cloak, it pulled out a small box and placed it on the doorstep of the Avant-garde Florist. The figure straightened up in front of the shop, turning to leave. Stepping back onto the street, the stench of blood hit them like a train, stopping them in their tracks. Several figures, deformed and repulsive with their purple, veiny flesh and gross mutations surrounded the cloaked figure. A blade flew through the air, forcing the figure to slide out of the way, which in turn caused their hood to fall off. Long dark brown hair barely covering the glowing golden eyes. The figure, with a heavy sigh, raised their hand and watched as the demons were engulfed in hellfire. Letting them burn and noticing several lights blinking on in the small town, the figure yanked off his cloak and sprouted wings. In moments, he was in the sky and faded away into the black of night.

---

The next day was overcast, and was also the day the Scholar was set to arrive. A fairly casual day in Stihlholme aside from eight charred bodies and a black cloak lying in the middle of a road outside a certain Flower Shop. However, something subtly seemed different, as if something were soon about to begin.

Mother never told me this would be annoying but then again when was she ever around to tell me anything? Dee dropped her head in her hands before sighing. Maybe I should of done some research before tricking Edan. Heh, boy can be as stupid as a rock... Dee ran her hands over the top of her legs before standing. She was told that someone known as The Scholar was going to be coming to Stihlholme anytime now. If that was true she would have to give the little darling a show. Dee was content on taking over Stihlholme, it was just a matter of time.

Her long legs strolled over to the window where she watched people wonder around. If only they knew he servants were out there, in the shadows, watching them. As she stood there more humans were being experimented on but she focused on the one experiment she knew wouldn't fail her. Dee gave a soft giggle before tapping the window. It showed her the town, where people were, and so forth. The finger tips softly swiped over the window and it showed exactly what she was looking for. Edan. As always he was up to something. She went to clear the window when a sharp pain in her hip made her stop. "For the love of every fucking thing that is evil don't you dare start up right now!" She yelled and accidentally set her couch on fire. Rolling her eyes Dee whipped her hand to the side and the fire stopped, leaving a dark burnt spot on the couch. She shimmered and landed right behind Edan, invisible.

(sorry for the short and crapatatsic post >.< I am at work)

Jin found himself awoken by a slight movement in the bed he'd rented just for the night. He woke with a start one arm on the hilt of one of his blades before he could force his eyes to open all the way and chase off the sleep. He relaxed when his gaze fell on two naked women, one with her arms wrapped around the other both sleeping fitfully, makeup smeared across their faces and hair mussed over slightly abnormal features. These girls where guests, he remembered now. Prostitutes he'd picked up at the corner outside of a nearby bar. He sat up pulling his legs off the side of the bed and rubbed his hands over his face as his head throbbed steadily in his scull and his eyes ached as his body worked itself through the toxins ingested the night before. Ever since the demons settled on earth new opportunities had cropped up for him. From his gradual transformation to the active war his skills had been needed in one way or another....but now. Most the fighting had stopped but for a few last ditch attempts to hold a city or town down in that godforsaken country. New drugs have appeared, magic enriched nectars and poisons, weapons....even the mist itself. He'd heard of gangs whose initiation began with a week long hike through the mist now a days and nearly everyone wanted someone dead. That was his specialty. For a warrior he'd found his code of honor had all but dissolved into nothing. Now he fought for pleasure and money, a mere mercenary in a city of sin.

Jin got to his feet and trudged over to his bag, resting on a broken chair. He tugged out a wad of bills and tossed them on the bed, causing the ladies to stir and stretch.

"Get out of here." He mumbled, grumpily. He then left the bedroom area and disappeared into the bathroom. Jin was a Salamander, a rare breed as well with green skin and scales as opposed to red or orange. He looked like a strange swamp variation of his brethren, however he still ran with the heat of his kin. Jin turned the water to a scalding heat and soon steam filled the bathroom enveloping him in a nearly boiling white cloud. A human would scream as their skin reddened and their body trembled but Jin simply stood there eyes closed as water fell onto his face and cascaded down his tall thin form. Once he was good and clean he grabbed one of the towels folded on the rack and wrapped it around his waist, grabbing another for the rest of his body. He emerged from the bathroom to face the now empty room, glad to be alone for the moment. He tossed aside the ugly old curtains from the window and peered outside at the overcast sky and the dreary streets. He could taste it on the air. Blood was going to be spilt today.

Jun was a little early to meet up with the Scholar, but he was paranoid he'd be late, or that some crazy shit might happen to the Scholar when they arrived. He hated this place, Stihlholme, it was a shit hole honestly, he thought sometimes they'd be better off letting the scum in the small city get eaten by Demons and what not. But there was a lot of innocent too lying in the depths of the city, probably living in fear, but nonetheless, they were around.
He realised he was too early after waiting around for at least an hour, "perhaps I should have a look around..." He mumbled to himself with a bit of a frown. Jun was pretty patient, but patiently waiting for more than an hour was testing him a bit. Not that the Scholar was late or anything, he was just an idiot for arriving too soon. And so, the Hired Assistant decided to take a look around the damn shit hole of a place that some might call home.

Jun wore clothing that fully covered himself, including his hands and a hood attached to his clothing hid his face from the people around him, he really didn't like being surrounded by so many people, it made him feel uneasy. If one were to catch a glimpse of his face, they'd see he had oddly coloured, light purple skin. Many other features lay beneath his hood such as his pointed, Elf like ears, odd small horns protruding from his forehead, studded lip piercing as well as two normal, ring like piercings on his right ear. He always wore his long, deep charcoal hair up as it was a pain in the ass when it came to combat, always got in the way. Jun was average height, taller than most but seeing many different races around lately, his average height wasn't so average any more. Something others may have found odd was that his skin was so soft and clear, the skin of someone you wouldn't expect to be in combat a lot. Many naive people seemed to underestimate him all the time, and when they found out he was the Hired Assistant, everyone was just itching for a fight with him, it was really annoying and a waste of his time.
Anyway, Jun was off, exploring the Stihlholme cautiously, but not so on edge to give himself away. He decided to go to an area that would usually have a lot of assholes and idiots that he might be able to straighten out, where the bars and clubs usually were. Upon arrival he could already smell the distasteful scent of poisonous beverages everyone seemed to induce regularly, he didn't know how anyone could drink something so repulsive. Nonetheless, he leaned against the wall of the entrance to one of the bars, simply sussing everyone out, learning their ways, watching their actions, listening to their conversations, and some quite menacing plans. "This is one messed up place."

"You can say that again". A voice from behind Jun, soft and quiet yet oddly audible over the sounds of the bar, flowed into the Half-Breed's ear. There stood a figure in a cloak, a porcelain mask covering their face aside from two eyes that, despite glowing with the power of magick upon closer inspection, seemed a regular sky blue. "Stihlholme is the only place we've got left, and it hurts a lot of us good folk to see how horrid it's become". The voice was obviously male, but it begged the question of why he'd go through such lengths to cover up his entire body in a place like Stihlholme, where even the prostitutes were walking around completely nude, twisted bodies on display for the even more twisted people who enjoyed them.

From inside the bar there was a commotion as an overweight and obviously plastered man was thrown into the mud that had been left over from the rain a few days back. He stood up slowly, wiping off his ruined suit and his stained shirt before giving the Bar itself the finger and shouting obscenities. He turned around in a drunken huff and the cloaked stranger, letting out a heavy sigh of exasperation, spoke again. "Prepare yourself".

No sooner had he spoken than the drunkard had waddled up to Jun and glared at him, lip curling in disgust. "Hooded piece of shit. Whaddaya hiding under dere, uh? Gun' steal some booze, uh?". The man reached for Jun's hood with grubby fingers, intent on pulling it off in his drunken state.

---

The box, once opened, would reveal a small, shining blue Sapphire and a note next to it. If she were to open the note, she would find that there was only a small amount of writing, almost as if the person was limiting the amount of words they used to hide whom they were.

'Dear Anna,

Thanks for the help.
Appreciated.
Found this, thought you might like.
Regards,
A Friend'

Aside from that, the box was empty. The Sapphire looked as if it were cut fairly recently, and was in the shape of a star, but that was about it. There were no clues to the identity of the writer, or where it had come from.

Jun turned to face the stranger with the quite intriguing porcelain mask. So they didn't wish to be noticed like himself. Though they seemed nice enough and quite open minded, he still couldn't allow himself to trust anyone so easily. "I can imagine.." He replied looking down at the ground for a moment as he was deep in thought about the place. Although it was a terrible place, the stranger was right, it's the only place many have left. This is the only place for most to call home and just thinking about that made him rather annoyed. He wanted to do something about that.

Suddenly his train of thought was cut off by a drunken idiot and just the sound of his voice really annoyed him. He despised people who wasted away on alcohol, although he could see how many would waste their lives in such a place. "Prepare yourself" He did just that as the demented drunk seemed to have nothing better to do than to approach Jun and reach to grad his hood. In that instant, the drunkard would find a rather thick and extremely sharp needle jabbed into the arm he reached out towards Jun.
"Don't touch me." In merely roughly about ten seconds the drunk would feel his arm go limp and become unusable and unable to move it completely. The needle was placed in the man's arm so quickly that most wouldn't have even seen Jun move at all to put it there in the first place. Just in case the drunk decided to try anything again, he didn't need to put much force into his kick seeing as how the man was completely wasted, but still Jun lifted his left leg and rammed his thick, heavy boot into the man hopefully causing him to fall back into the mud where he belonged.

Once again Jun turned back to the stranger to thank them unless they had left before then. "Thanks."

Jin's eyes narrowed as his dull, filthy yellow eyes scanned the street below. Nothing was going on today. Not in clear view anyways. He felt......something however, a strange tightness in his chest. He frowned and turned away from the window, casting aside his towel and reaching for his pants and toga. He got dressed and ready quickly and went about attaching his assortment of leather sheathes and holsters. Both SMGs where secured at his thighs thanks to a homemade set of holsters his bag held all the ammunition he would need for one big fight along with food and one or two changes of clothes. He didn't have any food in it at the moment however, that he'd stock up on when he was planning on leaving the city. His primary weapons, a twin pair of short swords with jagged tearing blades and a smooth deadly sharp tip they where on his back beneath his bag laying against his back. He left without much ceremony, slapping his money down at the inn's counter and disappearing outside.

Jin found himself wandering towards a bar nearby, not for the drinks or drugs or prostitutes but for information and perhaps a job. He arrived in the vicinity just in time to see a drunk laid flat by a cloaked stranger. He didn't think much of it. His thick scaled tale flexed and he turned to the bar. It was the second person whom caught his intrigue, the man with the porcelain face. There where alot of bizarre figures in that city. He adjusted one of his guns in it's holster, staring curiously at those glowing eyes then entered the bar, finding no other reason to linger out there.

Domeniqui

The Deepwoods - home of the Kitsune tribe. A place where the screams of dying prey echo eerily off the trees, and most days a constant few inch deep heavy mist coats the floor, obscuring the forest floor and its many waiting traps to all but it's inhabitants. The trees are large and twisted, many of them ancient beyond time.

A small figure darts through the branches and fallen leaves without a sound, weaving expertly around sharp thorn bushes with the ease of practice. One of the creatures that manage to survive this vicious place, where only the strong survive. Though a closer inspection... its just a tiny little fox, quite a large fox, several feet tall, but very young seeming all the same. His unnaturally deep red fur, ears, paws, and eyes too large for him, and his fluffy tail mark him as just a kit, off exploring on his own, despite his size.

He is rarely left alone, and with good reason. Fear for his life from his family is only part of the reason - he can survive most encounters on his own. The other, is that he's just like any other child... he won't sit still.

Which finds the kit racing through the forest, growling the fox line impression of a laugh and playing with leaves. Gradually, the mist at his paws thickens, the trees become less twisted, the dark... not necessarily evil, but dark... aura of the forest lightening, as the forest slowly changes from shadowy heart to the less-shadowy part that surrounds it. Going even further, the mist that has overtaken everything starts to be tinged with red. But he is not afraid. He has nothing to fear from the mist, for he is a demon, was born a demon. He shifts back and forth sporadically from his demonic form to his human one, and back again, as he races across the path-less forest floor.

The mist gets redder and redder as he goes further, until it is completely blood red. He wanders here, there, not getting to close to the human settlements. He wanders, but is not lost - he has lived here for longer than nearly any human, or non-human, living in the town that has the lights, which twinkle like earthbound stars at night, a distance away from the Deepwoods.

But then, his fine turned hearing, many times finer than a fox of this world, picks up sounds. He stills, sniffing the air, but the mist dampens and conceals the knowledge he seeks. He falls into a crouch, easily navigating over the terrain without a sound, rapidly drawing closer to the edge of the mist. As he gets closer, the sounds he recognized, but that still confused him, grew louder. A faint bit of their scent comes to him, even through the mist, proving his ears were not wrong, and only confusing him further. He comes to the edge of the mist, shifting back to his smaller human form, peering out from inside the mist, behind a leafy bush.

His suspicious were confirmed... it was humans, several of them. The fox ears on his head twitch, then flatten backwards. He had never, never seen humans this close to the mist before. They avoided it like the plague, because to them it was one. They dared not go near it, living in fear with windows and doors tight shut, never leaving the city limits. Not truly living at all. He pitied them for that. But now, here they were, talking nervously at the very edge of the mists. He had seen the ones driven insane, leaping into the mist out of with to end or escape their human lives. Those ones normally never survived long at all. But these were speaking calmly. He had never seen a human, in their right mind and untainted, so close-up before.

And there were many, at least a dozen. One, a blond woman he heard them repeatedly calling 'The Scholar' was standing off to the side, a blank... or was it fearful?... look on her face. Obviously, she was new in town, unconsciously flinching whenever she caught a glimpse of one of those who had been partially changed. His eyes narrowed, focusing on her, wounding why she would come to a place like this if she was so afraid of them.

Suddenly, his instincts screamed at him he was being watched, and he looked up just as the voice of a man a voice snarled, right near him. "WHAT THE HELL?" The man bellowed, already running forward, eyes locked on Ki. Shocked he had been spotted, it took him a split second to spring up and attempt to run, but he was too late. A gruff hand caught him mid-air, yanking him backwards and causing the hood of his human jacket to fall forward over his face from the force. "Think you can spy on us, you little bastard?" The man continued. "Think we'll just sit here while you tell them where we are, so you can eat us? Not happening!" He spat, dragging Ki backwards.

Ki could have easily broken the mans hand and run, but refrained - he was human. It would only serve to deepen their fear, which would only make things worse. And besides, one of his tribe used to be human. If he harmed this man, Jayden might think Ki hated him because of that again. When he first came to them, he thought they might hate him because of it, because they were demons. Ki did not want him to think that again, even if it meant him getting hurt.

It did not occur to him Jayden might get more upset over humans harming him than if he fought back and harmed a human.

So, he carefully struggled, attempting to get away without breaking the fragile being. He was unable to escape with that small snout of strength he used. The man grabbed his arm and forced him to spin around, pressing downwards to force Ki roughly to the ground. To a human, it would look painful, no doubt leaving to some deep scratches on his knees. Ki looked up at the man, eyes wide and ears flattening to his skull. Not without the ears holding it forward, the hood slipped off, but the ears were obscured by the fluffy light cream blonde hair of his human form.

"EVIL BRAT!" The man screamed, and struck him across the face. "You com-e here to ki-ll us, d-on't you? D-demon!" The man screamed, voice breaking. Scents filled the air, so many slamming into Ki at once they made him dizzy. Horror, fear, shock, fear, disgust, FEAR, anger, TERROR. So much... so much! The horrible scents stung his nose like he'd inhaled spices, making him cry out, trying a bit harder to get away, still trying not to hurt the man, and hurt his tribemate by doing so. The scents pressured in on him. The man kicked him, hard, in the stomach, and Ki's breath wooded from his body. It hurt, even though he was demon. Probably would have cracked several ribs if he was human. As it was, it flung him several feet off the ground, still trapped in the man's grip, who roughly turned the momentum of his air time into force as he was thrown back to the ground at the man's feet. "FILTHY, WRETCHED..." The man was still yelling, more of a screech really.

The scents became yet more powerful, making him dizzy. He felt sick, and the scents of their emotions was making his own panic and fear rise, further disorienting him. He began whimpering, louder, crying out, and then letting out small shrieks as the beating went on. There were no serious injuries being inflicted, but the raw emotion was making him truly panic, which in turn made his demonic energy go unstable, wanting to protect him. His muscles tightened for attack.

No. No, if he hurt this human, he would hurt Jayden. Jayden was Tribe. He couldn't hurt his tribe. Hurt the human, hurt Jayden. Hurt tribe. Panic, use the demonic energy, hurt human, hurt Jayden. Panic, hurt human, hurt Jayden, hut Tribe. Panic... Jayden.

Do not hurt Tribe. Do not panic.

But he was already panicking, these scents, throwing him into a whirlwind of their terror, he wouldn't be able to control it in only a few more seconds. He had to stop this. He could not panic... he had to get free. He could not get free without hurting him. But... his Alpha, the Alpha of the tribe, he could. He always could. Alpha would protect him, even f he had to die to do it, because he was Tribe.

Another hit, and Ki couldn't take anymore, and he turned his head to the sky, letting loose his pain in a single wail for help that echoed many times over off the trees and mists.

"SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN!"

Jin hesitated at the sound of the scream. His eyes narrowed and he turned to look back towards the door. A smile played at the edge of his lips. "Save a bottle of single malt for my victory old man. I'm going to slay a demon."

He left the bar and ran after Jun towards the source of the commotion. His long thick scaly tale writhed as he leapt, using a building's wall as a step off, onto an overhang. He glanced down at the strange man in the cloak and called out to him. "Unless you have history fighting with demons I suggest you leave this fight to me. You'll only get in the way or loose your life. These creatures don't fight like men and I'm warning you now I'm not in the business of going after lost causes."

Jin drew his short swords which where neither glorious in appearance nor attractive to the eye. The metal was dull gray but sharp and viciously jagged. They where clearly meant for one purpose and one purpose only. To take lives. The light scars and scratches along its length was clear enough evidence that they did just that, repeatedly and with no remorse. It's wielder, the salamander, was the same. He didn't hold many scars on his body that could be seen from there but his eyes told everything. Cold and wild with a slight but clear note of pleasure and excitement. There was a fire in there. He wasn't going to save the life of an innocent girl. He was going to slaughter a demon.

All good, sorry about the late reply guys. Also just realised I posted in Earth, no Stihlholme ;-; ]]

When Jun reached where it was all happening, he cringed with disgust in the vile beings. How dare they he thought. Disgusting things they were, he wanted to destroy them all. Until all of a sudden something went right by him, huh? What was that? It was fast. He then looked on as he watched the green male from earlier taking down the last of the imps and then showing quite a lot of power as he sliced into a tentacle. Holy shit that was random and unexpected, he didn't think there would be many like him in Stihlholme, willing to fight off things that others couldn't.

His attention immediately shifted to the young girl being held above the hole, awaiting her dooming to be eaten alive by that thing. This pissed him off, seeing so many innocent people around him, dead, all of them didn't stand a chance, defenseless and not even safe in this shit hole.

In the blink of an eye, multiple needles would have been shot in various parts of the tentacle creature, some were to paralyse, others carried extremely strong poison that would at least slow down the thing or hinder it enough. Quickly Jun ran towards the tentacle holding the poor child, it was the only thing his mind was set on as without a second thought, he leaped out, dagger ready, attempted to slice off the tendril whilst grabbing a firm hold of the child to finally land on the other side of the hole with her if all went successfully. Jun wasn't what he seemed, on the outside his body looked like that of a Human, but on the inside he was capable of moving at incredible speed that no human eye could keep track of and hand quite amazing endurance. However there were many others out there, mutated, and more powerful than himself, he wasn't the cocky type, just determined to save or help whoever he could, whenever he could.

Jin had only time to flash his mad, blood starved grin before the tentacles came down on him. He had no trouble cutting them down as he split one after another in every which direction, dancing and leaping out of reach being careful not to touch the acid. Jin's attacks where often unpredictable as he switched tactics, stances, and even had bouts of outright primitive hack and slash techniques when he had one in his grasp. Flames flickered on and off along the length of his tail, sparking to life in one moment and fizzling to a smoky trail in the next. Each strike brought him closer to the throbbing sack of digestive fluids and viscera and the hole that the mouth was in. Jin fought until all the tentacles aimed toward him where either severed or mutilated beyond use.

"Let's see what happens when we cut your stomach wide open, beast." Jin snarled. He dragged his blade through the sack's membrane, allowing the vile smelling viscera to spill onto the walk. Half digested torsos tails and limbs both identifiable and not spilled forth in the frothy bloody goo. The mere sight of it only made Jin more eager to fight and destroy the beast and he approached the hole itself.

"DON'T MAKE ME DIVE IN THERE AND YANK YOU OUT WITH MY BARE FISTS AS YOU KNOW WELL THAT I WILL! YOUR LIFE IS MINE!" He bellowed down at the beast. An outright challenge for it to "get back up".

(I'm going to do a quick post purely because it's something my character would do. Short one, mostly dialogue)

Jin blinked, his sword arms falling to his sides as he looked up at the new beast.....that had just claimed his kill.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T DO THAT YOU........FUCK! THAT WAS MY KILL!" Jin could care less about the child cowering behind him, could care less about the sheer power this new demon seemed to emit. It had taken his kill. His gaze became dark and he spoke again in a low threatning tone. "You're going to pay be back with your own hide, beast."