Heathcliff produced a pistol once Joe screamed and leveled at the boy’s head, he’d of a hell of time blocking or evading at such close range. "Kid." He said casually. "Chill out." Heathcliff lowered his weapon. "Not like I'm here to fight. I'm working for an ally of yours now and by proxy Mikkish." He turned his head to Eric his eyes narrowing. "I know you!" He snorted. "You're that gay asshole who shot at me!" David chimed in. "Hey Mikkish." He said looking down at his friend. "Is it dirt eating day? Because I love dirt eating day."
I glared at Heathcliff and ignored the newcomer who said that it was 'Bad for business' for me to call the police, another assassin maybe...? Great, just... great. "Hey, Mikkish, remember the last time that you tried to get a murderer to help us? How did that go for us? Oh right, he tried to kill us." I said, not removing my eyes from Heathcliff. I stepped forward and pressed my forehead right against the barrel of the gun. "C'mon, shoot me right here in front of all of these witnesses, I dare you. Let's see how you talk your way out of blowing my brains all out over the sidewalk. I'd rather die than work with a monster like you, and I'll gladly die knowing that you'll end up in jail for your crimes." I said.
Eric sighed. Sure Joe was doing his best to look like a total badass but he didn't care. All he cared about was the payment after this job is done. He steady walked toward the two and forcefully lowered Heatcliff's arm with one arm while pushing Joe aside with the other, both smoothly done. "I'm afraid I don't know you or if I do I don't remember you my apologies for that. But within the job I was hired to do it was included to do my best to not get the students into danger. I'll ask you to refrain from shooting without a reason or I'll have to take drastic measures" Said to Heatcliff and then turned to Joe. "The same goes to you John, I'll have to take serious measure if it means to fulfill the job I was hired to, My employer aknowledges you may get in danger, which he expressely opposes to yet apparently knows it can be helped, still I'll have to stop you if you begin to act like a stupid kid." After that he once again turned to Mareck. "So, regarding the blade, would you be kind enough to lead it to me. I want to have it analyzed by specialists if possible"
Heathcliff shrugged and holstered his gun. "Sorry but I'd rather run from the police then put a bullet in somebody who didn't have it coming.....or at the very least somebody who I am not contracted to kill." The assassin gave a small smirk to Joe. "Look kid, I was working those days I robbed you all and tried to kill you. It was nothing personal and now a real nice guy was kind enough to loan out my services to you all." He turned to Eric. "You don't remember? You don't remember me almost putting bullets in you?" Heathcliff twirled his moustache looking at Joe and Mikkish. "You two know what I mean, right? On the cliff ....it looked even at first but then I started to get the advantage over Mr. Wonderful personality here." "If it hadn't been for the demon guy wrecking the area. I really think the duel would of been mine."
"Nuh uh! No way! I'm not giving the thing that's potentially containing my friend's soul to some stranger claiming he's been 'hired' to do something, especially if he's anything like that one!" I said, pointing at Heathcliff. "And again, I must say, I don't care if you were hired or if you did it for fun, you still killed a lot of people!" I said, where were the police!?
"Oh my god. Holy shit!" Mikkish got up and walked up to David, looking him up and down. "Oh...so the sword just...switched spirits out. Well, maybe you could tell us where he is, then?" Mikkish asked, ignoring Joe. That guy was always bitching about the most ridiculous things. They get away with murder, Joe complains. A powerful assassin ends up working for them, Joe complains. Maybe Joe should just go back home, Mikkish thought.
Tom took out a packet of Gummi dragons and started to put them in his mouth, one by one. He simply watched as more people came, and started to make a huge fuzz about things he did not really understand. "What, have I accidentaly come to a bus stop?" He thought. They were probably attracted by the sight of the ghost, or by the sight of the boy they called as Joe. He recognised one of them, apparently called Mikkish, as one of the people who'd fought against the demon the previous week. Both Mikkish and Joe seemed to be respected by the other teenagers, during the fight. If he wanted to join Fraternity, as the burnt leaflet had suggested, he would have to turn to one of them. He then realized the point Mikkish had just made. "Yeah! You should know where the demon is!" He said to the ghost. "Lead us to him at once, and let's get this done with!" In the inside of his pocket he felt a particular card from his deck, starting to warm up.
Eric interrupted once again. "And you're heading against the demon without any plan am I right?" Asked to Tom. "All of you had trouble against the murderer when he cut your magic supply, my employer told me the details. Although a skilled man, I'm pretty confident in the fact that either me or this man with a moustache would had find only a moderate difficulty against him. This because we're professionals and not unexperienced mages who barely had any study. Now, I'll like to point that neither me or mr. moustache, not even my employer who is known as a great mage could deal with a demon like Junior without a very well thought and carefully prepared plan and even with that we would have a certain percentage of success." He took a second to fix his tie and continued. "So tell me, how exactly a group of amateurs plan to deal with a demon with a frontal attack?" This question was directed at all the students and specially to Mikkish who found his glance being caught by Eric's stern's eyes. The reason was simple... pretty much all the reckless and fool moves the party had done were influenced by this kid's poor leadership and lack of skills.
"Simple. We don't, because it's suicidal to go in as we are, frontal assault or otherwise. Little to no experience, no weapons, and no knowledge of how to either seal or exorcise a demon, this isn't some game. Whenever we fight, we put our lives at risk and innocent people get hurt!" I said, I sighed exasperatedly. "But I know the reality is that Junior has put a bulls eye on us, even if we try to go on with our lives, he's still going to come after us and try to eat us... that sounds like something a child would say... but in this case it's literally what he wants to do to us. We need to prepare, not rush in and get ourselves killed." I said.
Plan? When did Tom ever have a plan? His logic was simply based on "let's burn this to the ground and see how it works". Anything outside that logic would probably be too boring. He did admit that his impulsive lifestyle was dangerous. But what is the problem with living on the brink? Someday everybody will fall off anyways, and when that day comes, there will be nothing to be done about it. He picked another pink gummi dragon from his packet; he held it closed to his eyeballs, and watched as the sunlight shimmered in the nearly-transparent sweet. "I will go with Mikkish, if he decides to take on the demon. With or without a plan, I trust his guts." Tom said to the haughty older man. It was a bet of course. Tom knew Mikkish as much as he knew the black cat accompanying one of the people around him. Life was made out of bets, he believed. He had won many poker games with bets just as risky as this one. Either way, he was not going to trust an adult. The role of adults in his life was limited to expelling him from countless academies, or blaming him for his parents' death. To trust Mikkish, seemed to be his better option. "Joe (if that is your name), you just recovered from your injuries, I don't really blame you for trying to avoid all of this. We'll send your regards to Junior (if that's what the demon's name really was)." Tom told Joe. He found it very funny how all of a sudden he became inspired to talk with those people as if he knew them for a long time. Tom was not regretting any of this. He was enjoying every moment of his academy experience, and wherever that boat of destiny would take him, he was willing to go.
“I have a plan!” David the ghost spoke up. “Okay? So I know Junior better than anybody here and I know all bout how he thinks and stuff.” He gave a big dumb grin. "First! Joe, Zombie man, Mary, Mikkish and two other people will all dress up as cute bunnies." "Okay?" He nodded nodded. "Then we throw him a big birthday surprise party and before he gets all weird and evil I will kindly ask him to give me his body and he can be a talking sword again." Heathcliff stared at David for several moments before pitching his idea. "Look, I'm not to much looking forward to mixing it up with that gremlin demon looking freak. Though I'd be willing to bet the guy who hired me has a few tips on where Junior is." "The deal is that if you all help him, he'll and by proxy me will assist with exterminating the demon." He shoved his hands in his pocket. "Also rushing in illogical. I seen what that thing can do....we'd need to take it at range or trap it."
I looked at Tom for a minute, then I walked up to him, put my hands on his shoulders, my expression soft and filled with concern. "Tom, Junior is very powerful, most of us aren't that strong and we don't even have any weapons, furthermore, we can't exorcise him or seal him away again because none of us possess such knowledge or means to do so. If we run in now, it'll just be a repeat of last week, except we all may die instead. Furthermore this isn't your fight, I'm glad that you want to deal with him, but really, you shouldn't take such unnecessary risks, especially since he isn't targeting you, I don't want you to get hurt because of something that we caused." I said. I then turned to Heathcliff, my demeanor and expression instantly getting cold. "No. I won't budge on this. You're a killer, an assassin, you blew up the dorms and hurt so many people, and for what? Money! I'd sooner die than work with someone as... as... heartless as you! You can put a price tag on another's life! How empty are you? How broken can you be to think that taking lives is okay?" I asked, shaking with anger. Man... where were the police...? a main street with no doubt a lot of security considering the building we were standing in front of, and yet no one's even come to check it out someone's cry for help...
“Mister John Nobunaga, I politely suggest you to avoid picking fights based on emotional reactions, that’s a particular weakness I’ve taken advantage of many of the targets I’ve been asked to deal with before.” Said again with a boring tone. “And also, some people who I had taking their accounts who often followed their emotional reactions ended doing bad foolish moves, creating high debts, and sometimes in bankrupt” But he is right, if he called the police in this place at least someone should had arrived to investigate already, this is something to keep in mind.
I turned to the strange man that had come along, I didn't really care that he got my name wrong. "This isn't an issue of emotions, this is an issue of morality and ethics. It'd be wrong to allow this man to continue walking free and it would be wrong to work with him. Furthermore, it would be unwise to trust him, or you, considering that your 'deals' could just be more deception, even if they aren't, your loyalty relies upon the money that is offered to you, if you get a better price for turning on us, you'll no doubt take it." I said, I then turned back to Heathcliff. "I'm sure it wouldn't be much compared to the amount that you must have received for all of those people you killed in that bombing, or do you have a group rate for mass killings?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"Well I never said it was okay." Heathcliff replied casually. "But I'm good at it and pays well. We all can't be saints, I'm just playing the hand I given in life." David whistled. "You sure do get mad a lot Joe." He sighed. "I don't mean to be rude but it makes you even uglier for a woman." Heathcliff looked around to make sure Joe's shouting wasn't bringing any attention.......and it wasn't. In fact people were running past them. The group’s attention on the people was broken by the smoke beginning to rise in the distant and the sounds of siren nearby. The entire situation was all to familiar to the time the dorms had exploded but no....this wasn't coming from the campus; this was from deeper within the city, only several blocks away at the most. "You hear that?" Heathcliff looked at Eric. Gunfire. --- A New Threat Hannah Ergorov had done many things over her wonderful eleven years as a career criminal in both the visible and supernaturally hidden world. Ranging from murder, to bribery, stolen identity and in this cased armed robbery. She'd been released for reasons she couldn't quite explain. One minute she was sitting in her cell and the next she having a long talk with a guy calling himself Dante. He'd freed her and up until now she'd spent her time with the name Jinx while assembling her old crew. Now here they were. All six of them. Hannah was currently making her way out of the bank with two bags over either of her shoulders; a kalashnikov in her hand eleven resurrected corpses working as bullet sponges for her marching in front of the gunfire. HANNAH THE THUG --- Axel yawned as he casually ducked and dodged bullets. It was easy far to fucking easy. In in the span of sixty seconds over ten officers all let out shrieks of terror as Axel with inhuman speed and strength tore through their chests. His razor sharp nails even splitting throats and decapitating any who stood in their way. AXEL THE VAMPIRE --- “Oh I love it, love it, love it, love it.” A man the size of a midget still sat in the bank vault mumbling to himself in a thick Irish accent. “Oh Hannah me girl you do know how to a winner.” The little man had managed to several metal looking black pots with cash. "FREEZE!" A chubby security screamed raising his weapon at the little man. The midget scratched his red beard turning to look up the man; the security guard raised an eyebrow. “Are….um…are you a leprechaun?” “O Brian Leech, at your service.” He tipped his green hat. "Surrender now or I will fire!" The man said sternly. Leech gave a heavy sigh and snapped his fingers making all pots of stolen money vanish. "Son." He said. "Two things, first is the Irish don't surrender and lad don't ever tell a leprechaun to give up his gold." The leperchaun watched in cold silence as the guard's head flew from his shoulders, blood spraying upward and the immediate lifeless body collapsing in front of Leech. Axel snorted. "One of these days a fucker is gonna kill you." "I was simply obtaining more cash me boy!" Leech laughed. "What would be the point if we didn't take all we came for!" Axel gave a smug smirk. "Anyway time to get the hell out of here, Hannah says our ride is on the way." "Wonderful!" He said. "Enough trouble has been caused here I'd say." And with that Leech hopped on to Axel's back and the vampire sped out of the bank to meet with the rest of his crew. O BRIAN LEECH THE LEPERCHAUN --- Twelve civilians dead, nine officers dead. Over seventeen injured in all and the battle continued to rage.
"Playing the hand you were given? That's what you're really saying that's what you're doing? That this was the only option that was presented to you or, what, you die on the streets? Or is it that really, you'll live a life that doesn't give you the luxuries you desire?" I asked, I shook my head, the disgust was clear in my voice. "No. You made the choice to use your skills for a sickening purpose. You can say that you're the victim of circumstance. You can say that it was due to your upbringing. You can make every excuse in the world so then you can look yourself in the mirror every day and escape from the truth. In the end however, it's you. Your actions, your decisions, and your fault for your life, no one makes you do anything." I said coldly. "I'm leaving, I can't stand to be in the presence of heartless killers any longer." I said. I turned to leave, I was getting tired of all of this... If everyone was going to follow these... these... monsters, then I'll just fight by myself. I was about to take a step when I saw the smoke and heard the gunfire. Without thinking, I charged toward the commotion.
Eric looked at the distance and then Joe with a boring, almost disappointed expression. "At least the payment is nice enough to deal with dumb kids..." Then he headed to the scene, instead of Joe who charged without thinking it twice, the man simply walked.
"i think i'll be holding onto the sword for now" Mareck said "I still don't even know who any of you are besides Joe and this ghost" but it wasn't long before he was forgotten entirely as the group began arguing with each other, Mareck muttered something in a language no one else understood if they heard it and was about to speak up to the group before he heard the gunfire coming from farther into the city 'now what?' he thought "hey Kayik, could you check that out?' he said looking at the cat on his shoulder. Kayik purred a response before hopping off Mareck's shoulder and disappearing in midair and reappearing on a rooftop down the road, he went across several rooftops before finding the cause of the commotion and looking over the scene.
For a moment, Tom analysed his chances. "This is a game". He thought. "I need to make the right moves." A very different approach than he had taken earlier. He needed to know where to play his cards. He still trusted Mikkish's gut, and Joe seemed a little bit over-concerned, but then if they needed to exorcise that disgusting demon, then it'd not be something that simply burning to the ground would do. Then there was that other guy, Heathcliff. Apparently everyone was suspicious about him, except for the apathic businessman. He couldn't trust either of them. Follow Mikkish, but listen to Joe. That was Tom's resolve. He did not really know the other guy with a black cat, but he knew the guy had the demon's sword. He'd better watch his moves first, and stay out of his path for now. Tom was still thinking, when he heard sounds of gunfire coming from somewhere nearby. In a split second, Joe had run away towards it. The apathic businessman turned and walked towards it. Everyone else seemed alarmed by this sudden change of events. Tom ran after Joe, and as soon as they arrived in their destination, he blended in the shadows.
"Yeah! See that! People will follow me!" Mikkish shouted triumphantly, looking over at Tom "Even people I hardly know." But suddenly, gunfire sounded in the distance, followed by rising smoke in the distance. Joe began running towards it, and Tom immediately seemed to be running after Joe. Breathing a sigh, Mikkish took off in the same direction. They came to a police car blockade in front of a bank, where many officers lay dead, along with many civilians. The alarm in the bank was still blaring, and a few rotting, dirt covered people stumbled around, the occasional moan escaping their mouths. On the side of the blockade the group had come to, a couple officers remained ducked behind the cars, hiding from the zombies. When they saw Mikkish and company, they gestured for them to duck. The corpses around them seemed to have been killed in a brutal, gory fashion. These two armed cops could surely take a few zombies. But zombies couldn't rob banks, and they didn't need money anyway. No. Obviously someone was controlling the zombies and was behind all of this.
Mareck started walking toward the bank after Joe and the two others did. He was thinking of his own plan as he walked using Kayik's perspective to get an angle on things. He didn't even want to get involved but Joe and his friends still haven't explained anything and still wouldn't if they were fighting here. He walked up as one of Joe's friends, whom he gathered was named Mikkish, was describing a plan to go through the back of the bank. He looked over the field from Kayik's view again before he walked past Mikkish and headed to the left off to the side up next to one of the officer's dead bodies he looked over at the zombies again "how unimaginative" he muttered and looked back down at the body. holding his hands out low over the dead officer, he didn't even need to use his own strength for this there was enough people being killed around he had all the power he needed, the officer's body began changing, it grew to about 8ft tall it's arms elongating and growing claws, the changes would need another minute but with the chaos going on he doubted he would be noticed until he was done.
Like a game of pinball, Mikkish speed dashed from zombie to zombie, punching right through their heads and limbs, incapacitating them, if not killing them. It was pretty easy. Didn't these cops have magic too? Mikkish walked up to the bank, annoyed at the alarm destroying his ear drums. The bank was just as much of a mess as the outside was. The bank security, cops who responded to the alarm, and civilians inside were all dead. A small fire burned in a corner, and was beginning to spread. Looks like someone tried to resist by using fire magic, and it had a similar effect to what happened when Mikkish tried his pyrokinesis. After his various exploits in the city, Mikkish didn't want to speak with any cops, so he went against his instincts and didn't steal any money himself. He did want to know who did this though. Hell, according to the contract he signed earlier, he had to. He would need Joe's help tracking them down, though, as much as he hated to admit it. As annoying it would be trying to convince Joe.
I surveyed the death and destruction before me... I felt... numb... but... soon, I felt a tiny flame within me... and it began to steadily increase into a small blaze... and then it threatened to burn everything around it...! How could they...?! How could they kill all these people, and for what...? Money! They made them suffer... and they aren't sorry for their actions, not in the slightest... they're probably reveling in their actions! I ran forward and hopped over the police barrier. I glared coldly at the zombies ambling in no particular direction, looking for more victims to attack, no doubt. The ones closest to me, turned toward me and started moving in my direction. "...Don't worry, I'll end your suffering." I brought my hand out and slowly spun it around in a circle, a white circle etched with intricate symbols and runes being left in its wake, hanging in the air. I watched as they got closer and closer... and then... I reached out and pressed my hand against the center of the circle... The zombies closest to the circle were reduced to nothing more than piles of dust as several white tendrils of light magic shot out of the circle. They weaved through the air, piercing through zombies left and right... Some of the only traces of there having ever been there were just lumps of rotten flesh or rotten limbs lying on the ground, as it got further and further away from the point of origin, some would have thought that someone had gone crazy with a gun, had it not been for the fact that the edges of the holes had turned to ash and crumbled away. I stumbled backwards, panting softly, looking around at the decaying bodies now lying motionless on the ground... well... at least the ones that were in my range, there were still a good few still shambling about. "Even using the dead for their needs... unforgivable..." I had calmed down a little bit...
as Joe and his friend attacked the zombies, Mareck had finished converting the officer's body, it rose from the ground standing at about 8 feet, he repeated the process with another one of the corpses, the two abominations then set about finishing off the remaining undead, with magic and strength, as Mareck walked over to where Joe was standing. he crossed his arms and gave Joe a questioning look and asked "so...what's with all the walking corpses?"
I turned to Mareck and crossed my arms. "That... would be a great question. This is a new one... I don't think it's Junior or the templars... no, this is robbery and anarchy. It appears that a new threat has come about... why can't school life be simple? You know... just go to class, learn new things, make friends... instead, we get templars that want to kill us, a demon that wants to eat us, and now bank robbers that don't value other's lives." I sighed quietly and then saw the two abominations. "Whoa, what are those?!" I backed up and got ready to attack the two abominations... though... they seemed more interested in killing the zombies rather than the rest of us... that's new, something or someone that doesn't want to beat us to a bloody pulp.
