[Other FULL] Heart of Soul[IC](M)

Ross Way
Outskirts of the City
Alex Ganston​

Alex remained motionless, standing under the leaves of trees near the edge of the pathway. "Wait..is that...talking?" He muttered to himself, as he could hear voices from beyond the lamp post. This is stupid, I can barely see who it is. He looked down at his Caster, and noticed they were several more blue dots next to the one that was there moments ago. "Don, there's more of them. What do we do?" He whispered. Don stood up on his hind legs, nearly stumbling over and letting out a soft growl. "Okay, screw it Don, we're getting out of here. I don't know who they are, but they can't be any good." Whispering, Alex looked down at Don, and then towards the wide path that led around the woods. As they hastily started to walk up the path, Alex gave quick glance behind him beyond the lamp post where the blue dots were located, and then he quickly started to sprint up the path. "Quick Don! The house is just up this path!" The trees looked like a blur in the darkness, with Alex barely being able to see what was in front of him. The light from the lamp post slowly disappeared behind the thick trees, as the path curved around.

Making it to the top of the path, the trees created a large grass clearing, with a white mansion-like building sitting right in the center, surrounded by metal fence, with a large gate for the entrance to the lot. Looks like this is the place... Alex took several breaths to recuperate, whilst looking at the Caster. His endurance on running wasn't so good, and it had been a long time since he had needed to run that fast. He continued to catch his breath, looking back to see if anyone of those blue blips were coming. The red dot is right here...but those blue dots are fading a bit. He figured maybe he got out of range for the Caster detect whatever it was those blue dots were, but in any case, he slowly walked up to the metal gates. This is the guy's house, but the red dot is here too. Just what exactly is going on? Don growled, looking at the statue that was situated right next to the large metal gates. "Calm down Don, it's just a statue...of a Gargoyle it seems." Arching an eyebrow, Alex looked at the stature for a few moments, before walking up the gates. Whoever this owner is...he's got some serious money. He tried to look at the mansion by pushing against the gate, and peeking through the holes in the gates. "I don't know how we are going to get in though..." He murmured, trying to see if there were any security cameras nearby.

Aiden and Luci Vern

"Sounds wonderful," said Aiden at the offer of food. Honestly anything that wasn't last-forever-cheap-as-dirt food would sound great to him, especially fresh vegetables. Just as his mouth began to water both his and Katarina's casters played a short tone that he had heard before from other people's cell phones. Looking at his Caster it took Aiden a little longer than Katarina to figure out how to read the message and to read it since his education was rather low compared to everyone else his age. He then selected the Demon tracker and his face changed shifted to a serious look as he stared at the red dot.

Luci could read her brother's expression and sudden change in attitude, and she suddenly faded away into thin air. Aiden looked at Katarina and noticed her holding her Caster. "Guessing you got the message too," said Aiden. "I'm going to remove this threat and maybe figure out who this 'mentor' is," added Aiden as Luci reappeared. Luci's clothes were completely different than before. She was wearing some sort of battle dress short dress with tight leggings with black composite looking armor plates covering her chest, shoulders, arms, legs. She wore some stylized black boots, and a small armored plate that could barely pass as a shield attached to her right arm. Her expression was serious to match her outfit.

Aiden then said to Katarina, "You're welcome to join us, and we could likely use your help. However if you want to stay here and eat I understand, just please leave a little for me." Aiden hoped the last thing he said wasn't too awkward, but it made Luci smile a little bit and her eyes light up for a second. With those parting words Aiden and Luci left the apartment. Finding a nearby bus stop Aiden concluded this would be the fastest method that he could get to the red dot. As the bus pulled up, Luci made a rather large jump that landed her on top of the bus, meanwhile Aiden has to act like a normal human and entered the bus normally.

Aiden frowned a little as he dug out what little money he had left and handed it to the bus driver. He then moved to the back of the bus and found a seat as far away from other people as he could be. Sitting down, Aiden closed his eyes and began to mutter to himself. He was muttering phrases that he usually did before a fight. However his "chanting" wouldn't be understandable to anyone because the way he was saying it.

Katarina and a Disappointed Familiar​

Katarina walked to the doorway and watched Aiden as he now confirmed that they too had received this strange message. He seemed confident that he would get rid of the threat they were facing. Katarina remained quiet and looked down at the caster, noticing that it had other dots near the red one. Were those indications of other people, or perhaps demons, who were around the location? When Katarina looked up she noticed that Luci was now wearing some type of battle garments. "You're welcome to join us, and we could likely use your help. However if you want to stay here and eat I understand, just please leave a little for me," Aiden said. Katarina's necklace violently flashed green, and she put her arm over it with her hand on her shoulder to cover it.

"I'm probably going to collapse any second now if I don't eat something, but you bet there'll be a lot for you. I'll be sure to catch up and help," Katarina replied with a tired smile. She watched as they left, then went to the microwave and took out the two bags of rice that had been sitting in wait for a few minutes. She poured some into two bowls, topped them with lemon juice and spinach, then put the rest of the rice in the fridge. Katarina put one bowl on the floor and touched her hand on her necklace, finally acknowledging it after it had been going crazy for so long. The light streamed out of the necklace in a spiral, leaving it looking like a cloudy white crystal instead of a green. The light formed a large creature, who in appearance resembled some mutated cross of a deer, a hyena, a wolf, and a fox.

Regardless of how nasty the description sounded, he was a very beautiful looking creature. He stretched himself out and then began sniffing the air, whimpering while doing so. "Yeah I know, you don't have to say anything," Katarina told him. The creature found the bowl of food and quickly began eating, his tail wagging quickly. "Look, Jupiter, I got this weird thing in the mail today, and it's telling us to go somewhere. We need to do it." Jupiter looked at the caster and then immediately redirected his attention back to his food. Katarina eyed him for a moment and then took a puff of her cigarette, which she had almost forgotten about despite having in between her fingers. "I don't want Aiden or Luci to get hurt so we need to help." Jupiter looked up and barked. "No," Katarina responded. "No, the car isn't running. I haven't, uh, earned enough money for gas. Please don't be mad at me," she said to him as if she were talking to a parent.

Her familiar was almost always the one taking care of Katarina, not the other way around. "Look I'm sorry, I just can't handle myself. I can't stop." She tapped on her cigarette, the ashes falling into a little pile on the table. Katarina took a few minutes to eat her meal and then went to her room to find some change for the bus. She pushed up her mattress and found enough dollars for a trip to the red dot, a trip back, and another trip to the red dot. Katarina began heading toward the bathroom and, as if using his instinct to perceive what Katarina was going to do, Jupiter recalled himself back into the necklace.

Katarina sighed, ashamed of herself but she felt she would go crazy if she left without it. She did a line, tossed the used up cigarette and then left the apartment. She checked the time on her caster and ran to the bus stop when she noticed the bus would be there soon. If she missed this one she would need to wait another half hour for the next. That wouldn't do. Luckily, she made it on time. As the bus door opened, she stepped in and paid the driver. "Nice day it's been, huh?" Katarina said excitedly, her heart racing. "Yes, it's been splendid," the driver said, looking out the window at the puddles of water scattered along the roads. "Well, we've certainly needed this rain. I'm glad we got it," Katarina said before walking into the bus and sitting down in the middle. A little girl sitting across Katarina stared at her for a while, and when Katarina noticed she smiled at her. "Lady, why is your arm blue?" the girl asked. "Oh, I just painted it," Katarina replied. "Does the paint come off?" "Nope, it never comes off."

Damn it! Trying to climb the gates, Alex's hands slipped as he fell down a few feet. "Don, the gates are too slippery." He said. Don was barely able to float at all, barely making it above Alex's height before slowly falling to the ground like a balloon. "This is stupid. How the hell am I supp-" Suddenly, Alex's voice was cut-off by the beeping of a familiar sound. It was the Caster. Taking it out of his pocket, the screen was already opened to the Demon Scanner App, showing Alex's location, along with several blue blips that were fading, due to Alex's Caster being too far away. The Red blip however, was flashing and was now closer to Alex's current location. "Damn it, this thing won't stop!" He shook the Caster, trying to get the beeping to stop.

Grrrr... The beeping eventually stopped, with Alex's attention now focused on Don, who in turn was looking to the side of the path next to the metal fence where darkness filled the woods. Alex readied himself, looking into the woods. "Don, you see something?" He waited for a moment, but there was no answer from his familiar. He just stood there, almost statue-like. Alex put the Caster back into his pocket and backed away slowly. A figure started to form out of the darkness, rustling against the bushes. Squinting his eyes, Alex couldn't make out what it was, until he saw a tall, thin man with short black hair emerge out of the darkness!

"Oh thank god!" The man walked weakly towards Alex, with hands swinging around as if they were no energy left in them. "Please, you got to help me!" The man yelled, hastily walking towards him.

Don whimpered, running back to Alex and hiding behind his leg. "Hold on! Get back or you're finished." Alex regained composure, standing his ground. The man stopped in his tracks and gave Alex a sad, yet worried expression that filled his face.

"Wait, no! Please, you have to help me! I lost my keys to my house!" The man pointed at the mansion situated behind the fence. If that's his house...then that means he's the owner of the store. The man looked frantically behind him into the woods where he came from. "I was going out for my evening stroll, until something started to follow me." The man paused, frowning. "I thought it was just an animal. You know, a cat or something. But after a little while, something felt...off." Alex arched an eyebrow. Was this guy serious? "I remember it started to chase me, so I ran into the woods, and I lost the animal, but when I was trying to open the gates, I noticed I lost my keys. So I went back into the woods to find it."

"Well, isn't aren't your gates controlled by a remote or something?" Alex spoke questioningly, crossing his arms. This whole ordeal was getting out of hand now, and he figured it would be harder than ever to get his task done.

"Only when someone is home. My wife is gone to her mother's house for the month." The man frowned, leaving a pause in the conversation for a few seconds. "Please, help me. T-That thing...it's not an ordinary animal." The man crept closer to Alex, holding on to him by his black shirt. He scoffed, grabbing the man's hands and pulling them off of him.

"Calm down. Look, the only 'abnormal' animal you'll find around here is possibly a coyote or something. And they don't even attack people usually." Alex walked over closer to the woods, with Don beside him, and the man following closely behind.

"I-I'm signing a deal with a large corporation tomorrow. Money isn't a problem." The man stuttered, walking closer to the woods. Alex looked confusingly. Did he just offer money for simply finding his keys. If that's the case, then screw the boss' plan.

"I think that -" Suddenly, Alex's Caster started to beep again. Taking it out, he looked at the screen. Don started to growl once more, looking into the darkness of the woods, right in front where Alex and the man were standing. "Don...you see something again?" Alex stepped back out of fear, still looking at his Caster.

"H-Hey? Who's Don? And what's that in your hand?!" The man started to panic, as he looked around trying to see what Alex was stepping away from. After a few seconds, the trio stood still. Alex looked into the woods, as did the man and Don. The sound of rain re-surfaced, with several trickles landing on the Caster. Crap! This is not good. It says the red blip should be right next to - Alex winced and looked in horror, as a loud, vicious screech filled the air to be heard all over the neighborhood. Startled Alex jumped backwards out of instinct.

"What was that?!" The man shouted at Alex. They stood for another few moments in silence. Alex was too scared to move, and the man looked at Alex with a fearful look in his eyes. "Hey, I told you it wasn't a regu- " A sudden shadow pounced out of the darkness from the woods, and grabbed onto the man's throat with what Alex assumed to be it's mouth. "..Agh..h-hey..h-help" The man's voice became gargled as if he was choking on water, and Alex looked in horror, as he saw the man's body slowly fall to the ground, with the figure's mouth still clamped on to the man's throat. Oh god..oh sh*t, I need to get out of here. Alex gestured Don to stay close, as they started to step backwards, trying to go backtrack down the path from the mansion. Alex looked at the figure, who now had let go of the man. The light from a nearby light attached to the fence, exposed its black, almost scaly-leathery skin. It was slender, and it's spine could be seen protruding from its skin. Its head was round, however it had no eyes, and the mouth was just a hole, covered in blood with a few sharp teeth. It's arms and legs were incredibly long, and its fingers were slender and long. Alex stared at it for a few seconds, until the creature let out another ear-bleeding screech. Covering his ears, Alex quickly turned around and started to run down the hill from where he same from.

Don't look back, Don't look back! Growls from the creature following, made Alex nearly fumble, as he made it down the path within a time span of less than two minutes, back to the lamp post and the path that led to the crops. Without hesitation he started to run towards the lamp post, passing it, and then seeing a group of people, which nearly made Alex stop his running. "What the-" Slowing down to catch his breath, Alex approached the group of people, until he looked back and saw a figure aggressively galloping on all fours towards the group. Getting tired, Alex started to sprint again, this time slower than ever as he reached the group. "Quick! Run!" He yelled at the group, while the creature shrieked once more, running at full speed at the group. Without wasting time or looking back, Alex ran off to the side of the path and headed for the farm's crop and jumped in, laying on the grass, with the leaves of the crop plants giving him cover. Hopefully...those guy....keep him busy. Alex tried to catch his breath, with Don standing next to him, watching the creature as it ran towards the group.

[OOC: Let me know if I'm going too fast. Edited my post in the OOC thread with info on the creature.]

Luci looked around from her position on top of the moving bus as it moved through a more rural area on the outskirts of the city. She didn't have the Caster so she was hoping to spot something from her vantage point on top of large moving vehicle, but only thing she could really see was trees, road, and the random building or two. Suddenly the bus stopped in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere and instantly she knew this was her stop. Watching Aiden step out of the bus and pull up his hood, she jumped down and gracefully landed next to him.

As the bus started to drive off as stared at his Caster's screen Aiden said, "Its close… and other Reapers are closer. If they too were summoned I doubt this is an ordinary enemy." He then motioned in the direction off the side of the road. He then started forward at a very rapid pace watching both the Caster screen and the dark path through the trees. Suddenly he stopped and muttered, "Looks like another Reaper is closing in on the demon…" Luci walked around and looked at the screen for a second. The red dot almost touched the blue dot, then the blue dot started moving quickly away. The red dot started to follow the blue one and Aiden quickly ran off in a direction that hopefully allowed him to reach to blue dot before the red dot did.

Aiden continued to run for around a mile with Luci right behind him. As he approached the red dot Luci reached out and grabbed Aiden's hand. A second later Luci disappeared and in her place was a strange hybrid weapon that functions as both a gun and a melee blade. Reaching the edge of the clearing Aiden spotted the fleeing Reaper and his pursuer. Holding out his weapon, the blade flipped back revealing the barrel of the gun part of the weapon. he focused energy and imbued the weapon with light energy, and then pulled the trigger.

Several bright bullets looking similar to tracers darted from the forest line and slammed into the Demon pursuing Alex. Aiden stepped out of the line of trees he was holding the weapon out with his right arm as he fired round after round of purifying rounds. He was surrounded by a golden aura as he powered up his rounds with powerful light energy. Glaring at the monster with determined eyes he said with a harsh voice, "I am here to deal your retribution."

The barely-begun conversation was cut off before it could really even get anywhere when the man Dahlia had been following came running towards them with a slavering monstrosity on his heels. The trio that had arrived directly behind her leaped right into battle, along with another Reaper who made his appearance right at that moment. Dahlia, not one to be left out of the action, flung her hand out towards the beast as it began to break lose from the rocks binding its feet. Sparks of electricity crackled between her fingertips as her hand moved, and a net of pure yet physical electricity flew out from her hand to the creature. The net's momentum allowed it to wrap around a portion of the beast's body; the net then sizzled briefly before sending a jolt through the beast, eliciting a roar from the creature, before the net disappeared in a small shower of sparks. Hopefully that would slow it down a bit.

Dahlia held her hand out to Fallin, the Familiar needing no other prompting to turn into his weapon form. A moment later, a sword with black and red blade was in Dahlia's hand, a ferocious dragon head with glowing red eyes as the guard and a sphere the same color as the eyes gleaming in the grip of claws in the pommel. She whirled it around to point towards the beast, its blade lighting up in a blaze of fire. Like a dragon breathing flames, the fire roared forth from the blade and streamed towards the creature.

Katarina & Jupiter​

Katarina quickly made her way down the steps of the bus, and it huffed in response before driving away into the murky trees. Katarina wanted to get a good look at her surroundings, but at this point that was an impossibility. Her eyes were not well adjusted to even minor darkness, for the inside of the bus was lit and bright. Where nothing was seen, everything was heard. In the distance something was roaring, roaring like a dragon off a fantasy flick. It sounded bloodthirsty and upset. The other reapers must already be here following the 'assignment', so to speak, and Katarina was late! She ran toward the sound as fast as she possibly could, and within some minutes she made it near enough to the area where she could see the monster and all those fighting it, but Katarina herself didn't want to come out to allow herself to be seen. She touched her necklace and it transformed into Jupiter, who growled lowly as he stared at the hideous monster.

"I need you to cloak us," Katarina told him. Her eyes had adjusted at this point and though it was still dark, there were some lamps around and the light they provided was enough to see clearly. Going invisible would be necessary. Katarina eyed Aiden for a moment and when she knew she and Jupiter were invisible, they jumped into the action. Katarina rubbed her hands together and shot a bolt of electricity which temporarily stunned the beast. The creature snarled as tiny electrical waves traveled along its body. Hopefully the others would take notice and use those short seconds to their advantage to do something. Jupiter shot three balls of electricity at the beast, the attacks easily traveling to it and shocking it due to its temporary disability.

The familiar quickly transformed into a curved dagger, flying to Katarina before she caught it, jumped on the creature, and stabbed it. Just as the dagger imbedded itself within the creature, Katarina's stealth wore off and her long pale blond hair was fully visible as a black cat in the snow. The creature moaned loudly and slammed its arm at Katarina, throwing her some feet away. "Urgh," she said as she sat up instantly from where she landed, her eyes squinted as she stubbornly refused to lose sight of the monster. She watched the fuzzy shapes of the others who were still in the fray unscathed. Katarina stood up and stared at her dagger which was still pierced into the creature's flesh. She needed to carefully plan her next move so as to retrieve it, because asking Jupiter to transform back to normal while inside Ugly's flesh would not be pretty.

Ross Way
Outskirts of the City
Alex Ganston​

((OOC: Too much fighting going on, so my mistake if this post gets confusing or if I leave details out.))

Laying on the edge of crops on the grass, the sounds of the demon were very much audible to Alex. The demon screeched, as Alex looked in worry at the bursts of flame lighting up the surrounding area. Obviously if it was taking this many people to take down the Demon, this was a problem. Normally, a regular Demon would take no time to slay, save for the occasional stronger one. But this damn thing was ridiculous. Grrrr... Don stood up on his hind legs, growling and looking towards the group. Getting up, Alex brushed off the grass on his pants as he looked at the Demon who was seemingly trying to get up from the ground from taking a heavy blow to the body. Surrounding light from lamp posts nearby revealed some blood marks on the ground coming from a nearby man who was on his knees. "Don, weapon form." Alex commanded, regaining composure. Don gave another growl, shooting into the air in a beam of light, before reforming into a slender, black sword in the young Reaper's hand. Alex walked slowly to the group, watching as the Demon wheezed, trying to step back from the group that surrounded it. That's odd...Demons aren't usually ones to back down... He looked at the demon with an expressionless face, before looking at the other Reapers around him. He didn't speak, although now would have been a bad time anyways for being a smartass. He focused attention on the demon again, who stood now with a hunched over posture, grinding his hands into the ground as if it were ready for a charge. The demon suddenly sprinted, and instinctively, Alex swung his blade letting loose a quick, thin wave of dark-blue mana at the demon. The wave made a deep buzzing sound as it sliced the demon's arm off, shooting it into the air landing in front of Alex with a small pool of black liquid around it.

That was easy! Alex's face lit up, as the demon fell on its side roaring in pain and squirming on the ground. The roaring suddenly stopped, as the demon laid still on the ground, taking deep, heavy breaths. "Okay, obviously you amateurs don't know anything if it took all of you to even injure this thing. I pretty much killed it myself." He said, his voice full of pride. Alex chuckled a bit, leaning against his sword standing on the ground. "But then again, I'm pretty good at -" Suddenly, Alex heard a 'slimy' noise coming from nearby. Looking at the arm he cut off, it was starting to bubble, and soon formed into a large, spider-like creature the size of a dog. It was slimy, and grey in color, it started to approach Alex. "What the hell?!" Alex swung his sword randomly at the newly formed creature who was hissing and trying to scrape the Reaper with its slender front legs. He hated bugs, especially spiders, and the fact that this thing appeared right in front of him didn't help either. Looking around, he noticed that the other demon was beginning to get up, recovering the earlier blow. It let out another hear bleeding screech, until it started to look around for another target. Alex re-focused his attention back to the spider which started to crawl its way towards the Reaper. "Someone, anyone! Kill the faceless one over there!" Alex shouted at the group, hoping that someone would either help him with the spider, or at least try and kill the parent Demon to prevent any more unwanted demon children. He dodged left and right from the Spider's random arm swings, until it finally lunged forward, biting Alex on the arm. Alex hissed, as he stumbled backwards landing on his bottom and releasing his sword from his hand. Ow, Damn it! He clutched his forearm with his hand to try and put pressure on the bleeding, attempting to inch away from the approaching spider-like demon.