Uneasy Echoes

[Anonymous]

The sun had just set over Ketra, but the peaceful scene was shattered with a thunderous explosion that could be heard half the city away. Screams and shouts from the startled and terrified citizens near the massive explosion instantly flared up and threw the closing, small market square into chaos.
Mariam Serra glanced out from her cover inside a small fruit shop, and saw the smoldering, black crater near the center of the market, about twenty-five feet from her position. One man was down, torn apart by shrapnel and debris, and his blood was oozing out onto the cobblestone square steadily.
She had encountered nothing but trouble ever since she came to this time.

-- Detective Mariam Serra was tall for a woman at 5'10", and was a mature woman of thirty-six. Her eyes were a shiny gray, and she had wavy black hair down to the bottom of her shoulderblades. She wore a thin purple turtleneck sweater, a light, knee-length dark brown overcoat, and charcoal hued slacks. --

Among the people darting back and forth across the crazy scene, she spotted the two men who had been tailing her and the others ever since they had come here.
"Ah damn! We gotta get outta here, bro!" Atel exclaimed to his brother, helping him up to his feet.
"Let's leg it! This ain't our show no more!" Haze was more than happy to comply with his Hellsend brother. As the two were backing away, Haze called out to the shop where Mariam was at, "We'll be back for you, Mary! And the others! If you're all still in one piece!"
"Anytime!" She called back to him without real concern of his threat. She kept her M1911 .45 pistol at the low ready though - there was no telling what scared them off.
Just as Haze and Atel disappeared from the scene, the blood around the deceased man began to trickle, causing the few onlookers to point and whisper to one another. Mariam perked an eyebrow-
Then a huge, red-skinned arm came out of the unnaturally large pool of blood, and it shook the ground slightly when the hand came crashing down for support. Another arm exactly like came out next, then the entire, massive form of the demon known as Rhed crawled out onto the street. He was 13'4" of nothing but enormous muscle, horns, jaws and a bad temper.
Many of the onlookers that watched the explosion know fleed the scene when the demon arrived, and even Mariam was slack-jawed at the sight of the monster.
Then, something even worse happened: Another pair of arms burst up from the blood pool, and another demon crawled out. This one was gray-skinned, and while not as ridiculously muscular as Rhed, stood at nearly twenty feet tall with no tail. He had spikes and spines running all down his back, and four pairs of twisted horns, one of which was pointed forward from the corners of his mouth.
Rhed roared at the taller demon, Dardred, and he bellowed back. Then, Dardred looked directly at Mariam and the shop she hid in.
She ducked back inside, moving as far in as she could and stayed out of direct sight.
Outside, she heard Dardred laughing, a sinister, blood-curdled sound, then the tall demon leaned toward the shop and spoke with a raspy, hissing voice, "You cannot hide from me, Mariam Serra. I can almost taste your pungant fear... it's intoxicating, hahaha! Give us the boy, and we will let you live to see daylight again."
She was glad that she had Leon go with Banestride before Haze and Atel outright began their chase; that made the choice easy. From behind the counter of the store, she called, "Wow, that sounds like a pretty good deal. Do you promise you'll let me live?"
Rhed growled angrily at her response, but Dardred snickered amusedly, the sarcasm not lost on him. "I promise," he replied mockingly, still waiting to hear her real response.
"Hold on, let me think about it," Mariam called back. Of course, she had no intention of actually staying there and doing so. She crawled around to the back of the store and snuck out the back door, breaking into an all-out sprint when she was out.
"How incredibly foolish..." said Dardred, the fanged grin on his face indicating that he was actually thrilled that she decided to run. Dardred threw his long right arm up and swatted the small fruit shop out of his way, blowing the building apart into countless pieces. "Come, my son!"
Both Dardred and Rhed now galloped after Mariam, who was quite a distance away but losing ground quickly. She glanced left and right, looking for any building that appeared suitable enough to protect or at least hide her from the two humongous demons.

[Anonymous]

Mariam had an athletic form and was an excellent runner, but even she couldn't outrun to two large demons forever, not even for another minute. She certainly was in the worst part of the city for finding a large, sturdy structure to hide in; everything she ran past in this portion of the city was a small-ish or medium-at-best sized house. She groaned in irritation and threw herself through the front door of the closest house on her left, hearing the thunderous footsteps dangerously close behind her.
"Get down! Get out of sight!" she yelled to the surprised man inside the house, as well as his wife and son. Mariam herself whirled into the doorway to the man's kitchen, pressing her back up against the wall.
"You cannot hide forever, human," Dardred sneered, the demon's huge face attempting to look in the house through the ajar front door. The demon snickered, then asked in an amused fashion, "How would you like to make a deal, fleshling? Cease your foolishness now, and you can become one of my minions."
The edge of Mariam's mouth perked into a half-smirk. "Wow, you know, you should really host your own game show."
"I only make that offer to maggots that amuse me, woman," said Dardred, snickering evilly. "You can be my personal jester. That's a fair exchange for the boy."
Mariam's eyes narrowed. The monster sure was doing a lot of talking and not a lot of trying to actually... get her. Maybe it was a dis-
A big, red, and muscular burst through the wall of the house and nearly snatched Mariam up if she didn't dive out of the way in time. She fired two shots into the huge fingers of the hand, causing Rhed to growl in anger outside of the house. The hand continued to thrash about and knock plenty of loose items in the house around, despite the relatively small bullet wounds. Mariam hastily backed up and away from the hand, and she heard Dardred laughing sinisterly outside.
Where the hell was Banestride??


Neseraph soon flew over the spot where the initial explosion had occured, and Insera, holding onto him, looked down at the scene. A large, black blast mark was near the middle of the market square, a few Ketran guards were surveying the damage, a small shop was obliterated, and there was one dead man near the site.
"What the hell happened there?" Insera pondered aloud. "Just who are these people that Grizrend sent here after us, and what possible trouble could they have gotten themselves into?"
"And where are they?" Neseraph added. "They're not around here, it seems like."
Just then, the two of them heard a distant animalistic roar down the street ahead of them.
"Oh shit, that doesn't sound good," commented Neseraph. And, unfortunately, his fears were confirmed when he flew a little higher and towards the sound. Not only did he spot Rhed among the cluster of houses, apparently reaching into one for something, but he saw a bigger demon along with him. "Why's it gotta be Rhed? And he brought a friend? Grizrend always gets us into the worst shit imaginable."
Even Insera didn't like the sight of the two formidable demons as opposition. "Ugh... drop me off on a nearby rooftop. I do not want to be anywhere near them. I will cover you. You should just hurry and get whoever Grizrend sent out of there as quickly as possible."
"Got it," replied Neseraph as he swooped low along the buildings.

[Anonymous]

Vivante walked, his hands in the pockets of his blue overcoat, and scowled. Buriza and seatbelt aside, all of his weapons seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth. Finding the buriza in the hands of an arms dealer's lackey in Zantaric seemed more of a lucky break than proof that all of his gear was somewhere to be found in the town.

Maybe he hadn't looked hard enough. It was a possibility, but it had been hard to find more people to 'question' about his missing weapons after he got the buriza back. By now he wasn't concerned with his mundane weapons. He got daggers to replace the dagger he lost, the buriza made up for his missing hand crossbow, having a crossbow made him miss In-Serah's metal crossbow a little less and he got a broadsword that took care of any hacking and slashing. It wasn't his sword though. The Deux ex Ensis seemed to have vanished. With it gone, he seemed to be much more irritable. Irritable was nothing, he usually felt irritable if he went too long without food. This irritability seemed to be the gate for other feelings though.

A week after losing his sword some little Zantarici kid made a comment that got a snort of laughter out of him. It'd been a while since he heard something funny and laughed about it - even if it was a snort. Another week later he was spying on a man he figured was working for an arms dealer when his attention was diverted by a woman in a skin tight leather dress. She didn't do anything to him, or to the man he was watching, she was just there and her dress didn't seem to be long enough to cover both ends of her - so she decided to cover her hips and let her chest nearly spill out of it. While it wasn't good to focus too hard on the subject if you were spying on them, he spent a bit too much time looking at that woman. Most distressing were the headaches that immediately proceeded the snort and happened every night. As far as he knew, he hadn't hit his head hard enough for it to hurt so regularly. Of all the weird feelings he was getting from his sword being missing, that was the one he wanted to stop.

Ketra was a whole new environment with a whole new underground and close enough to Zantaric for his sword to have traveled there. At least Vivante hoped. Well... if it hadn't been destroyed in that explosion. Vivante's expression softened, where there were explosions there were people with weapons and one of them might have his sword. Vivante began running towards the area the sound seemed to have come from, a market square.

Though, by time he got there it seemed like the action moved someplace else. At least it would be easy to follow, whatever was causing the ruckus was making a lot of noise. Before following the noise, Vivante looked at the corpse to see if he had a green sword. No. He eased away when the guards began to arrive and waited to hear something else.

He saw something instead. A woman with short brown hair in a business suit clinging to a man with white hair and a long grey coat. In-Serah? Neseraph? He started to walk closer to the spot they were flying over when something roared and In-Serah and Neseraph flew higher before heading towards the sound.

A box sitting in a narrow alleyway between a tool shop and an abandoned building was a good springboard for Vivante. He hopped off the box and bounced off the walls twice before landing on the roof of the abandoned building. Which was still far away from where In-Serah and Neseraph were headed, but it would be easier to see them from up here. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, nearly falling after a jump from a smaller building to a larger one that was a foot or so away from it, until he was on the line of buildings close to where they were flying.

He could have said something, but he decided to bob his head in greeting once he was close enough for them to see.

[Anonymous]

Neseraph touched down on a rooftop that was comfortably far enough away yet within range of the two demons ravaging the house. Insera jumped off an crouched down by the building's low wall edge, keeping her eyes on the demons as she spoke, "We are going to need some massive firepower to drive them off, which is something that we lack at the moment. I will call-"
"Vivante?" said Neseraph in surprise as the very same landed on their building and simply nodded. "It is you!" Neseraph exclaimed more excitedly. "Haha! Come here you big lug!"
Not taking no for an answer, he strode toward Vivante and gave him a hard man-hug, thumping his back a few times. "Where have you been, man?"
Insera crossed her eyes, annoyed by Neseraph's attention span changing on a whim. "Very cute, but we have a mission to finish here, Neseraph." She exhaled, then spoke to Vivante formally -- Vivante being one of those people she could easily tolerate, especially when Neseraph was around and acting up. "Hello again, Vivante. As you can plainly see, we have two overly large problems to handle at the moment."
And, to that end, Insera took out the mirror bracelet and tapped it twice, summoning the image of Grizrend after an agonizingly long moment. "You can't possibly of done it that quick," spouted the demon.
"We need some massive firepower for this, Grizrend, and you need to help us get it!" Insera demanded over the Rhed's roar in the distance.
Grizrend, hearing the bestial noise, scrunched his brows up in surprise and replied, "Ah, shit, let me see what I got to spare... give me a second."
The old demon's face went out of view on the mirror, and nothing seemed to happen for another long moment. Then, a small bronze portal opened up next to the trio and out came a .50 calibre machine gun and a rocket launcher with a few rockets. Grizrend came back into view and said, "There you go. Make do with it! Get those people outta there and call me back!"
Insera smiled, very pleased with the demon's arsenal. "Thank you, Grizrend."
"Nice..." commented Neseraph, looking at the weaponry. "That ought to do it. Just don't shoot me when I go in, okay?"
"Dodge them if you have to," remarked Insera with a smirk and a look in her eye that gave Neseraph some chills that he found sexy and savory. She glanced at Vivante, then picked up the rocket launcher and handed it to him, "Look, this is how you would use this weapon. Point this end at the enemy, and then press this button here. Hold it over your shoulder like this, and please make sure no one is behind you when you fire! These are called 'rockets', put more into the launcher like this when have to reload. Now, shoot those two demons when I start shooting!" She glanced back at the machine gun, then said, "Neseraph, help me set this up, then you can go in."


Rhed was slowly trashing the entire house, and Mariam was running out of places to hide from his grasp. Dardred remained entertained the whole time, snickering and laughing but not doing much to help his son catch her. "You cannot escape, Mariam. It would be such an enormous waste to let your life go to ruin, all over a simple misunderstanding."
"Oh don't try and sweet talk me now," Mariam called back from somewhere within the wreckage of the house.
Dardred just chuckled, a deep, bass sound, and lifted his huge hand to rip the building apart further. "Ready or not, Mariam. You'll make an interesting pet for me..."
*BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!*
Three loud shots echoed from a nearby building and pelted Dardred's arm with incredible force, splattering some blood onto the street and causing the demon to stumble backward slightly in surprise, roaring from the sudden pain. Rhed glanced up and looked around furiously, trying to locate the source of the opposition.
"Neseraph, go! Vivante, now!" yelled Insera over the bursts of the fifty-cal machine gun.

[Anonymous]

The corpse that laid in the blast crater was now surrounded by Adelan guards and citizens. Quite a few gasps and surprises were heard amongst the gathering crowd when the body twitched. Even the souls that had their attention turned towards the distant roars were turned back to see what the commotion was. Everyone around the body quickly scattered back a ways away from the corpse when the flesh suddenly tore away from the skeleton of the body.
By now, all the guards in the area had their swords drawn and waited for anything. Everything save for what was coming next. A large black and dark blue striped, muscular and viciously clawed arm shot out of the skull of the now completely ravaged body and planted on the ground beside the bloodied skeleton. Another arm just like the first soon followed and planted itself on the ground on the opposite side of the skull. With one movement, the arms pushed down on the ground and a massive black figure shot out from the skull and planted its feet down, where the arms were previously planted.
While his wickedly bladed tail lashed from side to side, the over ten foot monstrous creature scanned the area with his red glowing, pupiless eyes. Every living being in the general area of the beast's arrival were horrified. The guards sat on the ground, trembling with their swords held out by one arm, hoping that it may defend them. The demon's head was adorned with a crown of about twenty or so horn that protruded every which way. A large maniacal grin appeared on his maw when the roars of the demon known as Rhed reached his ear lobes.
"I've come to the right place." The devilish beast noted to himself before he suddenly leaped over the crowd before him. Once he landed, the large demon began to charge in the direction from which the roars came.

Rhed glanced up and looked around furiously, trying to locate the source of the opposition. And soon received an impact from a large black and dark blue striped shoulder. Due to the momentum at with the lumbering demon was moving at, Rhed should be pushed back by the force, if not knocked back.
"It's been a while, Rhed." The massive black demon now stood at a height of around fifteen feet. He seemed to be somewhat larger than he was before when he first entered Ketra.
"I see you can't do anything without your father anymore. You must be losing confidence in your own abilities." The black demon known as former Hellsend Master Xurlaq added as he kept his grin he had grown just a moment ago.

[Anonymous]

Vivante didn't resist Neseraph's man-hug, he gave Neseraph a thump on the back and almost answered his question when In-Serah began speaking. When In-Serah spoke, it was a good idea to listen to her, especially when she was talking in that tone of voice. He nodded again, figuring she would want some sign he heard her.

When she began talking to... was that Grizrend... yes... he turned to Neseraph and said "I have been in Zantaric, it was not a pleasant trip."

Vivante's uncovered eye almost seemed to glow when the portal dropped a load of weapons. The bigger cousins to the metal crossbows. Maybe these were like metal buriza. After getting the one that had the bigger quarrels, getting it explained and hearing his part ("Yes, In-Serah"); he gave the... tube a once over, settled it on his shoulder and let it drift between the two demons. At least they wouldn't be hard to hit.

Wait, didn't In-Serah saw to make sure no one was behind him? Vivante looked over his shoulder and shifted a little. Then In-Serah began shooting, her metal crossbow blasting a line of quarrels in the bigger of the demons. Since she was taking that one, Vivante aimed at the other, who was looking confused. Then some other demon showed up. Vivante re-aimed and fired at the smaller red demon.

[Anonymous]

Neseraph jumped off the edge of the building when directed, flying directly toward-
Scratch that. Rhed was suddenly shoulder-blocked by another damn demon! Wait. This one looked vaguely familiar... Xurlaq? Neseraph knew he recognized that one from somewhere. Nonetheless, he had to get past their deathmatch and into the wreckage of the house, so he swooped around and planned on taking the long and safe way in.

Rhed was launched off of his feet and spiralled backward through the air, crashing into and nearly crushing the whole house next the one that Mariam was hiding in. Rhed roared in surprise the whole way, then snarled angrily as he pulled himself off of the adjacent house.
Dardred was about to search for the origin of the shots against him, but his attention was quickly diverted when Xurlaq attacked Rhed. A grin cracked across his face and he cackled loudly when he saw what happened. "Ahaha! Our Master be damned, we've always time for a fight!"
Rhed spread out his arms, getting ready to charge Xurlaq and tackle him-
*PHHHEEEEEEEEE...*
*BOOM!!!!*
A rocket slammed into the side of Rhed's large head and shoulder area, and a sizable explosion and plume of smoke billowed out from the impact. Rhed was again tossed thrown through the air, landing prone in the street this time. A huge portion of his shoulder, neck, and side of his head was ravaged and blown open. Bloody flaps of muscle and tissue hung precariously from the chunks of missing body composition. Even a few bones were cracked and exposed, hinting at the missing pieces of his frame blown away by the rocket.
Despite the extensive damage, Rhed slowly, and with building anger, began to push himself back up onto his feet with his left arm on his undamaged side.
Dardred, with no regard for the injuries sustained by his son, jumped over the wrecked house at Xurlaq, his arms extended and hands reaching to grab and pin him down.
*BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!*
Five more .50 cal shots caught Dardred square in the chest as he went down, but the demon fought through the pain at the moment.

Neseraph quickly touched down and dashed inside the almost totally ruined house. He hastily glanced to his right, seeing a terrified family, then to his left, seeing someone who looked out of place.
"Must be you. We gotta go! Now! Take my hand!" said Neseraph.
Mariam narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to her right side, "And who the hell are you?"
"Hey, do you wanna leave with one of those ugly ass demons, or do you wanna leave with a good-looking, charming guy like me?" Neseraph grinned, holding his hand out to her.
The house shook dangerously when Dardred leaped into the air over it and at Xurlaq, prompting Neseraph to take her hand whether she wanted to go or not. "Come on! Now!"
Mariam didn't resist, and she went along with him and saying jokingly on the way out, "Well, I do kinda like the wings!"
Once out of the precarious house, Neseraph held Mariam tightly and took off into the air, putting as much space as he could between them and the three demons. He twisted around when sufficiently high enough in the air, heading back in Insera and Vivante's direction.

"Good shot!" Insera praised Vivante when the rocket smacked the demon upside his face.
She grit her teeth when she lit Dardred up with five more bullets, disappointed that the large demon seemed to shake them off in favor of fighting the other demon.
She glanced over at Vivante for a second, shouting to him over the commotion, "Hit him again, Vivante! No mercy!"

[Anonymous]

Xurlaq was most pleased to see the added damage thrown at Rhed after he had sent him sailing. He never did like the enraged moron, always yelling and stomping around at just about everything. Dardred, on the other hand, would have been a much more suitable leader to the Hellsend. At least that was what Xurlaq viewed on the matter. Speaking of which, it had seemed like the over sized brute had taken it upon himself to challenge Xurlaq directly.
The rough black skinned demon was ready for the attack, but was soon surprised when Dardred was stopped, temporarily. He couldn't help but turn his view towards Insera to smirk at her. Her cover fire amused him. Just as the massive black demon returned his view towards Dardred, he threw his eerily long and wickedly bladed tail forward, in attempt to meet with the larger foe in some way.

No mercy? That's a shame. I wanted to toy with you first. A rather seductive voice waved through Insera's mind. No words were spoken out loud, only within the woman's head for her to hear. Just then, a scantily clad woman suddenly touched down on the edge of the roof, directly in front of Insera. The well endowed woman wore a black leather strap for a top and a black leather skirt. The laces of her high heels wrapped all the way up her legs to her knees. She gazed at Insera with violet glowing eyes and a devilish smirk on her face. She appeared to have appear out of thin air.
The barrel of the large gun before Insera suddenly began to bend upward, so that the weapon could be disabled. Insera would then find herself violently being tossed back across the roof by some unknown force. Her now disabled weapon would suddenly implode on itself after she was tossed. The new woman finally turned her attention to the approaching Neseraph with her smirk still on her face.

(Forgive the powerplay there, but Violet needed somewhat of an entrance. Hehehe...)

[Anonymous]

Vivante gave the metal buriza a twice-over when he saw what the quarrel did to the red demon. Very nice, definitely not what he expected. He was going to have to ask In-Serah for this weapon. Or talk to Grizrend directly. Maybe he would trade it for the first buriza and the seatbelt... or maybe he just wouldn't notice. Either way, Vivante wanted to hang onto the metal buriza, maybe get a few more quarrels for it as well.

That was enough thinking about the excellent metal buriza. It wouldn't do him much good if he was in a daze thinking about it if the two demons retaliated. The red one was having obvious dificulties and the grey one seemed to think the third demon was a bigger threat than In-Serah and himself. Good, it left a window open for Neseraph to go in.

Even though the demons weren't interested in him, they should still try to make sure they never had the chance to. In-Serah was, of course, thinking the same thing and when she began firing he lifted the metal buriza back to his shoulder and fired another quarrel at the grey demon as In-Serah was shouting. He was about to fire the remaining quarrel when he heard a... noise, strained metal, from where In-Serah was standing.

Clever. No wonder the demons weren't responding to their attacks. Vivante looked over his shoulder to see a woman menacing In-Serah and crouched to set the metal buriza down gently. When she turned to watch Neseraph, Vivante sprang toward her and kicked. Hooking his leg to wrap around the woman's ankles.

[Anonymous]

Dardred haphazardly caught Xurlaq's tail in midair and crashed down on the crumbling house. His hands bled, and a few of his fingers were impaled through some of the tail spikes, but Dardred was high on and exhilarated by combat in the moment.
*PHEEEEEEEEEE!*
*BOOM!!!*
The newest rocket zoomed by and might have caught Dardred if he weren't laying down on the rubble of the house. A geyser of stone and dirt erupted from the rocket's impact point in the street, close enough to Rhed to make the red demon stagger and nearly lose his footing again.
Freeing his impaled fingers and getting a better grip quickly, Dardred snickered with glee. He wrenched his arms forward overhead, intent on pulling Xurlaq by his tail and slamming him down onto the street.
Rhed, after regaining his bearings from the second rocket attack, looked angrily in the direction from which they came, seeing Vivante, Insera, and now Violet up on the rooftop. Rhed roared ferocuously, then shambled thunderously toward the building, past the battling Dardred and Xurlaq, with surprising speed for his size and injuries.

"What the hell?" said Neseraph, alarmed by Violet's sudden appearance but staying his course. Now what? Just how much trouble did Grizrend's happy little friends get themselves into? They were putting the original four of them to shame!
Mariam's brows furrowed in two-parts awe and bewilderment as Insera's weapon was inexplicably folded up and tossed away like a sheet of paper. "What just happened there? How did she do that?"
Neseraph's eyes opened up wider when Insera herself was flung backward by the unseen force. "Shit!"

Insera backed away from the machine gun as soon as it began to be contorted irrepairably, looking up to see the apparent perpetrator and owner of the voice inside her head there. She quickly reached inside her pants pocket for a pistol, but not before she found herself supernaturally airborne. She gasped in surprise as the malign roller coaster feeling came over her and she sailed back, bouncing off of the low wall of the roof on the other side of the building.
On all fours, Insera winced and clenched her teeth, throwing herself back up onto her feet by sheer force of will. Then she saw Neseraph coming back, undeterred by the new appearance, and she waved him off, shouting, "Go! Get her away from here!"
His concern for her safety was visible on his face from where she stood. He reluctantly diverted off his current course and took off like a jet back towards the site of the initial explosion with Mariam, small streams of blue and red energy beginning to trailing off of his wings after the burst of flight speed.
Insera glanced back at Vivante to see him engaging the scantily-clad new enemy. She would have taken a shot if it weren't so dangerous, but she was certain that Vivante could handle himself.
Beyond them, though, she could see that Rhed had discovered their perch and was feverishly stomping his way toward them. One or the other was bad enough, but Rhed and the newcomer was far too much. And she and Vivante were done here -- time to go.
"Vivante. We have to go! Now!" Insera called to him before hoisting herself over the low wall of the roof, hanging as low as she could, then dropping to the ground and stumbling slightly.
She bolted swiftly down a long, narrow side-street with plenty of doors and windows on either side of the street. She could still hear Rhed's massive footsteps in the distance behind her as she ran. It all depended on Neseraph now, and if she and Vivante could outrun certain death long enough for him to make it back and round them up. Grizrend had better appreciate this; she had no idea how Nazune put up with him, much less made it out alive... for the most part.
Nonetheless, she was still relieved to have the mirror bracelet in case Neseraph didn't make it back in time.


"There! Down! Put me down! I need to talk to that man, that's Banestride," said Mariam, pointing down at the man she just named. He wore red and brown clothing, most notably a hood and waist-length cloak, carried a short staff, and was running through the explosion site toward the roars and howls of Dardred and Xurlaq's fight.
"Not yet, we're still not far enough-" started Neseraph.
Mariam grabbed him by the chin and made him look at her, saying with all seriousness, "It's important! About some friends of mine. You put me down or I'll let go. I'm getting down there, one way or another."
Friends? Must of been 'the others' Grizrend was cryptically alluding to. "Alright, but just for a second. I still gotta go back there."
Neseraph swooped downward and like a cannonball falling out of the sky and landed right in front of the running man, startling him slightly. Mariam instantly let go of Neseraph and went up to him, "Is he safe?"
The man, Banestride, nodded. "He's alright, for the moment. More friends, eh? You're full of surprises."
Neseraph grinned, but was obviously itching to get moving again and therefore spoke quickly, "Neseraph. Nice to meet ya. Don't worry, I've stolen a lot of girlfriends before."
While Mariam's expression was visibly harassed, Banestride wasn't bothered. "Banestride, Mage. Been helping Mariam-"
"Mage?" Neseraph quickly glanced back over his shoulder, then back at the two of them, thinking fast. What luck, though very fitting that Grizrend's people would be friends with a sorcerer. "Look, I need you to watch her for a moment. Use some of those magic tricks, why don't ya? Anything. I need to go back there and get some friends of mine, Insera and Vivante. Be-"
"Wait, did you say Insera? Diane Insera?" asked Mariam as if the fate of the world depended on it.
Neseraph stared at her blankly for a second, then cocked his head to one side with an eyebrow perked and said, "Who's Diane? ...Nevermind, nevermind. Yeah, that Insera. I gotta go. Hold that." He tossed his cellular phone at Mariam, who caught it sheepishly. "Works like walkie-talkies. Now get outta here. We'll call you when we're clear!"

[Anonymous]

Xurlaq was slightly surprised to see that his tail had been caught, but still dealt some form of damage. Before he could pull back his lethal appendage to recap on another attack, the black demon suddenly found himself airborne. He then sent a glare at Dardred as he sailed over the opposing demon. The final joint of Xurlaq's wickedly bladed tail, where the blades started forming, began to rotate into a full on spin. Much to the same affect as a blender. This occurred barely before Xurlaq's form crashed into the rest of the building behind Dardred.

The woman Vivante decided to assault was suddenly floating about a foot above the roof's grounding, allowing his leg to sweep right under her. She smiled, almost seductively, at Vivante.
What fun you mortals be. Violet's voice could be heard within the man's head, just before the roof of the building distorted a bit. Not a second afterward, the entire roof of the building collapsed in on itself, intent on taking Vivante with it. At this time, the woman looked back in Insera's direction on time to see her drop from the roof. The smile composed of her lips grew upon this realization.
As Insera ran down the street, she would soon notice the unexplainable appearance of the scantily clad woman directly next to her. The woman hovered off the ground by about a foot and she flew backwards at the same speed as Insera.
Why do you run? I wasn't quite finished. The seductive voice reoccurred in Insera's head. Before any movements could be made against Violet, she suddenly sank into the ground as if it were water, leaving it to mildly ripple as she departed. Her hand suddenly shot out of the ground and reached for Insera's ankle, in attempt to trip her. No damage was made to the ground with this action, oddly enough.

[Anonymous]

Lately, Vivante found himself appreciating a woman whose clothing wasn't up to the task of properly covering her. He definitely noticed that this new combatant was a barely dressed woman, but she was an opponent, not to be underestimated. He couldn't afford to show interest in anything but keeping her from continuing her assault on Insera or attacking Neseraph.

So he crossed his eyes when she smiled and spoke in his head, his sudden annoyance more at her choice of words (did she really mean to use be in that tense?) than the roof collapsing around him. In-Serah told him they were retreating, this would help him get down a little faster. He didn't like leaving the metal buriza behind, but there wasn't time to grab it with the roof imploding and the red demon hurtling towards them.

Vivante jumped to the edge of the roof and rode a section of it down to the streets, letting it absorb most of the impact. Then ran after In-Serah, sprinting at first to catch up to her and slowing down a little when he saw Ms. how-fun-you-mortals-be floating next to her. Her sudden dissapearance didn't reassure him either. He moved, so he wouldn't run across the space she melted into, keeping an eye on the ground.

As the woman's hand shot out of the ground and reached for In-Serah, Vivante reached into his sleeve and threw a dagger at it. He kept behind In-Serah, in case she was caught, to help her shake the woman free or catch her as she fell.

[Anonymous]

Mariam and Banestride watched as Neseraph took off again, each of them feeling a slight burst of wind as he sped away.
Mariam glanced at the mage and pushed him on the shoulder lightly, saying in jiving tone, "So what took you so long? I mean, given that you're a 'mage'," she used finger-quotes when stating his profession, "and all that. Can't quite live up to those fantasy books, hmm?"
Banestride let out a guilty laugh, the comment about fantasy books flying over his head. "I deal a little in all the schools of study. You know, jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none? I'm still researching a reliable teleportation spell."
"Master - of - none. That's reassuring. Just get us out of here, quick."
He gave his short staff a little wave. "Of course. I've still got a few other useful tools."
Both of them were suddenly levitating slightly off of the ground and felt weightless, as though they could simply glide to where they desired. Banestride gave his short staff another curt shake and both them disappeared from view, cloaked in invisibility.
"That is nice," said Mariam, feeling herself flexing her invisible hands and not seeing them.
"Just wait to see the place I hid Leon. Come on, I have your hand."
The two glided silently and unseen through the streets, led by the mage. Mariam felt the phone in her pocket, and could only hope that Neseraph would call her with good news about Insera -- she was one of the people she needed to find here. Maybe they even had a working mirror... thing, so she could talk to Grizrend and Nathan Anderson and tell them the good news.


Dardred cackled in sinister enjoyment as Xurlaq was slammed down, but was cut short when Xurlaq had a little surprise for him. He knew he was in the worst spot possible, with that tail looming over him and his hands grasping it so close to the spinning blades. Dardred threw the tail to his right side, then rolled out to his left, feeling a sudden and sharp pain in his right arm as he stood back up and distanced himself. He glanced down, seeing that he was missing his right hand, the appendage sliced off at the wrist, and that he was splattered with his own blood. It must of happened during his escape.
But Dardred snickered, amused at his own wounds, and spoke whimiscally as his gray skin creeped up to seal off the wound, "Ah ha ha. It's just a hand."
He bent down low then, looked as though he were preparing for another charge-
When his eyes abruptly widened slightly, and he stood up straight. He looked in Rhed's direction, saying with a strong hint of disappointment, "My son, we must go. He summons us, and he is not pleased..."
Rhed, just a few meters from the building with the clasped roof, and hence Vivante and maybe Insera too, stopped, but roared angrily and stomped his feet in protest.
"NOW!!" Dardred bellowed back, even louder than Rhed's roars for the first time, causing the red demon to grudging calm down and comply.
Dardred's own blood that was splattered on his body began to spread and consume his whole form. The gray demon pointed a finger at Xurlaq, snickering heartily before his entire body was concealed by a coat of blood. After a half second, the blood fell to the ground and Dardred was gone.
The same happened for Rhed, but the red demon found a hapless man hiding inside his house and crushed him in his hand, using his blood for his transport back to Hell.


Insera glanced over her shoulder, seeing Vivante catching up to her. Good.
"He will be coming back for us. We need to be visible for-"
She stopped in the middle of her sentence when she heard the voice she didn't want to hear again in her head, and then fell before she knew what was happening. She barely caught herself with her hands, but still had to catch her breath and regain her bearings. Insera clenched her teeth, then hastily threw herself back up to her feet, wheeling around and pelting the ground where she thought she tripped with three bullets.
Immediately after her retaliation, Insera continued to run, but kicked open one of the doors on the side street and ran into the house, intent on going to the roof to signal Neseraph-
*WHACK!!*
Insera felt an intense pain in her nose, and the back of her head hit the floor of the house before the rest of her body did. She saw stars and white dots for several seconds, bringing her unarmed hand to hold her bloody, aching nose as she groaned and rolled over to her side.
The man in the house, militant and defensive with all the happenings of the night, brought his broomstick down hard on her ribcage, knocking the wind out of Insera. He yelled at her, "Now you get outta here! I dunno what's been goin' on tonight, but there'll be no trouble in my house! Get! Get outta here! Don't make me give it to ya again!"
The man stood with his broomstick like a batter ready to hit a home run, while Insera was on her back and struggling to see straight, still bleeding profusely from the nose.

[Anonymous]

The hand in the ground was successful in doing what it was intended to do, but not as much as was expected. Soon after, a dagger struck the palm of the hand and it sank back into the ground just before three bullets attacked the ground around it. After Insera had invaded a man's home, the scantly clad woman shot up out of the ground in the middle of the side street with the entry to the said house to the side of her.
Blood dripped from Violet's right hand as she smiled in the approaching Vivante's direction. Without any form of hesitation, she threw her uninjured arm forward to return Vivante's dagger back to him, directly at his chest. Just barely after the kind return, a very large dark form with a pair of glowing red orbs for eyes lands directly behind Violet from the rooftops. She only had enough time to widen her eyes and dissolve her smile before a large, clawed black skinned hand was thrown back into the side of her head. This action sent Violet flying into the building that was recently opened and haphazardly colliding with the overprotective man inside. Both now continue a devastating coarse towards the back of the building.
Xurlaq now loomed before Vivante at a now ten foot height as his wicked tail lashed out behind himself at the street, gouging large marks on the ground. Two possible scenarios: He was either just taking down Violet to get to them or he was helping them.

[Anonymous]

((Sorry for the silence, my computer finally decided it wanted to play with me.))

Vivante was nearly at the door when the woman antagonizing In-Serah showed up. There was no time for him to properly dodge the dagger she threw, but he managed to lift his left arm up so it didn't hit his chest. A wounded arm wouldn't kill him, unless the dagger hit an artery and he couldn't feel blood gushing from the wound. He brushed past the woman as something landed behind her and he dived across the floor to shield In-Serah from the man's broom, something hit him and knocked him away.

For a moment he thought it was Neseraph's doing. That he saw them duck into the building and took out both the strange woman and this man. A quick glance over his shoulder proved that theory wrong. It was the other demon. There was no time to find out if it was a friend or not with In-Serah injured. He might even be the woman's ally - whatever he threw could have been something that was supposed to take Vivante down so that woman could get in at In-Serah.

Vivante scooped In-Serah up in his arms and stood, decided against moving towards the back of the house in case the demon threw something dangerous at the man. He went for the staircase instead, there had to be windows up there, it was a fairly nice house, they could drop down from one of them or climb up to the roof if In-Serah got her bearings together.

[Anonymous]

The man of house kept jerking toward Vivante menacingly when he entered, as if trying to fake him out about when he was actually going to strike. The sound of a giant crash outside captured his attention for a half-second, before he was hit by what felt like a fleshy boulder. The man yelled all across his house, finally crashing through his back door and rolling to a stop in the middle of the alley behind his house. He raised his hand up a little, then let it fall; he was out cold.

Insera was barely able to tell that it was Vivante hunched over her, acting as a human shield. "Vivante..." she said, spitting some blood out onto the floor that had ran into her mouth, "we have to get out of here."
There was a whole lot of noise and shouting then, and Insera managed to catch a glimpse of the man that ambushed her flying out of his own house. She blinked twice, then remarked with a satisfied smirk as Vivante picked her up and ran for it, "Serves you right, you sodding prick."
By the time they reached the second floor of the house, Insera felt that she got her senses back. She also learned that she was being carried, and insisted while wiggling her way out of his arms, "Put me down, Vivante. Put me down." When her feet touched the ground and she took a couple steps down the hallway, she winced heavily and held her left side, where the man had cracked his broomstick against her ribcage. "Ah fuck... bloody hell."
She continued to walk, holding her left side. The hallway had two doors on the left hand side that presumably were bedrooms, and one large floor-to-ceiling window on the right. "Here," Insera said, glancing back to Vivante. She took out a 9mm with her right hand fired a shot, shattering the window and looking outside into the night sky for Neseraph. "Do you see-"
Just then, she caught a glimpse of his white wings in the distance and his coat fluttering in the wind behind him. She had to signal him, and she did that the only way she could. She held her 9mm out the window and pointed it straight up; the flashes of gunfire would almost be like christmas lights on a dark summer night, or so she hoped.
*BANG - BANG - BANG!*
Neseraph kept going, but after a second turned slightly and started on a course straight for Insera and Vivante. Twenty seconds later, Neseraph was hovering outside of the window. "Am I glad to-... holy shit, who did that to you? You're a mess, babe."
"No need to worry, he got what was coming to him. And don't call me that!" replied Insera as she haphazardly stepped out through the broken window and held onto Neseraph's right side. When he wrapped his arm around her waist to secure her, she groaned in pain and said quickly, "Watch it. Watch it! My rib... there, much better."
"Are you alright, Insera? How come you haven't regenerated that yet?" he asked with a hint of obvious concern.
"I do not know, but nevermind that. Just hurry!"
"Right," Neseraph held his left arm out to Vivante then, but also tilted his head toward Insera. "Hey Viv, you know her name is Diane?"
"NESERAPH! GO!" Insera shouted directly into his ear with the decibel level of a howitzer, somehow flustered by what he said.
"Okay, gotcha. I know this seat is usually reserved for the ladies Viv, but don't worry, I love you like a brother, man. Just grab hold of me and hang on."

[Anonymous]

With a loud thud and crunch noise, the vicious looking black demon had leaped up the the side of the building and dug his claws into the outer wall. He was like a deadly gecko on a wall. His wicked tail continued to hazardously sway behind himself. Xurlaq was mounted on the wall right next to the window Neseraph hovered next to.
"You two smell of my daughter." He commented towards Neseraph and Insera in his arms. He spoke with a very deep and rumbling voice.
"You are either enemy or ally to her. Either way, I must find her." He finished, awaiting any form of response from one of the two.

[Anonymous]

Vivante let In-Serah's feet down when she said she wanted down, keeping a hand on her shoulder until she began walking with no trouble and began to follow her down the hall. He looked at his injured arm while he walked. If he had a strip of cloth handy he would have taken the dagger out, but for now it was probably better left in until he found something to press against it.

Vivante looked out the window when In-Serah stopped in front of it. He couldn't see any sign of Neseraph, even when she shot out the glass. It seemed like In-Serah did though. That or the demon was advancing from the roof and she was trying to shoot it. No, she would have said something if it was the demon.

After In-Serah fired the metal crossbow, Vivante looked over his shoulder. The demon was looking right at them when they took to the stairs. Where was it? Neseraph's voice drew his attention back to the window. He watched Neseraph offer his arm to In-Serah and when an arm was offered to him he paused for a second, thinking about the information Neseraph just told him. Vivante held onto Neseraph's left side, completely confident that Neseraph could fly bearing all three of their weights.

"Is is In-Serah Diane or Diane In-Serah?" Vivante's best guess was that her name was the former, but he had to ask to make sure.

Then the demon showed up. As far as he remembered Vivante never saw the demon or anything resembling it before so he must have been speaking to In-Serah and Neseraph. They smelled like its daughter. Vivante sniffed Neseraph before realizing he didn't know what Neseraph smelled like normally. He wasn't in the habit of sniffing others, but this scent was probably strong. Then again, he wasn't sure what he was smelling for and was pretty certain the demon's daughter didn't smell like tobacco.

[Anonymous]

Neseraph rocked precariously in the air when Vivante metaphorically boarded the flight, commenting, "Jeez, you've been workin' out, haven't you Viv?" Then he answered his question, causing Insera to roll her eyes in frustration, "Diane Insera. You know, I can't believe I've known her all this time and didn't even catch her first name. She kept it secret for the longest time, I don't even know if I can get used-"
Insera interjected hotly with, "I trust that you can fly and talk at the same time, hmm Neseraph?"
"Going. Going-"
A very loud and noticeable crunch caught their attention, and they caught sight of Xurlaq hanging onto the outside wall of the house. Both Neseraph and Insera were apprehensive at first, but the demon talked instead of attacked. Neseraph knew that he meant Doji when he mentioned his daughter, from his days as a hellsend, but was slightly irked by how he knew they'd been around her, prompting him to remark to Insera, "I swear I didn't touch Doji. Swear."
After she smacked him on the back of the head, he looked back at her for approval. She closed her eyes and shrugged, and Neseraph spoke to Xurlaq, "Well, we don't exactly know where she's at right now. Can you keep up?"
With that, Neseraph gave his wings a strong flap and started on a flight course back toward the site of the initial explosion, for lack of a better place to fly to at the moment, his flying speed labored slightly by the two passengers. "Insera, you got your phone? I gave Griz's girl my phone. Call her and find out where she's at, that was the plan."
"You left her alone?" Insera chastised, nevertheless taking her phone out of her pocket and calling, careful not to drop the device.
"Well, not exactly alone. She's got her own Vivante, if you catch my drift." Neseraph grinned at Vivante.
The phone rang three times, then it finally was answered. The female voice on the other end seemed unsure at first, "...Hello?"
"This is Insera. Are you the one that was sent here by Grizrend?"
"Oh, yes. Mariam. Detective Mariam Serra. I'm glad that you, haha, found us. Right now, I'm at..." the voice became more distant for a second, asking another person where she was, before coming back, "I'm at a building called The Skylight. Can you get there?"
"We are on the way as we speak. Just stay there," replied Insera as she hung up the phone. Then, to Neseraph, "The Skylight again."
And Neseraph was overjoyed to hear that, "Alright! And I was just getting hungry too! They have the best chicken entree ever. Don't they, Vivante?"

[Anonymous]

Xurlaq had not recognized Neseraph at first. Mainly because of the angel wings he had. The monstrous demon does recognize him as a former Hellsend, but doesn't recall him with any wings at all. Xurlaq waited for a proper answer before deciding on doing anything drastic. Once Neseraph's last question was put out before her took off, the demon nodded in replay and clawed up the wall, leaving marks that showed he was there. Finally on the roof of the building the demon began pursuing the three of them on foot, bounding between buildings with no issue.