Maggy would get back to the train station looking perfectly fine, aside from a little limp. She was using her disguise to mask her plethora of wounds, she was hurt bad but her cuts did not bleed. She was lucky for that, or her disguise would be all but useless. She seemed calm for the most part, like some kind of anger or frustration had left her, two days of killing things would be sure to settle someone down a little bit. Or make them a psychotic maniac. It wasn't clear which Maggy was at this point.

She didn't breath a word to the other passengers, only noticing there was a new one, they seemed to be in place of that kid. Perhaps he used a disguise like Maggy, or the other kid died and this was some demon getting a ride out of hell. Maggy was ready for the train this time, standing firmly as it sped up, the abrupt stop made her hiss in pain as the leg with the limp was slammed onto the floor. Her eye flared red for but a moment before she calmed back down. The train had left them in some alley that was fine, she'd leave these people and get some medical attention.

Maggy slowly limped her way into the undercity, she didn't want any of the hospitals taking her blood or anything. She had no idea what she was and wanted to make sure she wasn't some kind of monster destined to kill the gods and enslave the planet. Or else life would be incredibly hard for her, however short it would be.

All throughout hell, Scarlet has had these visions that repeated in her mind over and over again, and it kept giving her a massive headache when it came to just normal thinking. Scarlet hated every minute of this, so when they got back on that train she was starting to feel relief. When the train started moving her head was still in pain but maybe when they got to the over world it would get better. In a flash, they were suddenly there in the over world, in some alley, and there was this girl there, she was thanking Scarlet for that weapon, a needle. Scarlet knew exactly who this person was but she couldn't say anything, instead she fell back on the ground clutching her head but this time in an entirely different motion. Scarlet was screaming in agony, Shina rushed over as and knelt down by her side trying to calm her down but then...

Scarlet's arms began to glow and she punched the brunette who was thanking her straight in the face, if she didn't dodge it, it would send her a few feet back. Shina would then freeze the place where the girl would land to soften her landing, but Scarlet has lost all control her body.

"I think this one will do well for me in the over world." Scarlet's voice echoed, it was that same demon, Scarlet had no control of herself.

Shina then backed off a bit and removed her gloves, getting ready for a fight. Scarlet seemed so eager to fight but everyone knew that wasn't her. "I should introduce myself, my name is Ver'Tiel, your friend here is quite the specimen." Said the demon in the body of the inventor. Scarlet could feel everything, but yet she had no control.

"Now then, let's see what Ms. Emberlee could do." said Ver'Tiel as he made Scarlet's arms glow in an instant, but he seemed to have amplified it in a way where every vein in her body glowed from the intense heat.

Scarlet would fight for control, but she could only let out minimum words every time she did before being consumed by Ver'Tiel. "Shina... Freeze... No!... Let me... Agh! Stop!... Sorry!... Freeze... Me! Dammit...!" Through out her entire struggle, that was all she could let out.

Shina then nodded, she aimed her hands at Scarlet and froze her legs up. She did successfully freeze Scarlet but not for long. The ice began to crack, Shina's true ice began to crack, Scarlet's heat was intense, it emanated like she was a living sun, it was so warm all of a sudden, the ice fully exploded off nothing left on Scarlet as it went flying.

"It was a good attempt, but let's see if we can make this more fun... Hmmm... I have an idea..." Said Ver'tiel.

Scarlet then curled up, multiple embers formed around her, her body began to glow, she was charging up for something big. Shina with her quick thinking quickly shielded Scarlet with a thick layer of ice, to muffle the possible explosion as best she could. Something did exploded but the ice didn't break, but what did break the ice was waves of fire and heat crashing against the walls in the inside.

Once it broke it revealed Scarlet with glowing orange eyes, and wings made of flame. Ver'tiel was enjoying himself, and if this doesn't stop soon, it could be the end for the ringed city.

It had been a long, but lovely day for the young grad student.

He had started his day early, around five that morning to go to the nearby soup kitchen to help serve breakfast to the vast number of homeless living in the under-city. He loved the work, but he couldn't stand those he worked with; most of them being middle-aged woman from the middle who only came to feed their egos and cheapen their taxes. What made it even worse was that these woman who had never known poverty or misfortune, or even a hard day's work, would actively mock and belittle those who came to the kitchen in search of a meal. They would tell the needing patrons that if they simply got a job and worked harder they'd be able to move up to the middle, and that the only reason they were homeless was because of a bad attitude and laziness.

What they didn't know was that Carlos, an older transient, worked two full time jobs and sent every penny he earned to his family in Mexico so they could afford to eat and pay off the local gangsters. They didn't know that Dom had spent fifteen years in the military overseas, and was discharged for mental unfitness after being tortured and starved for nearly two weeks as he watched his friends and brothers die. They didn't know that Molly had been forced into marriage with her high-school sweetheart after he poked a hole in his condom and spent years beating her and her daughter. They didn't understand that each and every lost soul forced to swallow their pride for a bowl of eggs and rice had seen trauma and hardships they couldn't even fathom.

But the poor still needed to eat, even if the hands feeding them had souls blacker than the alleyways they slept in and egos greater than the poverty they lived through.

After his shift at the Kitchen, Chris made his way to RCU, a private university he was attending on scholarship for his post-graduate degree. His tuition was covered entirely, with enough left over for him to cover his bills and afford a bit of charity work in tandem with his publication's income. At this point in the semester Chris was nearly halfway through his thesis essay on the history of elemental descendants, however his time at the university itself was primarily occupied as a TA for the anthropology professor; an old, tenured man who decided that Chris was proficient enough to do all of his work for him, sans grading tests and exams.

Chris found the work a bit dull, preferring his research and writing to repeating the same two hour lectures and assigning the same class and home-work three times a day. However the bachelor's program for anthropology was not a particularly populated course, so the classes were close-knit and each had a type of chemistry to them that made his lecturing quite simple. As he was the one leading the course, he encouraged the students to cooperate and use the resources available to them to the fullest of their abilities; which made his job easier, and the classes scores better.

In between lectures Chris had managed to break away to the expansive Library, where he could happily conduct his research and work on his thesis in peace; aside from the occasional sneeze or cough.

After his day at the university was finished, he grabbed a quick burrito from a food-cart on the way to the under-city animal shelter, which he finished as he walked into the worn and under-funded shelter. He then began his rounds of taking the dogs for jogs, each one getting a good 30-45 minutes of exercise, depending on the traffic. He had brought a pair of shorts and some track shoes with him, which he changed into at the Shelter, and he took four dogs on each jog. After five rounds, he had finished, and quickly fed and watered the pups before jogging to the gym nearly half a mile away.

There he spent an hour, swimming laps in the decently sized pool before leaving. His hair was still dripping as he walked to his favorite dinner for a quick meal and a milk-shake before going to bed, that is until he spotted a young woman in a dress limping out of an alley.

It seemed this day was going to be even longer than expected.

"H-Hey!" He called out to her, jogging to catch up to her. "Hey, you look like your hurt, do you want me to get you an ambulance or something?" He asked, a look of genuine concern spreading across his face as he pulled his phone from his pocket and began dialing the emergency hotline for the local EMT's.

---

---

Walt arrived at the station with everyone else after two days, some of them hadn't returned others looked worse for wear. Walt felt pretty good about the whole thing and was happy to leave but not hurting all that bad. the train ride home was a trip, speeds he didn't think subway trains could run and soon he was back in ring city surrounded by all these strangers.

As Walt cracked his back and took a deep breath, exalting in his freedom from the underworld, he looked about as if to say something to the others, but as he did, most of them were already running off to either go find their families or to get away from the now being possessed red haired girl, "Well that isn't something you see every day." Walt chuckled, he watched the ensuing attempts at controlling the demon, and the assassins attempt at striking a deal, who knew that coming home would be more exciting than hell? "I don't know girlie, you might need to put her down, doesn't seem like you got a lot of choices at the moment." Walt said grinning.

Maggy would be limping along the road when she would hear someone behind her, their footsteps getting closer. Maggy stopped when she heard the mans question, she quickly turned around. "No that won't be needed! I uh... I mean... No thank you. I have a private doctor I am going to see now actually. I'll be fine. I do thank you for your concern though." This boy seemed nice, and rather handsome. She was still a smidgen taller than him, something she was fairly unused to. At least from humans.

"My name is Maggy by the way. Nice to meet you." Maggy would hold out her hand waiting for a handshake. Maggy coughed a few times forcing her to retract the extended hand to cover her mouth. Coughing toxic phlegm onto someone was something she preferred to avoid. "Sorry about that." Shit this complicated things. she'd chosen that hand for the handshake because there wasn't a giant gash on it under the disguise. But she couldn't risk looking suspicious, so she'd have to hope the wound wouldn't bleed onto this mans hand. That'd make things even more complicated.

Maggy held out the wounded hand, her disguise making it look perfectly normal. "Let's try that again shall we?" Maggy said with a fake chuckle, as she wiped whatever gunk that was on her other hand off on her dress.

---

Ji-Eun was flung pretty far back as she was punched in the middle of her face, she wasn't even in her Avarian form when she got hit so it hurt just a bit more. She used her needle to slowly stop her momentum, and the ice safety net was a good touch too. Ji-Eun motioned her hand as a thank you to Shina and picked up her needle, turned into her Avarian form and slowly made her way back towards Scarlet.

"Pay me and I will make it suitable for exorcism." Said the assassin, but Ji-Eun had other plans, she turned to the assassin and spoke, "There's no need for your services, I have a better plan." Ji-Eun then scaled the building and stood on the roof, "Hey ugly! Leave Ms. Emberlee alone!" She exclaimed, trying to lure his attention. She then gestured at Shina to get up on the roof with her, her plan might work but it might give the inventor a lot of pain.

She readied her needle and made sure to keep herself away from too much damage since her durability can only go to a certain extent.

The siblings were among all the other strangers that had escaped Hell with them. They were both observing the others when a mysterious girl in a hoodie walk up to the group, neither of the siblings could figure out why she was walking down this lonely alleyway. The mysterious girl was talking to them, specifically Scarlet Emberlee from Dashwood Workshop and Smith. Liam noticed the woman in the dress had begun walking off away from everyone with a slight limp, he ignored her after she left.

Both of the siblings turned their attention to the blonde girl who started writhing in agony on the ground. When she got up, she punched the mysterious stranger that was thanking her. A demonic voice came out of Scarlet’s mouth as she introduced herself as Ver’Tiel. She was possessed. The girl’s eyes now started glowing orange and she manifested wings made out of flame. Gabby knew she couldn’t do anything to this demon as she didn’t have her daggers with her and fists aren’t going to do a lot against a demon like Ver’Tiel.

Liam watched the whole thing play out, his expression never changing from his usual blank stare. He could easily use his telekinesis to restrain the possessed Scarlet but he wanted to see how this played out first. If anything bad were to happen to anyone he would step in immediately.

Shina didn't like this, her best friend had completely lost it and she didn't know what to do; but that girl Scarlet punched earlier, she had a plan, and Shina would have taken the offer of the assassin if that girl didn't but in. Shina would take any chance she would get to get Scarlet back to who she was.

Shina followed this mystery girl up to the roof by building up ice under her, Ver'tiel seemed to follow along with them. He had this huge smirk across Scarlet's face as she looked at the mystery girl, "Girl, you have my attention, so do not call me ugly ever again."

Shina looked up at Scarlet, unsure of what to do from her position, but she did extend the platform of the building a bit more, adding more leg room by adding a thick layer of ice for her the girl to play around in. "You have my trust, save Scarlet, I'll be of assistance as best I can." Said Shina as she gave herself makeshift ice armour for around her legs and arms.

---

---

"No that won't be needed! I uh... I mean... No thank you. I have a private doctor I am going to see now actually. I'll be fine. I do thank you for your concern though."

Chris knew she was lying, no one outside of the skyline could afford a private doctor in this city, and a woman from the skyline wouldn't be caught dead wandering around in the under-city without protection; especially at this time of night. However it was clear that she didn't want to go to a hospital, which in this part of town, was all too common. More often than not a visit to the hospital would mean one of two things, if not both: Debt, and Police. Neither of which appealed all to much to those unfortunate souls unlucky enough to face the harsh world they were living in.

"My name is Maggy by the way. Nice to meet you."

Chris extended his hand as well, about to introduce himself to the girl before she had a sudden coughing fit, causing her to retract her hand to cover her mouth, then wiping some sort of dark fluid he couldn't entirely identify, but assumed to be blood, on her dress. She then extended the opposite hand, saying;

"Sorry about that." "Let's try that again shall we?"

Chris took her hand gently, the look of concern growing greater by the second as he introduced himself to the injured young woman who's name seemed to be Maggy.

"I'm Chris." He replied simply, his look of concern shifting to one of confusion at he looked down on his hand to see a purple fluid with a consistency of blood. Looking back to her hand, he immediately understood the gist of what was happening.

"Stop me if I'm wrong." He said, softly enough that no eavesdropping individual would be able to hear his voice.

"You're a non-human, and you're using illusion magic to hide what you really look like. This illusion magic is the same reason I can't see how badly beat up you are, and you aren't going to see a private doctor, nor a hospital because you fear the backlash of them discovering what you are." He asked quietly, giving a slight pause before continuing.

"You aren't a known race, that much is obvious. Only three humanoid species exist with purple blood, and none of them are capable of using magic as advanced as full-body Illusion. So you've either been in hiding, or you're a new race, and either way you can't risk them taking your blood and figuring this out, right?" He asked, finishing his deductions.

Had she ran into anyone but him, she might have been able to pull off her deception; but it takes more than a couple decent essays to be considered an anthropologist prodigy, and she had been unlucky enough to run into one of the few people alive that could identify nearly every race on the planet from a glance.

(Joint post by KatKook and MoonlitCoffee)

---

Ji-Eun looked at the possessed body and grinded the tip of her spear on the building roof, pacing left and right, waiting for the demon to attack, if he did attack, she would block with her needle or her forearm, whichever came first.. Ji-Eun being this patient might make the demon a bit annoyed that she would call him up there to not do anything. It technically is a form of provoking but it seemed so subtle, she would glance at Shina every now and then to make sure she was on her toes for her plan.

She made sure to have her eyes locked on the possessed Emberlee, she made sure she wouldn't run away just in case.

---

---

Ver'tiel grunted and crossed his arms, the wings of flame extended out and a rain of fire came from the wings directly onto the needle wielding girl. Shina would have casted an ice shield in front of her but she was quick, and dispersed the flames like it was nothing, but from her angle it would appear that her skin was starting to crack, Shina didn't know what she was but this better be part of her plan.

Ver'tiel would just smile at her as the rain of fire didn't stop.

---

MoonlitCoffee

Ji-Eun took a deep breath, and with a flash of white she was gone. She was in the building across of them and she threw her needle at one of the wings of flame, if it hit it would disappear and cause the Demon to fall on the building. She would then flinch her flinch her finger like a pulling motion type of flinch and the needle would return to her.

She threw her needle once again, but this time on the other wing, based on her previous attack, this should take Ver'tiel's flying away. "Restrain him!" She called out, specifically to Shina.

---

KatKook

Ver'tiel would laugh to see that needle didn't hit him, but after realising that she wasn't aiming for the body, he felt tense, but as his second wing was taken off he came crashing down onto the building. "Restrain him!" Ji-Eun exclaimed, Shina then started to freeze Scarlet's arms and legs to keep her at bay, she kept applying ice to it to really make sure she didn't burn through them.

"You'll have to kill her if you want to get her back." He exclaimed with a smile as he struggled to escape the icy prison.

---

MoonlitCoffee

Ji-Eun took a deep breath and used her needle to swing herself to the building where the endeavour was happening. Ji-Eun walked up to Scarlet and ran her hand through the entirety of the needle, she spun it once and threw it straight into her shoulder. The needle started to glow white as she pushed it deeper into the body of the inventor.

"Ms. Emberlee, I ask for your forgiveness." She stated, as she entered the mind of Scarlet, her dream world to be exact. Her physical body in the real world was holding onto the needle.

---

Katkook

Shina flinched after watching her friend get impaled, but after she saw the glowing needle she knew that all she had to do was keep her from leaving. Meanwhile, Ver'tiel stood in Scarlet's dream world, his stupid scruffy beard still there, and right next to him was Scarlet in chains, he looked over at Ji-Eun and shook his head.

"Why must you ruin my fun? I suggest you leave," He smirked, he put his hand on Scarlet's head and continued, "Before anything else happens." His smile was demented, he as enjoying seeing the inventor in pain.

~~~~~

Artemis's sleep finally comes to an end from the yelling outside the large garbage can he was currently residing in. With a sigh, which quickly turned into a coughing fit, Artemis carefully opens the lid to look outside. He was able to witness the exchange, which quickly turned into fighting, between Ji-eun and Scarlet/Ver'tiel.

"What?" He manages before coughing up a mouthful of yellowish phlegm which oozes out from his masks filtration grill, and leaks down his beak to dribble on his chest. He doesn't even bother wiping it up, just plans to get the hell away from the angry chicks.

Like a sickly rat Artemis crawls out from the garbage lid, and flops to the ground. Then manages to crawl away, unaware that he is heading towards the group of others watching the fight. With a clumsiness of a drunkard, he gathers himself up to his feet, and wipes away the bits of garbage sticking to his attire.

"What is going on?" He grumbles, which results in another coughing fit. Gradually he recovers his voice, and manages "I happened to like my sleeping arrangements, and wish not to be" A wretched rasp escapes his lips, before finishing with a groggled "disturbed." Artemis decides not to draw his guns, though he keeps one of his hand in imitation of holding his chest when in reality he is holding his the grip of his syringe pistol.

---

It hadn't reacted any further after no response was given, which didn't trouble the Assassin one bit. It watched as the fight left the area the rest of the group was at. By now, the Assassin would have probably completed the job with less collateral damage. Regardless, it'd do the Assassin well to record the interaction between the entity that possessed the body and the other two women. As it went to follow up the building, a random person had pulled himself out of a garbage bin, and wandered over.
"Interaction between an entity and two females. Outcome: Unkno-" The Assassin stopped as several numbers and letters flashed on its HUD, detailing a new hit, that was really close to its current position. An important target too, over twenty million credits for completion of the hit, one of the more rewarding ones, especially for a one-person hit.

Official from the Taidali Empire, name: Lenah Ki'Lenti, meeting in the 1st Quadrant of the Skyline District. Officialising a trade agreement between the Taidali Empire and the trade corporations of Ring City. You are to remove the Official before they complete signing, and you will be payed the twenty million credits after the job is complete.

Security personnel include:

• A dozen trained Taidali soldiers, supposedly apart of the Royal Guard of the Empire. Threat Level: Low.
• Two Taidali Defense Drones, both outfitted with state of the art tracking cannons. Threat Level: Low.
• A single unknown entity. Classification unknown. Threat Level: Unknown. Treat with caution.

Upon completing the read, the Assassin stopped his conversation, and immediately started climbing the building. It needed a fast way of getting to the Skylight District, and it needed it soon.

---

---

With a loud hum, the near silent hover-copter made its descent to the pad on the top of the Trade Corporations building, and touched down a couple seconds later. The large vehicle opened up, and its occupants exited. Over a dozen humanoid creatures, all of them standing between 5' and 6'5", with long tails protruding from the back of their attire, and long, digitigrade legs(like a cat or dog). Most of their faces were covered, however those that didn't sported gruff features, looking significantly sharper than a human, and seemed to have fur-like hair on the back of the head, whereas the faces themselves seemed smooth, almost as though they were moulded out of stone. Most of them were armed, of course, save three. Two pulled along a large container, and the last was a slightly shorter individual, wearing attire that looked almost like royalty. Two drones hovered behind the group, both sporting a single large silver cannon on their undersides, looking as threatening as the rest of the armed group. They moved their way towards the door to enter the building, and were met by the Trade Corporations own security detail, where they started verifying identification and other classified information. After a few slow minutes, the two groups shook hands, and made their way further inside the building, and began arrangements to complete the agreement.

The Official pulled aside a single soldier, and spoke to him in a hushed voice, in their own language.
"I've been notified that a target has been placed on my head, step up security. The price is... significant. We need to finish this and leave, as soon as possible."
"Will do ma'am, we'll cooperate with the TC's to figure out security, you won't be harmed, you have my word."
"Make sure of it lieutenant... make sure of it..."

And with that, pair returned to the rest of the officials, and once again began talking formalities and toasting to 'new friends'.

Oh how that was going to change.

"I'm Chris."

Chris seemed to be a decent individual. At least for someone of the undercity, most of the people down here would either rob you, or be too starving to do all that much. This man was one of the few outliers. Their hands connected and she felt a large pain in her hand, she didn't react aside form a slight eye twitch. But unfortunately her fear was realized, when Chris's hand got some of her blood from the gash on her hand.

"Stop me if I'm wrong."

Maggy didn't like where this was going, the jig was probably up. But she didn't want to just attack this man, if he had any kind of weapon or ability, her wounds put her at a huge disadvantage. Even if he couldn't see them, he could hit one on accident and cause her to bleed, and she was running low on blood as it was.

"You're a non-human, and you're using illusion magic to hide what you really look like. This illusion magic is the same reason I can't see how badly beat up you are, and you aren't going to see a private doctor, nor a hospital because you fear the backlash of them discovering what you are."

Maggy tried playing it cool, avoiding showing signs of aggression. She was indeed considering doing something violent, but for now she was going to listen to him, see what his intent was. She slowly removed her mask, showing off her violet eye, she then tossed the mask off to the side and it dissipated mid air, crumbling into bright specs of dust. She didn't need to cover her face at this point, this man knew things.

"You aren't a known race, that much is obvious. Only three humanoid species exist with purple blood, and none of them are capable of using magic as advanced as full-body Illusion. So you've either been in hiding, or you're a new race, and either way you can't risk them taking your blood and figuring this out, right?"

Maggy didn't drop her disguise, just because he knew there was a disguise didn't mean he knew what was underneath. He knew she was an unknown, and she planned to stay that way. She wasn't sure how to deal with the situation. "You're almost spot on. Everything except the doctor, I do indeed have one. But I don't think you'll meet them." With that, Maggy grabbed Chris by the neck and pushed him against a wall. "I don't know who you are, but you will leave me alone now. My life is hard enough as it is without people like you snooping around. So if you know what's good for you, you won't follow me. You will also forget we ever met."

Maggy would then release Chris and back off. Limp making itself more clear as she slipped, having to catch herself. She growled and stood back up. She didn't feel her threat would be taken very seriously given her obvious state of weakness, but she still knew she'd be able to strangle the life out of an average person.

Stan looked out of his penthouse window as the news played on his large 52 inch flat screen TV. The news reporter was going over the various crimes stopped by heroes. He turned in surprise when they began to talk about The Suit's actions. "Recently, a vigilante calling themselves 'The Suit' has taken matters into their own hands, eliminating corruption in the Skyline's elite. The police are launching an official investigation, but right now have no leads. They suspect someone in the lower levels who has gained access to the Skyline. Many CEOs and businessmen are fearing for their safety, but the police assure them that they are no threat. The only question is if anyone believes that." Stan let out a little chuckle. He chuckled, pulling out his walkie talkie. "Rodriguez. O'Brien. I need you both to accompany me to my meeting with Jonathan Granson. Bring pistols that you can keep hidden."

Stan waited a bit until a reply crackled out from the walkie. "Yes sir." He clipped his handgun into its holster and smoothed back his hair. Stan straightened his tie and looked in the mirror. Heavy bags hung under his eyes. He ignored them and walked out of his room. When he met his guards outside, he gestured to the hovercar that waited for them all. He entered, putting on his gloves to prevent incrimination. The flight would be 30 minutes, and so he took that time to look into the future. In most of the timelines, Jonathan had four guards. Stan could easily dispatch all with his two guards, so long as they acted with the element of surprise.

When they arrived, his guards had to slap him to get him out of his stupor. Stan had given him these instructions and was fine with it. They stepped onto the loading dock as the doors opened. Stan and his escorts stepped in. Stan waved at the four guards in the room with Jonathan. "I see you prepare well." Jonathan nodded. Stan was disgusted at the amount of women in skimpy clothing surrounding the short man and his greased back hair. However, he kept it under control. Jonathan nodded at Stan. "You always were like your father. A businessman at heart." Stan almost gagged, but calmed down. "You know Jonathan, I've received a disturbing amount of reports that you've been dealing with some...unsavory types. At first, I assured myself they were all rumors. But then I saw some security footage. You had, believe it or not, a large amount of drugs. And, color me surprised, but," Jonathan's eyes darted around now. He knew something was up. "You were selling it to people who were poor, who had no fun, and they had no choice but to buy your drugs. I just can't allow that, now can I?" Stan gestured to his guards, who quickly whipped out their pistols.

They proceeded to execute every one of Jonathan's guards. Stan smirked at Jonathan. "W-Why are you doing this?" His grin disappeared. "I'm doing it for the people that can't." He threw a punch at Jonathan. Jonathan wasn't expecting it, and took the full force of the blow. He fell down, sobbing. "Please don't hurt me!" Stan looked around at the women who were cowering behind tables and couches. "Remember the name, but not the face. I am the Suit, and I will not stand for corruption in our city. If I hear a peep out of any of you about what I look like, I will hunt you down too. I am here to help. Remember this." A shot rang out that night. One hour later, all traces of conflict were gone, and Stan was a happy man. Until he had to hunt again the next night, that was.

(Original posts were lost, this is a summarised version.)
- This post was made with MoonlitCoffee's permission.

Ji-Eun shook her head at Ver'tiel's request, she held her needle in her hand as she sprinted towards him. Ver'tiel chuckled, she made the decision to have him kill Scarlet, so it was fine for him. As he placed his hand on her forehead, he pushed and nothing happened. "What? That's impossible, what have you done?" He asked furiously as he turned to face her, only to be greeted by Ji-Eun lunging at him. The needle pierced through his shoulder, it dug deep before exiting on the other side, his mouth filled with blood and dripped on the floor and on her sleeves.

"It is because this dreamworld belongs to her, not to you." Ji-Eun replied.

Scarlet was in chains, wrapped around her arms, her legs and her neck, the chains were burning her, a burn singed more than fire yet she only felt the pain but nothing happened to her body in the dream world. The pain prevented her from being able to control anything that was hers in this dream. She turned to Ji-Eun, tears rolling down her face for she couldn't bear the pain no longer. Ji-Eun turned to her, seeing the inventor in pain, she knew she had to free her. She pulled the needle out and ran it through his chest, pushing down, practically immobolising him.

"You're too late... It's funny how heroes like you think you have won... Pitiful..." Said Ver'tiel, as the puddle of blood where he laid increasingly got larger.

"It is never too late." Ji-Eun replied as she jogged over to Scarlet.

Ji-Eun attemped to free Scarlet from the chains with her hands, but the same burning feeling happened to her whenever she tried.

"Please... I can't take it... Anymore..." Scarlet replied as she sobbed in place, she hated this, it was torture like no other.

Ji-Eun then ran back to Ver'tiel who had perished at this point and pulled out the needle. She then, in one swing broke one of the chains, now only five to go. As she broke each chain, Scarlet couldn't help but think about why this could be happening or why it was her. "Ms. Emberlee..." Said Ji-Eun, "You're free." She continued as she took a step back.

Scarlet then stood up and gave Ji-Eun a small smile before everything went white.

Suddenly, they were back in the real world, Ji-Eun and Shina were on the ground, unsure of what caused them to fall on the ground. Scarlet was stood back up but she was walking all tipsy unsure of what was going on or what was happening to her. Shina sat up and felt Scarlet walking all weird.

"Scarlet?" Shina asked as she pulled herself up on her feet.

"Shina... I... I don't feel so good." Scarlet stated as she stumbled closer towards Shina, "I don't-... I don't know whats happening, I-I don't understand-" Scarlet continued as she fell forward into Shina's arms. Scarlet then started to slowly turn into dust, starting from her fingers she didn't know why it was happening and tears suddenly fell from her eyes. "I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, Shina please... Please I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go..." She fell on the ground but Shina cushioned her fall. "You're okay, Scarlet look at me, you're going to fine." Said Shina, Scarlet starting panting, she pulled off Shina's visor, her hair and her ears now being revealed to the world. and placed her hand on her cheek. "I'm sorry..." Were the last words that escaped her mouth as she fully faded into dust, but yet the goggles on her fell to the ground.

Shina sat there, she felt the goggles fall into her hands then feeling the dust of her friend slip through the spaces between her fingers. She then turned to Ji-Eun and stood up, furiously grabbing her by the collar and pulling her up. "What happened to her!?" She exclaimed at the shorter girl, Ji-Eun was so short that her feet weren't even touching the ground at that point. "I-... I urr... Scarlet, her- her soul... Ver-tiel took it to the underworld." Ji-Eun replied.

Shina then let her go, the expressions of her face wer distraught, shock, fear, mourning, and anger. The ice that she formed throughout that entire fight had all disappeared, and the dust of what was once Scarlet Emberlee flew away. "Please leave me alone... I don't want to feel your presence around me anymore more." Shina replied as she sat there unsure of what to do now. Ji-Eun then scaled down the building, she couldn't help but thing that this was her fault.

Artemis tilts his head to watch the strange figure scamper up the building, and looks back to the rest of the group quizzically. He stares at them absently, not knowing if he should say anything more, or just to walk off. Artemis does the latter, deciding to walk off, and grumble to himself about lack of sleep.
So Artemis started walking towards the closest bar. As he stumbles along he notices a tall lady with pink hair push a tall man with pink hair into the wall, growl some threats, and then limp off. A noble thought crosses his mind, but he quickly smashes that to bits. Instead of doing anything noble, he pushes past Chris and Maggy. “The fucking freak show come by recently? Or is your guys hair naturally the color of used tampons mixed with neon piss?” He barks laughter, though a pang of sorrow goes through him at the thought of his balding head.
-------

Somewhere in the skyline district, in a dark gloomy spire…

Three men sit in one of the upper level rooms of the spire, each holds a computer tablet, and are cast in shadow. They all sit in silence, engrossed in the data streams scrolling down their individual tablets. Finally one of the men speaks.
“You sure of this, Luther? This is the asset?” The man said with a hint of incredulity, and smashes his still burning cigarette in the local ashtray. “We’ve had too many fuck ups, too many missed opportunities, I won’t accept another-”
“Jerry relax.” The man addressed as Luther replied curtly, and leaned back in his chair. “I know we got him, had some falling out with the cronies he was running with… they tried to sell him out to one of my ops. Things went sour, and he fled..” Luther clicks on his pad a few times, and a detailed holographic display appears before him showing a detailed map of the undercity. “We think he’s in the undercity, I’ll have my men start searching, and put out a bounty on him. Maybe some of the lowlifes can be of use.”
At last the final man in shadow speaks up in a low tone. “We keep this in house, off the record. Find him, and get him by any means… We won’t have another debacle...”
“Of course sir, it will be done.” Both Jerry and Luther replied, and with that the nameless man gets up and walks out of the room. They wait for the click of his shoes to be some distance before returning to their conversation.
“Debacle?” Luther says with a raised eyebrow towards Jerry, and closes his holographic display. Jerry sighs, and lights another cigarette before replying. “Yeah… more like disaster. Bastard somehow weaponized his blood, docs said it was a mutated form the Marburg virus, highly infectious, and lethal.”
“And? Don’t keep me is suspense...” Luther said, sounding a little more animated.
“And we lost a whole damn facility. Had to burn it out, lost some of the original doctors of the program too.” Jerry takes a nice long drag on his cigarette, and exhales the smoke through his nose.
“Fuck…” Luther replies, as he looks at one of the picture slides on his tablet. The picture displays a series of medical equipment surrounding a man stripped to his briefs on a gurney, the man has dozens of tubes going into his chest, and mouth. Patches of the man's flesh appear bluish, looking as though he is suffering from gangrene, while other parts show disgusting cysts weeping yellowish puss, and bright red rashes closely resembling the variola virus.
“Yeah… it’ll get messy, he’s a fighter with nothing to lose…” Jerry mumbled, before sagging slightly in his chair.
Luther smiles, and rises from his own chair. “Oh… I’m sure we’ll get him this time… and then work may resume.” He says with a sly grin, and gingerly begins to walk out of the room only stopping for a moment to give Jerry a mocking salute.
Jerry watched Luther go, and can’t help but grin himself.
“Yes… then work may resume…” He said to himself quietly, and looked out of one of the glass paned windows towards the distant horizon.

Stan sat still in his chair, his eyes a misty color, almost as if he was blind. However, he was anything but. His sixth sense took a lot of concentration, but it allowed him more sight than most people had. As he was browsing the futures, looking for any threats against his life. He stopped suddenly. A very distinct person was before him. They were chatting, but it didn't look like they were in a good place. It looked like a woman, but she had blue skin, white hair, and strange ears that appeared to be that of a cats. and Stan cursed inside his mind, further exploring that timeline. His guard awoke him from his mental slumber later, at the scheduled time. Stan looked at him for a solid thirty seconds. "I need you to find someone for me."

Stan looked through the business data records, his guards watching the entrance. A knocking came at the door. The guards turned to their boss. Stan's eyes narrowed, as he drew his handgun. He gestured to his guards to open the door. "Do it. Be on guard." They aimed their rifles as they hit the 'OPEN' button. A masked man and three comrades entered, firing rounds into both of the guards. They didn't stand a chance, collapsing as their tensing fingers released a couple of shots into the ceiling. Stan intially panicked, but released they hadn't come here to kill him or to rob him. The lead killer held up a note. It read, in letters cut from a magazine (Stan almost laughed. So stereotypical.) 'The Suit must end.'

Stan watched in terror as the men backed away, with one finger pressed to their lips. Stan, with a shaking hand, raised his walkie talkie. "Rodriguez. What the fuck happened?" A puzzled response crackled from the walkie talkie. "What do you mean, sir?" Stan sighed. "Raise security to level 3 priority." He spent four hours that night worrying in the living room of his penthouse as he let the family of the guards know of their demise and arranging for a severance package to be sent. He finally went to bed, sleeping untroubled despite the void growing inside him. The next day, he made himself look extra presentable. The intelligence officers had found the woman he had seen in his future.

As he left via a hover car, he descended onto the top of a building, finding the one he had been searching for sitting motionless. Stan cleared his throat. "Hello. I'm Stan McBride Jr." He wondered if she had heard of him from the news or from the tabloid magazines he was often featured in. Those interviews were such a drag. "This may sound strange, but you were in my future."

---

---

Chris didn't give much in the way of resistance as the woman grabbed him by the next and pushed him against the wall; she had done something else that had caught his attention far more than any simple assault. She had taken off her mask. In the known world, there were only a handful of entities that existed with eyes of solid colors. Certain Elven sub-species, anthropomorphic races, things of that nature; but only one race had eyes that glowed due to emotional response. Elementals.

Chris had never seen a glowing eye like this in person, and he sure as hell hadn't seen one that wasn't white, nor one that only covered a single eye. This girl was unique, or at the very least, her race had never even been theorized to exist.

Both her backing away and the stranger insulting him had the same reaction from Chris, he simply stared at her as if in a trance, his mind firing at a thousand miles an hour as he tried to discover the meaning behind her glowing eye. He snapped back to reality as she stumbled a bit, and within an instant he was at her side, helping to prop her up.

He knew she probably wouldn't be fond of his support, but that had never stopped him before. Besides, the expression on his face of earnest and intense concern for her well-being would likely make it clear that she could beat him into a pulp and he'd still try to help her.

"Let me help you."

He spoke softly, the world around them suddenly being filtered through a sort of pastel pink wall. A bubble that Chris had formed around the two of them. Despite how much he wanted to, he wouldn't simply take off through the skies with her as a companion without her permission. He knew from his time volunteering that some people simply couldn't accept help, no matter where it was coming from.

Figuring out what race this girl was would have to wait, at the very least, Chris had his priorities in order.

Shina felt his presence but didn't bother looking up, she hated what was going on right now, from the heat of the sun to losing her best friend. Life was no where towards Shina, if anything she felt like life was after her right now. Who knows what's next, maybe she'll lose her position in the company.

"Mcbride huh? Gods, no matter how many times I hear that name I never get sick of it." Shina replied as she stood up, towering over the young boy, "Your future? What? Do you want me to your wife or something? Or are you after my capabilities to design weapons?" Shina continued as she looked off into the distance, she was blind so this meant nothing.

She's heard the name Mcbride for years, maybe because they can do what she can do, maybe better, maybe worse, she hasn't gone that far. Adranasil is still functioning and still one of the best weapons designing companies out there, no matter who competes with it. Adranasil having Shina made it better, especially since she knew how things went, currently, she's making something so that she may see fully clearly from her visor.