[Other FULL] Gunpowder (M) (IC)

Sephear · Oct 16, 2015

Invitation Only

Rumors are truly a wonderful thing, if you know how to sift through them the right way. Apparently a party was being planned in Larkin, one so splendorous that news of it traveled well even in the Barren lands. Apparently the host, Darryl Heron, was a major player in Jeimas Mining, as well as being invested in Jeimas' biggest railroad company. The party itself was of no real consequence to Kelmorr - after all it would be far too public and heavily guarded to for anyone besides one of the Big Bads to attack - but it's side effects were.

Apparently Darryl had a habit of throwing parties in spite of just where he was, he was so proud of his success in such harsh conditions that he thought the best way to show it off was to proudly display his wealth, even in the Barren Lands themselves. Darryl's wife Samantha Heron, prude that she was, didn't like the thought of so many people tromping around her home, even in Larkin a party could get out of hand pretty easily. So the family rented out the city's nicest and biggest bar for their parties. As it would happen, Darryl's lovely young daughter Lia wasn't much for posturing, or for parties, and secluded herself in the family's house during her father's parties. What could possibly be more tempting for someone like Cynthia than some rich fella's big house, with part of the usual security diverted to the party, just chock full of valuables with a delicate young victim inside to torture before making off with the loot?

The trip to Larkin was fairly dull, the only interesting thing Kel saw the entire way there was a wagon with a broken wheel less than a mile out from the city. The driver obstinately refused help besides asking that a marshal be notified once Kelmorr reached the city, so he rode on. When he reached the gates and stayed still so the guards could get a good look at his face and make sure he wasn't on any wanted posters they were so thorough in reminding him that rule of law was still strong in Larkin, and to watch himself, he forgot to mention the wagon until the last second. Once inside the full scale of the city was undoubtably impressive, even Kelmorr had to admit it was a bit inspiring to see that much 'civilization' in the Barren Lands, even if it was around the edge. He listened carefully to every conversation he could eavesdrop as he wandered through the streets, until finally someone mentioned that preparations for the party were in full swing. Knowing that his timing wasn't off, Kelmorr made sure to walk a good distance further from where he'd heard about the party before asking someone for directions to the bar The Pale Lady. Keeping to a relaxed, meandering walk all the way to Pale Lady slowed down the journey quite a bit so that the sun was already sinking when his destination came into view. It suited him just fine though, after all guests wouldn't be arriving during the day, and it was extremely unlikely that anybody could blend in among the staff, they probably had their own little mini-society of party-staff where everybody knew everybody else by now.

Finding a vantage point wasn't hard, thanks to how well-established Larkin is there were plenty of ladders and other good climbing spots, and in no time Kel was lying on the edge of a rooftop with a great view of the front and left sides of the bar. Almost an hour passed before guests started to show up, their status made clear by their well-tailored clothes ranging from "wallet-gouging" to "damn ritzy" as Kel put it to himself, and yet nobody who seemed out of place showed. After another half an hour of watching he only really noticed one thing that was suspicious. There had been a shift change for the guards, and one of the replacements had a sawn-off shotgun instead of the six shooters that seemed to be standard issue for all the other guards, and he was the only one wearing gloves.

Once the party was really in gear Kel knew it was only a matter of time before Cynthia started whatever it was she had planned. He began to make his way back down from his perch, but before he hit the bottom the Pale Lady's door opened and the guard with the glove ran out and down the street. Kel let go of the ladder and dropped the rest of the way to the alley, momentarily gritting his teeth at the shock that ran up his legs, then darted after his target. He chased after the guard as fast as he could without making a scene, it was already clear where the man was going but that didn't mean keeping him in view couldn't be useful. At one point the fake guard broke into a sprint and raised his shotgun into the air, letting a shot ring out and then vanishing in the ensuing panic when a veritable wall of frightened people got in Kel's way. Luckily he had made sure to scope out as much of the town as he could on his way to the party, and the trail of employees ferrying party supplies to the Pale Lady had made it clear which of the city's few manors was the Heron house. Kelmorr shoved his way through the crowd until he could get to a small alley between two houses and sped towards the manor full-throttle.

When he made it to the mansion, breathing hard from the exertion, he saw one of the windows on the ground floor was already broken and the man he'd been following was nowhere to be found. He crept forward very cautiously at first, but when he heard a scream he ran for the window but only managed to make it a few steps towards the window before a strong blast of wind hit him and slowed him to a crawl for a moment, then he felt the cold barrel of a gun rest against the back of his head and froze. "Hands up, 'n git down on your knees mister, unless you feel like becoming a man of the cloth tonight."

Kel raised his hands palms-open and began to sink towards the ground. "Ah, holey, see what'cha did there partner."

"Miss Steele's gonna have plenty of fun with you, sneaking around where you don't belong, right after she's done with that Heron girl." The man said as he drew closer to disarm the bounty hunter.

"Oh I intend to give her a grand ol' time." Kel countered with relish as he disappeared right before the mans eyes. Before the thug had a chance to do anything besides gasp, Kelmorr reappeared to his side and the Peacekeepers flashed from their holsters like lightning, each letting out a single crack before the outlaw hit the ground, chest and armpit stained with red. Without a moment's hesitation Kel whipped around and popped a thief running at him right in the center of his chest with Wisdom and ran straight for the broken window, ignoring the pain of broken glass digging into him when he dived through, and the moist warmth that seeped out of him and stuck to the inside of his duster.

He was ready to fight any outlaw, but nothing in his imagination prepared him for the sight he was greeted with in the manor's foyer.

Ice1 · Oct 21, 2015

Emmett Holliday
Status - Outlaw ? Many ? Many - Many
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Water
Bounty - 2000$

The Unholy Trinity Pt. 2: The Thief

Emmett grabbed his gun, and pointed it at Legion.

?Take the mark off, Ezekiel,? Emmett said, ?or I?ll kill Agnes. Legion, really, but Agnes by extension!?

He didn?t like to resort to such measures, but Ezekiel?s mark limited him in his movement an awful lot. He now felt the pain surging through his body, but he held strong. His legs were shaking and he was grinding his teeth together, but he kept standing. He didn?t even know if his bluff was that strong. He hoped the impact of an ice ball to her head would kill her, but if it didn?t, she would just stand up again. Her sudden healing powers apparently prevented her from getting hurt. Going by their conversation, they seemed to come from Ezekiel, instead of Legion, but for some reason the priest didn?t do anything about it. Emmett suspected the power came from Agnes. Ezekiel had shown to be capable of casting some strong spells on others, and he was incredibly eager to spread his faith. It wasn?t below him to give a girl healing abilities and try to play her off as a saint, Emmett had come to realize.

A big fluorescent angel appeared behind Emmett, clad in knightlike armor, and it grabbed forwards. Emmett could blink away just in time, otherwise Ezekiel?s construct would have held him with no way out.

?I said remove it, Zekey,? Emmett said. His voice was unstable, and it was very clear in how much pain Emmett was at the moment.

Legion did not even move out of the way of the gun barrel. Instead she walked up to Emmett, and pressed it against her head.

?See if it kills us,? she said.

Ezekiel had closed his eyes, his head leaning down.

?Natasha, you can take him,? he said.

Legion?s eyes grew big, and she exclaimed: ?No, no! No!? But Emmett was flung into the air, and swallowed by the ground.

He felt a flood of memories, and feelings. Legion was so full, full with memories. He didn?t know which were hers, and which were of her victims. And he really didn?t even know which were his own anymore.

It felt like melting, as if his psyche became goop, and slowly trickled into the personality-goop of those who had come before him.

He recalled a very weird feeling boiling up. It was antagonizing. He remember a face, the face of a boy. Maybe sixteen. He remembered the feeling of love. Uncontainable love. He just had to have him. With the boy was a girl however, and she certainly was prettier than him. He couldn?t live up to her. He remembered days scratching desire and hatred onto paper, poems that just repeated one word. He felt the desire to change. He remembered not liking who he was. He wanted to be her. He wanted to be pretty, have the blond her she had, having the gleeful smile that she had, but most of all, having the loving touch that she received.

Legion fell down with on her knees. The skin tore open, and immediately healed itself back together.

?You just had to do this, didn?t you?? she raised her head in shocking motion, staring Ezekiel straight in the eye. ?Oh, Zekey, the fool you are.?

A giggle escaped from Legion. Not the schoolgirl giggle Ezekiel had come to know through Emmett, but the giggle of a madman.

?Oh this god of yours, Zekey,? she continued, ?why did he need to put you on this earth?? She ran towards Ezekiel, at an incredible speed. The priest however, was faster. He shot away, dodging the punch Legion aimed at him.

He saw the girl wrenching in pain, but her eyes started to glow as she did. Ezekiel sighed in relief. When he realized the spell he had cast on Agnes had carried over onto Legion, he realized the spell he cast on Emmett would too. The only danger was how the two would mix, but it seemed Legion was still limited. Emmett?s psyche had changed her quickly, though. Just as Agnes?s became a big part of Legion when they fused, so had Emmett now become a big part of her. The fresher the person, the stronger the effects. The Natasha part of Legion and the Emmett part where a blend he did not like though. Even before the girl had created the spell she used to take others, she was incredibly unstable. No one in the right mind would create a spell like hers. Combined with Emmett?s tendency to not sit still, and incredibly provocation skill, she had now become a real chaotic danger.

Legion?s body was twitching. While she was running, her head kept shockingly move around. She stopped when she noticed Ezekiel was too fast to keep up with. Her arm were hanging lifeless next to her body, as if she was a puppet whose master took a break. Her fingers twitched in an almost spastic fashion, however, as Ezekiel?s hex punished her for every vile thought her broken mind could come up with.

Ezekiel raised his hand, and summoned four angelic constructs around Legion, all wielding a fiery whip that they cracked at the girl. She did not even try to dodge, as every hit seemed to be healed immediately. Ezekiel knew the pain was still there, even though the wounds disappeared. Legion had way more control over her healing abilities than Agnes ever had, which was understandable, but it really didn?t help his situation.

He had to find a way to contain Legion. He was unable to hurt her, or even slow her down, but she was unable to even come close to his power, which was good. They both had no means to hurt the other or slow them down, and they both were very set on catching the other. Although it seemed the intentions of what should happen afterwards were different.

Ezekiel created another angelic construct behind Legion. The big angel grabbed Legion and held her tightly between his arms.

?Let us go, you pest,? she said. She almost started foaming from the mouth, so mad the she got. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. With a shocking movement she dislocated both her shoulders and fell through the angels grasp. Before she landed, her body was healed again.

Still, she was twitching in pain as Ezekiel?s hex surged through her.

The priest raised his hand.

?I?m sorry, Agnes,? he said, and the light in Legion?s eyes was torn out and shot to Ezekiel?s hand, were it faded out. He then cast another spell, creating another angelic construct, this time wielding a huge spear. It spread its wings, and readied itself as it took battle stance, its armor making the figure even more imposing. With incredibly speed, it shot forward, and knocked Legion backward, smacking her against the ground. Ezekiel heard the crackling of bones breaking.

Legion tried to stand up, but her legs did not heal. A harrowing scream left the girl, and Ezekiel could hear her vocal chords almost tearing.

Ezekiel walked up to her, and crouched down next to her.

?Natasha, I will give you a choice,? he said, ?or you?ll release Agnes willingly, and I?ll burn your spellbook and let you live, or I?ll force you to give up Agnes, and take it upon me to exact God?s vengeance.?

Legion did not answer, all she did was continue screaming. Her eyes were bloodshot and shot from side to side. Ezekiel grabbed her face, and forced her to look him in the eyes.

?Natasha, you heard what I said.?

?I? I can?t,? she said. She started the madman giggle she had shown earlier again.

Ezekiel started to squeeze, putting pressure on the girls jawbone.

?Can?t or won?t??

She started to breathe heavily and quickly.

?I can?t,? she repeated.

?I?ll guess I?ll have to make you then,? Ezekiel said.

Sephear · Oct 21, 2015

Scarlet Slumber Party

Inside of the room with the broken window, Cynthia and her newest playmate sat together surrounded by the corpses of the other party goers. The young girl sat atop a throne of broken bones and mangled flesh while the serial killer shifted and skirted around her, playing with the girl's hair and wiping her blood soaked hands across her innocent white skin.

"Hmm, do you prefer curly or straight hun? I think you could pull off a nice curl, but the way it is now just isn't working." Cynthia smiled and asked the girl as she ran her hands through the dirty blonde hair in front of her.

The girl's mouth was sealed tight, stitched together after she let out the first scream. Cynthia had plans for the two of them and nobody was going to interrupt. The girl whimpered and tears rolled down her face. She held her eyes closed together, afraid to look at the carnage that surround her. Her mother, her friends, the servants, everyone was dead. But it couldn't be, this had to be a dream. She couldn't believe that they had all been killed. Maybe she had just had a little too much to drink and had passed out? Yes, that would make sense. Her friends were always trying to pressure her into things.

"Why yes, I agree. Red does suit you better than this yucky blonde. Maybe a bun would be nice too. Yes, and a nice little flower to top it all off. Then we can really get down to business. What do you say? I do need another face now that the guards know the one that I wore in and I think yours might be a little tight around the cheekbones... but we'll make it work. Don't you worry." Cynthia bent over and traced her tongue up the girls neck and then bit down on her earlobe. "I do wish you'd open your eyes. I have a gift, a show that I'd like to put on for you. I promise you'll be entertained, if only you'd look." She whispered sweetly into the girl's ear.

Lia shook her head violently. Even if this was a dream, she didn't want anything to do with it. She would sit here in the darkness until the nightmare passed.

Cynthia scowled at the girl's lack of co-operation. She pulled from her waist a small knife and pressed it flat up against the young girl's neck. "Now listen, if you don't do as I ask then I'm afraid our little playdate will be cut short. And I don't so much care for coming out all this way for basically nothing. If things don't go as planned here, then I'll have to go out there and keep on going until I find someone who will do as I say and make this night fun. It might not be the first one, or the second, or even the fifth. But I will tear this town apart unitl I find someone who will fulfill my needs. So listen to me when I say to do something!" As she spoke, her voice elevated and she pressed the knife harder and harder against the girl's skin until it broke through, drawing blood and a muffled scream of pain.

Lia's eyes shot open as the knife dug into her neck and she screamed twice. Once from the pain, and a second time from what hung on the wall in front of her. She had invited over five friends to enjoy the night with. Her mother had still been home, but she was killed as soon as the woman entered the house. Her friends however, now hung on the wall. Starting from the left was Margaret, Josephine, Jeanne, Jeanine and Mosley. Each had been stripped down, their mouths sewn shut and their eyelids removed. A small bench was set up in front of them with various tools of torture spread out across it.

Cynthia got down on eye level with the girl and smiled. "Good girl." She whispered and then kissed Lia on the forehead before moving over to the table. Now, to start the show... which of your friends do you care for the least? I'd hate to get so far in to the fun and then have it ruined by beginning on someone you don't even care about. That just defeats the whole purpose of doing what I do. So which is it going to be? Left? Middle left? Middle? Middle Right? Or the one on the right end? Choose carefully now, wouldn't want to kill the wrong one."

Tears streamed down Lia's face. None of this was making any sense. She knew she had to be dreaming, but everything was so vivid and real. The warmth of the blood on her neck, the cold impression of the steel blade that had once rested in the same spot. The pain of the stitches holding together her lips. But she knew better. Daddy would never let anything bad happen to his little girl. She didn't even take the time to think after that. There was no way that this wasn't a dream, so it really didn't matter who died did it? She stopped crying and then nodded towards Mosley.

Mosley was built slightly larger than the others. She had a rather large collection of corsets that she used as an attempt to hold it all together, but she just couldn't say no when the servants brought her treats. A collection of several dozen corsets, each slightly smaller than the last. As she currently was only about four of them actually fit her, but on this night she had worn one slightly too small. All of the girls were hanging on the wall with their backs facing outwards, and on Mosley's back were fresh wounds up near her neck where the corset had been digging in to her skin. But that really didn't matter, because as soon as Lia nodded towards her Cynthia grabbed her by the back of her head and cut her throat. Blood poured from the wound and the rotund girl gargled and choked on her own blood. Within seconds she had died and Cynthia had begun to saw away at the rest of her neck so that the head was completely free from her shoulders.

Cynthia balled her hand up into a fist and shoved it up the throat of Mosley. Her smile widened and she began going up to each of the other four victims, shaking the head about vigorously and spouting nonsense in a high pitched voice. She walked over to Lia and got down on her knees in front of the girl. She put her deceased friend's head up in front of her and shook it vigorously. "And now who should we kill little girl? The fat one's already done, but there's foooour more! There's still plenty of fun to be had tonight that's for sure! Whaddya say? One more quickie? Or can we really play now?" Cynthia spoke to the girl in the same high-pitched voice she had been using before with the others. She had no idea how Mosley actually sounded, but she thought it fit.

Lia furrowed her brow. She had had some rather graphic dreams before, but nothing was ever this detailed. The headless body of Mosley slumped over and the blood from the stump of her neck ran down the wall and pooled on the floor for a while. She began to wonder if perhaps this actually wasn't a dream? She thought for a second as the puppeteered head of her friend gyrated in front of her and then decided that it must have been some new kind of drug that Jeanine had got her hands on. Her eyes focused on Jeanine as she thought, trying to remember if she had mentioned anything about a new drug or if she had had the chance to slip her anything in secret. As she was lost in thought, Cynthia traced her gaze over to the girl.

The murderer allowed the head to slide off of her fist as she rose to her feet. "I see. Yes, I do like her hair. It's a nice black color, almost like mine. But unfortunately those curls just don't fit with it. That'll jut have to go before I can do anything else I'm afraid." She turned to look at Lia. "That is alright with you isn't it? Her hair does have nice bounce, and could be salvaged if it were dyed a different color. It'd be a shame to just dirty it and let it go to waste."

Lia was still lost in thought and absentmindedly shook her head in agreement. She hadn't even heard the question, she had still been attempting to remember if her friend had ever had the time during their time together to slip away and do something to her drink or anything like that. She couldn't remember though. It seemed like there might have been once or twice where if she were quick it could have happened, but for the most part she remembered them being joined at the hip. Jeanine was her best friend after all. Surely if she had given her something she'd have let her know afterwards? She shook her head in uncertainty and then rejoined her friends in the present tense as Cynthia began cutting around the girl's hairline.

Cynthia finished up with the outline and then wrapped up several of the curls in her left hand which was relatively cleaner than her right. She pulled back hard on the girl's hair, pulling the piece of her scalp off with a loud pop and a squishing sound. She unwound her hand from their hair and then gently laid it down on the table with the various tools of torture. She turned back to Lia and smiled kindly. "Now what shall we do? We've already saved the hair, now nothing is really off limits. So what should we do? Take the hammer and begin to bash in her teeth? Take the curler and pluck out an eye or two? Or continue on with the skinning process and see if we can't make a nice jacket and put it together with some of your father's furs? Now that's a good idea don't you think? It will be getting colder here soon and I'd hate to have to go out and get my own furs. Hmm. Such a hassle."

The hair on the back of Lia's neck stood up. Her mind started to comprehend that she wasn't dreaming and that this all was in fact happening. But as she came to terms with what she had unwittingly helped to carry out, the sociopath in front of her continued on with her work. She took the knife and traced it down the spine of the girl she had just scalped. A long incision was made and then she put the knife down on the table beside her. She dug her fingernails into the opening she had made and then curled them under and around the parted skin.

"So soft, so smooth. You must really spend a lot on those fancy creams don't you?" Cynthia whispered into the tortured girl's ear as she attempted to break the stitching of her mouth and scream out in agony. But it was pointless. Jeanine had nowhere to go.

Cynthia bit her lip as she began to peel the skin away from the flesh it had been connected to. She pressed her face up against the exposed muscles and breathed in deep through her nose, taking in a big whiff of the fresh metallic odor. Cynthia moaned in pleasure at being wrapped up in this young girl's skin, and then wrapped her own teeth around the exposed flesh of her shoulder and took a lemon sized bite out of it. She chewed it slightly and then rubbed the side of her head against the blood that was flowing from the fresh wound. The girl's body shook violently and banged hard against the wall from which she hung for several seconds before she passed on.

Cynthia stiffled a laugh, with her mouth still filled with food she nearly choked. She looked over to Lia and grinned; shreds of bloody muscle and bits of tendons were stuck between her teeth and as she opened her mouth the blood poured out from between the gaps in her front teeth. She kneeled down in front of the girl and placed her lips on the other's stitchings. She kissed her passionately and then shoved the chunk of her friend's shoulder against the girl's face with her tongue. She smeared it all across, covering every inch of the girl's face with her friend as she could and then took a step back. She spit into her hand what was left of the girl's shoulder and then chucked it at Lia's face.

Lia rocked back and forth, shaking as violently in her chair as she could. She had to get out. Cynthia watched in amusement as the girl struggled with all of her might to get out of the chair.

"Now now my darling, don't waste your energy. That chair's not going anywhere. Now be a good girl and sit still. Sit still. I said sit still you stupid ****!" Lia had continued to shake, twist and turn even harder as Cynthia tried to talk to her. The outlaw wasn't having any of that. She picked up the hammer from the table behind her and swung it down hard on the young girl's kneecap - shattering it completely and bring a stop to the girl's incessant moving about. Lia's eyes widened to the point that they seemed they might simply pop out. Her nose flared rapidly as she began to hyperventilate. "Calm the hell down!" Cynthia screamed at her as she swung the hammer down on the girl's other kneecap, completely crippling her as well as any hope she had had of escaping. "When I tell you to do something, you had better damn well do it. Do you understand me?" She grabbed Lia's face and squeezed so that her lips puffed out and the stitchings on her lips loosened slightly.

"Pwease," Lia whispered through the slight opening in the stitching, "don't do this."

Cynthia giggled lightly and then burst into a full-hearted fit of laughter, crying for so long and so hard that by the end of it her face was a bright red and covered in tears. She brushed her hand across her face and then let loose a few more light chuckles before bringing herself back to eye level with her prize. She ran her hand through the young girl's hair and then rested it on her cheek. "Poor girl, you're the only one I really wanted." She brought up her other hand which held the hammer and then swung it across the girl's face.

The stitching of Lia's mouth tore apart, completely shredding her lips as they came loose. The force from the swing of the hammer knocked free the majority of her teeth. But now she was free. Though still bound to the chair, she could call for help now. Hopefully someone was around. Someone had to be. They just had to. Her life depended on it. She looked up to see what Cynthia was doing before she took her chance. One by one she was going down the line simply cutting each girl's throat and watching as the life drained from their eyes. Lia knew she had only this one chance. She let out the loudest scream she could manage. She gathered herself, coughed and then went to scream for help once more but was met with a firm kick to the chest.

Cynthia kicked her with as much force as she could muster. The legs of the chair snapped from underneath of Lia and she was sent skidding across the floor. She took a deep breathe and went to scream again but Cynthia was there before she could get it out and bounced her head against the floor with several significantly powerful stomps. There was an audible cracking sound, and then Lia was moving no more. The remainder of her teeth had been knocked out with the first two stomps, and each one after that had only been to progressively flatten and eventually turn her skull into a bloody pile of mush. Cynthia cupped her hands beneath what remained of the girl's head and lifted it up. She frowned as she spun it about in her hands.

"I really had hoped things wouldn't have ended this way, but girls shall be girls. Dirty, lying, cheating whores the lot of you." She craned her head in closer so that her lips were right next to the caved in section of her skull which used to be her ear. "I will never forgive you." She whispered before dropping the head to the floor. She took one final look around the room, taking in and admiring the work of art she had just created. Her hand had just rested on the handle of the door when some fool decided to trespass on and destroy all that she had spent the past hour working on. She turned to face the man, an intense rage burning in her eyes. She cracked her neck from side to side and pulled a fresh knife from her pocket. "An artist's work is never done."

Sonata · Oct 27, 2015

----

The Witching Hour Part 6

"SPEAK TO ME! MASTERRR! PLEASE! FORGIVE ME I'M SORRY!" Cosma was kneeling at the edge of the bed where Alice slept. Her hands clawed at the bedsheets as she screamed, inching closer and closer to the girl. "WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO ME? JUST HELP ME ONE MORE TIME! I PROMISE! I PROMISE IT'LL ALL WORK OUT! PLEASE MASTER JUST LEND ME YOUR POWER ONE LAST TIME!"

"Your master seems to have given up on you."

Cosma turned towards the voice and hissed. Jeb stood outside the door to the room, dagger in one hand and sword in the other. Sophia stood beside him with Mr. Truth and Rey in her hands, but Marzia nowhere to be found.

"DON'T YOU SPEAK OF MY MASTER IN SUCH A WAY! HE WOULD NEVER ABANDON ME! I AM HE AND HE IS ME! TOGETHER WE ARE POWERFUL! YOU ARE NOTHING! INSIGNIFICANT! LEAVE USSSSS!" She screamed, voice cracking from the strain. She'd lost it. Her spawn had been slain, her master was unresponsive and now the dagger had fallen into the hands of their enemies.

Jeb shook his head. He took the dagger and slammed it into the shield in front of him causing it to ripple and falter. The titan laying over top of the barrier shifted as the first of the layers dispersed.

"Now look here, either you can come peacefully and we'll kill you quickly, or you can fight us and we'll destroy you. Completely and totally and with no restraint. Because frankly, I'm just about five hundred percent pissed off and done with this ********. I just want to go home and drink a couple pints. So, what'll it be lady?"

Cosma barred her teeth and popped her neck to each side. She rose to her feet and walked over to the edge of the innermost barrier. She placed her hand against the field and brought her face in close. "****. You." With a flick of her wrist the barriers rappidly expanded outwards, sending Jeb and Sophia flying off of the small platform that was what still stood of Cosma's mansion. Jeb extended his arm, grabbing Sophia as he blinked back up to the barrier, slamming the dagger into the next outermost layer as he appeared.

Cosma laughed evilly as she picked up her spellbook. She turned to a page in the middle of it and then laid the book down in front of her. She sat down on the floor a foot away from the open book with her legs crossed. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Though my master may not answer me as I am now, he has not yet completely forsaken me. His book still sits in my care, and so long as it does, the fragment of his power that was bestowed upon me still survives. Which means if i force the merging...." Cosma lowered her head down to the floor and touched it against the open book and the two connected, the room was filled with darkness. A few seconds passed and then two black spots appeared in the thick of the darkness. A set of teeth appeared as a chill ran through the air once more. "We are not defeated."

The barriers around the room sizzled and turned to black sand before retreating into the mass of darkness that now stood before Sophia and Jeb. Unchained and untamed, denser even than the barriers that once restrained it. The titan which had once slumped over now slowly merged into the mass, only causing it to grow even darker but causing no change in size or shape.

"You see, while being large does have it's merits, being an average size is more practical in battles such as these. Being monstrous would have been nice, since I could have retained that form for all of eternity and served by my master's side until all else had faded in to dust. But that is no longer an option. You have severed my link with the titans, so now the only purpose they serve is to elongate my life. I'm afraid I don't have the luxury that is time to explain it to you, but suffice it to say; I'm just about five hundred percent pissed off and done with this ********."

The mass of darkness in front of Jeb and Sophia started to advance towards them, and as it did a swirling motion began to the sides of it and at it's zenith. As it approached and forced the duo to step back in uncertainty of what was to come, the swirlings began to accelerate and condense. The swirls became vortexes, sucking in and absorbing all of the darkness around them until two and a half halos were formed around a being of pure darkness.

The figure that had once been Cosma, now stood before the group as a seven foot tall singularity that absorbed every hint of darkness or shadow in it's immediate vicinity. It appeared somewhat human, but it's knuckles brushed against its ankles and floating away from the open palm of each of its hands were halos of pure darkness. The shadow of a third halo appeared above its head, but refused to form completely.

"We are... incomplete... the master refuses to give us any more power... how unfortunate..."

In the distance, the felled titans began to be pulled towards the figure by some invisible force. And from the middle of the dark figure's chest appeared a glowing white hand. Marzia twisted her arm around in the hole that she had made in the darkness and then pulled herself free. She took a few steps back, black ooze dripping from her fingertips. She smiled as the figure turned to face her. It looked down to the hole in its chest and then back up at Marzia. The figure cocked its head to the side and then raised its hand to the assassin. A black tendril shot out from it in the blink of an eye and pierced Marzia's heart.

The assassin's eyes widened as she realized she had been hit. The tendril raised Marzia up into the sky and then slammed her against the ground over and over again until the majority of the bones in her body had been broken and all of her teeth had been knocked free. The tentacle began to pulse, and the wound in the figure's chest filled itself in.

"We are the god of darkness and death. All energies that stem from the darkness be them physical or not, we have dominion over. Become pacified foolish girl, and relish the idea that it was us who spared you this day."

Marzia's body slowly healed itself, but her heart and mind remained fragmented. Her arm glowed a brilliant white, but it could only do so much and only so fast. The assassin watched as the figure turned away from her and continued onwards towards the two she had risked her life with. Their plan was meaningless now. They hadn't prepared for this. She despised the thought of being unable to do anything for them. However, she could never forgive herself if she hurt another living being. Even if it was the epitome of evil.

"Our name is Verelys, and after so long we have... reassumed our dominance in this world. To celebrate this glorious night, we shall take your lives and add them to our own. In this way, you might join us for eternity as we rule over this world."

Verelys spread their arms out as wide as they could. The two halos which floated away from the palms of their hands began to rotate and grow larger. The halos grew until they were large enough that even with their wielder's arms oustretched they began to brush and clash against each other. As this began to occur, Verelys raised their arms to the sky and sent the halos spiraling upwards, continuing their growth as they rose. The halos bounced against each other, creating sparks of darkness as they clashed. The clouds in the sky were blown away and dispersed by the halos' power, and even the stars in the sky appeared to be both pulled in to the halos, and pushed away from them simultaneously. Finally, once they had reached the height of their ascent the two halos overlapped themselves and opened a hole in the middle of the sky to an entire world as dark as Verelys' body.

Five figures of darkness deeper than that of Verelys appeared to be hovering at the opening of the gate that breached the two worlds. Each figure had their own sets of halos hovering around their body but in different arrangements. The figures looked down onto the world below them and leveled their gaze at the entity which called itself Verelys.

Verelys looked up to the tear in the sky and smiled. "Our masters; our home. Black Shinrabanshou. We have returned."

Sephear · Oct 27, 2015

Pentozali at the after-party

The interloper's face was hidden at first by the wide brim of his hat, but after a few swivels of his head he pushed the hat up on his head and looked Cynthia right in the eyes, his own glittering with suppressed fury. "You really are an even bigger mess than you made here ain'tcha? Seems to me I should ask for more, twenty-four hundred don't do you justice." His voice was a stark contrast to his eyes, cool as ever, and laced with just a bit of magic from his Silver Tongue.

Cynthia bit her lip and looked the man over. "Honey you're one to talk." She flipped the knife over to the other hand and got down low to the floor, ready to pounce. "It's gonna take a lot of work to make you good enough to tell the rest of the girls about." The woman rushed at Kel, blade peeking out from the bottom of her clenched fist. She swung at the man, taking a piece of his hat out and only barely missing his face.

Kel barely managed to lean back just far enough to avoid the psychopath's first strike, nostrils flaring when his hat got sliced. Without a moment to spare he leaped backwards and fired Mercy at Cynthia once, while his right hand holstered Wisdom and drew his own knife. "Come on darlin'! No chase was ever worth a damn if a man didn't hafta work for it!"

Cynthia leaned to the left, dodging the bullet with ease. "Now see," she began as she walked over to a pile of corpses in the corner of the room, "that's where we differ hun. It's just as fun to put on a show to a restrained audience as it is to put up some kind of phony chase. I'm not so weak that I have to chase after you, and I'd rather my hair not get any more messy for a simple roadside toy. Pre-damaged goods aren't really my thing." She reached her arm down into the pile and a bullet flew out towards the man from one of the many bodies she had stacked when she first entered the house.

The surprise shot only managed to pierce empty air when the bounty hunter vanished and reappeared a few feet away from his starting position. "Well of course, you're the prize here, my dear. And I promised your man out front I'd show you a good time." He continued to funnel small amounts of energy into his words when he spoke, waiting for Cynthia to heat up.

"Oh no! You killed little Jeffrey? Oh how will I ever survive without that useless little piece of ****? Oh the horror! I believe I might faint." Cynthia fanned herself sarcastically as she freed herself and her revolver from the pile of corpses it had been hidden in. "Long time ago I was another man's prize, the trophy he got from promising me everything, but he liked to share his trophies a little too much. So I thought to take a little trophy of my own from him. It's become a sort of ritual now every time I meet up with a man. You want to show me a good time? Let's say we get down to business then!" Cynthia threw the knife in her hand at the wall behind Kel, purposefully missing him by a good amount. In the empty hand, a whip made of water with sharp shards of ice throughout appeared. She then disappeared and then quickly reappeared on the wall behind Kel where she had thrown the knife. She held herself there and began to swing her whip around, building up momentum before she struck it across the man's back.

Kel side-stepped the knife reflexively, surprised that Cynthia's aim would be so far off. As soon as she disappeared and he heard the sound of water behind him he dived forward, managing to avoid the brunt of the whip, but wincing when it cracked on his foot. He was really hoping she wouldn't know the Blink spell too, and she seemed to be resisting Silver Tongue better than he expected. Instead of trying to get up as quickly as possible, however, he reached his hand towards the pile of corpses.

Cynthia frowned as her whip missed it's mark. She let go of the knife and dropped to the floor, quickly swinging her whip back at the man and following up with a quick draw of her revolver. She attempted to predict where he might try to go and fired off three rounds. She shot once where he was, another time at the pile of corpses she had been messing with before and a final time behind herself.

Kelmorr rolled to the side, avoiding the first shot and smirking when he saw the second hit one of the corpses in the pile, just before one of Cynthia's leftover torture implements shot towards his outstretched hand. "No cigar sweetheart!" He caught the bloody pair of pliers and twisted around to throw it right at Cyntha before he righted himself with a quick jump and rushed her with his knife, left hand hidden in his duster.

Cynthia stood fast, taking the flying pliers as they barely broke skin. She dropped the revolver and then reached behind her, swinging her whip once more at the man as she did. She pulled her hand out from behind her and let loose a cluster of daggers that scattered in different directions around the man. "I prefer chew hun. Don't even think about it. That stuff'll kill ya."

Slick as a snake Kel kicked his right leg out in front of him and dropped into a slide, angling his shoulder so one of the daggers he hadn't been able to avoid would hit the thickest part of his duster, only mildly cutting him when it dug through. "Sure as **** you're right darlin', never touch the stuff myself!" As he passed underneath his opponent he reached out and yanked one of her legs, then Blinked a short distance away. He took only a moment to spy if Cynthia had been knocked over or staggered before he snapped Wisdom out of its holster and shot the chain holding the large chandelier on the ceiling.

As Kel had grabbed hold of her leg, Cynthia allowed her body to go limp. She had already seen the move coming and decided to allow herself to be a part of this little dance. As her leg had been taken out from beneath her, she used the momentum to cartwheel out of the way. Kel had blinked away, but he was still within her range. As soon as he pointed the gun towards the ceiling, the outlaw readied her spell. The chandelier fell her way, but as it grew nearer it was not Cynthia for whom it was headed, but Kel.

Kelmorr's eyes widened at the sight of the incoming chandelier. Well, that's a new one. The over-sized ceiling decoration made a momentous crash when it hit, a true testament to the Herons' grandiose sense of style. Even after all the death that had been wrought, the house was nowhere near dirty enough to loosen up a cloud of dust, but all the gore it disturbed did plenty to obscure one's sight for just a moment. The bounty hunter stumbled away from the wreck, clutching his right arm while it hung loosely at his side. "I must admit Darlin' you really are an impressive lady. Not only are ya one hell of a fighter, I haven't seen a lick of sweat on you, even though I've been doing my best to warm you up this whole time. I must salute your fortitude and cunning." He started to attempt a classic bow before he remembered his arm, then shrugged and tossed Wisdom to the floor, bowing with a flourish of his left hand instead of his right.

In the middle of his bow, Kel felt an icy cold on his shoulder that caused his teeth to chatter. "Thanks for the compliment hun." She whispered as she swept his leg out from under him. She pinned him to the floor, digging her knee into his right arm and then grabbed up a piece of the broken chandelier. She leaned in close to him, so that their lips almost touched and then dug the shard deep into the bounty hunter's ribcage. "But I'm sorry. I don't mix work and pleasure. It really upsets me that you had to make me go through so much trouble just to get you here too. A real, damn shame you didn't come in earlier. That's wh-"

A surge of blood came out of the side of the woman's head trailing behind a bullet. A gunshot echoed far off in the distance as the woman fell limp over Kel's body. Immediately after the floor of the room became covered in nearly two feet of blood and water as the spell that Cynthia had cast dispersed. The sound of footsteps could be heard heading towards the house accompanied by a number of hoots and a lot of hollering at having successfully taken down the woman the rival bounty hunters had been trailing.

The man underneath the dead outlaw furrowed his brow, almost as if disappointed that his assailant had been killed right before his apparent demise. He pushed Cyntha off of him, then stood up and grabbed his right shoulder. With a sickening crack that made the less experienced of the other bounty hunters cringe Kelmorr forced his arm back into place. Acting as if his fellows weren't even there, he picked up Cynthia's corpse and laughed to himself while he strode towards the manor's front door. "What took you boys so long? You missed the whole party? And you even crashed the afterparty just in time to ruin the poor gal's surprise."

The oldest of the other bounty hunters was in no patience for negotiations, he stepped in front of Kel while his allies formed up behind the heavily outnumbered would-be hero of the night. "Sorry, don't know how long you've been in the game but you seem confused, that's our bounty. I killed her."

"Oh?" Kel stopped and raised an eyebrow at the young man in front of him, couldn't be more than twenty-seven, way too young to be making such a deadly mistake. "I can't help like feeling I put in all the legwork here fellas, I followed the trails, I took out the little lady's goons, and I'm the one who tussled with her. All you Jacks did was get between a man and a woman havin' themselves a nice solitary dance."

"Get in the way?!?" The man shouted incredulously, already seething at Kel's words thanks to not having the same protections at his disposal that Cynthia had.

Kel smiled earnestly at the man and tipped his hat to him. "Tell you what though, since you did try to help me out, you can have a consolation prize." Kelmorr looked over to where Mercy lay on the ground, obsidian barrel and gold filigree gleaming in the pale light filtering through the windows. He stared at his beloved peacekeeper intensely, as if wanting the others to follow his gaze.

One man did dare to step towards the ornate revolver, but before he could reach for it a deafening crack echoed out when Wisdom went off seemingly of it's own accord. A .44 magnum round cut right into the lead bounty hunter's ankle at the front door and swept away the man's balance, leaving him to crumple at Kelmorr's feet. Before the shock of the self-firing weapon allowed a response, Kel thrust his hand out, pulling Mercy right into his fingers and jumped over the sack of raging hunter in front of him. "So long fellas! Your heart was in the right place!" In a flash his last bit of spare stamina Blinked him away from the hail of gunfire his "friends" responded with, and he let out a high pitched whistle. With a running start he was more than ready to sweep up into his horse's saddle when she caught up to him.

As he neared Larkin's entrance. Kelmorr let out a huge sigh, finally relaxing enough to properly tie Cynthia to the back of the chestnut horse's saddle and attend to the various aches and stingings littering his body. He managed not to flinch while he did his best rush job on patching himself up, until he had to pull the splintered chunk of chandelier from his ribs, that one got a deep, healthy grunt out of the man. It had been a wise bit of foresight to shell out the rest of his savings for the stable's nicest mare, he seriously doubted any of the other hunters could outpace her on his return to Spider Hollow. With a smile he scratched behind his mount's ear before stroking her mane. "You've already more than paid your dues sweetheart, I think you deserve a name, and a good one too." Kel looked up at the black sky sprinkled with glimmers of starlight for a moment, then at the rifle slung on his back, disappointed he hadn't gotten a chance to use her that night. "Well Winona's already taken twice-over, how about.....Lia? A gal like you and a tenacious piece o' tramp like me'll make one hell of a team, with you at my side...next time I won't be late." The scene Cynthia had set up for him was the best and worst reminder of what kind of place the Barren Lands are that a man could ask for, it left a bitter taste in the bounty hunter's mouth, but at least he'd made a good start to "gettin' back in the saddle".

Ice1 · Oct 27, 2015

Emmett Holliday
Status - Outlaw – Not Legion – Dog enthusiast
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Water
Bounty - 2000$

The Unholy Trinity, Pt. 3: The Rascal

Ezekiel buried his face in his hands, as he tried to think of a good solution for this situation. Natasha's muted cries went through is bones, and they disrupted his thought. He sat on the side of the bed he had bound the gagged girl to. Light barely entered the room, only through little creeks in the paneling on the windows. The walls, the bed sheets and the ground were covered with writing. Two words, repeated over and over again. Liar. Monster. As no room was left in their abandoned hide out, Natasha had decided to scribe all over Ezekiel with his spell. It was an irritating feeling, as she etched the letters into his skin. It was almost painful, but not enough to make him flinch. He'd escape it if he could, but he couldn't leave Natasha alone, or could he take her spell book away. He needed to get Agnes back. He was not willing to let her death blemish his soul. He felt the words being put down on his shoulder blades. He wasn't sure how the spell worked, if it was magic in his skin, or if she was literally changing him. He hoped for magic, as that would mean he could get this dispelled, but if dispelling was a possibility, he would have done it already. He desperately needed someone to be able to separate Natasha and her magic, and maybe he would get Agnes back. It was the only way he even dared to think off.

He stood up, and walked out the door. He was at the edge of Fairbell, and looked out upon the ever beautiful desert lands of the great chasm. The heat of the ground toyed around with the light, as it waved it around, and created movement where there shouldn't be. The grafting of words on his body continued slowly. Natasha seemed to take her time, trying to stretch the only form of torment she could lay upon Ezekiel for as long as possible.

There was this scratching in Ezekiel's mind. A little thought that had formed, and slowly pulled itself forward, growing bigger and bigger. It started out as the little black thought of a last resort, but as it grew and grew, it slowly became the rotten thought of his only option. He had not been able to find a dispeller he could use. He knew of several in Fairbell, but none of them seemed like options. Two of them were associates of the Culebra's. The first was murdered several days ago, around the same time the news of Antonio Culebra's disappearance started spreading. The second was the lowest of human filth. The embodiment of sin. Sloth incarnate. While he had a deal with the Culebra's, he was known to take a gruesome price on those that did not have such a deal. His last option was Silver, but she had left town without a trace, and Ezekiel did not have the time to track her down. The church had multiple people that specialized in dispelling, but the one placed in Fairbell had long been lost to the girl he had tied down inside.

He clasped his hands together, and stared to the skies, as if the Lord would write the solution in golden clouds, and said a quick prayer. He walked back inside, and felt the writing starting in the back of his neck. He grabbed a blade from the table. Natasha stared him straight into the eyes, and her muffled screams became more intense. He let his finger run over the sharp side of the blade, which was as sharp as a sinner was pure. He forced his emotions back, and prayed to God for forgiveness and for it to work, as he let the blade come down on Natasha's throat.

Emmett felt the cold sensation through his neck, as he swam up through what seemed like darkness. The tips of his fingers had reached surface, and he raised himself up. He was emerging from the ground, which rippled and waved like water while he pulled himself out of the darkness he had disappeared in only hours earlier. He barely had to use any energy, as the darkness below him pushed outwards, making the ground birth an adult Emmett. He sat on the ground, while he let his mind comprehend being fused together with six others. He still could remember glimpses of their memories, although they were easy to distinguish as not his. It was simply really, his were fun, theirs weren't. Nuns, working on books, a girl, sharing the bed with a guy, Agnes, crying and crying and crying and never stopping with crying. That girl really could not do anything but cry, could she? Cry, cry, cry, he could still hear her crying echo through his mind. And not just the ones he witnessed, no he remembered years of her crying, crying, crying. You'd expect the girls to run out of tears at some point, but no, her parents apparently refueled her every time she ran out. That's why parents weren't good for anything, they were supplying their kids with the wrong needs. One should never give a kid more tears when it can have a dog to chase.

Emmett liked dogs, maybe he should get one at some point, he thought.

The memories settled, as memories do when you're not living them anymore, and he seemed to feel as he should feel again. He did feel the annoyance at Agnes's memories still lingering though. That girl cried so much. As a kid, when her father hit her, and for her mother, when her father hit her. The girl's crying just was no good for anyone. Although they were more interesting than the memories he kept from the nuns. They were mainly reading the bible. He recalled them using certain parts in prayer. He could remember Proverbs 22:4 though: The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life, but he was sure he read that himself at some point.

Emmett left more smoothly than he entered. His blinking was an extreme show of grace compared to his clumsily climbing out of the ground. He really didn't have direction at the moment, but he felt an urge to visit Gilded Brook, and he was as close as ever, so why not? He chained his blinks together quickly, and he was just energy filled. Gilded Brook came closer a lot quicker than he was expecting, but he was probably over half way from Fairbell already.

He was curious as to what Ezekiel was doing now, but he really didn't feel like visiting that man at the moment. He was a bit too kill happy for Emmett's taste at the moment. The thought of the priest made him wonder if the hex survived the murder though, or if it died with Legion. In his head, gruesome imagery appeared, worthy of the seven sins, as he thought of releasing a flock of sheep, kidnapping Agnes again, and overeating. Not even a single inch of pain shot through Emmett's body. Did you measure pain in inches, though? What did you measure pain in, he started to wonder, before he decided to measure in inches would suffice. Not an inch of pain.

When he arrived in Gilded Brooks, he immediately found the mansion he had been thinking off. It was one of the multiple houses that had a big sign with Griffith written on the edge of its land. The house was very well kept for a place the man had barely visited. Emmett remembered a younger him playing in this very yard. He blinked over the fence, and walked towards a much more humble residence. A small house where the gardener took his living.

He opened the door, and inside sat an old man at the table. For a second he recognized it to be a big figure, with a dark brown mustache, but the image quickly disappeared and the man's real appearance showed to be quite different. He was small, seemed brittle, and he looked like he was a humpback. He was bald, although there were signs of silver hair poking through his salt and pepper skin.

His neck was snapped, and behind him stood a girl. Emmett just felt despise as he looked upon her. She was pretty, with blond hair flowing down, and big brown eyes that gave her a very grounded beauty. She had lips you just wanted to rip off, put on, and kiss someone with, although he wasn't entirely sure if that was his own though. Her figure was certainly one to be desired, although it was put away by a conservative, yet appealing, layer of clothing.

What a dummy that girl was, Emmett thought. He did not know entirely why he felt that, but he did that while he had not met her before, one of his mental ex-colleagues did.

"I- I didn't mean it," she said to Emmett, "I didn't mean to kill him, I- I just, I just." The girl paused for a second, and Emmett gave her a nod of agreement, while he looked at her in an overly serious fashion. "I just had to hurt him."

She fell down to the ground, and started crying, and Emmett walked over, as extravagant as possible. His hips swaying, his legs jumping around, his arms fluttering around like they were the butterflies in the stomach of a teenager.

"I," he said, with as much grandeur as he could muster, "would not worry too much about it. He was your dad, right?"

The girl nodded. She shook her head wildly, and took a deep breath. She stood up as she exhaled, and grabbed Emmett by the collar of the blazer he was still wearing.

"How do you deal with it?" she asked.

Emmett looked at her with confusion.

"How do I deal with what?"

"How do you deal with the urges, the sensations? I know they're yours, she only felt them when you joined in," the girl said. Her voice broke, lowered and raised at random points of her dialogue.

"I just do. Hows are for people that take things seriously," Emmett answered. He patted the girl on the back, as he tried to see if he could recall anything about her life from the souvenirs he grabbed from Legion's mental luggage.

"So, why'd you kill him?" Emmett asked her, as he looked towards the girl's father occupying the chair.

"Urges. Your urges, her urges. Maybe mine? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!"

Emmett giggled. Oh, what a shame the nuns didn't leave a more lasting impression on her mind, he thought, she would've been such an upstanding citizen.

He could hear rummaging through the yard, but decided to ignore it. He wanted to see how far the girl would go. He grabbed her hands, and placed them on his head. Unless she was secretly a strongman, he wasn't in any real danger, but he wondered if she'd still do it.

"Wanna try it again?" he asked.

A grim smile appeared on her face. Emmett loved it when people looked that way. It was the perfect combination between joy and discomfort, humour and distaste. It looked great on any face that wasn't his.

He felt her hands move his head around, trying to snap his neck, but her lack of force and Emmett's astoundingly awesome reaction time, if he was allowed to call it that, permitted him to get away. He blinked behind her, and gave her a push in the back. She set a few steps forward and saved herself from falling over, but Emmett gave her another push before she could fully recover. She hit the door with her face, and a loud thump.

"Oh, wait, that opens the other way," Emmett giggled, as he was honestly surprised to find out door-opening-directions. He pulled the door open, hitting the girl in the face with it again, grabbed her, and dragged her outside.

"It's a beautiful day," he said, "you shouldn't be inside, go play outside. The desert heat only hurts those who are silly any way." He stopped a seconds in his track, to mentally check if he made a good joke just there, and decided he had not.

"So, you stupid-face," he pointed to the girl, "you wanna fight, or what?"

The girl took a deep breath, and as she exhaled her face turned into a very angry one accentuated with a bloody nose. She was quicker than Emmett expected, but nowhere near as quick as she should be for this to be any challenge to Emmett. He just stepped aside, and the girl raced past, tripping and falling over. She honestly didn't look that crazed, but Emmett needed to entertain himself and there was no better way to do that than to plague other people with his existence, as his father used to say.

The girl stood up, and spit out some blood, as she wiped the dirt of her face. She ran over to Emmett, and quickly tried to get in some punches, but he agilely dodged every attempt at a punch. She really wasn't any threat to him, a professional rascal, while her only experience fighting probably was in Legion's body.

Emmett had decided he would not run, or use any of his spells. He had to even out the playing field in some way, and he hoped that he would give her at least somewhat of a chance this way. She swooped her leg under his, and he just jumped up without any trouble. He kicked her in the chest while in the air, but without using his blink, he did land on his back. The girl dove onto him immediately and pressed him against the ground.

"You, Emmett, you're just going to leave now okay," she said. Her tone had changed from just a minute ago, when she had sounded more scared. Emmett could still recognize a tremble in her voice though. His eyes lit up blue, and he grew horns out of his forehead. They met exactly with the girls head, as the graced her skin. Emmett smiled. Whoops, cheated on my own rules, he thought, but I've never been much of referee either. "I know you're tricks. You're just going to piss me off, trying to fulfill that adrenaline fetish of yours, and I will not participate. I will not. Just leave me, and my pain alone for a second, while I try to sort them out."

She released Emmett and stood up.

"Can do," Emmett said, "but won't," and he head-butted her with his frozen horns. He aimed for the chest, as he did not plan to crush her head, but he knocked against her chin too.

"I should use these more," he mumbled to himself, and he wiped some blood off his left horn, "I need the practice."

The girl sighed, as she spit out more blood, and tears shot in her eyes.

"Oh, pract-ice," Emmett said, completely distracted from the fight, "I should find a way to use th-"

The girl had charged and hit Emmett in the stomach, as he bend forward in pain. For a second he was dizzy, and the world seemed to turn around. He thought he saw three girls, two with the blond hair and the pretty lips, and one actually being a big dude with a hat in brown scavenging the ground, but when he recovered two of the three seemed to have left.

Emmett let out a soft cheer, as he tried to deal with the pain in his stomach and the excitement of the girl acting out. She was currently in the process of walking away, but Emmett wouldn't have any of it. He blinked in front of her, with his arm out stretched, and she walked right into his pointer finger.

"Boop," Emmett said, with the childlike glee any sane person despised.

She swung out, but where his face would be one second, was now empty air, and he was behind her. She turned around, to see nothing, and felt Emmett's hand on the back of her head. She immediately turned around again, only for him to have disappeared again too, but launched an arm backwards to punch him. She received a sideways 'boop' in return.

She screamed out in anger, and decided to try and escape the situation by running.

"Why leave?" Emmett yelled. He sighed. "Why do they always leave? We've only known each other for like six minutes." He blinked in front of her again, but she took a quick turn and ran off again. "I feel like I have known you for years, though."

It was at that second he felt a rope tie around his neck and pull him back. He blinked away, but to his surprise, the rope did not leave him. It followed Emmett, as a trustworthy dog followed its owner. Only this was a rope, and not a dog. I should get a dog sometime, though, Emmett thought.

Sonata · Oct 29, 2015

----

The Witching Hour Finale

Jeb, Sophia, Marzia and the transformed Cosma all stared up to the hole in the sky. The five beings above them stared back. Lightning streaked across the cloudless night, and from the hole embers and droplets of water speckled the ground. One of the five figures descended slightly out of the opening and a tornado formed around him, bringing up the remnants of the town and all the elements which had fallen from the sky with it but leaving what remained of the mansion intact.

"Ehvyhd. Esbieccyhd. Vnyit. Ypusehydeuh. Naylr hud vun dra rayjahc ypuja, pid maynh ouin bmyla uh dra knuiht pamuf. Drec ec y funmt hud sayhd vun oui du ycbena. Lnyfm eh dra tend yht dra cyht yht pintah ic hud fedr ouin huhcahcelym tnaysc. Fa yfyed dra ybbnahdela'c nadinh. Pid oui yna hud ra, pid y cesbma vnyksahd; y icamacc dacd cipzald yht y vyemehk ryhtsyetah. Nadinh du rec ceta, byndyga uv dra vnied yht fyed. Yllabd dryd drec fyc ymfyoc sayhd du pa, yht tea." The voice boomed out from within the tornado.

The shadow-halo which sat upon Cosma's head cracked and splintered. Tendrils of darkness extended from her body of their own accord and were swallowed up by the power of the tornado. The darkness stripped itself from Cosma in this way, leaving her body scarred and disfigured. Her skin a charred black, but without the power it once held. Veins pressed at the cracked skin appeared as lava below the rock that she was now forced to wear.

The book forcibly ejected itself from her chest, leaving a large rectangular hole at its exit. The book caught fire and turned to ash, and as it did so the tornado over the town dispersed. The figure which had spoke to them before still floated in place of where the tornado had originated. In the figure's hand was a spike of darkness. The figure pulled it's arm back, readying to launch the spike.

"Uin ybbnahdela. Fa vunkeja oui vun drec cehkma vummo. Pid hu suna. Fa huf keja pylg dra bufan frelr fyc uhla punnufat. Tu hud fycda uin knyla ykyeh. Fa crymm nadinh."

The halos which surrounded the figure's legs flowed outwards, aligning themselves to create a path towards the single room still standing in the mansion. The halos widened, ready to accept the spike which was about to be thrown through them. The figure lurched forward, releasing it's hold on the darkness which near instantaneously hit it's mark. As the spike left the figure's hand, it hit the first halo and doubled its flight speed. Once it hit the second halo it tripled the new speed, and at the third halo it was guadrupled, and at the fourth is was quintupled before finally piercing its target's heart. The new vessal willingly absorbed the gift and awoke for the first time as what she had been bred to become.

Meanwhile, as the new being went through the process of getting used to it's newly acquired body, the conflict was at long last coming to its conclusion. Cosma stood between Marzia, Jeb and Sophia, separating them from each other. The woman shook slightly as she poked and prodded at the body she was left with. She looked down to the hole in her chest, and saw the half of her heart which had not been ripped out with the book struggling to maintain a beat with the medical spells that she still had from her own book.

Cosma turned away from the group and headed down towards the emptiness which was where the town had once stood. The only thing that remained was her mansion, and that was even on the verge of falling apart. A symbol was etched into the ground, a reminder of what a mere fragment of the power of darkness could achieve. Though nobody besides those that were there and a very select few others would know what it truly meant, the darkness had made its return.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Jeb pointed Mr. Truth at the back of Cosma's hairless head.

"I'm done. I'm going... somewhere... I don't know where... but... I'm done. This wasn't supposed to happen... I just... I just wanted to make him happy..." Cosma wheezed between each of her words. She struggled every time she spoke, barely clinging on to life. She couldn't accept this. She had to do something. Anything. This isn't how it was supposed to be. She needed to heal herself and become stronger.

"That's not really how this works."

Jeb smiled. He shoved Cosma with the barrel of Mr. Truth. Her skin flaked off and she fell to the ground. Her arms and legs crumbled beneath her and turned to dust. She didn't scream, didn't show any signs of pain. She merely continued to crawl across the ground, pulling herself with her one good arm.

"This is how it has to be. I can't... I can't... this can't be how it has to be... I have to... revenge... Daniel... Jax... I'm sorry..." Cosma stopped and closed her eyes. It was over for her. There was nothing left to do. Nowhere left to go. All she could was keep her heart beating and lay there. If she crawled any more her fingers would crumble and turn to dust. This was the end of the line. "Please. Be quick with it."

Cosma rolled over onto her back and looked up at the night sky. The stars twinkled above her and she was reminded of quieter times. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She heard the click of Jeb's gun mere inches from her face. She dared not open her eyes, but she had accepted what was to happen. A memory flashed before her eyes as the gun went off.

An old apple tree whose limbs hung low to the ground. It's branches heavy with the many apples that it would grow, it reached down low so that the children who loved to play around it could easily pick the fruit without worry. A young boy and girl of about seven or age were playing together, running circles around the old apple tree and play fighting with wooden swords. They stopped and looked over to Cosma, faces growing bright with excitement to see their sister finally join them again.

"Want to come play with us?" The young boy held out his hands, one with an apple and the other with a wooden sword.

"Of course." A much younger Cosma gleefully agreed, taking the sword and the apple. She took a bite out of the apple and began to chase around the other girl as the boy picked another of the fruit and sat beneath the tree's shade.

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

"Well, guess that's finally done and over with. Ain't really no comin' back from a pile of ash is there?" Jeb mused as he wiped the grit from the inside of Mr. Truth's barrel.

After seeing that Cosma was indeed dead, Sophia and Marzia went up to the only room left in the mansion. Alice was sitting on the bed, kicking her legs out as they dangled over the side. She looked up to Sophia and smiled.

"Where's Cosma?"

Sophia shifted nervously and scratched the back of her head. "Well... she's uh..."

"Is she dead?" Alice asked.

Sophia leaned back, hit with the shock that Alice had just come straight out and asked it like it was nothing. "Uh... yeah. She's dead. But it's not like-"

"That's good. She was a bad lady wasn't she?" Alice looked down and smiled.

"Uh, yeah. She tried to kill us and have something take over your body. Luckily though neither of those things happened." Sophia smiled and got down on her knee in front of the bed. "So what do you say we all go back to my home? We can talk more on the way. I just don't really want to stay here..."

Alice shook her head. "Yeah, I agree. Let's go back. It's not safe here. And when morning comes this will be hard to explain. Is the train still here?"

Sophia cocked her head and then looked up at Marzia. ****. The tornado... she bit her lip. This might be a problem.

"The train's fine, or at least the front part is anyways." Jeb walked in to the room as he patted himself off. "It looks like they were just leaving when all the **** started goin' down. It's movin' right now, but it's movin' real slow so I don't think there's anyone in it. Most likely they were either one of the ones that we fought earlier or they're in there torn to shreds for tryin' to leave."

Sophia stood up and punched Jeb in the arm. "Dammit Jeb, don't say **** like that in front of the kid. That's not somethin' that she really needs to know about."

"The hell're ya sayin' Soph? You're the one that made the kid part of your little outlaw group. She's bound to hear something sooner or later. Plus she's been out here all night. Who knows what that witch was puttin' in her head while we was fightin'."

"He's right you know." Alice nodded at Sophia. "They did try to take me over, and when it was happening they showed me what was happening and what had happened in the world around me. So I mean, it's not like I don't already know. But they're gone now. The book burned, Cosma's dead and the portal is sealed for now."

Marzia grunted. "Yeah, the book burned. That's a big ****ing problem if I do say so. That's the only reason we came out here. Over half of the Culebra's died on this trip and we have nothing to show for it. The boss won't be too keen to hear that news."

"We'll figure it out." Alice hopped down off of the bed and brushed bits of rubble and dust off of her dress. "We just really don't have time to waste right now. We need to get moving."

Jeb nodded at Alice and then at the other two ladies. He just wanted to get on the train and go to sleep. This entire trip had been hell and he'd barely even had any sleep since they left the hideout. His body tingled as he remembered the sensation of having pushed himself far past the brink of his abilities to take out the titan and ensure that they didn't get completely ****ed. He grabbed a pillow off of the bed and started to jog lightly over to where the train was. Everyone else had already started in that direction, but he'd be damned if he didn't take this perfectly good pillow with him. It'd be real nice to rest his head on it once they got to the train.

As they grew closer they came to realize that three carts were all that remained of the train. Jeb cursed himself as he realized that his bounty had been sucked up into the tornado from before. He wasn't sure if the creature had been sucked into the portal or if it had been condensed into the spike, but either way he was going to have a helluva time explaining it to Janet. The bounty wasn't exactly anything that Jeb would get upset over, but Janet.... Janet didn't like failure... or losing money.... or, well, losing. He really wasn't ready for the encounter, but he really didn't want to stick around here any longer either. Sophia was just a magnet for trouble and ever since he'd met her it'd just been one thing after another. He had earned a break.

Marzia climbed in to the head end of the train and began tinkering with the various knobs and levers, attempting to speed the locomotive up. Sophia sat in the cart behind the new pilot, and Jeb went into the one behind hers. Behind Jeb's cart were two more carts and then nothing. Everything else had been torn away. Jeb had thought to go further back, but decided that he should stay closer in case something happened. Like if for some reason one or two of the carts decided to detach on their own accord. Alice climbed up into th cart that Jeb was in and laid down next to him.

"Uhh what are you doing?" Jeb questioned.

"What do you think I'm doing? That's my pillow. I feel like taking a nap." Alice replied as she fluffed up one corner of the pillow, readying to rest her head on it.

"Uhh no." As Alice went to put her head on the pillow Jeb pulled it away and went to the other side of the cart. "You've been asleep all night. I don't want you bugging me. I'm tired. Go talk to Soph or Marzia or something. Just lemme get some shut eye." Jeb pulled his hat down over his eyes and then rested his head down on his pillow. He mumbled something incoherent and then began to snore softly as he fell asleep.

"Tch." Alice wrinkled her nose at the bounty hunter. "Lucky I don't go and tell that assassin what you are." The girl reached her arm out in front of her and began to form a small ball of darkness in the palm of her hand. "Hmm. Guess I still need some time to get used to this body." She condensed the ball down as much as she could and then put it on her tongue to swallow. Alice stretched out and made her way to the next cart. Surely there was something for her to do or learn around here.

"I thought you were going to sleep?" Sophia asked as Alice opened the door.

"Yeah well, Jeb isn't much of a sharer. Guess I'll just have to stay up a while longer. What about you?"

Sophia shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I'll try to sleep. I'm nervous about what's going to happen when we get back. We failed the mission and lost the team. I hate to think of the punishment that's in store for us."

Alice nodded. "Yeah, well I mean, it's not like it was your fault. The book just kinda dissolved of it's own accord. And it's not like you could have prepared for what happened once we got there. That's just how it goes I guess. I'm sure the boss'll understand. But right now, you need to sleep. Sleep will do you good."

Sophia's eyelids drooped and threatened to close at any second. "Yeah, I could probably use some rest. It has been a while hasn't it." She let out a big yawn and then leaned over, laying her head on the cold metal of the floor. "Don't you forget to... get... some... rest... too..." her words slowed as her eyes sealed themselves shut. In seconds she had joined Jeb in the dream lands and left Alice all alone.

The young girl smiled as she looked to the cockpit. "One left."

An elongated tongue snaked its way out from between the girl's teeth. She cracked the door which separated her room from the cockpit just enough to let her tongue pass through. Marzia's arm grew more and more light as Alice's tongue drew near, but due to the body having been freshly procured the light didn't yet burn as it should. A spell was cast, not above a whisper. But nonetheless effective, Alice replaced the darkness in Marzia's heart which had been lost to her previous incarnation.

The tongue returned to it's rightful place and Alice smiled, content with the action she'd taken. It would prove to be most entertaining later... that is if Alice would be able to spare the time to stick around long enough to see it bear fruit. The girl closed the door and laid down next to Sophia. She scooted up close to the outlaw and closed her eyes. There was a long journey still ahead.

----------Several hours later when the sun is in the midst of rising----------

Marzia had yet to sleep. She'd been keeping herself awake so that they didn't take the train too far. She wasn't sure if she knew how to or if she could stop it, but it was better than just sleeping and hoping that she or someone else woke up before they completely passed up the stop. While she sat up awake she decided to do some thinking. This was the first time she had ever failed a mission. Antonio might not be too kind to Jeb or Sophia, but surely if she went in to explain it beforehand then he would be more understanding and lenient with punishment.

The assassin had decided to take it upon herself to explain everything. She would take the brunt of the boss' anger. They went way back so she was sure that if she explained things he would understand. He had to understand. There was nothing that could have been done. When she got to the town she managed to stop the train, though it was a few hundred yards before the actual stop. She hopped out without waking the others and made her way to the hideout. She wondered to herself who the replacement doorman would be since Jack had been sent with them.

Marzia knocked on the door three times but no answer came. "Hello?" She called out as she pushed open the door. She immediately covered her nose as the stench of death and decay hit her. The ground was covered in viscera, which in turn was covered in maggots. Some wild animals had also found their way in and had begun to dine on the rotting flesh of the former culebras. Marzia cut off a piece of cloth from her shirt and shielded her eyes as she used her magic to find out what all had happened here and where Antonio's body was. If nothing else to give him a proper burial.

She tiptoed across the field of corpses and broken furniture, making her way back to the office. She pushed open the door but found no body inside.

"Oh ****! God dammit what the ****in' **** happened here?" Jeb choked out from the entryway.

"Jeb, we have to go. Antonio is likely still alive, but I don't know for how long. We have to find him and kill whoever it was that did all this. I'm sensing multiple presences, but only one of ours. If we hurry we might make it before he's killed."

"****. Well, I had really wanted to head back home for a bit since everything's kinda just completely ****ed right now, but I mean..."

"No. You have to go." Alice appeared behind Jeb, causing him to jump forward a bit and jab his shoe right into a maggot infested corpse. "We have to go rescue him together. Sophia finds him precious. That should be enough for you. If you leave her now she'll never forgive you. And if you leave her now, she'll likely lose hope and die. We have to do this."

Jeb took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "I guess.... I guess I can wait another day or so before I go back home."

"That's the spirit." Marzia said as she began to move up the stairs to the exit. "I can track them pretty far. The trail isn't too old. It seems like it happened just not too long after we set out to complete our mission. But if we hesitate I might lose them. So most likely we'll need you to carry us there since you can cover so much ground with your spells."

"Of course ya do. Always somethin'. Always somethin'. Just so long as you use that glowing healy hand thingy on me once we get to where we're goin' I guess I'll be able to hold out."

Marzia nodded as they all left the desecrated hideout. Sophia was walking towards them but Jeb blinked and met her halfway. Not wanting to waste any more time, he blinked back over to the group and grabbed the other two.

"So here's the thing," Marzia began to explain, "Antonio left us a note for in case we got back before he did. Turns out they decided to take out another group today and pretty much everyone that was left here is gone. The note said he wasn't sure that he could take them on with what he had, but he couldn't wait any longer... so we've got to hurry and join him before something goes wrong. Understand? So Jeb's going to use his powers to get us there as quickly as possible so that we might have a chance..."

Sophia looked puzzled, but shook her head in agreement anyways. "Yeah, I guess I understand? Do you know where he is?"

Marzia nodded, "Yeah, I have one of my tracking spells active. He's not too far away, but not terribly close either. It'd take way too long on foot or horseback even if we had gotten here an hour or two earlier. The only reason there's a chance that we'll make it is because of this arm. Jeb's going to push himself to his limits to get us there, and then I'll heal him so he'll be primed and ready for whatever greets us."

Sophia nodded and then wrapped herself around Jeb's arm. "If that was the case I don't know why we didn't start moving sooner."

Jeb shook his head. "Well it gets kind of hard to hold a conversation when you're moving as fast as we're about to. Didn't want to interrupt or anything in case you had any objections m'lady." He looked over his shoulder at the outlaw who was clinging to his shoulder.

Sophia opened her mouth and went to bite down on Jeb's shoulder, but as she leaned in close he slowed time and then did a combination of a high leap and a blink. He did this several times over, trying to cover as much ground as possible with each instance of his slowing of time since it was the spell that took the most out of him from all the ones he knew. Marzia acted as a co-pilot and navigated him by pointing in the directions he needed to go. And eventually they would reach their target... hopefully before it was too late.

machomuu · Oct 30, 2015

Amelia Caddaway - Worthless Rank One Outlaw

Joseph

The sunlight crept through a narrow alleyway, meeting the red seal and refracting a brilliant vermilion. The seal sat facing the sky, planted firmly to the parchment of a scroll that sat in front of a crouching woman. She was angry. She was seething, holding in a raging aggravation that tore through her. She sat, hugging her legs and tapping her feet. "Goddamn, I hate puzzles." She began to tap her hand against her arm. "Why does he always have to speak so cryptically, I just..." The outlaw bit her tongue and sighed. Amelia had been intensely inspecting the seal for what must have been hours in an attempt to come to some form of a conclusion or even unveil a hint, but it was to no avail.

After a time she heard some screams echo off of the alley walls. The voice was young, and it seemed there were some older voices mixed in. Now, Amelia didn't well fancy herself a good Samaritan, but this was an out, an excuse to take a break from her intense seal deciphering quest. She fastened the scroll to her back and darted off towards the brat in distress.

As she got closer to the scene, the voices became clear enough to understand. "-e a good little boy and come with us. We got good stuff. You want candy? Toys?" A man wearing a cloth head-cover that acted as a mask seemed to be bargaining with a rather affluent looking child. Bargaining, in this case, meaning promising him things while waving a sizable knife in his face. The man wasn't alone, though; he was accompanied by two others, one outfitted with a pistol and the other a weapon that was out of Amelia's sight, both of them wearing similar masks. Once she'd gotten close enough, Amelia hugged a corner and watched the scene from a distance.

"Buzz off," the kid spoke, airing out his coat. "I don't want any of your candy. I'm not interested in you, either."

A female voice came from one of the masked characters. "This kid's rich, Jed. Why the hell would you bribe him with candy or toys?" She waved the pistol in her hand about. "Why are we even negotiating? Let's punch the kid in the gut and take him. 'S better if he's conscious, but I really don't feel like dealing with his ****." The knife-wielder, Jed, looked back at his companion and sighed. He looked once again to the child who wasn't paying him any mind.

He made to grab the boy by the collar, but the boy, without looking, said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I'm rich, you know." Jed seemed irritated by this, but the two others chuckled, finding his words ironic, considering that was the very reason they were there. "You can't scare me. You can't hurt me. Rich people can't feel pain." He took a thoughtful pose. "Well…physical pain, at least. I was pretty sad when I dropped my ice cream, yesterday…"

"Oh, really?" Jed responded sardonically. Promptly after saying this, the man balled his hand into a fist and brought it down on the kid's cheek. On contact, a brilliant, luminous orange and red splashed outward from the child's face, something that seemed to mildly annoy the child but shocked the others, Amelia included. After the lightshow subsided, a black, powdery cloud drifted through the air.

The child, who had the powder on his collar and across his face, took out a handkerchief and brushed it off, saying, "I really wish people would take my words for these things." The man was still as stunned as the rest until he noticed something odd. Something that was wrong with his hand. He gripped his wrist with such force that it seemed it would break and screamed. At first, everyone (save the child) was confused about what was going on, but as Jed raised his hand up in pain, what had happened became painfully clear. His knuckles were completely gone, his fingers hanging on by what little skin was left between them and his palm. There was no blood, though; rather, his wound was completely cauterized, black from what could have only been burns. His skin around the area was crisp and dark, chipping off every so often. "I told you, rich people don't feel pain." Jed looked down at the kid in what could have only been anger, but his companions were less than quick to get on the child's bad side. Rather, the one carrying the pistol punched Jed hard enough that he fell unconscious, and the other caught him. Without looking back, the three rushed out of the alleyway and past Amelia.

Gathering herself, Amelia stepped out of the shadows and faced the child. He looked up at her, surprised, and said, "Seems I'm meeting all types of people today."

Amelia crossed her arms. "What the hell are you? Went to school with rich kids and they definitely didn't burn my hands to a crisp when I tried to sock 'em."

"Oh?" The child said sincerely. "That's strange. My dad told me that rich people can't be hurt." He tilted his head. "Must not've been rich enough."

"Are you an outlaw?" Amelia asked, sternly. At this, the child looked up, and then he looked Amelia over observantly. Once he spotted a particular something, he smirked. He wasn't particularly subtle and the top-knot noticed this, but in her eyes this was trivial. After all, any intent he may have had hardly worried her since he was just a child. Even if he did have power or influence, she had water and several thousand volts of electricity. She was pretty sure that the chips were stacked in her favor.

"Outlaw?" He responded, unable to wipe the grin from his face. "No, I'm not an outlaw. And I'm not a bounty hunter, either. I'm just a kid who happens to be rich, nothing more, nothing less." Amelia opened her mouth to speak, but the boy sharply intervened. "I can use magic, though. I've been able to from a very young-"He stopped himself. "Well…hm…since my early years. 'Very young' is misleading in my case. My dad says that it's because we're rich but…" He looked down, taking a somber tone. "…That's the one thing he told me that I don't believe."

A silence fell over the two, and it wasn't until Amelia spoke that the tension broke. "Dammit…I was really hoping you were just a short Bounty Hunter. Cracking a skull would feel really good right now."

"So you're an outlaw, then?"

Amelia remained silent for a few moments before answering. "No, an outlaw actually has to be worth something. I'm not even worth enough to buy **** that someone found in a spittoon."

With this, the child raised an eyebrow and cracked a smile. It was difficult to discern whether the smile was sinister or innocent, but on a child- on that child, it looked completely innocent. "I don't think we've been introduced." The child took off the beret he was wearing, waved it about a few times and bowed, looking up at the worthless outlaw. "My name is Joseph."

Shak · Nov 2, 2015

Achilles Nimbus
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Electricity
Money - $1,050

God's Mercy

Beautiful irony is death. To many it signifies the end, while to others it is seen as a new beginning. The residents of Fairbell were told the latter. That was the only explanation Achilles could come up with as to why the town's residents were so eager to be the ones to bring death upon him and Isaac. He understood that some men didn't deserve the gift of life, but surely the words of one man should never be enough to decide another man's permanent fate. If this deity that they followed existed, did he will this? Was their some kind of cryptic message hidden inside the events that were about to follow? Achilles certainly didn't consider himself a martyr. Body language suggested that Isaac didn't feel much like a hero either. After going through a week or so in southern Jeimas, he was intrigued to see what the real hell would be like.

"So this is it, huh?" Achilles sighed in a lazy attempt to make some form of conversation. He glanced over at Isaac who was slumped over in the corner. The two men had slept comfortably through the night, without the interference of any overly eager stoners. Despite the nun's suggestions that the execution would take place the evening before, they had been catered to throughout what was far from a long night.

There was a knocking at the door. Achilles rolled his eyes. Knocking at the door of a chained prisoner was obviously a redundant task.

"Come in, we're decent!" Isaac called out sarcastically. After his sarcastic remark, he withdrew back to his corner. The nun from the day before entered the room alongside a couple of younger nuns.

"Is there anything I can get for you before the evening? I managed to convince the town to give you another day, and I thought…" She began before being interrupted.

"Why waste food on a dead man?" Achilles sighed. His words left the woman speechless. After a few moments of silent thought, she nodded and walked out of the room. Before shutting the door, one of the younger nuns turned and took one last glance at the two men; both of whom looked back at her with tired eyes.

"May God have mercy on your souls." She gave the faintest of smiles before the closing the door behind her. Neither of the broken men gave the other a single glance. The sun half circled the planet, and in the time it took to do so, the small room at the end of the small town remained almost silent.

The second visitors to the makeshift cell was much less courteous. The two large men barged in, tearing away at the shackles Achilles and Isaac currently had on. They both felt their magic abilities return for a short moment, but had little time to do anything about it as a new pair was applied shortly after. Achilles' arm fell limp as the sling that held it was tossed aside. The faltering limb made struggling difficult. Achilles grunted.

The prisoners were walk to the stage of their deaths. The performance was soon, and the stars couldn't be late. The crowd cheered in anger. As the two men took the stage the roars of rage fell death. No voices were heard. Even breath was held. The silence lasted minutes. The glances exchanged were brief.

A young boy stepped forward. He seemed no older that five or six, the youngest amongst the crowd. Like every angered soul that gathered in Fairbell that day, he carried a stone. He wore a Stenson that far outstretched the length of his head, almost as if the hat were to swallow him whole. On his torso he wore a ragged grey T-shirt. His tattered trousers were interrupted by the clean white bandages that enveloped his leg. He took another step, closer to the stage. This time it was clear, these were no ordinary steps. The boy was limping. He drew his hand back, launching the pebble as hard as he could towards the head of Isaac. With a whistling noise, the stone fizzed past the head of the convict, who had made an effort to avoid the incoming projectile. The boy's face grew red. He fall to the ground in defeat, before rising again with a fistful of dirt. Again he launched the contents of his fist at the criminals, but again his efforts were futile. His ammunition exploded into dust. His grief exploded with it. By this point tears were pouring down his face, but he refused to let them be tears of sadness. Tears worn as a mask of vengeance. In honour of the boy's attempt, many stones followed his in a blitz. For the most part accuracy was poor, but many rocks managed to hit the target; pelting Achilles' ribcage, shoulder- and most notably Isaac's left knee, which caused the man to fall to his knees in pain. His fall caused the crowd to pause. They watched for a moment as their greatest villain writhed in pain. Amongst the silence another stone flew towards Isaac. Despite the accuracy of the throw, this was yet another stone that failed to reach its intended target. Instead, Achilles found himself in the way of the rock that would have inevitably hit Isaac.

"Wait, please stop. Show mercy!" A faint voice somehow managed to be heard amongst the crowd. The voice was accompanied by a body that many would have expected to emit such a sound. A frail woman stepped forward. Despite wearing a healthy frame, the woman's body seemed weak. As though she hadn't eaten in multiple days. The skin beneath her skin had darkened, with bags visibly beginning to form. "After watching these two men on stage," She continued, her voice now much clearer with the crowd having been silenced again. Despite her weakened state, her conviction was clear- not just to Achilles and Isaac, but to everyone amongst the crowd. "I don't believe they could be the ones that killed my daughters." Unlike her first outburst, it barely took the extent of her lungs to make her voice heard across the sea of bodies. Even the confused faces in the audience were given explanations by those around them who had heard the statement. Achilles stared on in shock. His eyes were filled with relief. Even the nuns, who had authorised the event, couldn't help but smile. The injustice that they were about to stand idly by and watch was put to an end. Their God had played his hand. They were not sinners.

Murmurs bounced around the mob, as the multitude of angry residents tried to make sense of what they'd just been told. There were even a few sighs of relief from those who had missed their shots.

"Despite their innocence, these men were prepared to give their lives to appease our suffering. These men were prepared to stand as martyrs for damaged souls who couldn't even show their own God's mercy. Father Ezekiel saved my daughter. He healed her in the name of God. Now, I do the same to these two men. These two should be the saints of Fairbell." The woman panted as her monologue came to an end. Her husband clutched onto her as she coughed, an action that prompted a slow building of applause. Eventually, the applause grew to almost the entire town. It was unclear whether they were cheering for the woman, or for Achilles and Isaac, but all three rose to their feet in triumph.

"So we're not dying then?" Isaac croaked in a mixture of both pain and relief. Achilles grinned in response to the remark, before turning his attention to the sky. Maybe…? He thought to himself. The clouds seemed to clear with the thought.

Arrrrggghh, help me!" Everyone's attention was turned to the source of the scream. Behind the nun who screamed, was another holding a gun to her head. The second nun grinned.

"Someone here is going to explain where the good sister is, aren't they? If not, I may have to have a word with the big father himself." Her grin grew larger into a wry smile. She didn't show any interest in the scene that held the town's focus. The nun that had stepped forward to announce the stoning again stepped forward. Her audacity only seemed to amuse the assailant. The two gave nods of acknowledgement. "Sister. You know where big bad Zekey is don't you?" She mocked. The senior nun looked unfazed.

"Father Ezekiel is out on business of his own. He has no time for trivial matters such as your own." The woman's face remained cold and vacant in the face of the threat. Those of the crowd that hadn't scattered in panic drew whatever weapons they had in order to threaten the attacker. She rolled her neck lazily and met them with yet another smile. Many dropped their weapons in fright, or backed up, while others stood their ground. Her attention returned to the first nun.

"You see, I'd be inclined to believe you," She began. She kneed her hostage in the back to calm her struggling before continuing. "but last I saw of the good father, he was getting educated by none other than our own Sister Tess. Now the fact that she hasn't returned…quite bluntly- makes me think she's dead. Now powerful as the father is, I find it hard to believe that he managed to pick off the sister without taking substantial damage himself y'know? So, even though it's been a couple days…he should still be healing up right? Unless of course the healing girl fixed him up." She grinned again after finishing. The nun face turned pale. She glared at the woman in shock. The majority of the crowd who could hear glanced back at Achilles and Isaac, before turning back to the woman.

"So it was you?" The elder nun snapped back.

"What was us?" Tess's goon responded after again weakening her hostage with another strike to the back. A member of the crowd stormed towards the woman before collapsing to the floor with blood squirting out of his head. The gunshot came from behind the church on the rocks of a not too distant canyon wall. Achilles glanced back at the sniper, who glanced back and gave a wink of acknowledgement. "Poor fool. Did he really think I came unprotected? Back to the matter in hand though. Where is Zekey, and what was us?" She almost chuckled as she spoke.

"You sent the Ice Demon." The nun gasped. The outlaw squinted with a glare of disbelief. Having already revealed her protection, she loosened her grip on her hostage, but the young woman was too weak to make an attempt to escape.

"Ice Demon?" She chuckled mockingly.

"The Demon that kidnapped Lady Agnes." The nun continued, her face retaining its shocked expression.

"I don't know anything about any Ice Demon, and quite frankly I'm not all that inter…" She began, sill grinning. However, she was interrupted by the young nun that she'd been holding hostage coughing as she fell to the floor.

"Wait…" She coughed. "The Ice Demon is the one that killed Sister Tess. It wasn't Father Ezekiel." She squealed in relief and pain. Tess's subordinate froze for a moment. She looked up at the elder nun.

"Where do I find this Ice demon?" She asked sternly. The nun shook her head sadly.

The two conversed for a little bit longer, before turning their attention to the stage where Achilles and Isaac were still seated. The nun took the key and unlocked the shackles that restrained both men, prompting them to stand up.

"What do you two know about the Ice Demon?" Tess's goon asked abruptly, not bothering to introduce herself. Achilles stared at her blankly, while Isaac simply stared off in disinterest.

"I assume you mean the same Ice Demon that we were almost killed because of. Ironically enough, I know nothing about him." Achilles responded coldly. The nun did her best to avoid eye contact.

"How would you like to get some revenge?" She couldn't resist the urge to grin as she spoke.

"Revenge has never really been my style. I'm alive, and I have business that needs doing. I'll focus on that for now." He responded in the same cold and distant tone. Tess's companion grinned again.

"What about the guys that set you up? You've got no interest in them?" She probed. Achilles glared at the nun, before returning his attention to the outlaw. Again a smirk grew across her face.

"You know who they are?" She rolled her eyes, still smirking, and turned to head out of town. With a sigh, Achilles followed behind the woman, with Isaac and her sniper wielding companion not far behind.

Ice1 · Nov 15, 2015

Emmett Holliday
Status - Outlaw – Leashed – Not funny
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Water
Bounty - 2000$

Keeping me hanging

Emmett got pulled backwards by the clearly magical rope that had wrapped around his neck. He saw the girl he had just met, been fused together with in the mind of a psychopath, and then tried to fight being pulled back by the same rope. The fourth encounter today, Emmett thought, when did I ever get so busy?

They got pulled through the walls, as if they were evil spirits, the house was a body and they were being reversed exorcised. It seemed the rope was really good at roping. Emmett tried to get a quick glance of his surroundings as the rope dragged him over the floor. It certainly was a nice mansion. The floor was really easy to glide over while being reeled in, that was definitely a plus. The four figures he was being dragged towards also seemed to be seated very comfortable in the big sofa chairs. They're seating formed a half circle, and Emmett and the girl he had yet to learn the name off or come up with a really clever nickname for sat in the center.

The first figure was a black gentleman, wearing a full suit and a monocle. The suit was a dark gray with a slightly darker gray striping. Or the other way around, it really depend on your perspective. Next to the man was a dog, and not a friendly looking one. Although Emmett did have the same thought for the third time in a minute. He should get a dog. You're Beasty Boy, Emmett thought.

The second figure was a lady. She wore more simple cloth that fitted in a way that would be practical for fighting. She had a plethora of holsters with a plethora of guns in it, which likely held even more bullets. They all varied in size, and Emmett was really curious as to why someone would need that many guns, but he guessed it was for more than just looking cool. You're Gun, Emmett decided.

The third figure was a fat man, but not in a way that made him look unthreatening. He seemed to be built from a combination of fat and muscle, like a human meat golem. He wore a blouse and a big cowboy hat. In his hand he held a rope, the ends made of what seemed to be solid gold, transitioning to regular rope as it went on. It was the same rope that had tied itself in a noose around Emmett's neck. For this man, Emmett picked the nickname Cowboy.

The fourth figure was the one that stood out the most. Emmett had immediately decided to call him 'The Goblin'. He was a small man, probably less than a meter and a half in length. His nose was huge, and his ears were so too. The skin had a slightly green tint, and was incredibly wrinkly. He too wore a suit. It was without wrinkles, and a perfect white, with a pink tie.

There was silence for a good minute before anyone said something.

"Long time no see!" Emmett said, "what a coincidence I'd run into you guys here!"

The quartet looked confused at the individual they had never met before. The Goblin shifted in his chair, and tried to rebalance his small body in the big seating area. He licked his lips with a blood red tongue, and then leaned forwards.

"So, what a coincidence we find you here, Emmett," he said. His voice was high pitched and raspy. "We didn't expect you'd come looking for us. Who is the girl?" He nodded towards the girl next to Emmett.

"Her name is…" Emmett paused for a second, as he tried to come up with the most humoristic, ingenious nickname. He really wanted to come up with something that would last the sands of time. "Her name is Dumbface."

"My name is Ann," she said.

Gun raised an eyebrow in question. "Ann? That's the girl the gardener keeps going on about, right?" she asked.

"Yes!" Emmett yelled out, "That's it. Gardener I remember that now!"

His captors looked confused as Ann's memories boiled up in Emmett's mind.

"I thought she was supposed to be dead? Murdered and all," Gun said.

Emmett stood up. The rope seemed to permit him a limited room for movement.

"Well, it's complicated. We got absorbed by this girl, and our psyches got fused, and then we got ripped apart again, and returned from where we left, and yadi yadi ya, more stuff happened. Anyway, she's back now."

Gun smiled. "That's explanation enough." One of the guns lit up in a bright white flash, and disappeared. It now was floating in front of Ann's head, and the trigger was pulled by itself.

Emmett did not expect them to just shoot her. At least that was one less person he needed to remember now. The list of names he had built up in his mind was getting a bit full, especially when he met fourteen people in a day.

"Okay," Emmett said, and he grabbed the rope on his neck, "I'm just gonna go. If you wanna meet up again, just send me a letter." He raised the rope over his neck, and to his surprise it worked. As soon as he tried to step away, however, a new rope had formed around his neck, and Emmett was pulled straight to the ground.

Cowboy stood up and walked up to Emmett. The behemoth towered over him, and lifted him up by his shoulders with a single hand.

"No no no, lil' man, we don't wanna let you go just yet," he said. He pushed aside the sofa chairs, and carried Emmett through a big door that was painted to be gold, but clearly not really gold.

They entered a room that could delicately be described as black. The walls were black, the floor was black, the ceiling was black, even the furniture. It didn't look like a paintcoat, though, this blackness had come through burns. It was nicely done, and Emmett took half a second to appreciate the thoroughness of the burning, before he started kicking and moving around in the hope Cowboy would drop him.

Emmett was put down on a nice sofa chair, which had a thick coat of ashes and burned fabric. The rope tied itself around Emmett and the chair, and gave him a good yarn-braided hug.

The goblin walked up to Emmett, to stop before him, and wait a second. Gun quickly pushed a black burned footrest towards him, and he agilely jumped on it.

"What bad luck you just had to come here, Emmett. It seems that girl really messed with your mind," The Goblin said, and he put his green wrinkly finger on his forehead, "Do you have any real reasons to be here, or did you just let yourself be guided by the fluttering butterflies of emotion?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to come here, I guess," Emmett answered, "Don't you know that feeling? That after you return from the possession of a self-identified biblical demon sorceress you just want to visit a random mansion?"

"I feel you," Beasty Boy said, but just by context clues Emmett could figure out it was sarcastic.

"Well, you'd have to tell me the story over tea sometime. But, while you're here, I'd like to get to the real order of business," he said, "and that's the murder of employer."

"Tess, you mean Tess, right? I mean, it could be No Fun Tess Guy, or the guy's clothes I'm wearing, but I'm just going to assume it isn't."

"Yeah, Tess," the Goblin said.

"Poor you," Emmett said, "so, what are you gonna do about it? Is this a torture chair? Is this a torture room? Did you guys burn this whole room to build a torture room?"

The Goblin sighed, and as he nodded towards Cowboy, the rope tightened even more.

gimmepie · Nov 15, 2015

Alex Rose

Raining Blood

Alex levelled his shotgun at the outlaws pouring from one of the tunnels, but truth be told he wasn't really sure to aim. He was all but surrounded, only the way he came left open – and he knew that if he tried to run he'd just get shot in the back.

The young bounty hunter looked around the room, searching for options and analysing his chances of success… or at that point simply survival. He was confident he could do some damage somehow but he knew that he had little that would keep him safe, even his only defensive spell was pretty much useless when it came to bullets. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Alex found a smirk form on his face. There was no kind of a thrill like this kind of a thrill.

With only one option left, Alex blinked into the centre of one of the hordes of outlaws and begun firing his sawed-off indiscriminately before his enemies could react. Around him bodies hit the floor, staining the ground as blood drained from their bodies. The outlaws were starting to regain their wits though; several took aim at Alex forcing him to blink away as bullets flew through the space where he had been standing only moments ago.

Alex reappeared behind another of his enemies, putting a bullet in his head before blinking away as another outlaw tried to shoot him in the back, instead putting a bullet in the neck of an unsuspecting comrade. Alex reappeared elsewhere, tossing a fireball into the mix, men beginning to scream as their flesh charred and burned. Several outlaws took aim at Alex and fired even as their fellows burned around them, however Alex blinked away causing them to take down the group that was lining him up from the other side. However, his reappearance didn't go so smoothly. A seemingly random shot rang out, a bullet lodging itself in Alex's shoulder.

The bounty hunter cried out in pain, wincing at the agony in his right shoulder becoming temporarily distracted due to taking the hit, allowing another of Rex's men to clip him in the size with a shaky shot. Alex stumbled, falling to his knees as his own blood dripped down his side to join the veritable ocean he'd unleashed from his foes. In his years as a hunter, Alex had rarely taken a bullet… let alone two in succession.

Several more bullets flew at Alex, the hunter barely managing to blink away as the projectiles hit the bloodstained dirt. Alex reappeared in the middle of a small group of disoriented outlaws, forming a flaming barrier around him that caught on their skin and clothes. He then shifted his shotgun to his left hand and rose his arm, thankful for his near ambidexterity he took several shots – reloading the weapon with his spell. More bodies fell as Alex fought to ignore the pain he was in, the sensation adding to the feral thrill and sending even more adrenaline coursing through his veins. This was the kind of life or death struggle he'd been looking for, he would find Rex and take him out or he'd die trying. Nothing else could give you the kind of rush he was experiencing.

Several outlaws converged on Alex; he once again blinked away, watching as they all shot each other. Alex then turned and begun to fire his shotgun into the rapidly thinning group of enemies. Everything that came next came in a blur to the bounty hunter. Alex shot, got shot twice more and in an almost giddy stupor continued to lay waste to Rex's men. It wasn't long before he was standing in a pool of blood surrounded by corpses, only a few groaning outlaws still alive. Blood and sweat ran down Alex's body as he panted and coughed, exhausted from the ordeal as the adrenaline begun to slow down, his thumping heart returning to normal.

He was amazed that he was alive, but also aware that the clock was ticking. He had no healing magic and he was losing a lot more blood than he would have liked. Despite this though, he had to keep going. Rex was in the base somewhere, and Alex was going to finish what he had started. Alex pulled off his jacket and shirt, ripping the latter into strips and bandaging up his wounds as best he could before pulling his jacket back on. It was a temporary measure, but he would make do with it.

Alex looked at the numerous tunnels, he had no idea which he would need to travel down to find Rex.
"Great…" he groaned, holding his left side where he'd taken the worst shot "I'm going to have to try them all at this rate. I guess the central one makes the most sense."

With a slight limp, Alex headed down the most central tunnel and deeper into the depths of Rex Flinders' hideout. He felt his pulse begin to quicken again and tightened his grip on his sawed-off.

JukeboxTheGhoul · Nov 19, 2015

ANIMA

[S-HIGHLIGHT]Music[/S-HIGHLIGHT]
Information
Information

Spoiler:

Siren placed her head in her hands, shaking her head. How could she be so foolish? It was not the time to wallow. Anima was getting away. She needed to get Jacobs. She ran across the room. She clasped Jacobs arm and shook it. Jacobs' paralysis was begining to wear off. He awoke, Siren was rattling him, he looked around, the chains were limp, they had escaped. Siren held out a hand to help him up. He shrugged her hand away. He came to his feet, the sting of the paralysis remained. Anger welled up inside him. He was not going to be denied his bounty. Siren, confused and unstable, went to him for comfort. Holding out her arms, she stepped towards him.
"*****." He swung around his arm, his knuckles collided her cheek, his clench fist backhanded her. "You let them get away."
Siren recoiled from the hit, stumbling back. "He... he convinced me..."

"Convinced you, eh?" He growled, "Thanks to you, none of us are going to get our pay!" Jacobs spat on the ground, he walked up the steps. He leaped over the counter, grabbing his blunderbuss in the process. He slung it across his back. He grabbed his twin revolvers. He faced the door. "Well now, I'm used to your little tricks. I aint touching this door." He spoke to himself, as if talking to Anima. He aimed his revolver at the door lock. He pulled the trigger, the rounds erupted from barrels and hit the lock, the door opened slightly. He kicked open the door. He holstered his guns, sliding them in to their slots. He put his two index fingers in to his mouth and whistled. As the calling reached his horse's ear, it turned and started to trot towards him. Jacobs took out a cigar and lit it with a cigarette lighter. He took the cigar and put it between his lips. He inhaled, then exhaled. His horse stopped right in front of him. Quickly, he slung his boot in to the stirrup and swung his other leg over top the creature. He put the other leg in to the other stirrup. He pulled down his hat and gripped his cigar with his teeth. He kicked the horse in to a gallop, whipping at its reins. The dust spurred up behind him, wind rushed past him. It wasn't fast enough, he'd never catch up in time, At that moment he had an idea. He looked to the right of him. There was a cart. He rose up some chains from the earth and the chains went above and below the ropes tying the cart to the post. The chains smashed together, snapping the rope, then the chains disappeared. Then he shot a beam to the cart, he moved the cart infront of his horse. He tied the two together with chains. He took a drag of his cigar and then puffed out a cloud of ash grey cloud. He clenched his right fist, holding it to his body, he closed his eyes, creasing his brow. His arm started to glow red. The illumination got brighter and brighter. He opened his eyes, he held out his fist in front of him, directed towards the cart. He opened his palms. He then thrust all of his magical reserves in to his arm, the glowing disappeared as a red beam of light shot out of his hand. It hit the cart. The cart sped off, the wheels spinning around at a ridiculous speed. He used his beam to push the cart to make his travel faster. The horse underneath him attempted to compensate for this new velocity. The cart pulled the horse forward. Fairbell was far behind, a speck on the horizon.

Anima groaned. He found himself slung across the arse of a horse. He tapped Shadow's back, Shadow brought the horse to a stop. Anima slipped off, he felt different, like a weight on his chest had been lifted. This lifted pressure left a feeling of queezy emptiness. Had he exerted himself too much? He unbuckled his mask, sliding the mask down his face. He let his tender skin on his face hit the fresh air. He felt down the scar that trailed down the peach skin to the edge of his lip. Shadow looked over, unwanting to dismount as she had already adjusted all the straps and stirrups.
"Destination?" Anima met her gaze.
"Larkin, I heard that a big gang, the Culebras, was recently washed out, seems patrols in that area are less and activity is an all time low."
"That'd take us through Spider's Hollow, that place is crawling with heresy."
"We can find a way." Shadow looked directly at Anima, though he still creeped her out, she was sympathetic to him. Anima hoisted himself on the back of the horse. Shadow slapped the side of the horse's belly with her foot, the horse stumbled in to a trot. The sun bore down a blazing light, Anima put his mask back on, as the blades of light cut through the sand. The horse's hoofs sunk in to the scorched sand.

A gust kicked up sand, a cloud briefly covered the sun. Anima held out his hand, Shadow, seeing this gesture stopped. Anima said to Shadow "Turn us around."
Shadow nodded and pulled on the reins. The horse complied. In the distance, Anima squinted, a large tunnel of dust, moving at incredible speed. Anima knew that this would not be good. "Shadow."
"On it." Shadow interpreted his command. She pulled the horse around away from the tunnel of dust. Cerberus began to gallop. They had to get away from here, fast.
"Tried to run away, eh?" Suddenly, a strange contraption appeared next to them, it was a cart pulling a horse along. The cart was glowing red and a red beam could be traced from the cart towards a familiar man. Jacobs' arm was eradiating a red lumination that was the sanguine colour of rubies. Jacobs disintergrated the chains that bound the horse and cart, he flung the cart up in to the air. His arm returned to normal, he grinned mischeviously, air rushed passed both of them, the intense speeds where hard to handle. Jacobs took his feet from the tack and swung them backward, planting his boots on the hind of the horse. He started to stand from the crouching posistion he was in, the reins tightened. He quickly let go of the reins, moving his left leg on to the upper back of the horse. He stood there quite stably. "Don't worry, little missie, I aint here for you."
Jacobs drew his twin revolvers, he aimed them at the horse. Anima, seeing this happen, let loose an lightning charge from his hand, it missed, hitting the ground. Jacobs pulled the trigger, the left bullet did not hit the target, the bullet on the right dug itself in to the hind leg of the beast. Shadow tried to calm Cerberus as it let out a cry of pain. Anima sent out another burst of electricity, it missed once again.
Jacobs grinned, "Look, we both know you're not too good at high speed chases like this. Let's make this a fair fight, eh?" He said casually, "Is your horse be a show jumping horse?"

Shadow concentrated at the ground in front. Out of the ground materialised 6 chains, all of which all linked together making 3 loops. Shadow was going too fast to slow down. Before she could try to see if Cerberus could jump over them, the chains sweeped underneath the spindly legs of the horse. The front legs of the horse forced it to buck, Anima was flung from the rear of the horse up in to the sky. Cerberus' face scraped the floor and the back legs twisted around so that the head would not face severe damage. Shadow was fastened to the saddle so she was left attached to the unconscious horse on the floor. She tried to get out her knife. Jacobs jumped backwards from his horse, a chain pounced out of the ground and wrapped around Jacobs. The chain gently placed him on the ground. He whistled and the horse turned around and started to gallop towards the scene of the fight. Anima spat sand out of his mouth and lifted himself. Jacobs laughed as the chain wrapped him receeded. "Look, we're both gentlemen, atleast I think you are. Why don't we settle this in the old way?" Jacobs took out his revolver with one hand, he used the other hand to put a cigar in his mouth.

Anima's figure disappeared in a split second, his Shadow stretched across the floor. Jacobs sighed. Anima appeared beside Jacobs. Jacobs was already aiming his revolver at the place Anima appeared in. Anima teleported behind Jacobs, only to find a levitating Revolver quickly finding him. Both guns fired but both missed. Anima had blinked already to another posistion.
Anima growled, "Gaudium will not fail."
Jacobs responded with a sigh, "Isn't this a bit boring, I got an Idea-" Anima quickly teleported right next to Jacobs. Finally, another sinner will fall. Anima jumped forward towards Jacobs' Eye, he enacted his truthful eye, he shall see the truth. Golden Hazel swirled inside his iris. His black pupil dilated as it prepared for the indoctrination of this unworthy foe.

Smack. Two chains bursted out from the ground and hit Anima in the chest, crossing eachother like twin swords. Anima stumbled backwards. "How about you submit and I get the dough?" Jacobs finished his sentence. Anger welled up inside Anima, he would not be defeated. Anima blinked once again, this time to the left of him. Jacobs drew all of his magic to his command, he prepared to capture this deranged lunatic. Six chains bursted out of his body, they snaked around like tendrils. The chains began to rotate around Jacobs, creating a vortex of chains. A flurry of chains slammed in to the side of the Anima before he could teleport. He was thrown to the floor.
"Well, this aint the old ways is it?" He thrusted his hand out towards Anima, a crimson beam extended out of his arm. The beam hit it's mark, the red glow washed over Anima. Anima's being was paralysed, unable to do anything. Jacobs dispelled all the chains, two more chains appeared and wrapped around Anima's body. Jacobs walked over and took Anima's spell book out of his pocket.

"This ***** is a handful" He said, He held the book far away from Anima from a chain emanating from his body. Anima was chained up and put at the back of the horse. Siren, having had a smack in the face had followed the trail left in the dirt behind Jacobs. Siren brought her horse to a halt from the run. The horse skidded as it stopped. She got off, eyeing Jacobs spitefully.
"Got this son of a *****, finally." Jacobs chuckled with relief.
"And?" Siren looked at him,
"I think Shadow isn't worth the effort, she not going anywhere soon." Jacobs paused.
Siren walked up to him, she pulled him closer by his collar. "Don't you ever slap me."
Jacobs pulled back, laughing nervously, "Well, now. How about a few hundred bucks to turn that frown upside down?"
Siren hesitated, she looked around her, realising that she had been so angry that she hadn't notice that he had took down the outlaw they were after. "You took him down?"
"That's what I've been trying to say. Alright? Now, it's time to take him to Janet. You need to keep this book away from him." He lobs the book over to Siren. Siren catches it.
"The Old Crow?" She sighed
"I know you hate her and blah blah blah." He trailed off, imitating Siren, Siren grew irritated. "But, the fact is, she's the one paying us. She puts food in out mouths, cash in our wallets, shine on our guns and the real in to your real coffee."

The two rode in to Spider's Hollow, Anima's body was suspended above by a ball of chains. Siren hung back, keeping the book a safe distance away. The two hopped off their steeds. The chains twitched every so often. Jacobs banged on the door. The slit opened. "One that's alive this time?" The voice from behind the door croaked.
"You bet," Jacobs responded, with forced enthusiasm in his voice.
"Shayne? You've finally delivered it to me." She shut the slit. The noise that followed could only be synonymous to the tapping on glass by the not-so-welcome sign. The final click was sounded. The door opened partially. Jacobs slipped in. The old hag went to close the door but it was stopped by the chains being squished in between. The chains recoiled, the chains tightened around Anima.
"Ah, sorry." Jacobs commanded the chains to come inside the buildings. Anima was dragged in.
The decrepit Janet looked up and down Anima. Anima's body was aching and he was drowsy. Janet went to undo Anima's mask. Jacobs stopped her.
"Money first, then you can pinch his cheeks." He stepped forward.
Janet looked at him in the eye, then she returned behind the desk, she looked through the pile of envelopes on the table, she picked out the one labelled 'Anima'. She took the contents out of the envelope, the top of the letter had already been ripped open. "Let's see."
She looked down the piece of paper, she mumbled as she read. "Mass Homicide..." she continued, Shayne Jacobs stood there, mildly suprised. "GBH of a Bounty Hunter...
Torture... Theft..." She chuckled when she saw the charge named 'Mass Horse Murder' but didn't say it aloud. She read the rest of the charges silently: Infanticide, Hanging, Tresspassing, Looting. She didn't mention the price. She took out Eight Hundred dollars and put it out towards him.
Jacobs took the money, he flicked it about in his hand. "Look Janet, you said -"
"Oh, don't you know?" She stood up from her chair, "In Gambling, the house always gets a cut."
Shayne looked across Janet, as if reading down a poster from left to right. "Now, now, what do you need a hundred cut for?"
"Transport, you think he's going here? He's going to the the prison in Gilded Brook." Janet responded.
Jacobs shook his head. "Aren't you supposed to take off the agency cut before you print it on the signs?"
Janet sat back down. "We both know how this ends if we continue like this."
Jacobs sighed, picking up the money. He left.

The parts including Janet are subject to change.

gimmepie · Nov 24, 2015

Alex Rose

Total Defeat

Alex hobbled down the mineshaft for what felt like a painfully long amount of time although in reality he'd only been walking for around ten minutes. He was amazed at the evident size the mine had been expanded to, noticing small offshoot tunnels trailing off in different directions.
"Quite the renovation job he's done down here" Alex muttered to himself as he continued to struggle down the main shaft – hoping he was headed in the right direction.

Alex found the answer to his question about the direction of his travel soon enough. He didn't notice at first, but he walked right passed a man sitting on a wooden crate. Only when the man spoke did Alex stop in his tracks and turn around.
"You made one hell of a mess of my house."

Whirling around, Alex levelled his shotgun at the seated man as he took his appearance in. The outlaw before him was quite old; a man in his fifties or sixties with long knotted grey hair but was also extremely well-muscled. He also didn't fear the bounty hunter, remaining casually seated drinking from a large and dusty bottle full of something resembling spirits.
"Rex Flinders I assume" Alex said simply, not dropping his weapon but for some reason not taking the shot either.
"Who else?" Rex responded, a fiendish grin crossing his features "Are you here to give me my reward for apprehending Hangman and Culebra?"
"I'm here to give you a similar treatment." Rex laughed, a grating and humourless laugh, as he rose to his feet and tossed his bottle across the room.
"You've got a lot of nerve **** stain. You come into my home, kill a bunch of my men, make a real big ****ing mess and then, covered in holes like that, suggest you're going to capture me?"
"Actually I was planning on taking you in dead." Alex said with a smirk
"You better hope your some sort of hotshot, not one of Janet's rookies that got lucky. Because if you're not the best of the best you're not walking out of here."

Alex didn't wait around to think of a witty comeback, he replied by pulling the trigger of his sawed-off and sending a bullet careening towards Rex only for the bullet to suddenly fly back towards him, forcing him to blink away.
"The hell?!" Alex exclaimed, taking another shot only to watch as he bullet went flying off down the tunnel.
"Funny thing about bullets, they're made of metal." Rex said, calmly walking towards Alex "Metal tends to be rather sensitive to magnetism."
"You've got to be joking." Alex muttered to himself, as Rex loomed closer. Alex blinked, reappearing behind the outlaw but it seemed that Rex had anticipated this move, whirling instantly and delivering a hard punch to Alex's face that sent him sprawling. As Alex tried to get up, he felt Rex's boot connect with his side, cracking a few of his ribs and sending him rolling back his shotgun falling from his grip.

The metal weapon flew straight from the floor to Rex's hand, the outlaw cocking the weapon and aiming it at Alex as he rolled onto his back, forcing him to blink again as the trigger was pulled. Dirt and shrapnel exploded out in all directions as Alex reappeared behind Rex, pulling his revolver and firing shot after shot at his back in an attempt to catch him by surprise. An attempt that failed as the bullets flew away in random directions.

Rex turned around, tossing Alex's gun away. For a split second nothing happened, and then Rex lifted his hand and launched an enormous fireball towards Alex who responded by forming a flaming barrier around himself, the defensive spell barely surviving the onslaught. The flames dissipated, but Alex was far from out of the woods. His vision had been obscured by the blazing light of the flames, causing Alex to not notice Rex lunging forward until he felt his fist colliding with his gut. Alex doubled over, spluttering and in pain and very aware that Rex's muscles weren't just for show. Following the punch, a kick was quickly delivered to Alex's lowered head causing him to fall to the ground on his side.

"You know," Rex began, picking up Alex by his throat and slamming him into the wall before tossing him, coughing and spluttering, back to the ground "I was going to kill ya quick, but I really think you've earned all this unpleasantness." Rex illustrated his point by delivering another sharp boot to Alex's side… shortly followed by several more. Alex at this point was a crumpled mess on the floor, he tried again to rise to his feet though – somehow struggling into a standing position with a maniacal grin.
"There really isn't anything nearly as exciting as this job."

A fireball formed in Alex's hand but he never got to throw it, a rocky spire erupting from the ground and impaling his arm, the flames disappearing as Alex screamed in pain.
"I'll give you credit, you've got balls kid." Rex snarled "But that's not enough to keep you alive in this world. You either get strong, or you get the **** out of the strong's way. You definitely decide to try and hunt Rex ****ing Flinders in his own home." Three more spires erupted from the ground, one impaling each of Alex's remaining limbs. Rex walked up to Alex, the bounty hunter sagging and suspended above the ground by Rex's spikes. The outlaw grabbed Alex by his hair and pulled his head up to look at his face.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die. Any last words?"

Ice1 · Nov 27, 2015

Emmett Holliday
Status - Outlaw – Captive – Glowworm
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Water
Bounty - 2000$

The End of the Day

Gagged, barely dressed and tied to a burned chair wasn't Emmett's favorite position to be in. Especially when magical ropes didn't allow him to blink away. His captors were still in the same room, but they seemed to be preparing for something. Cowboy was cleaning up a jar which seemed to contain black smoke, Gun was etching markings into the burned floor, and Beasty Boy was locking the door with really big locks and chains. The goblin sat upon the table next to Emmett, reading Emmett's spell book. He drew markings upon Emmett's forehead with what smelled like blood.

Emmett started to wonder if he was part of a ritual sacrifice, or if this was the way these people usually treated their guests. He wondered why his spell book had yet to be burned, too. Usually when you capture someone, you'll burn their spell book. Even with a magical rope tied around someone's neck it seemed like a good move to make.

The goblin looked at Emmett from the corner of his eye.

"Sorry this ordeal is taking so long," he said, "but we weren't expecting visitors." He turned a page, and went back to reading. "Don't think we're not thankful, Emmett. We're really glad we ran into you."

"Stop teasing the kid," Beasty Boy, "he'll notice everything soon enough." He clicked the last chain into a padlock. "I'm getting really sick of your constant monologueing, you know that? Nobody likes that cryptic ****." He sighed, put a key into the lock and gave it a turn. With a click, the chains tightened. "Well, I'm done."

The goblin gave an annoyed sigh back, but it was clear he didn't feel like discussing. The room was silent for another five minutes, and Emmett was hoping that the goblin would start monologueing again for every second of it. He started tapping his fingers against the chair he was tied against, in constantly changing rhythms and beats to kill the boredom, but five minutes of nothing was four minutes and fifty seconds of nothing too long for Emmett.

Then Emmett heard glass breaking. Within a second the whole room was filled with a thick darkness. Bible verses started to crawl up into the back of his mind as he was reminded of the abilities of Legion that he had encountered earlier today. Through the darkness he could see a very faint point of, well, less darkness. He couldn't see it, but he knew what it was. The goblin was burning his spell book. He felt a finger on his forehead, and the markings on his body started to glow. He felt the finger going through him, as if it was fidgeting around under his skin. It was like someone was smearing ashes out under his skull, spreading hot grease unto his brain. With a painful plop, the sense disappeared. He heard the voices of his captors.

"Did it work?" Gun asked.

"I don't know, the room is still pitch black," Cowboy answered.

Emmett felled a surge of pain spread through his body. It was as if a wildfire had started in his stomach and was quickly spreading. He screamed out in pain, and his body tried to twitch, but the ropes keeping him bound didn't give in. Instead the rope was cutting into his skin as he was violently trying to squirm.

The smoke rushed into every crevice of Emmett's body that allowed for it. His nostrils, his ears, his mouth, it even tried to get in through his tear glands. As the smoke started to collect, he felt the pain in his stomach get more violent. It was as if the wildfire grew claws and started scratching its way out of Emmett.

"This is new," Beasty Boy said, with a hint of insecurity in his voice.

The room got colder and colder as the smoke disappeared. The windows started to frost in.

"No, ****, this isn't good. He isn't stable," the goblin yelled. Through the smoke above Emmett's face a green shriveled hand brought down a knife.

As the knife came in contact with Emmett's skin, he disappeared. He noticed he didn't have any ropes bound to him, but he also didn't recognize where he was. A single, thin stream of blood streamed down from his forehead as the knife had made the smallest puncture in his skin. Before he could even let the new area sink in, he disappeared again.

He recognized the new landscape, it was close by Fairbell. He could see the houses in the distance, but he was still in the red desert around it. His head was burning and pulsating with pain. He started to suspect they had put a leprechaun in his head that was trying to get out by breaking his skull with a hammer from the inside out. Black smoke started streaming from his nostrils, and he regurgitated as smoke streamed from his mouth too. When he felt there was no smoke left, he tried to stand up, but a surge of pain in his head, forced him against the ground. When he said up, he saw frost had crawled over the ground, and ice had formed in between the dry broken ground. Before he got too good of a look at it, he disappeared again.

This time he reappeared on the rooftop of a house. As soon as he landed the same headache knocked him on the ground again, and when he got up, the same frost had appeared. He felt around his bare chest to feel if he had his spell book with him, but it seemed like he shouldn't be able to cast anything. Before he could inspect the rags he was wearing as pants, he disappeared again, now to reappear in a snowy mountainous area. He didn't even get half second to feel at home, before he felt his body starting to burn and he blinked away again.

He was back in the mansion where he had left the goblin and his crew behind. The burned black floor was covered in frost, and the lock was shattered from the cold.

"Quick!" the goblin yelled, and Emmett was immediately barraged by bullets. His entire being seemed to phase in and out for a second, as the bullets passed through him. With a burning pain in his stomach, he walked up to the Goblin, and grabbed him by his chin, lifting him up. He was really light, which was not that surprising considering his size. With a flick of his wrist he broke the goblin's neck. He tried to make a witty one liner, but no sound came from his mouth. The goblin's corpse transformed into dust as it hit the ground, but from behind him, Emmett heard his voice.
"Not that easy, Emmett," the goblin said. He looked like a greener version of the goblin Emmett just snapped the neck off.

"…t did y…" Emmett tried to speak, but he still was phasing in and out of the room, as if he was blinking at incredibly high speed. He tried to focus, but the more he tried, the more his head hurt. He started coughing and more smoke left his body, in little puffs of black cloud.

"…t did you do to me?" He managed to get it out.

"You're a living time bomb now," the goblin said, "obviously not the intention, but we're still trying to perfect the technique. But, be happy, now you can go out with a bang instead of just getting a singular sad little bullet in your frontal lobe."

Emmett started to cough more, and more and more smoke started to pour out of him again. He thought he was done after the puking, but no, he clearly had a lot more to give. The worst thing was that smoke was not a witty rebuttal, like, at all.

"What have you done?!" Emmett yelled, as smoke escaped from the sides of his mouth. He tried to swing at the goblin but he blinked away, and instead punched the wall full force. The sound his knuckles made were quite alike the sounds knuckles makes when they'd break because one punched a wall. He looked around the room. The goblin was provocatively standing atop the chair Emmett was bound to earlier. The other tree members Emmett almost missed, but he could see the door closing as they left the room.

"You're a spell book now, Emmett!" the goblin laughed, "one of the few living ones. And the best thing is that you didn't have to sew pages to your body! Now, let's see how it longs for you to burn out."

And with that Emmett felt the most pain he had ever felt. It was like his skin wanted to crawl off his body, as if his insides desperately wanted to become his outsides and the other way around. He felt like was on fire that was on fire. His skin started to crack, and through the cracks black light seeped out. The light swelled and swelled, and for the smallest of moments, it took over the room, only to retract, and leave a nothingness behind were Emmett had stood before.

Shak · Dec 2, 2015

Achilles Nimbus
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Electricity
Money - $1,050

Footprints

Achilles' shoulder fell numb from carrying the dead weight for so long. He looked down at his hanging arm. He tried using his knee to push it. The arm swung labouringly.

"Any of you three need anything from Fairbell before we leave, I don't want any annoying complaining while we head out." The female outlaw called out. Achilles squinted, while the other two perked up in excitement. The male outlaw was the first to exclaim his 'need'.

"Been a long time since we got a drink. Sister Tess wouldn't want us to head out on an empty stomach." He chuckled. His partner's expression showed that she was far from impressed. Isaac's expression showed that it probably wasn't best to exclaim what he wanted given the response the other outlaw received.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up." Achilles piped up. Both outlaws chuckled, with the male one raising his rifle.

"Nice try asshole. Not happenin'!" He cocked his rifle and aimed it towards the injured bounty hunter. Achilles sighed.

"You can follow if you want. I just want to find something out." The northerner rolled his eyes dismissively. The other three glanced across each other, before shrugging and following behind Achilles.

The events that had just passed left a remorseful and sorrowful atmosphere in Fairbell's monastery. Achilles strolled in with a sense of entitlement, while the others followed behind in confusion. The bounty hunter took no time in heading straight for the nun whom he remembered as the last face he saw before the stoning, and unveiling a torn image he must have picked up as the group were about to head out.

"I sent someone to have this girl healed up by your priest." He began. The nun startled at first, took mere seconds before recognising the face in the image. Achilles had planned to continue, but it was clear that nun was familiar with Charlotte's face. As she put a story to the image in her head, the woman's expression turned to one of deep contemplation.

"I know that face." She spoke before taking a deep breath. "She was found dead not too long ago. Whoever you sent her with clearly didn't care much for her. They left her corps-" She continued to explain, before being interrupted by Isaac.

"We get it! That's more than we needed to know, alright?" He called out. The nun bowed her head apologetically, before darting off into the house. "Achilles, you okay?" Isaac watched on as he saw his friends head hang. He expected no less than an extreme reaction that would be painful to watch. He received nothing like what he expected.

"Okay." Achilles shrugged. The two outlaws followed Achilles out of the building, leaving Isaac a few seconds to contemplate what he just saw. An irritating voice met his attention, causing him to shove the thought to the back of his mind.

"Figured I'd find you here. I heard you were about to get stoned and figured I'd tried to save the day." Isaac was able to immediately place Coady's face to the voice as he ran outside. Frustration and rage took over, and despite Coady's attempt at explaining himself, Isaac charged in to attack.

"Traitor!" He called out in anger. His foot, now coated in metal, flew full force at the side of Coady's head. A rush of pain seared through his leg, as Isaac's metal coated limb passed through a wall of flames. He didn't even consider writhing in pain. Instead, the northerner sprung back to his feet, again charging at Coady.

The two outlaws watched on in shock as Achilles blinked away, straight into the thick of the battle. His slung arm collided with the incoming metallic fist of Isaac, much to the surprise of the ferrokenetic sorcerer.

"The hell are you doing?" Isaac called out in a mixture of anger and concern. Both were knocked back, Isaac much better off than his partner. "Achilles!" A small grin grew across Coady's face.

"Coady…you have ten seconds to begin explaining yourself." Achilles groaned, audibly holding back the pain that he was obviously feeling. He fell to his knee, clutching the wounded arm. "You know where she is…don't you?"

"I know more than you." Coady responded, his smug grin turning to an arrogant chuckle. "We should probably talk somewhere else, unless you wanna die here." He glanced calmly to both sides, before returning a lazy smile to Isaac. Achilles rose to his feet, allowing the arm to fall limp once again. A large electricity field formed around the two men, startling the modest crowd that had begun to gather around the conflict. "Have I done something wrong?" Coady whined patronisingly. Isaac snapped first. He created a metallic spear and tossed it at Coady. The fire sorcerer easily dodged the attack, but simply ignored Isaac, not bothering to respond with an attack of his own.

Much to the surprise of both him and Isaac, a stream of lightning shot from the rod, just missing Coady and following a trail straight to Achilles. The lightning sorcerer blinked behind his opponent, dispersing the stored electricity into pulse within the shield. Coady stumbled forward in pain, but managed to remain on his feet, despite his entire body twitching violently.

"****!" He groaned to himself with gritted teeth. "The hell did you assholes just do?" His glare met the eyes of Isaac, who was still in total confusion as to what Achilles had just pulled off. Achilles stood above Coady, who at this point was struggling to move at all, triumphantly waiting for a response to his previous question. "You idiots don't seem to realise. Whenever you're up against the man we're dealing with…you're always outnumbered." Coady groaned painfully.

As the words left his mouth, a bullet flew towards his head, only stopped by the metallic intervention of Isaac. "Looks like we got a job on our hands." Isaac sighed. A familiar face stepped out from what seemed to be an invisible wall. The same man from the wall of the shack calmly strolled towards them.

One of the two outlaws that saved Achilles and Isaac's life spoke up as she saw the man approaching: "Dodgy David, huh?" There was a blend of both fear and disgust in her voice. Achilles picked up on her remark, but refused to take his eyes off of the approaching threat.

The man's deep voice almost created small tremors in the ground. "Sister Tess, if I'm not mistaken." He said in response to the other outlaws, completely ignoring the trio his apparent, but not visible companion had shot at. He raised his arm, presumably to halt a second shot from the sniper. The woman nodded. "I would ask if you were still interested in our deal, but my employer is less that confident that our client will be able to pay in before other suitors show up." He grinned, much to the annoyance of Tess' two followers, who were less than impressed with the light hearted nature that he took with discussing her death. "We, in fact, found another suitor, but I don't think he's on the same page as us in terms of what constitutes a good deal." This time his tone was much more serious as he glared back at Coady. Both Achilles and Isaac looked away, realising that this was their fault. David's goon turned to Achilles. "For some reason, my boss would like to have a word with you." He walked over to the northerner, grabbed his coat, and dragged him to his feet with one arm. Achilles looked up at the man, but said nothing. "You're going to comply?" Despite the crowd, the outlaw seemed confident about discussing matters, which Achilles found strange.

"That's...fine." Achilles sighed.

gimmepie · Dec 3, 2015

Inhumanity: Part One
Jebediah, Sophia, Marzia, Alice and Alex vs. Rex Flinders

"This is the place." Marzia said as Jeb slowed to a stop. "I can sense them inside. There's only a handful or so left. I can't tell friend from foe though. The entry here is just a massive cluster**** of different smells. Some of which trail off in different directions, disappearing for a few seconds and then apparently reappearing. Not all those inside seemed to be up to the job of sticking around when **** hit the fan apparently."

The group climbed down off of Jeb's back and crowded around the entrance.

"I don't like it. Doesn't feel right." Jeb said as he peeked his head in. "Smells like a hell of a lot of death. I think I might've had my fill for a week or two."

"Don't be such a ***** Jeb. We have to go in there and help out Antonio! If you're not going to ****ing do it I'll just go in myself."

Alice grabbed on to the back of her skirt. "Don't worry. I'll go with you." She smiled widely up at Sophia.

Sophia shook her head. "I'd feel safer if you stayed out here with Jeb... since he's apparently not going to come in." She glared at the bounty hunter.

Jeb removed his hat and scratched his head. He let out a sight and put it back on. "Guess I'll go on in with you. If the kid's willin' to go in I don't have much of a choice in the matter."

"I never said I wasn't going either." Marzia butted in. "So if everyone's ready, we can go ahead on in. There's a lot of branching tunnels so you'll need me anyways."

"Alright then. Let's get the hell on with it then." Jeb said as he pushed his way through the entrance.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die. Any last words?"

"Yeah! Where the hell is Antonio you piece of ****?" Sophia yelled out as she rushed the man. Her black knife drawn and her gun already firing at the man's chest.

Rex's head snapped round at the sudden appearance of the female intruder, however that was about all the reaction she got from the seasoned outlaw. In fact, he seemed to be almost bored by Sophia's dramatic entrance, her bullets deflecting back towards her just as they had when Alex had tried similar tactics earlier.
"Friend of yours?" he remarked to Alex, taking to opportunity to punch the gradually fading outlaw in the face. "That's fine, I don't mind killing a few more."

As the bullets flew through the air they split in half and flew past Sophia just barely missing her. Jeb stepped out of his slowed time and rested his sword on Rex's shoulder. "You really should be kinder to ladies. At least introduce yourself before you simply wave away her efforts."

Rex laughed, the kind of laugh that usually preceeds someone trying to kill you.
"Oh look another one! My apologies! My name's Rex Flinders and all you dumbass bounty hunters can go **** yourselves." Ignoring the weapon on his shoulder, Rex whirled round and delivered a punch to Jeb's gut before launching an enormous fireball in the direction of Sophia. "Honesty, the arrogance of you dipshits. You all just waltz in here and think you have a half a chance? Not bloody likely."

As Rex went to punch Jeb, the bounty hunter stepped back, feigning injury before blinking to the ceiling above him. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid you're the one without half a chance."

Alice stood behind Sophia, her arms wrapped around her waist but her head peering out from under her arm. A smile etched across her face at the oncoming fireball. Sophia sent out another bullet, but this time followed it up with a powerful burst of air several times stronger than her norm, causing the fireball to disperse. "You shut your goddamn mouth! I ain't no shitty bounty hunter! I'm just here for Antonio and the rest of my family!"

Once again the bullet flew away from Rex before it could injure the outlaw, the projectile launching in the direction of Jeb instead. Rex then looked at Sophia with a feral grin
"Well now this is interesting, you've come for the stupid ****er I've got locked up down here! Looks like we've got a little Culebra over here. Antonio Culebra has been a thorn in my side since we were children and he's not leaving here until he quite literally falls to pieces. As for the rest of your half-baked family, if I haven't killed all of them yet, I will soon enough. Starting with you and your kid, *****."

Rex didn't make a physical move towards Sophia, instead he summoned another spire of stone forth from the ground, the deadly column hurtling straight for her chest.

As Rex said something about having killed all of the Culebra's, Sophia's eye twitched. There was no way this shitty excuse for a 'rival' to Antonio could have done that much. Sophia leaped over the spire that had just started to form from the ground and rushed at the man. Alice remained firmly plastered to her side, the smile on her face only growing larger as she felt the bloodlust radiating off of Rex. This would surely be a foe worthy of testing her powers on once these others had been done away with.... that is if they didn't manage to defeat him first. Alice channeled a fragment of her powers through to Sophia, heightening her senses and reflexes alike, allowing for her to successfully notice and jump over the attack before being impaled like the miserable bounty hunter suspended by several others just like them.

"There's no way in hell Antonio would lose to someone like you!" She dropped her gun and grasped the knife firmly with both hands, meeting her gaze with Jeb's as he was kicking off of the ceiling.

Jeb sliced through the oncoming bullet and readied himself to stab down into Rex's head, a tactic he had successfully utilized on so many enemies the night before. "Don't you ****ing touch Alice. I'll cut yer goddamn head off before you ever get near her."

Rex's sadistic expression never faltered as Sophia and Jeb rushed him, he hadn't lasted as long as he had by being beaten down by shitty tactics like that. A blazing sphere of fire burst into being around Rex and expanding outwards towards his attackers, catching the pair by surprise. The wall of fire passed right over Sophia, Jeb and Alice, causing the attack to halt as the group fell to the ground in agonising pain.

Rex walked over to the downed body of Jeb and stomped hard on the seared bounty hunter's chest, holding him down with his foot and leaning over his face.
"I'm going to kill you and make her watch." he then turned his head to Sophia "and as for Antonio. I didn't just beat him. I left him barely alive, gave his lizard to some idiot and murdered his stupid ***** of a mother right in front of his eyes. That was very satisfying."

Sophia's eye began to twitch harder and her body shook violently. She rose up and gave a deathly stare to Rex before he disappeared. Sophia followed the man's body up to the ceiling, then down to the ground and back to the ceiling again. Alice remained plastered firmly to her side as she watched Jeb's assault on the man. Both of them still had years to go before they'd be a match for her.

As Rex's head turned, Jeb chuckled lightly. "I don't really know much about the Antonio guy or his old lady, but if you think you can beat me by using shitty tactics like these then you had better get out of here and come back in a few more years." Jeb latched on to the outlaw's leg tightly and then blinked up to the ceiling. Using all of his strength he swung the man around and slammed his body against the roof. Then he latched himself around his chest and blinked to the floor, slamming Rex's back against the ground. Then Jeb blinked back up to the ceiling and released the outlaw. But as he did so he readied two powerful burst of air and fired them straight at Rex's chest, blasting him back down and into the ground.

"Why don't you do something Sophia?" Alice crawled up the girl's back and whispered in her ear. "You know you're strong enough. If Jeb can do it so can you."

"Alice that's enough." Marzia said as she came through the entrance to the room. "What the man said is true. Antonio is dead. I went to release him and he was just barely alive... but as I went to take him down the life left him." Marzia walked over to the bounty hunter who was suspended by the spires. He glanced over to her, waiting to be killed. "Relax kid. We need you for right now. So long as we can work together you'll live." She placed her hand on his and both began to glow. Slowly his body pushed itself off of the spikes as his wounds healed themselves and his magic returned.

"Does it look like I have a choice" Alex groaned

"So you couldn't do anything for him Marzia? Even though you can heal someone that close to death?" Alice questioned with a smile on his face.

"No. The subject has to be willing to receive healing. Antonio had given up. So he died. That's it."

"That's some kind of healing magic." Alex remarked dryly as another voice suddenly cut across him.

"You know, I really don't like it when a bunch of smallfry ignore me like I'm nothing." Rex said loudly, returning to his feet as though he'd baely taken a hit from Jeb. "You idiots just don't seem to get it. You're so far beyond outmatched it isn't even funny. It doesn't matter how many times you patch yourselves up, you're still meaningless compared to me. You're insignificant specks that are way out of your depth."

As though to prove his point, several sharp spears of stone erupted from the walls or ground, flying towards the assembled outlaws and bounty hunters. A spear spurted from Marzia's sternum, several more lodging into her body, the assassin falling to the ground. Sophia dived to the side, only for a spear to shoot up from the ground and impale her through her abdomen and two more flew from the cieling nailing her to the ground through her back. Alex blinked away, but even newly healed he was no match for the terrifying spell. He blinked straight into the path of a spear that stabbed through his shoulder, he tried to retaliate with an elemental burst but he never got to cast the spell, several more stone projectiles piercing his body and downing him. Several more spikes flew towards Alice all at once, but as they neared her they also distanced themselves apparently trying to avoid her. She danced around the room, seemingly able to sense when and where each new spear was to form from the ground. She side-stepped and backtracked for a several seconds, effortlessly dodging the onslaught before she finally gave up. She stuck her toe in the ground and turned to face Rex with a bored expression on her face. She mouthed 'is this it' as the ceiling and ground collapsed down on to her at once, crushing her completely. As Alice danced around, Jeb followed suit. He slowed time and managed to walk around each and every spike. He hid behind Rex for a moment, attempting to measure any effective range the spell might have. But as he hid, a spike appeared beneath Rex and angled up towards Jeb. As his slowed time ran out, Jeb readied to blink away, but never noticed what was coming. As he came out of the heightened state a sword ripped through his chest.

Jeb looked down at the ornate blade, recognizing it almost immediately. He looked over his shoulder and saw Rex standing there with his hand on the hilt. The Outlaw twisted the blade in Jeb's chest and then pulled it free before slamming it back in.
"Seriosuly, who the **** still carries a sword?" Rex jibed.

"Family... heirloom..." Jeb whispered as he fell to the floor in a puddle of his own blood. The sword pushed itself out of his body as he landed and then clanged as it fell over on to the ground next to him. His arm twitched as he tried to reach for it with what energy he still had left. But as his arm moved it was impaled by a set of several smaller spikes and another larger spike shot up through his right shoulder, ripping it off and out of its socket. The bounty hunter would have screamed in pain, but lacked the energy to do so.

Marzia and Alice pulled themselves from their own prisons of stone. Alice seemingly undamaged, but Marzia's wounds still healing. The two coughed to gain the outlaw's attention.

Rex turned, aggravated by the two still being alive.
"Well, now I almost impressed. You're both still going to die too though."

Alice smiled. "Go ahead and try it kid." Just as she finished a spike erupted from the ground and pierced her skull through her open mouth. It carried her, lifting her up into the air above. As it stopped more spikes erupted from the ceiling and floor and ripped through her. Limbs tore off from her body and then were ripped to shreds by more spikes. Her blood splattered all across the room, coloring the two outlaws and everything else. Spikes continued to tear away at her body until all that was left was the upper half of her skull sitting atop the first of the spikes to rip through her.

Marzia watched in horror as the girl was torn to shreds. After it had finished she looked back down to Rex and picked up Sophia's knife. It wasn't made of metal, nor was it made from anything that would probably hurt this man. But she had to try. If all else failed at least she could close the entrance and trap them all here forever. Marzia took a single step towards Rex and was impaled by another cluster of spikes and pinned up against the wall. Stone shackled her against stone as more spikes pierced her body. Rex stepped closer and laughed as he retracted the spikes and watched Marzia's wounds heal themselves.

"I wonder how long you can keep this up for you shitty whore? 'Cuz I can sure as hell go all day."

Marzia spat a mixture of blood and saliva at the man's face, which only caused him to laugh harder.

"Just the way I like it." More spears erupted from the ground and the wall behind her.

"Hahahahahahahaha" a darker voice echoed quietly through the room.

Ice1 · Dec 5, 2015

A preacher's Final Sermon

Ezekiel had been preparing for the encounter for two hours now. He still hadn't figured out how he was going to deal with this. Agnes knew about his spell now, and probably more, depending on what she remember from her hours with Natasha.

With a slow and harrowing creek, the door to the shack opened. It was awfully dark inside, and it seemed like there was no way for light to get in, except for the doorway, and a small hole to the side. Ezekiel recalled the building of the shack, and he knew for sure it let light in back in the day. In the ten years of her being locked up, Natasha seemed to have stuck layers upon layers of notes on the walls, with writing all over them. The same writing that was on him now.

He saw Agnes sitting on the bed. She softly sniffled, as she tried to make herself seem strong. Ezekiel could see her eyes just above her knees, as she tried to hide herself behind her own legs. Tears dripped onto the fabric of her white dress, and left her eyes red.

Ezekiel sat on the other side of the bed. He couldn't get close to her. He knew he wasn't in the right to comfort her, as he was the one that inflicted all that pain upon her, and he was the one that was going to inflict more.

"Agnes…" he started, before taking a deep breath, and stocking. "Agnes."

He couldn't transfer his thought into spoken word. He took off his hat, and put it beside him. He retracted his legs, and mirrored Agnes's position, resting his chin upon his knees.

"You're scared, aren't you?" He said. It reminded him of how he started out, comforting the children orphaned by outlaws.

Agnes gave a slight nod, and sniffled.

"Of me?"

She nodded again.

"I hope one day you'll realize…" he stopped a second, and sighed. He let his hands run through his short brown hair and rested them on the back of his head. "I hope you'll realize that when a man does bad things for a good cause, he's still a good man. I really hope you do realize that one day, Agnes. I know forgiveness doesn't feel right, right now, but once you realize that this has all been for a good cause, I really hope you do."

He let his arms slide down, and leaned against the wall. In the faint light above him stood in pitch black Luke 22.

"I can't let you go home, Agnes," Ezekiel continued. "I really, really can't. You can promise me everything in the world, and I still couldn't. People would lose faith. You're not the living saint I made you, you're just a sick girl again. I can get the nuns to take you into a matriarchy. You'll learn to praise God in the same way that you love him now. It's the best I can do for you. Your parents will think you're dead, but I will, and believe me I will, make sure you'll know everything that happens to them. I'll make someone write you a letter every time they smile, every time they think of you, I really really will. But I can't let you go back."

With the nail on thumb, Ezekiel pierced the dry skin on his left hand. He grabbed Agnes her hand, and put it on the scratch. Nothing happened. Both knew nothing would, but sometimes you just feel a doubt in the deepest well of your mind, the one you store your hope in, and give in. Once Ezekiel took away took away his healing mark, the person he had cast it upon could not be chosen again. He thought it was a clever limitation, as the only reason for him to remove it is when the person died or went evil, but it seemed it wouldn't work out.

"I'd love to not have to use people, you know. Especially pure souls like you. But, you instill faith in people. People see the best and the purest of the world in you, and believe me when I say, so do I. It is through that, that good man with vile hearts like me can strengthen people their faith. If I could do it myself, I would. But everybody knows a spell book heals wounds, only God heals the sick, the blind, the cripple. The more limitations you put on a spell, the more focused it is, the stronger it is, and I just so happened to be stupid enough to use other people as a magnifying glass. Or maybe I should see it like blocks of ice, because it seems the more I use people, the less there is left of them. It is as if my energy melts them away."

A single tear started to grow in the corner of Ezekiel's eye, but he wiped it away before it had the change to fall.

"I don't think either of us will return to Fairbell, Agnes. You'll leave the barren lands, I'll leave town. I never wanted to be a preacher anyway. I'm just dumbing down faith for the common folk. As if I take grace, tear it apart, and just spread the torn pieces to people. I've written a letter already, it's on its way to the bishop. I'll just focus on doing what I do best. Hand of God, purging for him."

He stood up, grabbed Agnes hand, and started walking, disregarding her unwillingness to follow.

"Let's hope," he said in a somber tone, "that in ten years, you'll be a nun, and I'll be dead."

JukeboxTheGhoul · Dec 5, 2015

ANIMA

[S-HIGHLIGHT]Music[/S-HIGHLIGHT]
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Spoiler:

Anima had his head up against the wall, the wall vibrated as the engine roared. His head jogged sided to side from the bumpy tracks that wobbled the wall. He held his stomach, it felt like it was black pit. He looked through the grey solemn bars at the bleak desolate wasteland. A towering mountain up ahead was enshrouded in a putrid red smog, Anima looked down at his knuckles, battered and bruised.

Anima threw out his fist towards the cart wall. His knuckles began to become red but adrenaline overpowered the sensation. He swung another punch towards the apparition. His hand phased through the intangible surface of the person. The ghostly shell of Jacobs faded away. Anima growled. His heart became heavy, falling in to a deep dark pit. Anima turned away from the wall. Two figures stared at him. The first figure was floating, crossed arms. The figure was missing in depth characteristics. Just a plain figure of shimmering white, though the burning, bright eyes remained. The deep booming voice emanated from this large figurine.
"You failed me. You worthless, pitiful, fool!" Gaudium's voice was full of hatred, resentment and condemnation. "Now, you rot."
Tears streamed down Anima's face. He slunk down to bottom of the wall. He yelled out."No!"
The second figure was a woman whose figure was blue, she wore a sky blue gown and had even lighter hair. The girl spun around, she grinned childishly. "Hahahahahaha! You're in trrrrroooooubbbleeee!" She then started to do cartwheels around the cart, the childish laugh turned in to a thumping cackle. Anima leaned to the ground he started to swing down his fists in to the ground.
He had a burst of energy. He pounced up towards the apparition of Gaudium, whom quickly teleported out of the way. The girl giggled, "Naughty, naughty!"
Gaudium looked down at his subservient being. "For that you will be punished."
Shillace appeared next to Anima. She started to incessantly poke him. "Ha. Ha. Ha." She repeated.
Anima flung out his hand to slap the woman, but the hand just passed through. The apparition of Shillace froze, tears ran down the face of the youthful girl. Anima stood up staring at his god with Anger in his eyes. Shillace teleported outside of Anima's cage. In to the corner of the cart, She was curled up in the foetal position, she rocked back and forth. Gaudium shook his head.
"Mend your sins, accumulate more for my kingdom. If you don't, you shall never see my realm. Ever again." Anima felt an anchor be tied to his heart. Anima laid on the ground, he felt helpless and depraved. Angry and Sad. When Anima did this, Shillace appeared above him, she smiled wildly and then disappeared.

Anima looked up from his knuckles, he leered longingly out of the bars, he murmured to himself. "Thy will be done."

Shadow felt cold. She opened her eyes, the burning sand contrasted the shadow cast over her by the man. The man was wearing a dark beige shirt, a brown tie, a large brimmed hat and black trousers. His beige shirt had a badge on it. The golden badge was rusty and had a few bullet dents. The badge read, "Sheriff's Department. Spider's Hollow. Sheriff T. Marshall"
The man held out a hand to Shadow, "Hello Miss, you seem to have had an accident wit' your here horse."
Shadow took his hand and he pulled her out. She got up, her leg ached slightly. "Yes. Err.. Marshall? Could we get Cer-Cheddar here to the vets in the near town?"
The Officer looked at her suspiciously for second. He then nodded.

As the Officer and Shadow trotted in to town, Marshall looked back for a second. "So, what did yer say your name was again?"
"Sandy." She tried to hide her face, her face told the tale of the blatant lie. Sand is everywhere, an unoriginal name.
"Well, Sandy, you'll be able to get Cheddar fixed up in Tessa's."
"Who is Cheddar?" Shadow looked at him.
"Your- Your horse." He responded.
"Oh yeah. Can you take Cheddar there? It's just, you see, I got something to do."
"I guess so... I can take your... dear horse you urged me to haul over here to the vets for you." He replied, confusedly.
"Great!" Shadow hopped off the back of the Sheriff's Horse. She began to walk away when she remembered something. "By any chance, officer, would you know if someone called Anima was arrested recently?"
Marshall's smile dropped, he pulled down his hat. "That's need-t'-know information."
Shadow detested this façade she had to keep up to seem like she was just a damsel in distress. "Well, honey, I just need to know as Anima killed my poor cousin, can't ye let me sleep easy tonight?"
Marshall felt bad for Shadow, "Well, just sleep easy knowing he's locked up in Gilded Brook. Far away from here. 'Kay?"
Shadow had the information she needed, she turned around and strode off.

The paths were dusty. In the alleys, the buildings cast a deep dark shadow, it was not night, but the walls cast shadows so deep that it might of well been. Two figures crossed the first figure's invisible shadow.
"He wants the money now!" The big burly guy towered over the thin man in front of him. He grabbed the man and shook him.
"I told you! It's all in my bets at the moment, and there's an extra fee if I try to retrieve it before it's went through it's motions." The small man explained quickly.
The other man came out of the shadows, "You should know how loans work, you don't pay them, then we pay you a visit. Now, if you'd be so kind as to hand over the dosh before I let fido here crush your bones to a million pieces."
The big guy let out a hearty laugh. The small man looked around frantically, he scooped up his top hat from the floor, "Now you people must like magic, I can pay you in magic!"
Unimpressed, the crook shook his head, "Now." He sat down on the nearest crate "Elliott if you can't make our Associate's money reappear, we'll make you disappear." He took out a cigar out of his jacket pocket. He held it up. He spat fire on to the end of the cigar then put it in between his teeth.
Elliott laughed nervously, "Just hang on a second."
He dug around in his hat, his hat being empty, he moved it about for spectacle. He attempted to draw in magic. He prepared to shoot a bolt at the big guy. But if history's any indication, this wont end well. He took out his hand and thrust it forward towards the brute. Out of his hand materialised a bouquet of Lilies. The bunch of flowers made little impact as it hit the Brute's face.
"C'mon, not even Roses? They aren't even thorny." He moaned. He looked around at the two crims, They weren't happy. Elliott took off. The two pursued. The Crook took out his handgun and started to take a barrage of wild shots. Bullets whistled past him ricocheting all around him. Elliott murmured to himself, "I need something good or I'm a dead man." He reached in to his top hat. Frantic footsteps ensued. He pulled out his hand. Suddenly, the gun barrel folds back on itself. The Crook, seeing this transpire, he threw away his gun. He took a drag of his cigar and spewed a beam of fire at him. Elliott jumped up as the fireball narrowly missed him. "Help! Anybody?"

Shadow paused. She looked to the right. She couldn't break out Anima by herself. She'd need someone to help, someone who'd be able to help without needing much convincing. Conveniently, it looked like this person was just what she needed. He seemed talented, yet unconventional. She called upon her magic. She started to pace her breathing. The world seemed to slow, she turned on her heels looking down the alley. She took out her bow and strung her arrow.

Two arrows shot past him, they embedded in to the Chests of the two men. Elliott skidded forward. He bowed down to his saviour. "Than- I mean, yeah I coulda handled that."
Shadow looked at the man, kneeling before her. "Don't try to pretend kid." She sidestepped. "Look, I can protect you, provided you help me."
Elliott nodded.

Siren and Shayne Jacobs were leading their horses out of Spider's Hollow when a voice came up behind them. "I'll make this quick, I've got a schedule to keep." He takes out a business card.
The two turn around. Before them, a man in expensive clothes, a long black coat, a bowler hat, detailed gold buttons. Though one might have assumed he would be an old man, simply due to his wealthy dress and stick. He was mildly youthful, about Mid-30s. His stick was a cane, the handle was a heavy golden head of a bird which the majestic beak elongated in to the handle. The other end of the cane was much the same weight. He checked his pocket watch from his coat pocket. "My name is Mr. Waltham, Chief Executive Officer of Waltham Incorporated. The Chasm is much too volatile for many of our businesses, hence only a few of our subsidiaries have set up here."
Shayne went to speak, the man hushed him, "Questions at the end please., I am here because one of my clients took out a large sum of money out as a loan. We need this money back. So far we've only enlisted cheap mercenaries in order to apprehend this man. It is clear to us that we need some additional manpower to take him down. So we are hiring you," He takes out a wad of neatly written paper. "Here's the contract. I will be accompanying you ensuring that this is dealt with." He quickly looked, once again, at his watch pocket watch on a chain. "I have a 5 minute slot for Q and A."
Jacobs glanced at Shadow. "Alright... first things first, how come a northerner is down here?"
Mr Waltham smiled, "I have the ability to travel to any place in the entire world in an instant. Of course, it has drawbacks, it has to be outside, or someplace I know."
Jacobs inhaled a drag from his cigar and took the wad of paper, he took a look at the words on the paper. "I aint got the time to read this ****. Take your tea and biscuits somewhere else." He lobbed the wad of paper on to the ground, turning to face his horse.
Waltham adjusted his hat, he picked up the contract, he knew how these people preferred to talk, "This contract entitles you to 3,000$, which is one percent of the loan owed, provided you return him to us, alive."
Shayne stopped. He turned around, a wide grin plastered across his face. "Where do I sign?"

Shak · Dec 5, 2015

Achilles Nimbus
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Electricity
Money - $1,050

Dodgy Days

The bell rang, as Achilles swung the bar door open. The ever present droning sound that he had grown accustom to in the south was now accompanied by a mesh enthusiastic cheers and disapproving jeers of the patrons that had manned themselves at the bar. His sudden appearance hadn't alerted many of the faces that were already occupied with their own business. A light guitar tone could be heard across the room; it welcomed the newcomer in. David's lack of interest in ordering anything only served to make their meeting seem shadier. It was clear to Achilles that he didn't plan on staying long.

"So you're David, huh?" Achilles began, staring down at the man sat at the table in the far corner of the bar. The man said nothing. "So public?" Achilles raised his brow to the seated man, who had already shoved his bony hand into the basket of bread that sat on the table. The chair in front of Achilles drew closer to him, making a cold screech as it scraped across the floor. David gestured towards it.

"You're nervous?" The outlaw spat, his mouth full of food. David's hat was tilted, shading his face from both Achilles and the other attendees of the tavern. It was quite ironic; if not for his large bounty, his shady demeanour would've fit in perfectly with the rest of the taverns dangerous looking cast of characters. His Goatee perched itself on his face, visually seeming as if it didn't belong there. His grin made him seem all the more menacing. He swallowed, before proceeding to lick his fingers. Achilles sighed, and adhered to David's suggestion that he sit down. "So I'm assuming…" He began, before leaning in for another piece of bread. "You're fiddling around in my business…because you want the northern girl." The strange conversation seemed to draw the glances of some of the men at the bar. David continued, ignoring the onlookers. "You can have her." He uttered, not fully invested in the conversation.

Achilles bit his lip. He wanted to believe he could jump at the chance to save Lucy and head home. He wanted to believe he could return to Orhurst and see a smile return to his old friends face. He wanted to believe it could be that easy, but… "If you have the girl, I'll take her." He responded sombrely, aiming not to be heard by anyone other than David. The outlaw chuckled, deeply, before bursting into full laughter, and finally into a violent cackle.

"For…a price…of course!" He choked between coughs. Achilles scowled. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. He looked down at his wallet. He hadn't spent much of the money he'd received from turning in Bernie Brutus, but that was the only head he'd claimed since becoming a bounty hunter, so he hadn't made much either.

"I can't be associated with this kind of business." He responded, with a sustained sense of cautiousness. David straightened his face and grinned a devious grin at Achilles.

"Then don't be." David responded sharply. Achilles grinded his teeth, as the outlaw stood up and began to leave. He couldn't afford to be picky at this point. What had to be done was what he'd do. He slowly pulled out his wallet, prompting a grin from David. The outlaw sat down again. The strange change of actions garnered the attention of a few more of the patrons who had been seated for a while. "Hows 'bout we talk business then." David's grin almost seemed genuine. Achilles resisted the urge to scowl.
"I met the guy. Came down from past the northern border, for the most part he seemed like a good guy. Had a little girl with him, pretty little thing." "Light brown hair. Green eyes, full as a moon." David stopped, awaiting a response from Achilles.

"Two Thousand was the named price, right?" He reached into his satchel to gather the aforementioned money. David chuckled.

"Tell me…who is she?" He leaned in, as if this was the most incriminating thing Achilles would have said to him today. Achilles looked puzzled. The expression only made David's laugh more. "Like you said, you can't be associated with this kind of business. You certainly don't look the part." He looked Achilles up and down and chuckled again. "That neat hair certainly isn't something you see often in my line of work. You don't look rough, not like most southerners, and your friend Coady seem so desperate to get this one little girl-I have plenty!" His analysis of the situation was far too accurate to have just been an educated guess. "You don't even have a scar or bruise on you, you aren't from the south. If they're sending people like you, I'm sure I could get some good ransom for the girl. Either that, or you make the payment worth my while." He raised his hat so that Achilles could see his eyes.

"Do you know the price we put on Northern girls? Especially this one, she's a pretty little thing, I can only imagine the mother." His expression became even more menacing. "Screams like a mouse. I didn't even have to gag her." He looked over at the bar, it didn't seem like anyone was listening in. "I wouldn't try makin' any moves, any of them find out what we're doing…" He gestured his head towards the collection of armed bounty hunters that had gathered further down the bar. "We're both dead." He averted his gaze back to Achilles. He raised his tone, so that their word could be heard over the gentle music. "If you aren't going to give me a decent offer, I'll just be on my way!" He knocked his chair over, and began to walk to the door. By this point, the majority of the bar had turned their attention to the scene.

"Wait!" Achilles also knocked his chair over, catching the attention of David again. "If it's a horse you want, perhaps we should discuss business elsewhere. You may even feel better if you've seen the big girl." He tried his hardest to put on something that resembled David's accent. His effort caused David to chuckle to himself discretely. The outlaw gestured with his head for Achilles to follow.

The sun peered down at Achilles, whose head was now exposed to its heat. The sun wasn't the only thing that peered at him though, as he stepped outside, he noticed four metallic gleams of light all coming from different directions. David stopped walking, the sight of his back now ironically the only thing relieving Achilles' fear. He braced himself, but David quickly dismissed his anxiousness.

"I wouldn't make a scene. Just follow me. Seven, by the way." He said calmly, before continuing on his path. It took a few seconds for Achilles to realise what he meant be 'Seven'. He frantically looked around for the three that he'd missed. "I said, don't make a scene. They won't hesitate to shoot if you try any funny business." He rolled his eyes. Achilles was much less calm.

The duo found themselves in a small alleyway, before David seemed to vanish into the floor. Achilles looked around in confusion, but as he walked, he too found himself wherever it was that David ended up.

"Where the hell are we?" Achilles piped up, noticing there were no longer seven guns aimed at him. David continued to walk, before they were greeted by two figures.

"Not alone. Never alone" David chuckled. Achilles recalled the two times he'd heard that before with a sigh. He had no choice but to follow, as the two menacing figures watched him with eerie glares. "I don't care how you earn the money, but you will have to pay for the girl. Thirty Thousand. That's how much I want." He said plainly. Achilles resisted the urge to refute the demand. He was on his territory. "One thing I don't trust, is you going up north. I don't know your connections, and I'd prefer you didn't try anything smart." The bounty hunter offered no verbal response. They came to the end of an empty hall. "I have something I feel you need to see. For…reassurance."

Sonata · Dec 8, 2015

Inhumanity: Part Two
Jebediah, Sophia, Marzia, Alice and Alex vs. Rex Flinders

"Hahahahahahahaha" the voice echoed through the room again, almost unheard the first time.

Rex stopped his laughter and looked around, trying to place it. "Who's that?

A black ooze dripped down onto the outlaw's shoulder and his gaze rose up to the half skull which rested atop the spire. It had tilted down towards him and liquid darkness spilled from its eyes as the deep laughter continued to grow in volume. As the ooze ran down the sides of the pedestal it sizzled and ate away at it until the spike collapsed to the ground in a pile of dirt. The skull remained motionless. Floating in the middle of the air unassisted.

"It is me child. Your God. Now kneel before me before I have to teach you your place."

Rex laughed uneasily. "'s a cute trick you're pullin'. I don't know which one of you's doin it, but I'm about to find out." As the outlaw said this, several more spikes rose out of the ground and descended from the ceiling to impale the immobilized and near-death group. Groans escaped from the mouth of Alex, but the others remained silent. Rex turned back to Marzia after he saw that the skull was still floating. This woman was the only one who could still be casting a spell. He grabbed up Jeb's sword and then repeatedly ran it through her body until he began to grow tired. With each new wound Marzia screamed out in pain, but the skull did not move. Instead the laughter grew until it was a deafening shout. "The hell are you?" Rex screamed out.

"Heheheheheheeheh" the skull descended. "I am your god." The hair fell from the skull's head and turned to ash, and the flesh rotted away and slipped from the bones of the skull and then a lower jaw grew from the upper part of the head. "I am your devil." Darkness spewed forth from its mouth as it spoke, and formed the rest of the skeletal structure. "And I am everything in between." Five rings appeared, one hovering around each arm, one around each ankle and then one floating above the skull. "I...." Black flesh wrapped around the bare white bones, completely covering it. The figure descended and stood in front of Rex. It hovered over the outlaw with a foot and a half difference and smiled with three rows of beautiful white teeth. "I am Verelys." The man-god touched Rex's chest, causing the clothes to burst into flames and his skin beneath to be seared in the shape of the monster's hand.

"I have long awaited the day upon which I would awake and truly be able to let loose my power on this world once more. And that day is today Mr. Flinders." The voice jumped back and forth between that of the demon's and Alice's. "Now I do look forward to having our fun, but first I must take care of something." Verelys hovered over to Marzia and tore away at the earth binding her. "I know what you did. And I could feel that it really upset Sophia when you told her. So you're never going to tell her anything else as long as she lives... got it kid?"

Marzia looked at the figure confused. "Alice? Is that really-" She was cut off by the figure placing its hand over her face and repeatedly bashing it against the wall.

"Are we clear?" Verelys screamed into the face of Marzia, spewing spittle at the crushed head of the woman.

Unable to speak, Marzia raised her hand and gave the figure a thumbs up to signify she understood. She couldn't figure how Alice knew that she had been the one to kill Antonio... but so long as there was even the possibility that he lived she wouldn't be free. But now she was to be shackled to the side of one of his goons. Sophia... if not for the demon in front of her she would have been left free to do as she pleased. The power that Alice... that this Verelys entity holds is frightening.

"I can still hear you." Verelys whispered as he slammed Marzia against the wall a few more times. He peeled the remnants of the assassin from the wall. She would persevere, no doubt about that. The other God apparently blessed her, so she'd live just as long as he. Verelys' nose furled up. With his right hand he tore a hole in the wall, and with both he crammed the already regenerating Marzia's body into it. Satisfied with what he had done, Verelys turned back to Rex who had been staring and simply waiting for his turn to fight. The demon had taken on a human-ish form. It was time to stop messing around.

"W-what," Rex began, for the first time in many years genuinly feeling fear at the midnight-skinned demon that emerged from what he thouht was the young girl's corpse, the mysterious creature that still half spoke with the voice of the child "What the **** are you?! A God? A demon? Like I believe any of that ****! What kind of a weird ****ing spell is this?!"

Rex's fear and fury boiled over, he felt magic risising up through his body before he even realised he was doing what he was. The mine begun to shake and the walls begun to crack, the tremor gradually growing more and more powerful until in a furious explosion the ground below Verelys erupted in a guiser of burning lava, the deadly liquid rock shooting straight over the body of the creature.
"Die!"

Verelys raised its hand to meet the stream. The skin ripped from his arm, and the bone below began to melt away as the liquid ate away at it. Verelys smiled in glee at the pain shooting through Alice's tiny body and the euphoric rush that came with it. The lingering fear in the back of the young girl's mind that she might die. These feelings that were so foreign to him gave him the greatest pleasure. However, this fight was proving to be disappointing.

The flow of lava continued to rush the demon, but ceased to cause any harm. The liquid coiled around the melted arm like a snake, and then ran back down to the stub and began to regenerate the lost limb.

"Is that really all you've got? After all the boasting, all you can manage is a little bit of lava. How upsetting.... But since I've not yet made up my mind on where to go, and since there are still loose ends to be taken care of here I'll give you another chance. Make this exciting mortal." Verelys spread his arms out wide, lava still dripping from the fingertips of his left hand.

Rex let out a wordless scream of fury, lifting an arm to direct his next spell. Below Verelys, from the brand new hole in the ground, several tentacles made of earth and stone sprung forth each wrapping around the creature tighly enough to crush or shatter bone.
"You said you're a devil. Go back to hell then." Rex spat, the tendrils suddenly becoming taught and retracting down into the depths of the hole, taking Verelys with them. For good measure, the ground around the hole begun to flow back into and over the gaping pit until a smooth and strong plate of compressed rock and dirt had sealed the gap.

"Come now child. You should know better. You don't bury the immortal." The voice rang out from all around the room as a black ring appeared on the ground around Rex's feet and began to close in on him. "But you however..." Tendrils of darkness and fire whipped out of the ground, laying over the outlaw's shoulders and chest and forcing him to the ground. The bones in the man's body twisted and cracked, popping in and out of place as the tendrils contracted.

The hole that had just sealed over melted away and Verelys rose out from it, completely unscathed by the outlaw's best efforts. His smile turned to a frown as he leveled his finger at Rex. "I had truly hoped for more out of you. I suppose magic has lost its strength since I've been asleep. Perhaps my first action as ruler of this land should be to re-teach the people the ways of old. At least then I'd have a challenge... but you won't live to see that sadly."

Rex screamed in pain as his body burned and his bones shattered under the unbelievable strength of his bindings. It was clear to him now that there was no hope for him, he was truly facing a being of power that was leagues above his own. A sense of surprising loss and sadness fell upon the outlaw. Ever since he was a mere boy of the Culebra clan where he was beaten, bullied and abused by Antonio and his wretched mother he had fought tooth and nail with both his bulk and his brain to reach a place where he felt nothing could harm him. He had thought that even the Big Bads were not beyond him, yet he did not seek their fame for he wished to remain like a serpent that only emerged from his burrow to strike at his prey before retreating until he needed to strike once more. He could see now that his delusions of power or status had been just that, delusions. This simple, unexpected encounter had quickly seen him fall from predator to prey, crushing all his belief in his own abilitites and all hope he had of survival.

Suddenly and unexpectedly though, a new fire burned in Rex. He new he was doomed to die and he felt no remorse for his sins, he had merely lived with the hand he was dealt and he felt no shame. What he did feel though was fury at the way this creature had made him feel, so weak and helpless. This demon had made him feel like the child he had been when he had been at the mercy of the Culebra Clan. He had sworn to himself he would never be that person again and Verelys was going to pay for making him break that vowel.

As Rex's newfound anger boiled over, he felt his power grow. He might not have had the strength to win, but he was going to do his damndest to take Verelys with him. The mine begun to shake and shudder, tremors far stronger than he had created before wracking the surrounding area as well as Rex's hideout. In his final hour, Rex had never felt so strong and so justified in his wrath. A horrible grinding and ripping noise rang through the caverns of the hideout as huge tears in the earth and stone around them formed and all throughout the structure patches of ground exploded up in violent sprays of molten lava. All around Rex, his victims and Verelys the mine begun to fall in on itself in torrents of molten rock and explosions of earth and rock.
"I'll see you hurt before I die, ****er!" Rex screamed as his spell reached its peak.

"Honestly, now you're just starting to piss me off." The demon waved his hand and the entire mine was covered in a black ice. The streams of lava froze in place, their energy extinguished by the higher power. Fissures and breaks in the earth and ceiling filled and frozed over. All was still. All was silent save for the chattering of Rex's teeth and the snapping of his bones as the tendrils gripped harder around their prey. "You know? Perhaps if you had just stayed with the Culebra's your whole life you might have actually made something of yourself. And perhaps we wouldn't be here right now. If you had been able to play with others like a good little boy," Verelys shoved his face up against Rex's and stared into his eyes, "you might have been able to scratch me." And just like that the life left the outlaw. The tendrils continued to constrict until they were a blood drenched pile of darkness atop the ice, but Rex was no longer among the living.

The demon looked about the icy palace and smiled. All that he had come with lay rest here. Alice no longer had any bonds in this world. All those for which she cared were crushed and either dead or dying. This body no longer belonged to a child, but instead to a god; a god with a very long to do list. Verelys cracked his neck from side to side and then walked out from the mine, ready to unleash his powers and create hell on Jeimas.

[Other FULL] Gunpowder (M) (IC)

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