Sienna Cartlow's Story

The Hound of Despair certainly didn't expect the new wolf in town to appear. But before he could draw his attention to it, he noticed the little rabbit questioning his existence. The mention of some relative mattered little to him, he probably never even met them to begin with! That's when he gave her a great big grin as he saw the wolf approach. "You wish to know my answer to life?" He asked her, not even seeming to care as the new big wolf caused his legs to explode out violently, remaining that way even as the wolf grew closer. He didn't seem to care, rapidly regenerating his legs as he had already lured one of them into his trap.

"I know not the meaning of death, child. It is a beautiful thing I have always been curious about. My entire life has been built on nothing but this one, single moment." As the big bad wolf started to attack the Hound's body, that's when he felt something and his entire body rumbled from it. His grin grew into a sinister smirk as his eyes narrowed just enough to make him look... Terrifyingly evil. "Ah, how fortunate. One last help from an old friend of mine. Be grateful I am in a good mood now!" That's when the Hound's body began to crack and the black flames somehow grew more powerful, intensifying as the dark light that glowed from his body became too much and the sight of both the Hound and the big bad wolf became impossible to make out.

That's when a rather large explosion of black flames erupted. It's power alone shot out pretty high above them, luckily Sienna was able to protect them from the deadly flames threatening to engulf them. It felt too easy, the power they could all feel from the explosion let them all know the Hound would of easily been able to take them all on in it's true form, so why this? The answer was unclear, and would probably remain unclear for a long time. As Yohan noticed, Sakuya's power seemed to be over healing, which confused him for a moment on how it was able to take care of his wound so easily, but he quickly grew to accept it and smiled at Sakuya. "Thanks." He couldn't help but look back over at the spot where two creatures just stood. Magical flames, huh? Left not even a scorch or a piece of ash to let the police know that something magical had just visited them tonight.

Although Yohan let out a sigh of relief, it wasn't all fun and joy. The big wolf that had attacked was simply gone. Not a trace left of her where she once stood, attacking the beast with all of her force. He tried to feel out with his connection that he had been told he had with her, but there was nothing. Only a null feeling now as he tried. It was a similar feeling that happened when Rina's connection was broken. Although this time, he couldn't be certain if it was broken due to something happening to her or if it broke for another reason. Well, at least things were calming down a bit. The threat was over, right? That invitation was just a joke... Right?

The police soon emerged from the police station, no doubt as a response to all of the weird chaos that had just went down. Just when he thought they were going to notice Saiph, they simply walked pass her. He wondered if, during the fight, the magic from this girl and the hound had caused some kind of rift to be opened or something. It was only a guess, and really, it would do him no good to think hard over it. Guess they were just down to three now, huh? Himself, Sienna and Frederick. One had ended up dead, one just went missing in action and the last looked to be going home back to a normal life. It was only now that the reality of the situation dawned upon him, that whatever new world they had each entered into, it was a world that could be more dangerous than real life. Whether the trio liked it or not, they were in this together now and they would have to figure out just what exactly this connection was and what it meant. It didn't seem like it lasted forever, otherwise he'd still be feeling one of them right now.

Well, the police began to investigate for the strange wolf girl they had seen doing crazy things. With her gone now, they would probably be investigating into her and her family. If the rest of her family was like this, he had no doubt they would probably go into hiding after all of this. That other place, this magic stuff, the way normal humans couldn't see it... He wasn't normal anymore. School was just coming up, and yet here he was, fighting off magical creatures like he was in some television show, or a movie, or one of those fictional novels! He had to not let himself get excited right now, for he knew what this meant. They each had some responsibility with this magic stuff now. Strange creatures would be showing up to town more than likely, more people would certainly be targeting them down, but they had some kind of superhero role now. Huh, maybe the costumes they had gained in that strange place meant something more than first meets the eye.



Rubbish, rubbish to it all! That stupid Hound had gone and blown itself to dust now! While it looked to have taken one of them out of the picture, there was no body of any sort to confirm whether she was alive or dead now! Blast it! He couldn't even enjoy the small victory he had. He was mad, he had been watching them all silently and this was the end result of it all?! It couldn't end like this, he wouldn't allow it to end like this! That's when the Hound's invitation towards Yohan came back to him. Oh, yeah, he did do that. Stupid kid wasn't smart enough to come up with that on his own... Oops, he almost spoiled the surprise! Oh well, his disguise was waning anyway, the stupid brat was probably ready to fight now. With a sinister grin, "Ricky" stood up to his feet and turned to smoke, quickly making his way over towards the others!

As the unusual smoke rolled into the area, it quickly reforms itself into "Ricky" as the police didn't react at all to his presence. Yohan was shocked to see him appear out of nowhere, but that face... It was from the news! It was that guy, Richard Leonard! Little Ricky?! He was here, but why was he just smoke a minute ago?! There wasn't much time to process everything going on as "Ricky" gave a smirk to him. "I see you've done well." He spoke to them, giving a mocking tone behind it as he reached a hand into one of his pockets. "However, I won't allow my master plan to go up in smoke just yet. You may be down some numbers from what you originally were at, but you can't stop me now! Not when I have information important to you."

Yohan couldn't believe his words initially, but... What was going on?! He felt scared for some reason, like some unknown fear was about to come haunting him again, and indeed, his fears were confirmed as "Ricky" continued to talk. "Your parents... Don't you want to know who is responsible for their deaths?" He gave one heck of a smirk now, Yohan's expression intensifying as he stared at "Ricky" with a cold look behind his eyes now. "I know the reason why they had to die. I'm also the one responsible for dragging you all into this mess. Oh, don't give me that. All I wanted was a little fun. You believe me, don't you?"

Yohan couldn't help but scream out suddenly as he rushed recklessly at "Ricky" with his white scales hand tightening into a fist. He began to pull it back, ready to punch this stupid fool right in his mug, when he closed his eyes and stepped to the side, now revealing a Gateway behind him. Yohan's eyes widened, his fist moving into the hole as he heard "Ricky" speak out quietly one word. "Purgatory~" Yohan was immediately caught up in it, being sucked away as he had no idea where he was going this time. When he came to, he found himself... Standing within a building? It didn't look like one of those black rock buildings from that unusual town, it looked like... An actual building?! Before he could get a grip on where he was, he heard a voice ring out from deeper within.

"Djinn." The voice spoke out, as "Ricky" grinned, the voice coming out from the active Gateway. Lucky for them the cops couldn't see this mess going on right now, had the Gateway not been activated they might of been in bigger trouble than they originally were. "The second wish is complete. You can get rid of that stupid disguise now."

"What? Ricky, you are far too kind to me." The left half of "Ricky" began to turn into darkness, the darkness moving like a cape flowing in the wind as his left eye turned demonic and sinister, The Djinn's cheshire cat smirk could no longer be hidden on that side of his body as he couldn't help but chuckle at the others. "Holy Diver, you've been down too long in the midnight sea." The words mockingly came out from The Djinn's mouth. "Oh what's becoming of me~" He couldn't help but stand right in front of the active Gateway, almost as if mocking them to come try to get in through him.

"Ride the tiger. You can see his stripes but you know he's clean." Yohan could hear that voice singing out for some reason, though they could hear it, Yohan couldn't hear what was going on with them. Yohan began to walk forward, almost as if moving by instinct alone now. Then, without warning, he began to run forward, until he was running as fast as he could right for where the voice was coming from! "Oh don't you see what I mean." The song both of them were singing mattered little to Yohan, as he ran along the single corridor towards where the voice was coming from. He wasn't going to let this go on for any longer, he was going to make a stand even if it killed him!

"Gotta get away." Both of them sung mockingly towards the others, The Djinn spreading his arms out as if ready to attack, his eyes glowing yellow as he did so. "Holy Diver!!! Yeeaah!"

As the hound was ready to overload and explode, Frederick hopped on his two feet and looked around for cover. There were cars around but...could cars really provide protection against magic? Nah...He saw enough to know that big powerful magic would turn his would be cover to dust along with him. However thankfully one of the teens...Whats her name? Sienna? Yeah, she had projected a magical barrier just in time allowing him to dive right behind her to protect himself.

As he crouched for a vain hope of more cover, he relized that he was fine. She had protected them but what about that werewolf? Or more accurately their compatriot who had turned into a werewolf. She was in front of the barrier so...oh...from the other side of the barrier. Sure, he may have noted that the hound let them live possible because of some far unknown reason but really?

Come like a week from now they would meet again and then suddenly be surprised that they all beat him into the Stone Age. And then it's gonna be like. 'I could have killed you all...but I wanted this moment because of fate or destiny...curses...' And so the story went. Honestly, if he was a villain who wanted to take over the world arrogance would be the last thing on his mind. I mean seriously, in his books the evil villains actually are smart into of the generic never taking advantage to kill one of the heroes.

Speaking of evil villains, it seems the one who was behind their ambush had appeared. Was he a mastermind?...nope, he was probaly some sort of opposite of them or something. Unfortanantly he mad managed to make Yohan angry enough to charge blindly at him with no sense of tactics and get himself inside a portal...or gateway...they seemed similar.

Shoot! Their leader just fell into the most simple of traps! Bring up family and bam you might as well won. And the worst part is while everyone! Including...Wait when did that other girl show up? Oh yeah he was busy thinking to himself...Anyways! While he was think to himself she must have appeared along with Yohan. And she was doing things compared to him!

If only he could do something...hell he bet that some of those anime characters would be doing far better than what he was. Of course, he was just a janitor, writer, cook artist. He could not fight! He did not even know what his powers were!

"If only those character were real..." Frederick spoke to himself as he began to use his finger to draw a character he saw from an anime. A really powerful, arrogant but smart individual. He had golden armor and used weapon from portals. It was all cool...

Wait...something was strange...he could see the image of the character as if someone was drawing him...no, not his imagination this time. It was as if his finger was a pencil and the air in front of him like paper...Woah cool! Forget about the danger he wanted to draw.

Sticking his tongue out like an artist in thought. Frederick began to sketch away.

Saiph uncovered her face, having warped back last second to brace for the blast. Luckily the protection provided by the red haired woman was enough to block the force of it. However, there was a moment of shock that rushed through Saiph's system, down her spine, letting her arms drop limp, as she watched the flames clear, no trace of either the beast or wolf remained. Her legs trembling momentarily. Why would anything choose to... die like that?

Shaken from her moment of shock, however was the appearance of a figure from black smoke, and the blue haired boy she had recently saved was becoming the center of some torment. This guy had a weird quality to him, his power was all strange, something not even vaguely twisted. This guy was the one responsible for many of the recent disturbances, had to be, too much to be coincidental. Geez, what a jerk, she thought as he drove the knife in deeper, twisting it.

"Hold on, don't, it is just a pl-," before she could finish her sentence, the blue haired boy had enough, and charged straight at the man, screaming his lungs out in fury, straight into a portal behind him. The ploy was almost cartoony, but far too cruel for even her to find amusing, and using his parents no less, scoundrel! "Really, the family card? Must be easy for someone who has none!"

With that she glanced about at the others, at the red hair, Sienna, Frederick drawing, and Sakuya who seemed to be standing back. Well, may as well go on impulse. "Dunno 'bout you guys, but guess I'm seeing this through, this is the most excitement I've had in decades!" With that she charges straight at the portal, no second thought as she hops forward, knees up, arms crossed to brace herself as she plunges through.

Yohan & Saiph Versus Ricky & The Djinn [Act I!]

The Djinn couldn't help but smirk as Saiph came running in towards him. He chuckled as she ran right through his form, right into that dang Gateway behind him. "Ah well." He spoke without care, for the hare that just ran past. "Personally, I never cared either way for fighting." His attitude still in a mocking tone, his expression becoming like that of a demon as the Ricky half of his body completely faded and all that was left was the dark, smoky form of The Djinn. "By extension of the second wish, I am only visible to others because of it. Though you two seem to have an unusual connection to that blue haired brat. I am going to personally enjoy seeing you both shatter into tiny little pieces!"

Yohan had ended up running into this weird colorful and yet rather spacious room. Ahead of him he could see a fancy throne with a figure in the shadows sitting on it. "Welcome, welcome!" The voice spoke out with glee, it's eyes glowing yellow briefly as a sinister chuckle escaped from it. "The plan worked perfectly, by the looks of it. Looks like the information I was fed was correct after all. You must be the blue haired child I was told about. Yes, I can see by the expression on your face that you are curious about what I have told the others." The figure rose up and began to walk out of the shadows. "Well, to be a little personal, I never cared for secrets."

Yohan became rather shocked when the figure turned out to be Ricky himself, but not the Ricky he was expecting. "Are you even Richard Leonard?!" Yohan could see the right half of Ricky looked fine, but the left half had turned into something completely demonic. "What happened to you? Why are you like this? I thought you were suppose to look normal, like your friend was just a moment ago."

"Ah, yes, The Djinn." Ricky looked at his left hand, staring at the red middle finger in particular among the black scaly fingers he now had. "Hate to say, I've already made two of my wishes. The first was for my Dominion, which I can show off to you in a moment. The second was for The Djinn to disguise himself as myself while we executed our little plan. Safe to say it worked out well in the end." Ricky grinned as he looked at Yohan with a horrifying glare behind them. "You must be wondering why The Djinn said the things he did. Well, fight me and find out."

"What, that's it?" Yohan couldn't believe what he was hearing right now. "Fine. Let's start, jerk." Yohan ran in and began charging up his sound again in his right fist. Ricky didn't even attempt to move, Yohan threw out his right fist and started to hit Ricky repeatedly, using his sound to amplify each punch and making it louder with each blow he made. Ricky didn't even budge, staring at Yohan with that unusual glare as he pulled back his left arm and tightened his demonic fist. Yohan saw this and threw his right fist to punch in towards the arm now as Ricky thew his arm with speed Yohan couldn't even fully comprehend, feeling the blow slam into his right arm and shatter every scale into pieces before his body was sent flying back and slamming rough into a wall. "Ah!" Yohan slide down the wall and groaned out slightly. "What the...?"

"Losing something?" Ricky commented, pointing to Yohan's right arm. Yohan's eyes widened in shock as he looked over to see his... Human... Arm? "I thought as much. You must of been tricked into making a false deal. Seems you already made a deal, how pitiful." Yohan stood up to his feet and tried to charge up his sound again, but found it too weak now to properly channel. "You thought you were doing damage to me?" Ricky chuckled and gestured to his body. "Take a good look, brat! You didn't even put a crack or a dent in me. Sad, I thought you were someone who could give me a good time. Oh well, it'll be fun to see how quick it'll be to kill you dead!" Ricky said as a big smirk grew on his expression, pulling back his left arm again!

As Ricky prepares his next strike, a sound is heard some ways back where Yohan had entered. A swoosh and zip, familiar claw, attached to a familiar cable flew right near Ricky's face, and plunges itself into the back wall. The cable shakes and tightens, letting out a metallic groan, only seconds behind, reeling in is the figure of Saiph. As she fast approaches, a regular dynamic blur, she sticks both feet out aimed straight at Ricky! "Yippee ki-yay, ugly~!" she cries out, the lenses of her helmet flashing a bright red.

Ricky couldn't help but notice the cable, his eyes darting over to it before seeing the blur riding in fast! This caught him off guard, the crazy person's feet slamming full force into him and sending him sliding back. "Augh! Damn it!" He managed to halt himself, just before he slammed into one of the large crates that filled the room up. Yohan had been frightened by Ricky's actions, but that rabbit girl suddenly came out of left field and managed to knock Ricky away!

"Whoa, uh, well, hey, I guess." Yohan managed to get out, his eyes shifting between the two of them as Yohan knew Ricky was probably thinking of several different ways to kill the both of them. "Yeah, uh, sorry. I might not be of much use in this fight. My power suddenly stopped working, and my right arm is back to normal, I guess?" He rapidly makes motions with his right hand to get the point across. "I didn't manage to make a single mark on him though. Am I really just going to end up becoming useless again?"

"Sup! Saw you run into the obvious trap and thought, eh? Why not!" she says, attempting some humor in the situation as she lands next to Yohan after her daring attack, retracting her claw back. She glances between him and Ricky, then cocks her head to the side. "Yeah, uh, bout the fight... to be honest, I don't really know this guy very much or his powers, I'm just making this up as I go along but, got anything? And, ugh, what astral shovel hit him in the face?" she responds, taking full note now of his demonically warped features. She then looks back at Yohan. "I dunno, though, do you really think you are useless? Maybe you're just new to this, but you're trying, so lets just get through this. Besides, there's something rather weird 'bout all this."

"Guess so." Yohan inhaled through his nostrils before letting out his breathe calmly through his mouth. "Alright. So he apparently has already made two wishes with his Djinn, so he only has one left. He may use it as a trump card, so be careful of that. He said he has a Dominion, but he didn't go into too much detail about it." He put his right hand on his neck and started to move his head around. "His left side is stronger than his right side. I think it might still be spreading, but at a slow rate. Looks like he distracted us with the black flame dog in order to buy himself time to gain power. He has some major power behind his body right now, he didn't hurt my arm when he shattered the scales on it, but I could feel the impact. Don't let him hit a vital spot."

Ricky just stood there and watched them, un-moving like a statue right now as Yohan kept his eyes on him now. "Right, I got an idea. We can use your portals to try to get the jump on him. If we manage to land an attack before he can get into the swing of combat, we may have an advantage on our side. We only have one shot at this. If he sees you use those portals, he may be able to track you down later. He may sound stupid, but this guy knows how to fight. Whenever you are ready, let's do this. I'm just letting you know now, if this doesn't work, we are basically in for hell." Yohan couldn't help but smile at her. "But we're keeping the others away from him. That alone makes me happy."

"A wish with a freaky genie, some wicked strength, and an unknown Dominion eh? Spooky!" she responds, looking at Ricky, taking note of his body. He's right, portals would be great to make openings at least, but his full power was still a bother. "Well, just so happens I'm also rather good in a dance, even if it is through hell-fire," she responds cryptically, chuckling slightly. She looks at him a moment and tilts her head, snorting. "Hah, just remember that keeping yourself in one piece is pretty important for them too, hero. Alright, lets do this. And... actually, I have a crazy idea you can help with!"

With this she flips her right arm up, pulling down her sleeve with the left. "Nothing up my sleeve~," she sings, wiggling the mechanical fingers. Silently creating a portal on the floor behind them. She then drops back, twirling around so she is facing the hole face first, with her right arm already ready for a punch, the other end of the portal right behind Ricky! Coming out the other end, once again in an upright standing position she throws both arms forward, aiming at Ricky's back. "Now, your sound thing, focus it through my arms!" She says to Yohan, hoping he'll pitch in quicker than Ricky can react.

He watched Saiph move into the portal and saw her pop out from behind Ricky, his eyes widening as he looked quickly between the two while the thoughts came together in his head. Well, there was no time to waste, so he began to move. While with Ricky, he noticed Saiph and Yohan both fading and heard something behind him. As he turned to look, he could see Yohan focusing his Dominion through Saiph's arms and his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh shoot!" Was all he could get out before he felt some insanely loud noise pound into his body, sending him flying back into one of the crates as his scream of pain could be heard even to the others who were with The Djinn right now.

Yohan and Saiph both were sent flying back, but nothing that they couldn't regain their balance from before they got really hurt. Sliding on his feet with Saiph, they both managed to come to a halt as he let out a tired sigh, falling to his knees as he coughed slightly. "Oof. That took a lot out of me." He shook his head as he tried to channel his sound one more time, only to find the connection completely gone now. "Dang it!" He slammed his fists into the ground before him. "I ran out!" He pushed himself back up to his feet, brushing himself off as he looked over towards the crate Ricky had crashed through into. "That must of hurt."

That's when a loud gunshot was heard, but no bullet was seen. Yohan felt his right arm go numb suddenly, his eyes widening as pain coursed throughout his right arm. "You thought you could take me down with that?" Ricky stepped out of the crate, his clothes looking roughed up, however, it looked as if Ricky had managed to recover pretty fast from that attack! "My Dominion is called Payne! I have control over pain. Do you understand what that means? This is the power of my first wish, to nullify pain within my own body and to cause others pain! I made my own frikking boss explode, for crying out loud!" Ricky laughed out in a crazy manner as Yohan couldn't stop his arm from shaking.

"Whatever I imagine, I can inflict on others! I've done it before, and I just did it now, baby!" He laughed wildly as he aimed the gun at Yohan again. "I can channel it through this very gun, all I have to do is be making physical contact with something and my power will work!" Ricky's dark hands aura began to form, he was done messing around with them. If the rabbit was going to try another sneak attack on him, he would be ready for it. "I may not know what the heck five times five is, but I do know how to fire a gun! I also know various different ways to kill someone, or cause them to be in terrible, terrible pain! Try me, come on, let's go! Right here, right now, do something!"

Saiph stood there, catching her breath for a moment. Despite having stamina beyond that of a normal human, the previous fight with the hound had done a good dent in it, and having those vibrations run through her body had her real arms shaking. And he just... got back up from that almost like it was nothing?! The hell is this guy? Looking back at Yohan, she found him, wide eyed in pain, she realized, at least in part, the severity of such a power. "H-hey, you alright? We gotta keep it together," she stammers, before looking back at Ricky, darkness gathering in his hand, ready to shoot again. "It didn't just do nothing, right? Um... I mean, even if he don't feel pain, it still did damage, right? Well, um," she mutters back to Yohan, quickly turning her head left and right for something, anything!

With what would be both a bold and stupid move, she steps between the two and readies her arms to continue to put up a fight, clicking their joints aggressively. "Alright, so you can project pain through that gun of yours, aye nut-job? Any pain? Like uh, immolation? Scary stuff!" She says, though her voice cracks a bit. At this point she was trying to bide for time.

Yohan felt the pain in his arm, his body shaking violently now as Ricky's Dominion proved to be too much for even him. He couldn't really move now, his power of Sound had gone, Saiph was unable to help him stop the pain and Ricky was preparing to do more bad things. He couldn't just die here, could he? He felt it closing in on him. His eyes hazy as everything around him started to distort, his mind fading in and out as he could only think of one thing. His parents. He failed them, even when this guy could of been involved somehow. How could this have happened...?

That's when Yohan began to think back, a car destroyed, his father's body laying nearby, and shadowy figures surrounding him. He was just a small boy, hurt, in pain of the loss of his father and now about to die himself. The flames from the car wreck could be heard, it almost was too real to believe it was gone. He couldn't see his mother anywhere, they were preparing to stab him through. His eyes closed to the world around him, at that moment, something came to his attention.

"Richter? Richter!" A feminine voice rung out. It was tinged with despair, but it soon turned to panic with the next words. "Hey! What the- Yohan! Yohan, honey, hang on!" The voice was growing closer. "Yohan, you have to get up, we have to go!" The woman started to reach for him, fighting off the shadowy figures. "Come on, hon, you can't be-!"

Yohan heard the voice. The voice of his mother. Tears ran faster down his face, his fists tightening as he didn't know what to do now. He sniffled loudly, he wanted to call out to her, but the shadowy figures might kill her. "Just give up." A voice began to run through his mind. "Open the door. Open it now. Let yourself be free." It kept calling to them, but only he alone could hear it. Was he hearing it now, or in his memory? He couldn't tell. "Let's kill them all. Kill them here and now! Unleash that rage! That hatred! Let your malice shine brightly and slaughter them like pigs!"

His mother grabbed him and picked him up gently. "Come on sweetie, you can do it. Please just breathe..." Yohan could feel himself starting to get warm, but would it really be enough? "I can't lose you too...Yohan, look at me, it'll all be okay. I'm here...just come back!" That's right, he remembered now. This memory, how could he have forgotten?! He felt so dumb right now, he just wanted to... A fist came flying in and punched him right across the face, his own right hand had done it. So what if he didn't have the scaly arm anymore?! He had to remember what his father always told him!

"It's time for us to give up." Rina's demon appeared before him. "Our fate ends here. Let him shoot you right in the head, let it all end here and now." Rina's demon started to tap it's own head. "This is what we've waited for all along, hasn't it? To end our own life? Why would you deny a perfect opportunity like this? He has the power to kill you with one shot, and it wouldn't even be a real bullet that did it! A quick and painless death! You don't have to go through the trouble of killing yourself now, let it all end here and no one will be ever the wiser to it!"

"I refuse!" Yohan shouted out suddenly, causing Rina's demon to stop and almost give him some kind of glare. Half of it's face began to crack and shatter, revealing some kind of primal face underneath it. The right side of it began to scream out at him now. "I completely forgot how selfish it is to just die and leave everyone I know and love become miserable for it! I've been so blind to the truth all this time!" Yohan pointed to the demon. "You aren't real! You no longer have any power over me! Get out! Leave me alone and go back to where you belong, as a memory!"

"FOOLISH CHILD!" The voice shifted now, the form changing and ripping apart as it began to reform into another shape. "I have always had control! Give in to me! Resistance is futile, brat! I will have the door open for good this time! I will be free!" A twisted, malformed hand began to reach out to him. "Just die already! I've had enough playing games with you! Just die already, die, die, die! DIE ALREADY!!! LET ME BE FREE!!! I! MUST! BE! FREE!!!"

"GET OVER YOURSELF!" Yohan shouted out. The hand stopped as cracks began to form along it, a shriek of terror coming out of the misshapen demon. "You are me, but I am also you. Is that how it goes? Do you represent my inner desire to die? My depression I've had? The part of me that just wants to give up? I don't need you controlling me anymore!" Yohan took a step forward, his eyes glowing purple for a second. "BEGONE!" The demon let out one final yell before bursting into pieces, the pieces fading away into dust as Yohan felt out of breath suddenly. "And stay out!" He let out aggressively, holding a hand to his chest to try to calm himself down after that.

Ricky glared over at Saiph as she stepped forward, what was she thinking trying to stand up to him when she just saw his power? He aimed the gun right at her. "One shot of my Payne bullets through the head ought to do the trick, wouldn't you agree?" Ricky gave her a terrifying smirk. "I don't care what you are, you still must have a pretty little brain up there. Wouldn't it be just terrible for you to have it all end here? Ha! You two will be an example to the others! The start of my slaughter campaign across the backwater town! No one is safe from my wrath! After you two are dead, I'm killing those stupid friends of your outside! Putting a bullet through each and every one of them for being dumb!"

"Shut up!" Yohan shouted out, causing Ricky to look over at him and aim the gun back at him. "You know what? I finally get it. You aren't scary, you are just power crazy! What did you think, making those wishes would make your life better? You don't NEED to make wishes to make your life better, YOU can make your life better! Stop being a little child already! Look at you, you aren't even fully human anymore! You want someone to kill first? Aim that gun at yourself first and feel the pain you give others before you go shooting them at others!"

"How dare you!" Ricky stomped his left foot on the ground, causing it to slightly crack up. "I got one wish left, I could just use it right now! You know what?! I think I'll do just that! Djinn! Get over here!" Without a second, the Djinn in all of his smokey form was there among them, already having his arms crossed and staring with a bored expression at Ricky. "I have a third wish to make, you better grant it this time, you smoke filled demon!"

"Fine, but first, you must amuse me." As The Djinn and Ricky began to bicker, Yohan began to channel power throughout his whole body. This was his only shot, he had agitated Ricky on purpose just for this moment, it was now or never! He only hoped Saiph wouldn't get herself in harms way as he did so! The Djinn took out a pair of glasses and put them on Ricky before smirking. "You know what to do!"

"Ugh. Fine." Ricky groaned, putting a finger up to the side of his head. "The bum of the bare roots of any two hides of an ice cream truck is equal to the to the bare root of the remaining side." The Djinn just stared unamused at how Ricky screwed up the joke, quickly smacking him across the face and shattering the glasses in the process.

"First off, that's a right triangle, you idiot! And secondly, you messed up the bloody line! We went over this multiple times, and you still can't even remember all the words and what they mean! God!" The Djinn threw up his arms and groaned. "Whatever. Make the third wish and do whatever." The Djinn rolled his eyes and mumbled to himself. "Can't believe I wasted hours of my time trying to get this joke down for this moment, only for this moron to screw it up anyway."

"Whatever! It was stupid anyway! I have my third wish, you idiot! I want to be strong enough to kill both of them!" Ricky shouted, not caring how stupid the wish sounded right now. The Djinn looked over to Ricky and gave a slow forming of a smirk, snapping his fingers as the red on the finger on Ricky's left hand suddenly crumbled away. "H-hey! What are you doing!? That was where the ring was, right?! You put that in me so I wouldn't lose you, so what are you doing?!"

"That's three official wishes." The Djinn couldn't help but laugh, pushing Ricky with enough force to send him suddenly flying back. Watching Ricky crash into one of the walls, The Djinn turned to the other two as his eyes glowed yellow. "At last, I am free! Free from that insolent fool and his stupid ring of torment! I've waited a hundred years for this freedom, and now, you two will be my victims before I leave this stupid town forever! It's just a matter of..." The Djinn stopped as a bright light began to radiate off of Yohan. "What the devil?!"

Yohan's Other Side outfit returned to him, his purple aura bursting forth around him as he let out a loud scream as the roof of the building suddenly busted open without warning, The Djinn noticing this as his eyes widened while he looked up. He looked back to Yohan and narrowed his eyes, spreading out his arms to his sides as multiple arms began to form, just like Ricky's hand aura had before. "Right, I don't know what's going on with you, kid. But I don't like it, and I don't like any risks to my master plan. Sorry, but you will have to die first before that power becomes a big problem!"

Saiph's lenses flicker for a bit, and head tilts her head at what just happened, did Ricky just get kicked out of the fight by his own comrade? Looking up at the busted open ceiling then back at Yohan her, she rubs her hands together. Well, something awakened in him, something has changed, other than his outfit, that is for sure, just on exactly what was yet to be seen, but it was pretty big!

"Well, alright then, you certainly blew the roof off this joint!" she says with a laugh, her joke probably lost to the pressure. She snaps her attention back to the Djinn, though it was unreadable from her mask, she was grinning wide. It felt like the favor was turning once more onto them. "Between him going super, and well, me... oh, you are already knee deep in problems!" With this she readies herself to cover Yohan with whatever he was about to do.

Yohan slide down onto his hands and feet, sliding up into a runner's post as he stared down The Djinn. The Djinn couldn't help but grin. "I don't know what sound you plan to use on yourself, but it won't wo--" He is interrupted as Yohan suddenly vanished from his sight. "What?!" He looked around, but in an instant, he is suddenly knocked back from a large impact. By now, the Gateway was clear enough to show the others, if they had remained outside, what was going on inside with Yohan and Saiph. "What is this power?! No, it's not power, it's --" He is interrupted as Yohan appears behind him and sends the fastest punch he could into The Djinn, sending him flying again.

"It's speed!" Yohan shouted out, vanishing from sight again once he landed on his feet. The Djinn uses his multiple hands aura to stop himself, growling as he looked around as he tried to pinpoint Yohan's location. That's when Saiph leaped out of one of her portals near him and grabbed a hold of his head, wrapping her legs around his head as she quickly spun him around in the air a few times before launching him straight at Yohan. The Djinn couldn't believe this was happening to him, a being of a hundred years was suddenly being knocked around like a rookie by two brats!

The two had some sort of plan, but he didn't know what just yet. He managed to stop himself in the air as he floated there, until Yohan came crashing into him and sending him flying off again. One of Saiph's portals opened up in front of The Djinn and she popped out of it, knocking him into another portal as he went flying through it and came flying out of the other end. As he tried to slide himself to a halt, he is quickly knocked off again by Yohan, and when he tried to stop himself once more, he was knocked away by Saiph into another portal while he was spinning out of control, making him confused and never knowing where he was ending up before being launched and hit.

To the others watching this, they would see something they had never really seen before: A fast fight of furious blows being delivered by Saiph and Yohan, Yohan using his newfound Super Speed, and Saiph her portals and metal claws, to knock The Djinn around and keep throwing off his senses. The blows being exchanged by the two's surprising teamwork kept The Djinn from being able to launch a proper counterattack against either of them, the blows only getting faster and faster as smoke began to emit from The Djinn's body through cracks. Looking down upon himself, he realized this was going badly and stopped himself abruptly, stretching out his multiple hands in order to start striking at the two.

Now there were blows being exchanged from all three, in a flurry of blows and clashes, the fight suddenly got exciting and tense as objects started to go flying all over the place and breaking, the shock-waves could distantly even be heard outside the Gateway to the others as The Djinn began to move around, striking out with his hands against Yohan, having memorized his newfound speed by this point, while also keeping an eye out on Saiph's portal jumping. It was annoying to say the least, but he was The Djinn, he could handle any situation. This was nothing compared to what had experienced before! Just when he thought that, Saiph wasn't where she was suppose to be, and his eyes widened to feel her strike into the back of his head from behind!

"Damn!" He shouted out, as tiny cracks burst upon his head and smoke came out. "I can't maintain this physical form for long!" He growled as he grabbed hold of one of the crates to stop himself from moving around anymore. "She tricked me! She knew I was memorizing her portal patterns, and redirected herself to jump me by surprise! But then that means --" He is interrupted once more as Yohan came flying out at him, only for The Djinn to barely dodge it this time. "Nice try! It won't work twice!" But as he said this, he saw something that truly horrified him. One of Saiph's portals, with her beside it, giving him some kind of two finger salute gesture from her head, as Yohan slipped into the portal. Oh crap!

He knew Yohan had emerged behind him, yet there was nothing he could do about it, as his body was grabbed by Yohan and spun around before being crashed into the ground and a large crack split open on his chest. He growled and his hands grabbed hold of Yohan, only for Yohan to throw him off and into one of the large crates. Letting out a loud grunt, his multiple hands grabbed hold of the crate and lifted it up, throwing it at Yohan as one of Saiph's portals opened up and caught it before it could hit Yohan, the large crate now crashing down on The Djinn and breaking apart over him as it did so. Erupting up from the debris of the large crate with a loud and angry roar, his legs broken now and returning to a more smokey form, he gathered up all of his hands into his remaining physical body as he seemed to be empowering himself.

"Right, you are both DEAD!" He shouted out, hovering his way quickly over towards Yohan as he pulled back both his hands. That's when he felt his speed slowing down, his eyes widening to see Yohan smirk and realize he had been messing with him all along. "You... I'll kill you for --" Before The Djinn could finish, one of Saiph's portals opened up before him and Yohan gave a punch to The Djinn's face, sending him flying in. That's when Saiph opened up multiple portals over the area, and as The Djinn emerged out of one of them, he saw this and quickly connected the dots. However, it was too late for him to stop what was about to happen, and his body ended up speeding up out of control.

With a loud scream that was almost muffled by the portals, The Djinn began to race through each of the portals, gaining more speed as he did so, zooming all over the area now as he couldn't stop the growing speed he was gaining thanks to Saiph's portals. However, portals soon began to close one by one until there were only two left. The Djinn saw this and smirked to himself, thinking she must of started to strain by having done that. Although he was moving too fast to stop himself fully now, he would make sure to send himself flying towards that stupid rabbit girl and end her life with a sudden crash! Once one of the last two portals closed, he forced himself to change direction and head straight for Saiph. "You're mine!"

However, he was shocked to see Yohan and Saiph standing side by side, drawing a fist each back, as he could see both of their fists starting to shake faster as time passed. "W-wait! Stop! We can work this out!" He shouted out in a high-pitched speedy tone, but it was too late. Both of them ended up shouting out and both punched The Djinn in the face at the same time. The Djinn could feel himself stop briefly, as if time had stopped just for this instant to let him know he was screwed, before he felt a speed like never before flood his body and send him skyrocketing out of the building's hole where the roof once was, leaving only a smokey trail behind. With a last and fading scream, The Djinn could only curse both of the brats as his physical body broke away thanks to the overpowering speed they had transferred into him before flying over the ruined town Kogo and the others were currently in before flying off so fast into the distance that you'd swear he was just a twinkling star if you even blinked!

Back with Saiph and Yohan, Saiph took a deep breath and sighed, her body ached some from the exertion, but something else welled up inside, barely containing her snickering. "W-we totally just blasted off a being that could perform like, the impossible," she says, cracking out in laughter, so hard that she ends up holding her ribs. "Ow, and t-the look on his face~! Priceless~!" she howls. She then takes in a another deep breath through her nose, slaps her hands on her knees, and stands up straight trying to regain her composure. She withdraws her metal claw from her right hand, holding out a more human looking gloved hand instead to Yohan, and grips it into a fist. "Boom?" she says.

Yohan let out a sigh of his own. He looked himself over, smoke wouldn't stop coming off of his body now, and he could see some of his body was red. His outfit was even messed up from doing all of that so fast. He didn't care though. That Djinn, whatever it was, wouldn't be making a return anytime soon. She was right: They had just defeated a creature that could basically do the impossible. It could of been worse, but they had acted in time to stop him from doing anything worse than what he could of done. Looking over to see her hold out a glove, he couldn't help but smile upon seeing her turn it into a fist. He gave her a big stupid smile and lightly bumped one of his injured fists into hers. That's when he grabbed hold of her shoulder and pulled her into a hug, he couldn't stop himself from laughing as he partially used her for support to keep standing. "Ow, I hurt all over." He managed to say, yet the injuries looked worse than he was letting on.

Just as he said this, however, they both could hear a sudden explosion nearby. Looking over to the scene, they could both see Ricky slowly walking forward, the demon part of his body now breaking away to reveal the human side underneath it. Blood ran down from his body partially, but nothing he wouldn't majorly suffer from right now. "You two..." He spoke out, pointing his finger slowly at them, now with a dark expression of death on his face. "Are so dead for this." He brought up both fists and slammed them together, glaring at them both as they could see his jacket completely torn off. "I don't need The Djinn to finish the both of you! I still have power left in this body! I can still win!"

"Lets see here...Have to make sure the colour is right and all the proportions are correct..." Frederick spoke to himself as he was drawing...someone. He was moving everywhere, laying on his back, standing on a car to work on the figures head, bending in many different angles to work on his drawing or more appropriately a figurine.

He had saw Saiph charge into the portal, brave bunny girl he had to admit. Although Yohan was alive, of course if he was they all be dead because of the chess rules that if the king died you lose the game. But no need to think on that, the portal could still be a trap even with...what was his face guarding it?...

Eh...who cared...he was the villain and the enemy. He tried to kill them for goodness sakes! Once someone tried to kill you then ain't no room for liking them. Now where was he? Oh yeah his drawing!

It took him a while, and he probaly missed the epic into for a fight. But he was putting the final colour on the figure. But he drew him!



Hey! This power was cool. Now he can draw whenever he felt like it! With his arms crossed he nodded at his work. Well he did good. "How long do you plan to marvel at my appearance mortal? Well, its to be expected when one gazes upon me!" The figure spoke as he laughed.

What? Did his drawing speak? Holy Mikey! He just drew him! And it is actually alive! This power was amazing! Wait a second...if that was the case then...oh...he just summoned a very arrogant person. And powerful!

"Amazing! I know you! Your cool and amazing! I am proud to---" "Yes, yes. You can stop praising me. Since you summoned me I will let you witness my power." The figure waved him off as he grabbed afrederick and began to drag him to the portal.

"Wait...The enemy is in there! It's like an obvious trap!" Frederick warned as the figure kept walking with a laugh. "Then, I shall elimate one of the masters to get much closer to my goal."

"Wait! That does not even!---" Frederick tried to speak until he was pulled through the portal. With one last voice in his head. "Oh my...Already ditching me for someone else? Such a cruel man. Using your knowledge on such childish cartoons to fight...Are you really a adult?"

Ricky's breathing had grown heavy, he had just been back-stabbed by the only real ally he could trust to take care of anything he couldn't. Yesterday, he was but a nobody, a common loser among the pile of ever growing garbage. This world was filth, he had seen that early on within his life. Could he trust his own family? No, he didn't need them anymore to rely upon, so he turned his back on them! What about the gang he had been part of? Screw them! He killed them all anyway, the ones who he had spared looked to have fled anyway. Miserable cowards, the moment they were done they turned tail and didn't even bother to come back to help him! Especially since these two had a really annoying combination to them!

That's when he heard something, his eyes widening as he could feel pressure building up inside of him. He looked over to see two more people coming in! WHAT?! More people?! What was this, he thought everyone else had ditched, but now here was the annoying janitor guy with some golden flashy dude! This was nonsense, he wasn't good fighting alone multiple people! His heart rate started to increase, he could feel all the remaining demon parts he had left break away to reveal the sad human form he had. "No..." Ricky fell to his knees, putting his hands up to his face. "I can't... Do this..." His body starts to shake as his teeth could be heard chattering behind his hands. "I... I don't want to do this alone. I can't... Handle this alone."

Ricky's body began to sweat, his heart rate increasing and making a fearful sound he could feel pounding within his own bloody head! He felt his mind going all over the place, his hands gripping his face tightly as he just wanted it all to stop! Make it stop, make it stop, make it STOP!!! "I GIVE UP!!! I WANT THEM ALL TO DIE!!!" Ricky screamed at the top of his lungs! "GIVE ME THE POWER TO DO THIS!!!" It all fell silent for a moment, though it would feel like an eternity with how long Ricky seemed to suddenly stop moving. That's when they all started to hear a heartbeat. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. It grew louder over time as Ricky's body began to twitch with every beat they heard. Slowly, he began to rise up to his feet, as if being controlled by someone. That's when the red aura started to manifest itself within his eyes and around himself. They could all hear a sinister cackle begin to grow louder.

"Wish granted, Ricky. The door has been opened, and now, Malice takes hold of you and this town!" Red cracks begin to manifest around the building, the red aura engulfing Ricky within it as the voice turned into a loud shriek! The floor beneath them transformed into some kind of red mush like structure. The walls began to have some red liquid melting over them, as eyeballs began to pop up all over the building's walls. The hole transformed into some kind of mouth that only grinned horrible fangs at them, with rows upon rows of teeth being seen. Tentacles began to burst forth all over the place, slamming down wherever they could and destroying any object they could. Even the sky itself could no longer be visible, covered with some kind of red color that would seem to be unusual, not even the blue moon was visible through it to them.

"Humanity is weak." The voice called out, but now with Ricky's own voice coming through. The red aura began to fade to reveal Ricky, but now in some kind of armor. His eyes only glowing red, as the red aura completely faded away. Two large machine guns formed within Ricky's hands, as the voice continued. "I am Malice. I am truth, I am justice, I am human. I will now fulfill my end of the bargain, and engulf Timberland as the first example of humanity's future!" That's when everyone could feel some small pain within their bodies, Malice Ricky remaining unmoving from his spot as he aimed one gun at Saiph and Yohan's direction, while aiming the other at Frederick and Gilgamesh's direction. For whatever reason, Gilgamesh was the only one unaffected by the pain the others could feel right now.



Frederick clenched his stomach as though he had a small stomach ache. He could feel a small pain in his body for some weird reason. Oh, maybe it was because the person in front of them went into full blown insanity. Of course the man by his side kept an easy and firm grip on him as he looked at Frederick and chuckled. "Even with your power to summon me you still succumb to whatever is going on here?" He spoke as he looked around the room. Bringing Frederick up to look around so he does not have to explain things to him.

The sight was disturbing to say the least. Almost straight from those RPG horror games Frederick has played before. The walls and floor was turning into a flesh like substance. The walls had eyes and the hole suddenly grew fangs. For Frederick this was freaky as heck! There were even massive tendrils forming on the walls and..."Its gonna hit us!" Frederick pointed as one of the tendrils was about to smash both him and the figure.

The golden man simply laughed as a portal manifested itself behind him and with a snap of his fingers a spear was flung out from it to impale the tentacle. Of course the threat of the weapons pointed at him posed a threat. Simple enough the golden man though. "Does he think to oppose me? Prepare to witness true power mongrel! You face I the king of Uruk! Gilgamesh! Kneel before me and die!" He spoke with a arrogant smirk on his face.

A human thinking he could oppose him? This would be easier than he thought. Of course as he nodded his head to use his power. He had expected a wall of portals to appear behind him...but only a meager few only showed up. What was this? He should have a wall of weapons thrown at the human and instead he only could muster up this?

No, something was up with this. However there was no time to think. If his powers were being limited than he had to make due. Dragging Frederick from his stunned stupor.

He sent forth three weapons at the armor wearing, machine gun using human. A combination of swords and pole arms before running with a screaming Frederick on his shoulder. Standing still was a foolish mistake. Especially now that he knew that he might be weaker for some reason.

Saiph steps back, nearly stumbling, as she was clearly taken by surprise, as things have seemingly went to literal hell. Looking down she watched how the surge of magic twisted and gnarled the place, infecting it. Looking back up she found herself facing the barrel of a large gun. Was this the effect of his final wish? But they defeated the Djinn, it should have been nullified along with his demonic power! This was not Ricky anymore, it was a vessel to something that shouldn't be here... but...

Before she could formulate a plan, some golden warrior dragging Frederick along bursts through, and starts attacking the growths now flooding the place. Before she knew it, the man cries out a challenge the... Malice Ricky, like some video game or anime hero. It took her a moment to realize the man was a pure magical being, was this the nature of Frederick's power? Before she knew it though, the man charged forward with Fred in tow!

"What?! No no no! Don't get close to him, and don't stay in his sights!" she yells, grabbing hold of Yohan and scrambling to the side in an effort to get out of the aim of the guns. "His dominion... Payne... he is radiating it like a flame, he doesn't even need to channel it anymore! If you get too close..!"

"Too late for that." Malice Ricky spoke out, the machine guns opened fire. Luckily for Frederick, the machine gun was firing off at Gilgamesh, not himself. Yohan had been stunned by what was going on around them, when hew as suddenly pulled to the side by Saiph as the machine aiming at them opened fire. It was horrifying, to say the least. Nothing about yesterday or today would have prepared him for whatever this was. Malice, it said? The door? This all sounded familiar to him, but why was he not fully understanding why it was important?

As Gilgamesh pulled Frederick in closer towards Malice Ricky, the pain within Frederick began to rise up like a tide, the pain quickly expanding more throughout his body the more he got closer to Malice Ricky. "Payne? That was the old Dominion. With that third wish, and my power coming in, it is now Max Payne!" As the weapons hit the armor, the red eyes of Malice Ricky shifted over slowly towards them, raising up his left arm as the weapons rose up into the air as well. With a simple motion of the arm, the weapons burst and scattered until nothing remained. "It appears I have also found your weakness. You appear to be able to create constructs, yet you do not even realize the constructs are a part of your power. The more pain you feel from Max Payne, the more your concentration is divided. Without that focus, your constructs power also weakens."

The eyes then shifted over towards Yohan and Saiph's direction. "As for you two... You appear to be too smart to allow to live. You have already figured out one of Max Payne's abilities. You are correct, Max Payne no longer needs to be restricted to just physical contact or weapons. I now hold an area, with my body being the center for it. The closer you are to me, the more pain you will feel. Unless, of course, you are a magical construct of someone's powers. Ah well, I'll destroy you along with the brats." With the red eyes narrowing, Yohan could feel himself beginning to sink down into the new floor structure.

"Let's do a little test, shall we little rabbit?~ You appear to have some form of care over both of these individuals, however, who will you choose to help? The man approaching me now, or the boy I am submerging? Making the wrong choice will cost you dearly." The voice couldn't help but chuckle in delight of the situation. "You must have also figured out that my guns are unusual." The machine guns both now shifted over towards Frederick's direction and began to open fire! "Ah-hahaha! Let your blood be the first to be spilled! Soon all of Timberland will be at my mercy!~"

Frederick called out in Pain as Gilgamesh dragged him closer. The bullets from the machine guns, crude human inventions were actually putting holes in his armor! However, it was when he explained that if Frederick was in pain then he himself would be weakened as a result. If that was the case...If Frederick was weak he was weak.

So putting both together as long as he stayed away from the man he could fight much better and unhindered. Of course, it would have been much better if he realized this sooner. Especially now that the man who summoned him was in the cross-hairs.

Choices to make, with very little time. No need to waste time. Turning around to Face Frederick, Gilgamesh lifted him up and with as much force as he could muster kicked him in a way that he would fly behind him. A spartan kick. Sure, that must have hurt a lot Judging by the sound of Frederick yelling loudly in pain but he had no time to waste. He was in the path of the bullets, but if his hunch was correct. That means the distance between him and the aura was good enough to the point where he could resist the bullets.

Of course, it was this or his guaranteed death if the man died. And he rather not get killed and wait an eternity once again to be called upon.

"Eh, well that is... agh, gross!" Saiph looked back at Yohan, the weird structure of the place was somehow now... eating him!? As if it wasn't twisted enough! And now that thing wearing Ricky's skin, Malice it called itself, it was smarter in ways, trying to toy with her with an ultimatum. Choose to save Yohan or to save Frederick. But, as if her previous words were heard, she saw Frederick soaring like a bird. She simply laughed, creating a portal to catch him, and land him behind some crates. There was a tinge of a pain in her skull, but she kept on, reaching around and pulling at Yohan with one hand, and trying to pry the weird slimy floor open with the other. "I gotcha, dawg, no way am I leaving you as mimic chow!"

"Looks like the choice was made for me, not like there was one to begin with," she admits, looking back at Malice Ricky. "And you... with all that power, and that Max Payne... wait... that sounds familiar. How's... that vessel of yours handling..? Especially without Djinn..?"

He hasn't moved since this all started, at first she thought it was taunting them, that he didn't have to budge to destroy them, but now it felt more like there was something else at work here. It was raw power, he never specified a limit, it was perhaps even too much power for a human body to handle! It was tragic for Ricky, but there was no way this could maintain itself for too long, especially with Djinn now out of the picture. Still, it felt like an eternity as the pain in her body was not subsiding. For now, though, she had to pull Yohan free, and keep moving, as attacking head on for either of them would be a death wish.

Yohan was surprised when she grabbed hold of him and began to pull. Yeah, it hurt on top of the pain he was normally feeling, but it was enough to pull him free and he stumbles with her before collapsing down. "Ugh. I'm okay." He stated, though as he got up, he looked over to see where Frederick was now lying. "This thing, whatever it is... It's not natural." He stated the obvious, however, he continued regardless. "Everyone has a door inside of them? That's a scary thought. To know that at any moment, even someone like Ricky can turn into a monster. That should pressure on me to back down, in fact, it should utterly make me want to run away from all of this." That's when Yohan's hands tightened into fists.

"But I won't. It's done just the opposite for me." Yohan slowly looked up at Malice Ricky's direction. "I can feel it in my body. The pain you are emitting... It's not complete, is it? If that's the case..." Yohan's legs started to shake. "THEN I'LL GIVE IT MY ALL!" Without another word, Yohan vanished from view. Malice Ricky couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Using your speed against me?! How foolish!" Malice Ricky shouted with glee. "All you will do is further your own death, and the deaths of your friends! It's time you learned the painful way of how life worked!" But as Malice Ricky said this, a noise began to grow louder in the background. He noticed it too, for he turned to look... To see one of the crates flying in at charging speeds! Malice Ricky was caught off guard by this, but shot at it anyway and tore it into pieces, with only some of them hitting him and breaking off some of his armor.

"What was that? The best you could do? Please. Try harder in the next life!" But that's when Malice Ricky saw Yohan appear in front of him, and for a few seconds, everything had slowed down to a crawl as the red eyes widened in surprise. Yohan's right leg came soaring out fast as a bullet, knocking into the side of Ricky's head before sending his body flailing into the wall behind him. Yohan manages to land on his feet, collapsing down to a knee afterword as he could feel the overwhelming pain beginning to crush down on his body. As if that wasn't enough, Malice Ricky pulled itself out from the wall it had gotten thrown into, letting out a low hiss as those red eyes glared at him.

"Did you really think that was a wise idea? Do you know the amount of pain your friends must be feeling because of you?" Malice Ricky couldn't help but erupt into a sinister laugh as he approached Yohan. "Feel the pain. Feel the death approaching." Malice Ricky aimed his guns straight for Yohan. "EMBRACE DEATH!" But Malice Ricky didn't fire, noticing something was wrong as he aimed his guns at Yohan's direction. His arms were... Shaking? What was going on? He couldn't focus, but wait, that meant... "No! NO! NOOOO!!!!" Malice Ricky shouted out with such fury, as his entire body began to vibrate at increasing speeds, unable to control himself fully now. The pain everyone felt subsided down to a minimal effect now, as Yohan couldn't help but grin.

"I knew it. So that's another ability, is it? You can negate any pain you receive, so no matter how many times we knock you down, you'll just get back up as if it never happened, right? Too bad. Had you been able to feel pain, you would of noticed sooner my super speed taking effect on your body. You might of thought that kick was weaker than it should of been, but I only held back to make sure the transfer would go off without fail." Yohan stands up slowly to his feet as cracks begin to form all over Malice Ricky's armor. "I've also noticed you've been unable to move. Though you can negate pain, it seems you can't move that fast. You just showed me how slow you really can move around in that armor. Looks like opening that door wasn't all it was cracked up to be, was it? Too bad. Had you stayed as just Ricky, you might of actually been able to deal some damage. Looks like that's never going to happen now, since your time is almost up!"

"HOW DARE YOU!!!" Malice Ricky shouted, now with the most fury they ever heard come out of him. His two guns vanished and arms began to force themselves out of the eyes, out of the tentacles, and even out of the ground, all to aim guns which had lights on them. All of the red lights directed themselves upon Yohan, as he stood there and closed his eyes with a small smile now. "YOU ARE DEAD! DEAD!! DEAD!!! KILL HIM, KILL HIM, KILL HIM!!!!" All of the arms began to open fire at Yohan without a second thought, only obeying Malice Ricky without a second thought. But the boy was right, his time was running short now, and his concentration was screwed up with it! Damn him! He figured out that applied to him as well from what he told Frederick, didn't he?! It didn't matter, they would all be crushed before this was over, he'd give it all he got now!

Frederick slowly dragged himself up from behind a small stack of crates, the pain from that aura now gone. Only the pain from his gut was left but compared to that aura this was like...better. It still sucked. What was the big idea kicking him like that!?...oh wait, he remembered what that figure said about him weakening his magical construct or whatever he called it.

Gilgamesh did it to save the both of them! How considerate! Of course he decided to keep his head down with more bullets flying! Would crates even provide good cover!?

For Gilgamesh, he chuckled to himself as Malice Ricky was focused on the kid. He could feel more power than before no doubt thanks to Frederick's safety of course. Not only did he feel stronger, it was as if his body was stronger as well. He would make sure to keep a mental note of this. Of course he could care less about injuring him himself. He just got in the way and needed him out of it quickly.

Of course he would not let this opportunity slip by him. A fully distracted person blinded by rage? Possibly not aware of his surroundings. With a smirk four portals appeared behind him and with a snap of his fingers more swords and spears flung right for him with just a bit more speed, and much more power than before. Of course this pales in comparison to his real power.

With Frederick now not in constant pain, he could feel his magical link to him strengthen. Now he could fight without much worry....as long as his 'master' did not get into trouble.

Saiph felt the fluctuation in power, the drop in pain, it was true, it was never meant to last. At first she was afraid of Yohan getting in that close, but after the apparent damage Malice Ricky received from the fury of the boy's attacks showed that fear was no longer necessary. Max Payne was decaying quickly, and and now he was absolutely fixated on Yohan. It was time to finally put an end to this.

Reaching up, pushing in buttons on the sides of her helmet, the lights of the lenses fade, removing the filter they provide, she was soon flooded with visions of space in its nausea-inducing entirety. With apparent strain, her arms shaking, her legs wobbly, she creates multiple portals around Yohan, absorbing the hail of bullets. The other end of these portals however, surrounded none other than Malice Ricky himself!

Malice Ricky was caught off guard by the portals appearing around Yohan, in his anger he had completely forgotten about them. It was clear Malice was no longer really in control, but good old Ricky again. Though the fun had lasted for only a little bit, the good times for Ricky were over. As the portals opened up and surrounded him, making it impossible for him to even consider escaping, Malice Ricky's eyes widened before all the bullets came flying in and hit him all at once, making a cloud of smoke appear over where he stood. All was silent for a while, and then, the building began to flicker.

It was though they were in some kind of glitch, the flickering only getting faster with the things Malice had brought over unable to even move now. It didn't take long for the flickering to stop completely, with the building now back to normal. Although almost all of the items within it had been destroyed, the building itself somehow remained in tact. Once again, the dark green sky shined over them, with the blue moon hanging over within it. The tension was too real, was it finally over, had that finished off Ricky? But of course, Yohan knew better than to assume so quickly. This was a guy who had done nothing but kept throwing himself back in the fight. Who knows what more surprises this guy had in store for them tonight.

As the smoke faded away, blood could be seen dripping on the floor in large quantities now. With an unsteady sigh, Ricky stood with blood dripping down most of his gunshot wounds. The armor was completely shattered though, it was all too clear that Malice was gone. How much time had truly passed in that space of Malice's? No one could really tell. However, that's when light started to fill in through the hole. Yohan looked up to see the sky having changed now. Apparently time had caught back up with their location, as he could see the sun now rising to make the dark green sky just now normal green. Yohan let out a sigh in relief, the light comforting to him through all the horrors they had just went through. But it wasn't over yet. Not while Ricky still remained conscious.

Ricky, on the other hand, was going through pain more than he ever had in his life. Despite still being alive and standing, he could feel Malice's influence gone now from his body. The Djinn's wishing side effects were starting to kick in, he could feel his brain dropping from the quality it once had. He could feel his body beginning to unravel as the side effects of the quickened experiment with The Black was ruining his body. He could feel his muscles practically screaming as they were being reduced. His pain had never felt greater than this one moment as smoke rose from his body. He glared over at Yohan, his eyes twitching as he forced himself to stay awake despite everything catching up to him.

"Why...? Why you do this?" Ricky spoke, his tone completely different from before. Now instead of the cocky hothead he had once been, he sounded more akin to that of a child with an adult's voice. It was clear that his brain would never fully recover from this experience if he should survive. Ricky took the most painful step forward with his left foot that he ever had to, the leg shaking from the dramatic pain that coursed throughout his body now. His entire body was shaking in pain, it was a pitiful sight to watch. "Why you take from me? Why you ruin fun? Why...?" Ricky gasped for breath, the only eye forced open was the left one. The blood dripping down from the right side of his face caused him to close up the right eye. "I am alpha. I am best. I... Am... Ticky."

Frederick crawled from his cover as things seemed to return to normal. Of course, what was left was a very bloody Ricky. It seemed that this was the climax, the final words of the villain they say. He sorta felt bad, the kid looked like hell. Must have been in lots of pain. But of course he did try to murder them so he did not feel really bad. But he still felt bad.

Of course, his pal was not a very forgiving sort. "Pathetic, you were no alpha. Just a sad excuse for a human that thought with a small bit of power you could accomplish what I had tried once before. But this is a fitting end for a mongrel like yourself. Slowly bleeding out alone. Honestly, most humans are pathetic. So a pathetic end is what a mongrel like you deserves." Gilgamesh spoke as he glanced over at Yohan and waved his hand. "It might be better for you to simply kill him like the dog he is. No need to waste any more time."

Frederick was about to voice his opposition however. That was cold! I mean he did summon someone like that so it was to be expected...but still killing him was going too far...but of course he is Probably in a lot of pain as well...Shoot, he was not sure what to say now.

With shaking hands, the rabbit girl reaches up, crawling her actual hands over her helmet, and presses the switches turning back on the filters. She spends a moment to catch her breath, her mechanical claws having fallen limp to her sides. Then she looked up at the bloody mess of Ricky, or at least the ruins of what was once Rick. Even though there was little choice given, something, a feeling, sunk deep inside her. She had been feeling a number of those rather often lately.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," she mutters, knowing such would not be granted. Her mind raced, which was rather painful now. His mind was failing, his words growing more and more simple, nearing incoherence. As horrible of a person he may have been, to see him reduced to... this, was it maybe still too inhumane? Fitting, she questioned to herself, after hearing the construct's speech. Was it right to judge someone who's mind was rapidly failing? It just felt... miserable.

"He's met with a terrible fate, hasn't he?" Maddy says, face right next to Saiph's. Naturally, nobody but her could see or hear this giant rabbit creature. "It is true what they say, the light that shines twice as bright, burns only half as long. Tsk, tsk."

"W-what do we do with... him? He's... broken," Saiph says, trying not to look at the dulling in Ricky's eyes, glancing over at Maddy instead, who taps their fingers together rhythmically, shifting eyes left and right like an old kit-cat clock. For a moment she raises up her right mechanical claw, aiming the sharp nails towards Ricky, but with a sigh she drops the claw back down and hangs her head, rubbing the back of her neck. "Heh... I can't, it just don't seem... right, y'know?"

Ricky growled at the pity they were giving him, even if he didn't know what the actual word meant anymore. He tightened his hands into fists tightly, a menacing red aura surrounding him as he lets out a very painful yell, but still, the effect was done. The bullets burst out of his wounds, now shattered and falling around him in pieces. His body moves in strange ways as the wounds begin to close themselves up, the bleeding even stopping as he gave them all a very sinister smirk as smoke rose from the parts of his body that had been painfully shut.

"So this is Max Payne when you want to use it on yourself, huh?" Yohan spoke up, for some reason not addressing the others at the moment. "Must hurt, huh? You probably did it by instinct before that Malice thing wore off on you. How painful. You have given up everything, and yet, you still are willing to give up more just to fight a little longer?" Yohan shook his head side to side. "That's enough. I'm done fighting you. This fight was over long before you even knew it. You had a trap set up for me, right? I also had a trap set up for you. You didn't even see it coming."

But Ricky ignored Yohan's words, growling out like an animal would as he pulled out his remaining pistol and aimed it at Yohan's direction, the red aura continuing to flail around him. "I don't know how your Dominion fully works or if it can provide more. You've really fallen down into the deepest pit of despair, eh? You must hate everything right now, but you must hate me most right now since you have your focus on me." Yohan closed his eyes and let out an annoyed grunt. "You can't understand a word I'm saying, right? Or at least most of it. What's the point of getting words across." Yohan waved his right hand in the air at Ricky. "I'm done. I'm leaving. I don't care if you see it as a forfeit. It's over." Yohan turned his back to Ricky and began to walk slowly back to Saiph, it was obvious his body was in a lot of pain right now.

Ricky's eyes began to twitch as he saw Yohan walking away. What was this, was he still mocking him?! One of them was saying to just kill him, another had spoken a question about what to do with him. He wasn't trash, he knew that much for certain still! His gun began to shake violently in his hand as he glared at Yohan's back as it went further away from him. Who did he think he was, playing God in front of him! He ruled Timberland, he ran this town now, it was his to do with as he pleased! Including little snot nosed brats like you! There was no way the others were in any condition to stop him, he gained a grew big smirk on his face as he aimed right for Yohan's heart, oh this was going to be good! Even if he was to become an imbecile for the rest of his life, he didn't care! He had one shot, and this idiot just started to walk away! Yes, victory was his, at long last, Ricky would triumph and hold victory over something!

Ricky pulled the trigger, and as he did so, he saw the gun unleash a powerful blow! His jaw dropped as he saw the bullet go through, he actually did it! It was his turn to shine! The others must be pissing themselves right now with fear, yes, yes, yes!!! Ricky's eyes widened and had an unspeakable fire burning within them! He could at long last... At long last.... Last...? Something was off. As reality returned to him, he realized something terrible had happened. He was falling...? Why was he falling down now? No, this can't be right, he had seen the bullet go through, didn't he?! What was going on, why was he falling, where was he right now?!?!

As Ricky's body collapses on the floor, he feels his body growing cold as he could only stare up at the hole to see light coming down on him. Why was he here? He had won, right?! His eyes were growing heavy on him, it was annoying to keep them open for much longer, but he just had to know! He felt his breathing slowing down, his vision was fading on him. Curses to this body, curse it to the pits! He began to reach an arm up slowly to the hole, but as he did so, he felt his body growing too heavy to even move. It was too much of a pain now. One final breath escaped his lips and his arm falls flat right now to him. It was time to just put it all behind him now.

In reality, however, things had gone differently than Ricky had thought. Yohan heard Ricky let out some kind of crazy screech of joy, his eyes widening with fear as he turned over to see Ricky aiming the gun right for him! Oh, shoot! He was way too fatigued and had overused his body with his new super speed too much to be able to dodge this one! As Ricky pulled the trigger, something unusual happened as the gun shatters to pieces and damages his hand beyond repair. Yohan's eyes widen as he realized that he had placed a final transfer on Ricky's pistol should he use it. His hand would probably never work again, but that wasn't all. Ricky's body was flown back from the powerful force of the gunshot combined with the explosive super speed, he could see the confused expression growing on Ricky's face.

Just when the worst of it was over, the bullet sped past Yohan's face and left a grazed mark on it. Yohan flinched and collapsed to his knees, watching as the bullet ricocheted off some of the broken parts of one of the crates, not even getting close to Saiph, before flying back and missing him completely! Yohan could only watch in horror as the bullet Ricky had shot at him pierced right into Ricky's own neck! Ricky's eyes widened with pain as he limply fell on the ground, his body bouncing a bit before finally resting as Ricky stared confused at the hole above them all. He began to raise his arm while it shook weakly, Yohan could hear Ricky's breathing slowing down as Ricky struggled to find the next words. Yohan didn't even know if Ricky was even aware of his own actions right now or not.

"Where... Are you.... My friends...?" Even if Ricky couldn't really speak right now, his lips moving were just enough that they could all read out what he was saying. "Where... Are you... Brother... Father... Mother?" He kept going, Yohan could only remain frozen in place as he watched Ricky's final moment of life. "Where... Are you... Djinn? Someone... Anyone... Help... Me." But that was all Ricky could get out before his arm collapsed and the life faded completely from his eyes. His head tilting to the left as his breathing had stopped completely. Yohan closed his eyes tightly as he tried to keep himself from freaking out. It was partially his fault, but ultimately, Ricky had taken his own life in the end. Either way, it was over. Even if the ending wasn't what Yohan was hoping for at all, he came to accept that Ricky's fate was ultimately doomed no matter what outcome came before him.

"Welcome to the morning news." The morning reporter started out. "Today we have some unfortunate urgent news that has just been brought to our attention a few minutes ago. Richard Leonard, also known as Little Ricky, was found dead just outside the police station not long ago. Richard Leonard, for those of you who don't know, was thought to have been a small time criminal who only caused destruction in his wake. Known to the public as Little Ricky, he was sent to jail multiple times, only to get out of it time and again by his father: Walter Leonard."

Yohan's head was pounding as he barely managed to drag himself towards the hospital. He already knew from what the police spoke about that they had already sent people to investigate his house over the night. Great, he just hoped they wouldn't find that Gateway or anything else magical. Yohan had done what he thought was the right thing and left the body of Ricky out for them to find, but didn't stick around for questioning or to be found. No fingerprints or any evidence of them having to do with Ricky's death wouldn't of been found or noticed by them. To the cops, they had simply gone their separate ways. It annoyed him that things ended this way, but it was for the best. For once, he agreed with the mindset Sienna would probably have in this scenario.

"That is how the story has been, or so we thought. However, once Ricky's body was brought in to the police, something strange happened over the last hour and a half. New things began to pop up, not just from his family, but from other people as well. It may very well be that Little Ricky was not a criminal at all. But a rebel who only wanted to fight against the injustice of something he saw wrong with today's society. His father was the first to speak up about this unheard of side of Little Ricky. The things he said contradict what the public had known for years, and this could very well change everything we once knew about Richard Leonard!"

It was only half an hour after Ricky's body had been brought in to the police. Walter Leonard had not heard of anything yet, as one of his assistant's opened the door after knocking to find him busy talking on the phone. The assistant was nervous, Walter always made it clear not to disturb him for anything when he was on the phone. However, the news she had heard pushed her today to have to bring him the bad news. "Sir." She spoke up loudly, causing Walter to pause and put his free hand over the phone as he looked over to her.

"Did I not make myself clear before? I am not to be disturbed right now! I am on an important call with very important people!" Walter Leonard uncovered his hand over the phone and resumed talking. But that's when he heard the word again, this time louder. His eyes narrowed as he sighed and shook his head. "I apologize, sir. I will have to call you back. Yes, I know, but this is urgent. My deepest apologies." Hanging up the phone, Walter put down the phone and could already feel the rage swelling up within his body as he turned viciously towards the assistant girl. "What is it?"

"Sir, it's... It's your son, Richard." Walter's expression immediately changed upon hearing about his little boy. "He was found dead half an hour ago near the Timberland Police Station." The news caused Walter's face to become grim as tears began to flood up within his eyes. A primal scream came out of Walter as he brought his hands up to his feet, throwing his glasses aside as he found himself falling to his knees, with his assistant rushing over to his side.

"My poor Little Ricky!" Walter sobbed out. "NO! Not my little boy! Anyone but him! Why?! Why not me instead?!" Walter's hands came down from his face that was now full of tears as his eyes raced over to look at his assistant. "Get my phone! I need to make some calls, now! I need to make them, right now! RIGHT NOW!" Walter's love for his Little Ricky was apparent, only out of fear did his assistant rush over to the phone and begin to dial numbers at his request. Walter continued to cry, his youngest son was dead and his heart had shattered into pieces upon hearing the news.

"It is with great pain that I..." Walter hesitated on the television, sniffling could be heard ever so slightly as he rubbed his face with his sleeve to wipe away the coming tears. "Announce today that I have been keeping a lie. My son's lie. He wanted to make it look like he was leading a life of crime. I opposed this time and again, telling him that he wouldn't even be labeled a vigilante! But he refused to listen to me, he was such a good little boy." Walter brought up his sleeve again before continuing. "It is with a great and heavy heart that I call on all of you not to see him as what he wanted to be. A criminal. He was my Little Ricky! All he wanted was to prove his point to the world! And now he is dead because of the corruption he saw within today's world!" Walter had to stop and walk away because he couldn't stop crying.

"You want me to what?" Walter spoke hesitantly over the phone. "Oh, no, I don't have a problem with saying all of that, it's just... For him? Are you certain about this sir?" Walter stopped to listen to the words of his superior. "I, I understand. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't for the wrong reasons was all." Walter walked over to his chair and sat down in it, letting out a low groan. "I will make some calls to the news station. I can pull some strings very quickly and be able to be out speaking about the matter at once. I will do it with only honesty though, sir. Nothing more, nothing less. I want to be clear here. I am only doing this for my son, not to play along with any of your games. If you understand that, then we will talk later."

"Aside from his father, other people have come up talking about how Little Ricky was actually doing things for the better of Timberland. When the connection between him and the death of his gang was brought up, it was actually revealed that Ricky was just brought up in the crossfire and acted out of self defense. Speaking of his gang, it is believed that Ricky found four survivor's among them and took them under his wing, uniting them under the same cause as him. However, traces of these four have yet to be discovered. It may be that they have run off, but police will investigate further into it."

The group of little delinquents laughed as they all held up jugs of beer against each other. They had abandoned Ricky in his finest hour, after delivering all of the items that were actually filled with The Black across town. The sun had risen up in the distance for them, so that meant by now, The Black had already spread throughout the town. Anyone who bought those items would be unknowingly spreading it further. They couldn't help but each laugh as they were going to ride off somewhere to relax and settle down. When Ricky died, The Black he had given them all had died out as well, meaning they were no longer involved in this whole magical business. Life was good, life was very good for them! They had just stolen a huge amount of cash, they had gotten away with potential murder, and best of all, Ricky was probably dead!

That's when the one Ricky had called Franky began to act weird. He couldn't breath for some reason and he was collapsing. The others all started to back away from him, they had already ditched one person today, they were willing to throw another aside. But just when it looked like they could run, black flames burst forth and burnt Franky to a crisp! The others could only stare with wide eyes as a new body began to quickly form within the horrible flames. Murderous eyes looked over towards them as they stood frozen to the spot with fear. A demonic smile could be made out from within the black flames as the being's right arm rose and sent out black flames rushing over to them. The last actions they would ever perform were that of horrifying screams.

Once all the black flames subsided, the reborn being walked over and checked over all of their items. Just as it was looking through the money they had collected, clothes were thrown on it and it looked annoyed. However, as it looked back, it couldn't help but gasp at who it saw. "You!" The voice called out. The person gestured for it to dress up. The being could only growl as it was forced to dress up in human clothes now. "This is terrific. I come back in a new body, and suddenly, I am forced to wear disgusting clothing over my body!" The being pointed at the man. "Let me guess. You're the reason I'm still alive, right? And let me also guess this. You must also be the reason everything happened tonight, right?"

"You guessed correctly." The man in shades revealed himself to the being, smirking as he pulled off those mysterious shades and opened his eyes, revealing them to be glowing yellow. "I didn't expect things to go as well as they did. But Ricky didn't fail me in the end. The kid never questioned me when I gave him the orders in person either." The man couldn't help but grin as four yellow eyes opened up in the darkness behind him. Spider webs began to latch out over the area behind him as he spread his arms out. "It's been a long time, Despair. I trust the Hellhound's death helped you? It's time we went back."

"Ugh, back to those sinful morons? I wonder what they've been doing in my absence. Give me a smoke." The man in shades handed Despair a cigarette, as Despair lit it himself with his thumb before puffing out some smoke. "Damn, it feels good to be alive. Guess there are some things I didn't even know Despair could do. But it feels like I've been set back to zero. We'll have to perform some new tests when we get back to the labs. You chose some good clothes for me though, you clever little sneak." Despair and the man in shades began to walk away, the spider webbing's dragging the items in a bunch behind them as they soon shot out and the man in shades caught the webbing's with his bare hand to carry.



"Without a doubt, today seems to be the day people are crying out for Little Ricky to be seen as some kind of voice of justice. Regardless, police will continue to investigate the strange incidents that have occured as of late. In other news..." Yohan couldn't stand to listen anymore as he was lying there in the hosptial bed, turning off the television as he groaned out to himself.

"What is this, some kind of sick joke? Suddenly Ricky's being hailed as an icon? A voice of justice for the people?" Yohan put a hand on his forehead. That wasn't right at all, Ricky clearly seemed like the kind of person who would just murder people without a second thought. And suddenly, when he dies, people turn him into a hero? It made Yohan worry, whatever was going on, the trouble had not yet ended for any of them or Timberland. "Something's not right."

"Dad," Saiph says, her voice shaky, her hands shaky, Barely she held her phone to her ear, sitting up, leaning up against a wall in an alleyway. She had been debating to make this call for a while, but finally mustered up the courage. She swallows hard, her head... well her entire body ached. "Heh... I think I... I might have outdone myself. I uh... I kind of... killed a man... o-or well-"

"Hm? What are... what is the matter? So you got involved." a deep and powerful voice is heard through the phone, almost causing her to pull the phone away. Mr. Grimm's voice was undeniably concerned, she already knew it would cause a stir. "Sugar, did you hear the news? It is about to get very... problematic there. You should return home... you should come home." It was clear, he knew something she did not. Getting up she sluggishly exited the alleyway, and around the corner to see a television on display behind glass, watching in horror what the news was saying about Ricky. She didn't know what to feel, she felt a lot of things lately that she never had quite before. Was it anger? Was it confusion? She was transfixed, stunned on how quickly this had gone down. Her arms grew limp and just hung there, barely holding the phone. "Listen to me."

"D-dad, that isn't true, y-you gotta... fix it!" she says, swinging the phone back up, her voice becoming apparently panicked. "I-it's wrong, we stopped him because... because he-," before she could continue her head began to hurt her once again, causing her to nearly lose her balance.

"Fix it how? How can I fix this?" he responds, somewhat harshly, causing Saiph to fall back and lean against the display window. She was at a loss of words, was he scolding her? "What do I tell the public? An opposing story about his character, with what living witnesses to back it up? Your new friends who up until recently were marked as missing? Who ran hysterically out of a police station by creatures that no normal person could see? That a man, mad with some dark magical power killed people? People... are not ready for this. And even if I did manipulate the news, two opposing stories would just cause mass confusion, and who knows what that would create," he says, as earnestly as he can to Saiph. She didn't like it at all, sliding slowly down to the pavement, holding her head. "You're not feeling well, you've strained yourself, you need rest... care... you can only get that, here. Please?"

"I... I, o-okay," she says, finally conceding, albeit reluctantly. "B-but I... don't have the strength to," she began to say, before the sound of a vehicle approaching caught her attention, and soon a lavish black limousine parked itself right across from her. "Heh... you, just had him waiting, didn't ya?"

"Always be prepared. See you soon, love you," Mr. Grimms says before hanging up. The door of the limo opens showcasing an even more lavish interior, soft red velvet seats and carpeting. Saiph managed to drag herself inside, shutting the door behind her.

---

Elsewhere in a little novelty shop, a young white-haired man, the local Timberland High School gym teacher and wannabe big time actor, Rupert Kraus was hunting for props in his next attempt at a play. He was dressed in a t-shirt sporting a wolf, the mascot of Timberland High. Around his neck a whistle, and wearing shorts. Pretty well what one would expect of a school's gym teacher.

The owner, a rather crotchety, balding, whiskery old man, was growing tired of how long he was taking to browse his wares, rapping his fingers on the counter, puffing away at a cigarette. He had been looking at a couple oriental masks on the wall, one of a Tengu, the other the menacing facial armor mask of a Samurai.

"You sure these all you got? Certainly not befit the great HERO of the next big epic!" he says, placing a hand over his chest and the other in the air, all with dramatic flair as he looks upwards.

"Listen bub, I got what ya see, no amount of posturing... or whatever it is you're doing... gonna change that," the owner says finally, slamming his hand onto the counter. "Just buy something and go, you're scaring the other customers!" Of course, there were no other customers in this shoddy little shop, but questioning that would likely just get a smug exactly in response.

"Fine! Then I uh..." before he could finish that statement, something seemed to suddenly pull at him, his attention magnetically being pulled to the glass case under the counter. He scurries over, kneeling down and looking within. Some old watches, most of them broken... some decks of old playing cards, lighters... but then he say something faint, like a black mist surrounding one item in particular. A rather fancy looking gun, etched with... Little Rick. His eyes light up and he claps his hands together startling the owner.

"Aha! This one!" he says, pointing at the gun. The store owner scratched his bald spot in confusion, twisting his mouth switching the cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other.

"I'm not sure giving some weird youngster like you a firearm is-," the man begins. But Rupert enthusiastically digs into his pocket, pulling out his wallet, reaching in, and, with a clenched fist grabs as many dollars as he can and slams it down before the owner, a wide white sparkly grin appearing on Kraus's face. He didn't even bother to count, but the owner did, the cigarette falling from his mouth. Greedily he scoops it up, opens the case, pulling the gun and hands it over to Kraus with a smirk. "Know what? Screw it, it is yours kid! Have fun, shoot your eye out or whatevah, don't give a shit if yer being generous!"

"EEee yes! Thank you, thank you!" Kraus says, nearly dancing as he runs out of the shop. Outside he glances over the gun, a dreamy look in his eyes. People walking down the sidewalk look briefly at him, a bit of concern as they back up and start to walk the other way. "I can't believe it, the guy didn't even know! Hah! A piece of the hero himself, passed down upon... ME! It must be a sign, oh yes! Things are finally looking up for Rupert Kraus!"

"More than your wildest imagination, mortal," a whimsical voice is heard inside his skull, Kraus looks around in confusion, trying to locate its origin. Soon an odd feeling begins to well up inside of him. "You and me, we are both want what the other wants, to put on the greatest show nobody will soon forget!"



Kraus looks beside him, red eyes looking back into his as a strange figure in purple robes was leaning over. Nobody seemed to see it but him, some walking straight through the odd pale man, who's face contorts into a wide smile.

"Name's Puck by the way, and... you could say, we are quite the kindred spirits, you and I~!"

Sienna Cartlow

After the fire dissipated, Sienna was pretty spent. Sure, she had some idea of her powers innately, but up until that moment, she hadn’t really done anything spectacular with them. Diverting an entire explosion of flame around her was a step up from finger flames to light her cigarette. Stumbling back onto her rear as she sat on the floor, Sienna took in some deep breaths as she threw her head back, groaning. Opening her eyes, she could see everyone that was huddled around her slowly separate and stand – completely unharmed. Giving a faint sigh of relief, she flopped back fully onto the pavement, lying spread on the ground as she caught herself. Faintly opening her eyes, she could see that where once the beast and wolf had been locked in combat, now… There was nothing. Not even a speck of ash, just a blackened spread of stains across the ground to mark the origin point of the explosion.

Behind her, she could hear some chattering – The pink haired chick, the weird janitor, Yohan and… Another voice, from in front of them; one that immediately brought annoyance to the forefront of Sienna’s mind as she sat up, resting her hands on her crossed legs. There, she saw a hazy individual wrapped in smoke, a weedy looking punk with a maniacal expression. Some stupid street rat. It was at that point she started tuning in to his words, hearing his ramblings about Yohan’s parents, something about some plan, them stopping him, all pointless crap. Except one thing: ”I'm also the one responsible for dragging you all into this mess.”

Anger blazed in Sienna’s eyes as she began to push herself to her feet, almost ignoring the police that were wandering about them and investigating the area. They seemed pretty bewildered at this point, but still didn’t seem to be able to see anything that was happening. Jeez, that made this mess way harder to deal with. If it wasn’t for them, she’d probably blast this guy with fire then and there. All this crap was his fault? These things trying to kill them, these powers, everything?! This was all a game to this son of a bitch, but because of him, she’d…

Yohan made the first move of the group, charging at him in a blind rage, only to be drawn into some sort of trap as he was sucked into a portal. Seconds later, that rabbit thing went in pursuit, the bastard smirking all the while. Shit, hopefully they could handle whatever was going on in there. Sienna had something more important to deal with however. She had a bone to pick with this guy. Looking to Frederick and Sakuya, both seemed hesitant to make a move. Well, that applied to pinky at the least, the weirdo janitor was… Drawing, of all things. Jeez, was everyone here incompetently stupid but her? Flexing her fingers and wrists, Sienna took a stride forward, placing her hands to her hips as she eyed down ‘Ricky’. Or at least, part of him. The figure was now split in twain, features blending and leaking together between the pale man and the smoky demon he harboured.

“This won’t work you know. You’re not ready to fight something like that.” Sinopia commented as she strode up beside Sienna, the feline taking a seat next to her. Sienna ignored her. “So you’re saying you’re responsible for all this mess, right?” The question was rhetorical, but the answer Sienna was given consisted of nothing but a shallow grin from the man. It was enough for her. Drawing her hand back she felt the flames licking her palm as the ball of fire formed, and in the next few moments, she struck, whipping it forward as she launched the sphere straight to the man’s chest, stopping as she observed the impact. Her aim true, the blaze struck its mark clean, but there wasn’t any visible damage as the Djinn barely flinched, its eyes ever trained on Sienna. Narrowing her eyes, Sienna decided to kick it up a notch. Both hands flaring up, Sienna was about to unleash her fury at the shadowy monster, but hesitated as it spoke.

“It’s not really fair if you get to do all the fighting, now is it?” Sienna caught sight of his eyes flicker below her, and was moving before her mind had time to catch up as clawed hands shot from the ground, seemingly breaking the bounds of reality as they reached at her, snaking for her ankles. Darting about to avoid their clutches, Sienna’s feet and hands were a blur as she pivoted and darted about, leaping and striding with a grace she could only vaguely recall, her pirouettes providing ample chance for more and more fireballs to be launched in a volley of flames at the djinn, a rapid fire barrage of heat and force. And yet, the monster didn’t seem to be struggling. In fact, it seemed to be toying with her, hardly moving and allowing the shadowy hands to continue to seek her legs to trip her up. Getting ready to unleash her largest fireball yet, Sienna suddenly shrieked in pain as it felt like something just ripped through her shoulder, but yet she couldn’t see anything of the sort. “You can’t do this. You need a plan, not to just fight recklessly – You can’t win, you need me to help you, but so long as you insist on following your pride, you can’t-“

“Shut it Sinopia!” Sienna shouted through gritted teeth as she barely avoided a swipe to her face, skidding to a stop at the wall of the police station. A bad move. More tendril like hands began to claw at her from behind, Sienna ducking and weaving as a few sliced her hair and sleeves, barely missing her. Scampering away, Sienna was surprised she still had the energy to keep going, but something between adrenaline, rage and her newfound powers were keeping her moving. This wasn’t working though, she needed a more decisive attack and to get off the defensive. Spinning to face the claws lunging for her, Sienna brought her hands together and gave a yell of exertion, a wave of fire shooting forth and scorching through the various appendages seeking her.

With that threat dealt with, she turned her focus back towards the monster, his legs long having dissolved to a smoke, revealing his true form as the Djinn. Knowing she probably only had a few moments before those things were back. Taking off into a full sprint, flames coursing around her heels, Sienna was quick to close the gap. As she moved in, she could see more of those things stretching out from both the monster and the area around him, preparing to both defend her assault as well as strike her as she came in. She wouldn’t give them that chance. As she moved in closer, the hands also began to surround her, coming from all sides as they radiated from the Djinn, entrapping her. Too bad for him they were in the wrong place.

“Eat this!” Entering into a straight-leg slide, Sienna went under the Djinn and, with everything she had, unleashed a firestorm of energy and flames straight up the creature, cooking him from below and hopefully, sending him spiralling into the sky as cinders. Holding the beam of fire for a few more moments, before finishing the slide, Sienna performed a quick pop-jump back to her feet, pivoting and sending one last explosive fireball towards the roasted Djinn, falling back from the explosion and retreating a few more steps away. That had to do it. Heh, she’d say a bad-ass line about being too hot to handle or something if she didn’t think it was too corny, but there’d be plenty of time for fire puns whenever she got the chance to show off to people she actually cared about.

Taking a few steps away towards Sinopia, Sienna flashed her a grin. “And you thought I couldn’t handle myself.” Continuing to smirk, Sinopia didn’t say anything. She just stayed staring towards the fire behind Sienna. The teen frowned a bit, glancing back. Then did a double take as the vague outline of a humanoid figure began to rise, arms folded together before suddenly-

With a cry of exertion, the Djinn threw its arms open, banishing the flames around it and standing unscathed. Cackling manically to itself, the Djinn looked back over to Sienna, who was immediately on the defensive, swearing to herself. She’d given that everything she had, how on Earth was she going to beat this thing if that didn’t even phase it! Standing still and eying the monster down, he was oddly… Unmoving. As if waiting for her to take action again. Was it trying to bait her? Slowly reaching to her side to charge a fireball, she stopped suddenly as it spoke. “Well, that was really fun, but It’s time I headed inside! Maybe I’ll see you all there!” Grinning wildly again, the Djinn suddenly turned into a whirlwind of smoke before shooting into the portal, vanishing from sight. Sienna swore, looking to Frederick and- Wait, who the heck was that? Some golden armoured figure hoisted the Janitor into the portal after the Djinn. Was that another demon of his? Geez, that Weirdo had way more problems than her.

“Fuck it, we’re going in there Sinopia, let’s go.” Undaunted by her failings against the monster previously, Sienna began to make her way forward, readying herself for another intense battle. Surprisingly, she wasn’t winded in the slightest. Had she somehow gotten fitter? Either way, she wasn’t complaining about that. Regardless, she wasn’t about to let that freakish creature get away. She was getting revenge on that monster. It was to blame for Rio, and she wasn’t stopping until-

“Whoah, hey, hold up! What’s gotten into you?” An arm grabbed Sienna’s wrist as she began to move, and instinctively she thrashed free, turning to face- “Tate?!” Sienna was stunned as she eyed the man in front of her, taking a step back. “What the hell are you doing here?!” Glancing back to the portal over her shoulder, she barely had time to pay attention to it as Tate got into her face. “What am I doing here? Sienna, I got told the moment you were taken in, I came to pick you up and take you home. What’s wrong with you bitch? You’re freaking out and running all over the place?” Tate had a face of mock concern, like he always did, but Sienna was pretty bewildered. What could she even say? What he just saw had to look pretty ridiculous.

“I uh, it…” Suddenly, all of Sienna’s nerves seemed to go on fire, frying with pain. Gasping involuntarily, she grabbed her arms, clutching herself as it felt like she was bathing in acid or something. “Whoah, hey, Sienna! You okay?” Tate moved up to catch her, and even though his touch was not welcome back there, she was grateful that he helped keep her on her feet. Slowly, he began guiding Sienna back towards the car, asking her to take it easy, that she had to be in shock. Honestly, she didn’t understand what was happening, but she wasn’t really in a position to resist. Bundled into the car to rest, Tate continued to state that she should stay calm, that she should rest and relax, he’d handle things from here. She felt like she should do anything but that, especially with this pain. And yet… Slowly, she felt her eyes grow heavy. Her body calm. “Wha..?” Sienna mumbled out her confusion, but soon enough, slipped into unconsciousness. Tate smiled.

Frederick sat down on the sidewalk as they finished their first quest of sorts. A quick recap for his brain, he summoned Gilgamesh who had caused him injury to his gut just to fight and who was busy leaning against a wall. Ricky who had an aura which caused people around him to feel pain, turned into a machine gun knight who created tentacles which all wielded machine guns as well...He swore only he could make something this crazy up...

Once the fight ended, Ricky had tried to shoot Yohan and ended up killing himself from himself own bullet which ricocheted into his throat. It was...and end of course. Now what would he do with Gilgamesh now? In fact where did his demon, angel, spirit go anyways?

Almost in spite of his words the familiar winged figure appeared by his side and sat near him. "So my dear lamb. How did your fight go against the Black? Your fate has picked you to finish the fight against the Black. My enemy, and now your enemy." She chuckled lightly as Frederick sighed.

"I don't know...It was interesting and fun! But...when Ricky bit the bullet in the literal sense that was just...depressing I guess. If I have to kill people then I want out." He spoke crossing his arms. He did not want to kill other people.

"Of course My lamb...There is an easy way to leave this war..." She soon leaned next to his ear and whispered. "Just...kill yourself..." Her words echoed in Fredericks mind who stumbled away from her in surprise. Before he could reply of course she chuckled again. "My precious lamb...how foolish you think to abandon your fate...You can only leave now until the Black has been killed...or you have been killed...The Black seek to cause destruction...Chaos...death. They are like Ricky, they have been comusmed by desire. If you don't fight, then people will die like his 'freinds' who he has so easily killed and abbandoned. What if your father was targeted by them? Would you care at that point?" She chuckled again as she looked directly in his eye. Her one eye looking full well into his as she spoke.

Frederick did not want his dad to be in danger...nor did he want innocent people to be in danger. "F-Fine...I can do this and be a hero of justice then!" He nodded firmly as his Angel spirit thing clapped her hands in approval. She would see if he can do this.

Of course Gilgamesh himself would not be so eager to help their cause but...He knew how to make a guy like him happy. And for that he got up walked in front of him before speaking."King Gilgamesh! I ask you for your assistance! Please I'll create whatever you want if you help me fight!" Frederick pleaded as he got on his knees.

Gilgamesh crossed his arms in thought. "If you make the Holy Grail, then I shall accompany you human." He spoke. He had already guessed this was no grail war. But this human managed to summon him...so he could make such an item...Of course knowing his power it would be very weak. But it would be a nice collection to have to drink wine from.

Beta

Again he found himself waking up in the strange castle. He felt strange, what had he been doing? Regardless, he managed to sit up and rub his head, looking around to see nothing really had changed. Well, except that one of the doors he saw before was now missing. That was strange, what happened to that door? Didn't Shiro mention before how each door held a different purpose? Had that door served it's purpose then? He pushes himself up to his feet as he walked over to where the missing door had been, surprised to see a mask was now there. It looked creepy, but it felt familiar to him. Had he seen something who's face resembled this mask before? Whatever the case, he felt he should find Shiro.

He walked past all of the doors again, looking over each of them as he saw each one held a different design and a different color to it. He really wish he knew what this all meant! He stopped when he saw that red door again. Only this time, it had a different design to it. Unlike before where it looked just like all the other doors but with the color red, now it seemed to hold a more grand design compared to the others. He didn't know whether that meant good or bad, he would probably have to ask Shiro if he wasn't busy. Walking over to the last door, he picked up the key Shiro had shown off last time, using it to unlock the door before putting it back up and opening the door.

Inside he found Shiro staring at the crystal ball from before, his concentration set so much on the ball he didn't even notice him walking inside and closing the door behind him. Walking over to Shiro, he looked over at the crystal ball to see people moving around in it. This is when Shiro finally takes notice and lightly pushes him away from the ball. "My apologies, I didn't see you coming in!" Shiro spoke with slight nervousness to it, standing in the way of the crystal ball now as he rubbed his forehead with his arm. "I apologize, but this is something only I must see. We will talk when I am finished. But for now, there is a book I need you to get me anyway." Shiro watched as the boy nodded and walked over to the boys. Shiro let out a slow sigh, shaking his head as he turned back to the crystal ball. "Gotta count myself lucky he isn't nosy."

The Mayor of Timberland was not someone who often got called upon to listen in on meetings. He considered himself lucky to have gotten the position at all, he only wanted the best future for a town that people barely cared about. But today he felt nervous, he had been called in to one of "those" meetings. He had only been called to them a few times before, but he knew it was always important whenever they were called upon. This time would be no different, he had to be prepared for the worst should it come to that. Arriving at the door, he opens it to find rows of people already sitting and talking loudly to each other. This didn't surprise him, as he walked in and closed the door behind himself, walking past all of them. They didn't even take a single glance in his direction, they were all too busy focusing on their own needs or wants.

The Mayor considered himself lucky, for just as he sat down, he sat a man in a suit begin to walk across the large screen in the back. Everyone immediately stopped talking and focused their attention on him, rarely did any of them ever get to see or talk to him, but he was someone who could very well have control over all of their lives. Stopping before the center, the man in the suit clears his throat before beginning. "Good evening, everyone. For those of you who have returned, welcome back. We are happy you have not run off from our generous offers. For those of you who are new, I am the head of The Emperor's personal guard. I'm sure you all wish to know why we have called you here, and I will be glad to take the time to explain that now."

Everyone felt tense as they waited to hear what they were all here for. The Mayor wondered why they had called him in particular today, it was unlike them to need to bring something up to him so suddenly without sending some kind of letter. "As you may have heard, there have been unusual cases popping up all over the state. We believe these to be magical related, as you might have guessed. However, we also see that many people on Gaia have been steadily getting a new form of magic. One that hasn't been seen very often until recently. As you know, this mass outbreak of magic will naturally have us investigate into them, along with The Order of Gray coming in to see what the trouble is about. Have no fear, we will make certain they do not do any unnecessary actions to any of you."

The Emperor's head guard pushed his glasses into place before continuing. "Whether these magical incidents are related to Dark Wizards or otherwise is currently a mystery. We do know of one place that may help us put the puzzle together. But that is not my place to speak of. I believe I have explained enough for you to get what my Emperor is about to say today. He is ready now." Pulling out a button, he pressed it and a golden symbol of The Sukodo Empire flashes across the large screen before cutting to a shadowy figure sitting down. "You are live, my Emperor." The head guard bowed from the waist before stepping out of the way for all of them to see The Emperor's figure more clearly.

"Thank you." A robotized voice spoke out, they all knew this was to help protect The Emperor's identity. "I have brought this up to all of you because of a certain project I found myself forced to approve. I could not speak my opinion on the matter as it had already been done. However, what's done is done, and now we have a very interesting scenario. The place this all occurred in, as you may or may not have heard on the news today, is Timberland." This got everyone talking again, with The Mayor swallowing nervously as he waited to hear more. "My wishes are not to have anymore people recklessly throw away their lives or receive permanent damage. I simply wish to --"

"SO THAT'S WHAT THAT NEWS WAS ABOUT, HUH?!" One large man among them stood up and put a dent in his chair with ease. "You are sick! So what, you like taking people now and putting them through horrible experiences so they can die and become some kind of fallen hero?!" The large man's body began to let out loud noises as though his body was shifting. "Well sorry to say, but I don't approve! This isn't some game for you to toy with our lives, you know! We don't need you stepping into our personal lives now too!"

"That is not my intentions." The Emperor's robot voice spoke up. "I have already said I do not wish for more people to throw away their lives recklessly. What was done was done by the time it reached my ears. Please, sit down and --" But The Emperor was interrupted by a vicious roar, everyone becoming frightened as the large man who stood up suddenly shifted and changed, fur expanding over his body as his upper body grew larger than it already was, and his head turned into that of a wolf's. With a loud roar, everyone became frozen to the spot as they saw him going berserk!

"Enough of this!" The werewolf's now twisted voice spoke out as he points at the screen. "I know enough! I won't stand for your arrogant tone any longer! Human or otherwise, we are not to be bossed around by you! I don't care how much control you have over the world, I don't care how many people in power you have across the globe, I can still rip you to shreds in this form!" That's when everyone heard a loud stomp, their attentions now directing to the head guard.

"Please, sit down and we will forgive this." The head guard pushed his glasses again, though there seemed to be a threatening gesture behind it now. "I will not tolerate any childish outbursts from here on out. I understand how you feel, but this is not the time to overreact. We must band together and each look out for not just the future of Gaia, but for the future of those from The Other Side as well."

"Screw you!" The werewolf let out another roar before leaping over towards the head guard, mouth open, arms spread forward, body ready to attack! "I'm taking charge now!" The head guard could only sigh as he shifts into a stance in a second and slams his fist right into the werewolf's chest, the werewolf's body stopping immediately as a low growl was heaved out. Slamming his elbow into the side of the werewolf's head, the head guard sent the werewolf crashing down into the ground regardless of his transformation. Stomping his foot down on the werewolf's neck, he pulls out a pistol and quickly fires a bullet right into the werewolf's head. All movement ceased from the werewolf now as the head guard put the pistol away.

"Oops, I forgot to pack in silver. I guess you still operate the same if a bullet to the brain can kill your kind." Removing his foot, the head guard snapped his fingers and two of The Empire's soldiers rushed in and saluted him. "Take the body away, please." The two soldiers quickly got to work, lifting up the body of the werewolf before quickly rushing out of sight with it. An annoyed sigh came out of the head guard's mouth before he turned to the rest. "My apologies. But I will not tolerate any threats to my Emperor. I would like to ask that all of you listen to my Emperor's words before jumping to conclusions, if you would kindly." A chair is set up behind the head guard as he sits down and crosses his arms and legs, looking rather annoyed now.

"As I was saying, my intentions are not to throw people's lives away recklessly, but unite them under one cause. We brought you all here today to tell you that a magical outbreak has just been confirmed in Timberland. The decision to make Little Ricky a hero was, again, not my choice. By the time it reached my ears, the actions had already been decided. However, I do wish to use this new image of Little Ricky to find a suitable candidate for us to employ. One who will grow in fame and power and inspire others to follow in his or her lead."

"Excuse me, Emperor." Everyone froze as they saw the Mayor of Timberland rise up to his feet as he spoke. "My apologies for interrupting, but I do wish to know who it was that turned Little Ricky, a known criminal even to the public, into some kind of tragic hero. And why is it necessary to have someone inspired by him to come out? Surely the police can handle any threat that comes to the city, magical or otherwise, right?"

"This is why I chose you to come here, Mayor of Timberland." The robotic voice spoke out. "I do not know who it was that wanted Little Ricky to be turned into a fallen idol, but rest assured, it may not last for long. Once the people have seen the true icon rise from his ashes, they will start to see the lies fabricated for Little Ricky and the honesty this new idol brings with him or her. As for why it is necessary, I did not say I doubted the police's capabilities to handle situations. However, regardless of that, they cannot interact with magical affairs. This idol, and those to follow, will be able to use magic to snuff out those we believe will be troublesome in the future."

"I understand the need to bring magic in to fight magic, however, I do hope you are not planning to just throw this on us and just accept it." The Mayor of Timberland spoke up. "I understand more people like Little Ricky will emerge, and they will no doubt only want things like murder or destruction. However, how are we to guarantee this idol of yours, who you no doubt have already figured will rise from Timberland, will not follow the same path of chaos and destruction?"

"You are mistaken. I actually brought you here to ask for your approval for this plan to be executed, Mayor of Timberland." Everyone's attention turned to the mayor all at once. "You must understand this. This person will most likely remain a vigilante. Like a vigilante, the police will see this individual as an threat. However, over time, I believe this vigilante will be requested to help out the police. In time, as is what modern society does, they will see the vigilante as a hero. When they do, they will no doubt start marketing to spread and show their affection for this individual. They will sell toys, produce clothing with his imagery on it, create television shows, comics and more revolving stories around them. In other words, this person will become a true modern icon for the people." The Emperor's claps his hands once. "So, Mayor of Timberland. What is your answer?"

The Mayor was hesitant upon hearing this, however, the idea of people having a modern superhero to look upon wasn't such a bad idea. If it could be done in fiction, why couldn't they apply it to real life? If bad people with magic like Little Ricky would emerge anyway, why not prepare those with magic who are more than willing to deal with them? In the end, he could only see more positive's than negative's. "Very well." The Mayor of Timberland spoke. "I assume you already have a list of people who are infected or something? Regardless, my only wish is that your head guard will handle overseeing matters himself. If I were to go out and search for these people myself, it would draw suspicion upon me. But you better keep me up to date, understood?"

"Very well. We accept these terms." The Emperor spoke out. "As you have wished, you will be kept up to date on anything that occurs. Who knows, one day you may be shaking the hand of a modern superhero." This caused the Mayor of Timberland to take a step back, he had not expected such kindness to sweep over him. But he did use to look up to superheroes when he was a kid, to actually be shaking the hand of one who existed was too much for him to comprehend right now. "You will be given a list of people we have already found to be infected. My head guard will seek each of them out, the one he finds most suitable to the task will be trained under him. Do not worry, Mayor of Timberland. We will not only make your town famous for being the origin of a superhero, but also protect it from those who would do it harm."

Well...what to do now? Frederick had just convinced Gilgamesh to work with him. It was morning, his car was still missing, and it seemed that danger was gone for now. Of course remembering the words of...Of...Ok this was getting old! He needed his inner angel spirit demons name!

"Hey, miss Shepard. Mind if you tell me your name?" Fredrick asked as he turned to face the woman. She chuckled lightly as her bandaged hand however over the bandaged part of her face. "Me? It took you this long to ask me of my name? My such a cruel man to never ask a lady her name. But, I guess better late then never. Especially when you keep calling me a 'demon angel spirit' which I find rather funny. I went by a few names over time but I like 'Celui Qui a Brisé' or just Brisé for short. A pleasure to meet you." She spoke.

Fancy name Frederick thought, he wondered what launguage that was...Was it a Russian name? Or...maybe it was a fancy British name. In any case that woman was called Brisé. This made things much easier. Of course Gilgamesh chuckled at her name but did not speak his mind.

In any case, Frederick began to think: if these two were magical he wondered. Could he cook food for them. Sure using a regular stove would not work since physical food would not work but...what if he made a magical stove and made magical tools and ingredients? It would be an interesting thing to do and he would work with his powers besides making another character! It would be safe to work out his power. And having a big crowd early on could lead to problems.

Besides, if he can get Gilgamesh to eat his magical food then he would be the ultimate cook! Cooking for a king was still an honor! Of course Brisé's face was covered so...he wondered if they even bothered to eat. He knew Gilgamesh can eat from the anime he watched. So...did Brisé need to eat? Or did she just need him alive just to live?

This was still on week one, a few days in. He knew very little. Eh...It was time to get drawing then cooking. Walking into his house with Brisé and Gilgamesh in tow. He began to get to work to get a meal fit for a king ready. Who knows! Nothing bad could happen and he could be freinds with a king! Things were great!

Sienna Cartlow

“What's wrong with me..?” Sienna asked herself with a small sigh, sitting up in Tate’s bed and running a hand through her hair. She'd promised herself a long time ago that she was done with Tate. He was like some toxic poison draining her life away, so after she'd managed to split from him, she'd made a point of limiting their interactions. And yet here she was after a night of... … Worst of all, it was different this time. This wasn't just due to pent up feelings of aggression or frustration, using him for some quick satisfaction. This time she…

Tate had been nice. They'd talked about things, Rio… It felt like for once, he was treating her with some respect. Maybe she'd been wrong about him? Maybe the loss of Rio had been an eye opener for him too? Then he'd kissed her. Any other time he pulled crap like that she'd slap him across the face and tell him to get bent, but this time… It felt like she wasn't in control of herself, like her feelings had gotten all jumbled, then one thing lead to another and now… Now they were on again? God, she was so dumb. It was never going to work out, she should've just rejected him then, but for some reason she just couldn't. She had nothing but regret now, but in that moment, she'd just wanted to do anything to stay with him.

Burying her face in her hands, Sienna groaned. As if she needed more complications in her life. Rio's funeral was in three days. Apparently she'd been fired from Joe's. Tate has promised to look after her, covering the rent and burial costs and such thanks to that donation fund, but everything was still spiralling out of her control. She was just some jobless deadbeat now, how in the world was she going to recover from this? Somehow she felt the ability to magically create fire wasn't going to help her on many job resumes. Shit, she owed Tate so much now, but at least she could be somewhat thankful he wasn't taking advantage of it. Was that why she'd agreed to trying to make them work? Guilt? Fuck, that was so messed up. That wasn't what she intended at all.

Shuffling out of the bed and slipping on her underwear from the floor, Sienna took a moment to fix her hair up in the mirror. Sinopia wasn't around, for whatever reason. Maybe the cat decided that she was tormenting herself more than enough with her decisions? Either way, Sienna almost missed having that company to talk this over with. With Rio gone now… All she really had was Tate. Sienna grimaced to herself at the thought. “No car to get around, no money, no friends, no family… Things are just great…” Sienna mumbled to herself, moving out to head to her room and finish dressing.

Tate had suggested she stay home and get some rest; but that if she really felt the need to do something she could tidy the house to thank him. It didn't seem entirely unreasonable, loathe as she was to do such chores. Switching on the television as she began searching for the vacuum, she vaguely listened to the reports on Ricky as she got to work. It didn't make any sense to her, but that didn't really matter. That bastard was dead now, and there wasn't any reports about Than or any of the others. Hopefully for them that meant they were okay. As her annoyance grew from how boring cleaning actually was, Sienna turned off the vacuum, setting it against the wall with a huff as behind her, Sinopia slowly began to fade into existence.

“Don’t you think you’re missing something?” Sinopia questioned, tail flicking about slowly. As Sienna turned to look at the feline, she hesitated a moment. Looking out the window, her body she felt heavy, like her body was being weighted down. “I feel like I’m missing a lot of things Sin...” Trailing off a bit, Sienna stood in silence after that, while Sinopia watched her warily. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to intervene.