---

Vera stiffened up as Andras suddenly grabbed her in a grateful hug. She almost made to shove the girl off, but in the end just sort of gave up and let it happen. She'd begun the uninvited physical contact war... she just hadn't expected to lose it. Well, as far as people went, she supposed Andras didn't bother her too much.

"Wait... Is that Meredith?"

Andras's voice snapped Vera back to reality. For a few seconds, she'd been paralyzed. Meredith, and her little sister, had arrived, dropping out of the sky in a hurry. The problem was Meredith's... outfit. It was sluttier than any attention-grabbing getup Vera had ever worn to a nightclub. And she'd pushed the limits once or twice to be sure. So horrified was she, she barely registered Anna's pestering presence.

"Yes." Vera spoke through her teeth as they ground together. "Yes it is." She extricated herself from Andras and threw a hand up, leaving Anna to run into it face-first as she attempted to continue circling her tauntingly. With no further barriers, she stomped over to Meredith.

Well, she tried to. It was hard to stomp menacingly when you were dizzy from bloodloss. She stumbled a step or two, but she made it.

At that same time, Wolf had gone from happy to see Meredith to effectively comatose in shock. Once he'd seen her outfit, or rather near lack of one, his eyes had gone wide and his face beat red. It wasn't that he wanted to stare, in fact he barely knew where to look. Her face, obviously, he should look at her face- Oh dear gods, that was Vera over her shoulder.

"What. The hell! Are you-" Vera raised an accusatory finger to point at Meredith, but finally her blood-deprived brain managed to finish processing the events unfolding before her. This wasn't like Meredith. No, rushing over to help Wolf certainly was, but what on earth would possess her to do so in that outfit? It sure as hell wasn't her usual attire. There was only one answer.

Fucking Nyxdaemona. Meredith's mother.

"Meredith." An extremely forced smile spread beneath furious eyes on Vera's face. "Sweetie. You need to learn to not listen to everything your sexual deviant of a mother tells you!" She spoke calmly, but stiffly, though her impatience definitely bled through at the end. "Just... will you... please!" Vera pleaded as she pulled off her jacket, it was chilly at night after all, and threw it over Meredith's shoulders. "There are witnesses." A few dozen, with cameras already recording, for that matter. "Not that you'll be able to button it up, but it's better than nothing..." If anything, her disapproval was most obvious in that last sentence.

She then put herself between Meredith and the crowd of onlookers and sat down cross-legged, shooting a furious glare at anyone who dare look their way.

"All right, kid, hurry up. Do a good job and, sure, whatever you want," she finally acknowledged Anna properly. She then raised a hand to stop Anna from responding. "Within reason." No, still not quite right. "Reason being dictated by me..." There.

She'd learned to watch what she said around demonic children.

Wolf was quite astonished by Vera's reaction in the end. It had started out about how he'd expected, but then she'd been... reasonable? Maybe he should let her be hit in the head more often...

"Thank you, Meredith. Really," he said with a weak smile. "And sorry. I really shouldn't be getting into these kinds of situations at this time of night. Next time I'll try to get beaten up during the day."

At that moment he caught a snickering Vernon staring at him.

"Wh-what?"

"Pfft... Wolfie..." Vernon looked like he was nearly in tears.

Oh good. That was a thing now.

Aram beamed as Nasaraph clapped him on the shoulder, his fellow student commending him for his performance. "Oh, pfftt..it was nothing, really." he said sheepishly as he began to follow the avian-cultured Vigilante. Nasaraph was really weird sometimes...but he was a pretty nice guy, from what Aram had seen. He considered him somewhat of a friend.
As he walked, he fell in behind the two other students as they ascended the stairs, occasionally glancing at the plaques that marked which floors they were passing. He look in front of him to the other student, occasionally seeing his expression as they turned to climbed more flights. He didn't look comfortable at all. His brow was furrowed, and small beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"Samoth, is it?" Aram said. "You look tense. Maybe you should take a break? We could maybe wait for you, if you like.." he said as they continued their ascent. Maybe he's getting tired...even if he's a Laurel's student, he shouldn't push himself.

Samoth didn't pause as he was addressed by the student behind him. He was aching. Not that the proposal would've derived much more than a "no" from him. He would continue until they reached the staircase leading to the tenth floor, with aching legs and, assumedly, Nasaraph and Aram in tow. A slowly growing irk in his mind would increase as they ascended the floors. Until he took step on the first step to the ninth floor. His brain was pulsing painfully already as he felt the presence of about...several people above him. There.
Samoth suddenly began running up the stairs, skipping steps as he rushed to make it to where he assumed he would find Alto.

Wow, this guy is kinda rude... Aram thought as Samoth ran off without answering him. "Hey! What's up?? Wait!" he followed up the stairs quickly, being sure to stay close to Nasaraph in case anything bad were to happen.



SLAM!!

Maybe 'bad' was an odd term for what was on the other side of the door. Samoth put his booted foot back to the ground as he looked at what had been on the other side of it. Shit. he thought.
Samoth had been in the business long enough to know that anything still standing whenever he arrived to Alto's location was not something to take lightly. And the other two leaders? Hell. This had to be some powerful Demon lord.

"Be cautious. This thing is-" he was interrupted in the middle of his over-the-shoulder warning by a shouting Aram.

"Holy Crapola! What is that thing? And why isn't it dead yet?!?!" he yelled in the ears of the two students in front of him.

Samoth shook his head as he stepped from the doorway. He looked across the roof, spotting other students on the opposite side of it. Him and the other two seemed like easy targets, considering they were secluded from the rest of the group. But on the contrary, the demons would have to turn they backs to the larger group if they wished to corner them. Until he saw one of them multiply.

"Woah! That's rad! And also terrifying!" Aram exclaimed as he pulled the Bing Bong sword from the strap on his back. "Too bad we'll have to kill it!" he smirked.

Don't be too sure- before he could finish his thought, Samoth was struck across the face by a flaming sphere that he hadn't seen coming. It made him stagger and almost fall, but he retained his stance, looking at the group of demons who had sent it. Hmpf.

A single Demon came flying towards them as Samoth took a single step forward, raising wide a telekinetic shield in front of himself as it shot several fireballs at them. They poofed harmlessly against the barrier. It paused for a moment, then disappeared. And was directly in front of Samoth. It lunged a clawed hand at him, which hit the weak barrier, earning a wince from Samoth as it shattered. Ugh, what-did it have claws before?? he barely had time to clutch his head as the hand continued through its contact through the barrier, towards his chest.

And was intercepted by Aram. The blade of his Claymore thrusted into the path of the Demon's hand, slashing into the flesh of the being, accompanied by the tell-tale Jingle that came with a strike from the weapon. It hissed. "Oddly satisfying!" the Alchemist declared. He lunged towards the Demon, turning the blade outwards and downwards, aiming to cut it at the belly. His usually demeanor didn't betray his skill in combat. He was fast with a blade. But the Demon was fast, too.

It vanished. Aram thought quickly, and used his forward momentum to swing his torso around, making a sweeping slash around himself in anticipation of a attack from behind. His swing was met with resistance, the Demon having blocked it with inter-locked claws. Bing! The block, combined with his forward movement and the awkwardness of the attack transition, caused Aram to lose his balance. He tucked his head in, rolling to his shoulder and coming out in a one-knee-down blocking position, just in time to intercept the Demon's attack. Bong!

"Oooh, fiesty now, are you? Oh my, I hope you're not too much for me to handle!" he teased.

He saw a glow from beneath him, and looked down. "Oh." he quickly rolled backwards, out of the block, before the rune bursted into a tower of flame. "How inconsiderate! That's cheating you know...but if that's how you want to play it!"

Aram feinted going for an over-head swing with the Claymore. Which would have been extremely easy to block, considering the Demon's speed and strength. But he released the blade.
He hands came together into a clap, earning a spur of black energy from his palms, and he shot them forward in a Hamekameka-esque thrust. Several ounces of salt were alleviated from one of the many bags at Aram's hip. And a furious explosion bursted from his hands, directed at the chest of the beast. It would be sent almost directly towards the stairwell, hopefully not catching Nasaraph in the way.

His Claymore hit the floor. Bing!Bong!

Gilgamesha Ascot (NPC) and Alexander Ascot

Gilgamesha's chains didn't end up crashing into the other building - they were too strong to be yanked by Galbrek's chains - but they missed the wannabe villain anyway. The woman would have cursed at the 'disrespectful brat', but Alexander Ascot, her son, intervened and said:

"No, mother, we need to make sure that William and the others are safe. We'll press charges against Mr. Ravenovich later." Why am I the only relatively sane man in my family? And with that, he went back to his car and took out some first aid kits and a box of donuts and more self-heating coffee cups. He then gestured to his mother and Michael to come with him, and the two would then go to where Meredith and Anna were treating the wounded members of the 'ad-hoc team'.

Gilgamesha waved to Meredith, saying: "Hi, Mer! How are you - Wait, did your mother tell you that sort of clothing would increase your power?!" Her smile turned into a sigh. "You do realize that Mona - No, I should refrain from badmouthing your mother behind her back; that's just bad form. Even if she is a bit of a -"

"Mom!" Alexander cut her off. "Mrs. Blackgate already thinks you're holier than thou and a pest! Don't give her more cause for that!" A sigh. "Do you have something that can empower Half-Demons, though?"

"Sure!" Gilgamesha then conjured up a golden, glowing chalice that dripped with black and boiling ooze. "The Grail of Corruption; I never leave home without it!"

She then quaffed a draught of said ooze as Alexander's palm met his face. "Don't set a bad example, Mom!"

He then looked around the ad-hoc crowd of spectators, and shouted as authoritatively as he could: "Your Tournament is safe; it's outside my jurisdiction! Note though that this untoward incident was caused by one Galbrek Ravenovich, a half-demon with the power to create sapient mannequins and has a hypnotic gaze."

Alexander would then take out his phone and project a photo of Galbrek (taken while his face was bruised by his mother's fist) onto the nearest billboard. "I now announce this! A reward would be offered for any information on Galbrek Ravenovich, who is officially wanted for attempted kidnapping and destruction of property, and this reward would be doubled for his actual capture!"

"Also, again! Not here to persecute your harmless fun, so carry on, citizens!" Ugh, I feel as though I am using Chaotic means for Lawful ends - the arrest of Galbrek - too many times already...

@Crowvette@KillamriX88@Bartimaeus@Dezuel@AtomicNut@RoflsMazoy@Scarifar@Gentlemanvaultboy

---

TAGS: @AtomicNut

---

Cyan would have seriously been fine with sleeping on the floor, but he supposed a compromise would have to be made if either of them were gonna get any sleep that night.
"Alright, I'll sleep in the bed," he conceded, deciding not to mention Meredith's contradiction in saying that nobody should sleep on the floor immediately before volunteering to do so. At this point he just wanted to sleep. He removed his shoes and put them together beside the bed, then rolled under the covers. Facing the wall with his back to whatever Meredith might be up to, he closed his eyes.

...

...

This was really bad. Everything was fluff. It was like he failed the worst possible coin-flip and got covered in tails. Not to mention the fact that he'd never been in a bed so objectively comfortable before, and it was actively making it difficult for him to sleep.
'Maybe once she falls asleep, I'll take a blanket and sleep on the floor after all. People fall out of bed all the time, she wouldn't blame me for that, right?' he thought, and lay still in an attempt to listen for signs of Meredith sleeping.

"I'm gonna hunt you, Mr. Hamsalot..." he heard a mumbling and tensed up in surprise.
'The heck? Is she playing video games? I'll never be able to escape this padded prison!'
Slowly rolling over as naturally for someone to be asleep as he could, he peaked through one eye. There she was, lying on the floor and wrapped with her own wings, and most definitely sleeping. Okay, good. Mission Jailbreak: Begin.

Unsure of how light a sleeper the girl was, he did his best to make as little noise as possible. Rolling up the blanket on the bed, he inched his way to the edge and put his feet over. Halfway there. Putting the large ball of comforter on his lap, he began to stand up when suddenly nyan cat began to play.

'Crap, the alarm! I've been caught!' Cyan quickly unrolled the blanket and laid back in bed as if he were sleeping.

"INTERNAL BLEEDING?! Oh Satan take me!" Meredith almost screamed in response to what turned out to be her phone, not an elaborate trap set to make sure he stayed confined within this ocean of cozy suffering.

'Wait, internal bleeding? That's a bad thing!' The boy thought and bolted upright.
"What's going o-" he began to say until he say Meredith changing and immediately averted his eyes and lay back in bed. Maybe she wouldn't notice he "woke up".

"WILL YOU PIPE DOWN, MAMMOTH!" shouted a younger female voice. Great, now there were more people. Pulling the blanket up to cover his eyes and ears so he couldn't see or hear, he gave in to the inevitability of never getting out of this bed until morning and did his best dead fish impression. Once he got tired enough, he'd probably fall asleep despite the unearthly luxuriousness of this piece of furniture. Probably.

Then the mattress began to compress as another body, a small one, lay down on it. At this point Cyan was beyond caring about what happened around him.
'Just sleep. Just sleep. Just sleep.'

---

Suddenly there were sirens in the distance.

"Damn…" Jokey said, immediately springing into action.

He unplugged the speakers with practiced precision. When the MC let down her headphones she heard the sirens too.

"Damn!" She shouted, immediately shutting the laptop in front of her. The platform, speakers, and equipment began to rapidly deconstruct into digital blue squares.

Many officers turned a blind eye to the Midnight Tournament due to its mostly benign nature. The money never vanished, and people weren't being killed so it wasn't exactly a problem. However, if they were given a noise complaint and they happened to stumble onto a tournament in progress, it wasn't as if they could pretend it wasn't occurring. There were officers who were sticklers for the rules, and there were also superiors who just didn't like fun.

It wasn't exactly safe to bet on who would come, the crowd knew that as well. Some new-comers to the tournament were looking around confused, but they'd follow the bulk of the crowd eventually and run for the hills.

The MC and Jokey jumped off the platform as it deconstructed beneath them. She had her laptop and the big box of money tucked safely under her arms. As soon as she hit the grass, she made a run for it, Jokey wheeling the whiteboard with him as fast as he could. They sprinted over to an unmarked white van nearby, and Drake gave it a hard kick and the doors unlocked.

She went in driver side and started the engine while Jokey laid the whiteboard on its side in the back of the van. He barely got to shut the door before it took off, tires screeching.

Within moments, the Midnight Tournament and all of its watchers were gone, save for a few remaining stragglers and a non-permanent whiteboard marker left in the grass.

---

@RoflsMazoy@KillamriX88@6slyboy6@Hammerman@Bartimaeus

---

Bak self-consciously removed one of her gloves. Direct skin-to-skin contact wasn't exactly something that she did all that often. Certainly not with members off the opposite sex. While the others had walked up and places their hands on Thobias Bak awkwardly scuttled about behind them like a crab on the excuse that there were a lot of them and it was easier for her to reach over someone else than for someone else to reach over her. In actuality she was trying to pick the least feeley spot possible. She knew how her own hands felt when applied to someone else. At least, she knew enough to know that it wasn't pleasant and irt was up to her to spare someone else that unpleasantness. The face was right out, as was the hands, being both the most sensitive parts of the body and much to familiar for comfort. The upper and lower arm were better, but weren't only couples allowed to do that? She didn't want him to get the wrong idea. The neck was for threatening people. She briefly considered the chest or back, it'd be simple work to just, you know, sorta slip her hand inside his shirt annnnnnnnd that thought was swiftly and violently brought to an end before being repressed with enough force to shatter this entire building to its foundations.

Finally, after all that overthinking, she grabbed the back of his elbow. Quite possible one of the most awkward places to grab someone, but it worked. She felt the world twist but she was ready for it this time, and they were suddenly on the roof under the starry, moonlit shy. It would have been a beautiful sight except for all the demons and fire.

The demons, however, were quickly falling. Cassius took apart two at once with a beautiful explosion that shot right out of his hands, causing her to squeal in delight and inwardly rue that some people had all the luck when it came to powers. Another split off and dived for some sort of group way on the other side of the building. The last two seemed to be locked in combat by that Alto and...was that King? It was! The point was, all the demons were occupied and Clara was safe and sound. It was good to know that Clara was not fighting with that pervert Alto all alone up here, but that was obviously just because of the larger threat. That was all right. They could destroy him together, later.

Right now she locked on to the one currently tangoing with King. Let Alto deal with his own problems, she would help King and then he would maybe give her the secrets of ray guys and beam cannons like his home-world probably had. Besides, the Vigilantes were their allies. She waited for the demon to dodge away from one of Kings attacked, stepped forward away from the group, and launched a full salvo of missiles at it. As they shrieked through the sky, however, the demon seemed to sense that something was wrong. She glanced back at the missiles flying at her and dismissively waved her hand. A magic circle drew itself in the air between her and the missiles, spewing out a stream of fire. The missiles plunged into the sea of flames and detonated, scattering the fire everywhere. She ducked another of Kings attacks and threw of her arm again. Another image of her dropped out and shot toward Bak, clearing half of the distance in a moment. Bak leveled her artillery guns at the demon, confident that she could knock her out of her charge, but before she could pull the trigger the duplicate through out its arms. Another duplicate fired out of it like a missile all its own, straight at Bak, claw raised and singing as it scythed through the air.

Bak got her guard up only with only moments to spare, covering her chest with the armored plates on her arms. There was a crunch and a scream of tearing metal and the speed and power behind the claw let it dig in to the armor. Bak felt the impact shake her entire being, and only a moment later felt herself begin to lift. The demon planted its legs on the ground even before the impact had finished, squaring up and pushing with all the poser and momentum she had built up. Bak felt weightlessness as she was thrown by the force of the blow. She sailed through space like a satellite about to violently reenter the atmosphere, directly at Kath, Thobias, and Christine. If Samoth was looking over he might get a kick out of the fact that it was in fact possible to bullrush Bak Tsarevna.

The demon licked the blood off its broken hand as it admired its efforts.

Meanwhile, the other duplicate had spun off after launching another of itself at Bak and rounded on Cassius, the most obvious of threats that this group had produced thus far. It landed before him, evil fire cracking to life along its arms, and moved at him. Not in a strut, it had paid for that before. No, it moved with the feral grace of a hunting animal ready to dodge any attack and pounce at any opportunity. It was impossible not to compare it to the tiger that Cassius had already fought before, but the pure killing intent oozing out of this predator made that tiger from earlier seem like a kitten. Fire wasn't so efficient against Cassius, so she would have to disembowel him.

---

---

@Bartimaeus@RoflsMazoy

---

Naseraph ducked out of the way, pressing himself up against the wall as the demon flew past and tumbled down the stairs. He was lucky to have sensed it, enthralled as he was with the exploits of the Big Three. True they weren't fighting one another and in Kings case it didn't seem as though this demon was even pushing him, but this was still an opportunity to hang back and gather some valuable battle data. At least until his idiotic teammate had thrown one of the things into his hiding place. Hadn't her told the stupid bastards that he had nothing left? Yes it was a lie, but for Gods sake he didn't know that! He could not have thrown the thing in any other direction?

This mental tirade was halted by an evil orange glow that began to fill the stairwell. He hissed through his teeth and dived through the doorway onto the roof, feeling bits of his hair singe off as fire erupted from the doorway behind him. He rolled and came up right near Aram, facing the doorway that had almost roasted him.

"Nothing today has gone exactly to plan, has it? The universe is against all our plans today." He said scornfully. Now he was stuck on an active battlefield with a dangerously low amount of power. All things considered, he was trying to stay patient and calm but the veneer had cracks. "I need to gather energy. Aram, we need fortifications."

Aram winced as he saw the flames sprout from the stairwell right as Nasaraph dived out of it. "O-oops. Sorry, Nasaraph.." he said sheepishly as he registered his mistake, scratching his head.

But he needed to handle the immediate threat. And apparently a request for...fortifications? He smirked at that. "You came to the right guy, Bird bro."

He reached behind him, grabbing a plate out of his open satchel and throwing it on the ground in front of him. He then clapped his hands once more, and placed them against the rooftop as he focused on the area from where they had come. Soon, the concrete around the stairwell began to bend and grind to his will, filling the hole where the door had once been. It melded into a solid wall. "Try getting past that!" he shouted, dusting off his hands.
Please tell me they can't teleport... he frowned to himself.

"Oh, yeah. Fortifications." Aram said, remembering the rest of his task. "Uhh...I guess old-fashioned works?" he looked back over his shoulder, worrying that he himself wouldn't even have enough time to perform a task this big.

Nearby Samoth pressed his forefingers against his temples as he looked up, recovering somewhat from his headache. Light sensitivity was quickly developing. "Little help, Army boy? Could use some cover." Samoth half-trudged to a spot behind the kneeling student, and faced the rest of the roof. His developing headache was hindering his focus, as well as his composure, but he'd still be able to throw up a weak shield or two. But anymore shield-breaks and he'd be effectively exhausted.

Aram turned to focus on the transmutation circle once again under his hands, closing his eyes and thinking about what he wished to create. Rather, what to re-shape. Black energy sparked between his hands and the circle, initiating the process of transmutation. Nearby rooftop AC units would soon begin to decompose, shifting through the roof towards Aram. Some sections of the rooftop became thin as the mass was also transferred to Aram, one section actually opening up and making a hole in the roof.

He had been taught in his Alchemy classes that nothing could ever be destroyed. Or created. One thing came from another, even if you couldn't see it. At first he thought it had seemed a little far-fetched. But in time, it made sense. It was a somewhat difficult theory to explain however; how the mass traveled through other mass to reach its destination. But it was crucial to understand. Changing the structural integrity of a building could be very dangerous, and while he wasn't technically supposed to do that unless he had to, he thought this was a good enough situation, if any.

The concrete began to rise, sounding like slate against slate as it formed into the shape the Alchemist desired. It formed over an open pocket, slowly turning into a thick dome, with a couple square "windows" in the sides, and a small entrance on the side facing away from the Demons. He transmuted a bunker large enough to fit at least five people, along with several short walls outside of the bunker for extra cover.

He tucked the plate into the front of his pants, and stood, turning towards the Demons, with a single sweat-drop on his brow. "Hopefully that's fort-y enough for ya-" he breathed. "-sorry I didn't give it wings, though." he said to Nasaraph. He stooped to pick up the Bing Bong sword, holding it in what he thought was a menacing pose, a tuft of red hair covering his eye. He blew it away. "You can go rest with Nasaraph in the igloo over there if you want, Samoth. I'll do what I can to stall. They shouldn't bother you much in there."

The older student didn't look over, just waved his hand to dismiss the thought. His stare wasn't quite as cold as before...moreso pained. "I'll fight."

Now why did I expect that...
"HEY! Come get some! Cowards!" Aram yelled towards the middle of the rooftop.

Samoth winced.

"I know that this is probably an odd day for your job, but I can't imagine having to deal with your kind of stress every day like this," Michael remarked to Alexander after the excitement seemed to have died down. Michael was glad that he didn't have to do anything this time, at least. They had apparently arrived late, but still in time to see some interesting things, like the "Grail of Corruption" thing that Gilgamesha had. That alone created so many questions Michael wanted to ask, but at the same time, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answers to them.

The name "Galbrek Ravenovich" also reminded Michael a little about the guy. Definitely a student at Mephisto, but not someone Michael paid too much attention to. There was only so much info Michael could gather, and some people just took priority over others. Michael knew little about the guy from the beginning, and he figured he should change that, given today's events. Many people today were worth the time to research.

Turning his attention to Gilgamesha, Michael introduced himself while extending a hand for a handshake, "Excuse me, you are Alexander and William's mother, right? My name is Michael Angie. Your sons have proven to be quite... interesting lately."

@KillamriX88@Hammerman@Gentlemanvaultboy

---

When Thobias reappered on the roof, he expected absolute chaos. His expectations weren't met however: instead of what he hoped was the captains battling it out, it was just some demons flying around, harassing the other three. Well, until they arrived, that is.

The small group quickly disperesed, and Thobias decided to stick with the only person he figured could be, if not entirely safe, a helpful asset in the battle: Kath. Cassius seemed to get the same idea, but he wasn't as lucky as the other two. Soon after arriving, two demons noted the slightly injured look of the boy and decided that he was easy prey. Thobias didn't intervene and instead decided to stay out of the way before he gets hurt for someone he hardly knows.

His expectations were completely demolished this time around. Cassius proved to be more than what the two demons could chew. At first it looked like he would fall without much effort as the flame pilalr engulfed him, and Thobias wanted to turn away instead of looknig at the boy getting whopped. "Ouch." He was sure that Cassius will meet his end here on the roof as the demon closed in for a finisher. He was readying his teleport to get him to safety when Cassius lashed out, his explosvie fire burst hammering the attacking demon straight into the other one, their bodies flying across the roof and landing in a pile. Before they had time to react Cassius made quick work of them with a series of explosions.

Awe struck, Thobias felt like he lost his jaws somewhere. He used his elbow to get the attention of Kath, but he kept his eyes on Cassius. "Oh snap, look at him go." He turned to Kath, seeing a similarly surprised expression on her face. "Damn Kath, when did your boytoy get so tough?"

Kath expected a snarky remark, but Thobias calling Cassius her boytoy was too much. Not only was it rude, Kath kinda felt that it was somehow true. Her face became red with blush and she lashed out at Thobias with a quick jab. She knew she'd never hit him, but it would at least make him go away. Hopefully. "Boytoy my ass! Go and annoy someone else you punk!"

With a smile on his face, Thobias teleported away before Kath could hit him. He did a small bow before her, gimmicking what he had seen at the Abigail dinners a long time ago. "As you wis-"

There is just something about the sound of cracking metal that makes people turn their heads. Maybe it is connected to our notion of strength regarding the metal, instinctively turning around to see what could damage such a hardy material. Kath turned her attention from Cassius towards the flying Bak, and so did Thobias, still bent over in his bow. There wasn't much time to react as the 300 pound projectile of their ally's body came crashing towards them.

Thobias was the first to react, to no one's surprise, and he teleported away while still in his previous postion. He appeared next to Rurik who was emptying his bowels at the present date. Thought he was interested to see whether Kath could deal with Bak's flying body or not, he turned to Rurik to give his buddy some relief. He palced his hand on Rurik's back and pat it a few times. "You okay buddy? You know, everybody gets nauseous the first few times. It'll get better over time."

Meanwhile, Kath wasn't doing so hot. Both literally and figuratively. She and Chrisitne were straight in the crosshair of Bak's trajectory. "Oh fuck..." Kath felt more and more like today wasn't her day. She felt heat build up in her as she raised her ahnds to the sky to guard against Bak, but it didn't feel like it was enough. It was a matter of seconds until she'd hit the ground, but the impact was likely to make them all fall at least one floor down. There was nowhere to dodge. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" kath glanced over at Christine, and she felt a spark ignite deep within here.

She had to keep her sister safe. Heat rushed through her body, and her raised palms erupted in flames. This is new She didn't think twice about it as Bak was just about to crash into her. "STOOOOOOOOOOOP!" She roared as she raised her hands ever higher, ready to defend herself and Christine from the falling Bak.

The moment of the impact found Kath rethinking her decision, but she knew it couldn't be changed. Then her hands caught Bak, and she seemed so...light? There was a thunderous sound as if metal hit metal, but she was just fine. Kath definitely felt the force of the impact: her body shook and was pushed back a feet or two, and the concrete ceiling cracked under her foot as Bak's momentum passed through her. Still, there was no shattering of bones or any other injuries. There was however a flaming inferno engulfing her, thought slowly fading away as she extered less and less force, until stopping Bak completely.

"What just happened?" Kath asked out loud, not to anyone in particular. She felt her body engulfed in a heat never before felt. It was so much more intense than anything she had felt before. She saw her hands glow in a pure yellow light, the air around her vibrate as it cooled her body. But most of all, she felt so light and powerful. The flames that engulfed her had died down, apart from around her hand, but she felt her clothes melting away from around her.

Wait, her clothes were getting burned down. Shit, shit, shit! The realization quickly snapped her out of her tranced state, and she just realised that she had been holding Bak upside down above herself for several seconds now. "Uh, hi?" She looked at Bak and tried to smile but it ended up as a horrible mix of a grimace and a smirk.

Thobias just now peeked over to see what had happened, as the loud sound of metal crashing got his attention. As he turned around, he saw Kath holding up Bak aove herself like he'd hold an umbrella in rain. "Rurik? I'm on the opinion that you shouldn't tell others which girls to date, buuuuuut....." He had never seen Kath so powerful before. Never this luminous either. This nude? Eh, close second.

Time seemed to stop for Kath as she observed the battlefield around herself. With her newfound strength came speed that was still mind boggling to her. Then she noticed Cassius as he was getting approached by one of the demons that attacked Bak before. She almost dropped Bak and ran to help, but then she got an excellent idea.

"Hey ugly! Catch!" Kath leaned forward and gripped Bak strongly. She felt her ahnds surging with power, and sped up Bak towards the demon. She put all her might into the throw, her entire body turning around on her foot as the momentum of her arms still carried so much energy. She ahd to admit, she liked this new power. Bak felt no heavier than throwing something away with the weight of 20-30 pounds, yet she was closer to 200-300 pounds in reality. And oh, how she flew! Like a majestic eagle soaring the sky, with speed beyond comprehension! She really put all her strength into that throw, and Bak was flying usntoppably towards the demon near Cassius.

For the second time today, Thobias's jaws dropped to the floor as he examined Kath throw Bak away like she was nothing. There was so much energy in the throw that he felt a breeze run along his hair as Bak soared towards the demon. He turned to Rurik with a concerned face, ready to give him a heart to heart. "Rurik, can we discuss your relationship status?"

It another situation Bak might have enjoyed the sensation of weightlessness she felt as she spun through the air. Perhaps this is what ballerinas felt like as pranced blithely along the ground on the very tippy tops of their toes? Unfortunately this was no time to be enjoying the experience. She'd been thrown by a demon and it was quite likely for her to fly off this open roof to an uncertain fate below, leaving all her friends up here to fight the demon without her. That's if the fall didn't kill her, which she couldn't be sure wouldn't happen. She'd never fallen from a height like this before.

Then, almost as suddenly as the spinning started it abruptly ceased. She was staring down at someone. Or, up at someone? They were upside down. The would wouldn't stop spinning, but it almost looked like Christine. No, wait, that was wrong. There was all that fire. The other one? The other one! The other one was holding her over her head, like nothing!

Why had Christine never told them her sister was so cool?

Then she reared back and started to spin, and Bak barely had time to think wha- before she was flying again. This time like a bullet, no spinning, just flying straight backwards. She couldn't see where she was going. Then she felt an impact ripple through her backpack as she plowed over something. This arrested her momentum enough that she started to drop, striking the ground and flipping over once to land with her back against the the top of the elevator shaft in the center of the roof.

She shook her head slowly, just letting herself sit for a moment to catch her breath and try to come to terms with the nonsense that had just occurred. She look down at the armor plate of her arm. There was a huge claw mark punctured straight throughout it, the armor folding in around it. Completely crushed and useless. She didn't enjoy the thought of having to grow it back, but at least the gun was okay. Losing that would mean a long, painful couple of weeks to get something like that back.

@KillamriX88@Hammerman@6slyboy6@RoflsMazoy

---

---

Cassius braced himself as two more demons assaulted him. He saw another shoot by, attacking the others, so he knew help was going to be delayed at best. One of the demons was airborne, while the other leapt forward, slashing with claws. His hand lit up with flames, but as he snapped his fingers, the demon was already upon him. Her hand wrapped around his wrist, directing the explosion away into empty air.

He threw a punch, but the demon caught it and squeezed. Pop! She'd squeezed until one of his knuckles dislocated. She then twisted his right arm behind his back reaching around with her other hand, aiming to tear his throat open. He took a deep breath and his whole body lit up. So what he couldn't snap his fingers right now!? That was just for fun.

To his surprise, the demon seemed to immediately give up, letting him go and stepping aside. The reason was soon apparent as the second swooped down and dive-kicked him, sending him skidding across the rooftop. Their coordination was becoming a problem, and their physical strength was actually quite ridiculous.

He set off a tiny explosion beneath his back, just enough to immediately put him into a sitting position and then threw out both hands, aiming a fiery, explosive wave at his attackers. They countered each with a horizontal torrent of fire, folding the explosion back in on itself and then leaving the whole, burning mess to wash over him.

He lay there, quite flattened and scorched. Seriously, he couldn't take another hit like that. Even he would burn to death at this rate. Hell, it was going to be really painful to continue using his own powers now. He winced when suddenly his wrists were stomped upon, one by each demon. They both raised their clawed hands, looking ready to execute him.

Yeah right! He made ready to blast them off, when suddenly he was stomped on again, this time his head. He lost all focus, crying out as his skull was ground into the concrete rooftop by now a third demon. And then suddenly it stopped. Something, erm, large flew by. A weight fell on him, the demon that had been attempting to curb stomp him had collapsed onto him, the back of its skull almost completely caved in.

Unfortunately, the other two demons had managed to just barely dodge. But now Cassius was free. He erupted, spewing fire and fury in all directions, forcing them even further back and incinerating the demon atop him just for good measure. He rocketed back to his feet and quickly picked a target. He launched himself at the leftmost one, and mid-flight set off an explosion from his elbow, shooting his hand forward like a blade to stab into the demon's stomach before detonating it from the inside out, splattering the demon, though fortunately the gore quickly turned to smoke and ash.

He then staggered his way over to Katherine, now considerably worse for wear. She looked fired up and ready to go. And, um, a bit more naked than usual -- but he was far too tired to worry about that right now.

"Hey... buddy... wanna work together on the next few?" he panted out, doubling over and putting his hands on his knees to hold himself up. "It's kinda rough out there. Thanks for the save by the way. Umm... wait did you throw that mech girl?" he saw Bak lying in the distance. Hopefully she'd just sleep it off and not be too mad at them...

Meanwhile, Rurik stepped away from the edge of the roof as Thobias gave him a reassuring pat on the back before suddenly Katherine.

"Rurik, can we discuss your relationship status?" Thobias said to him, seeming quite terrified of Katherine.

Rurik just blinked once, processed the sight before him, and looked at Thobias. He looked... surprisingly unimpressed, "No," he said deadpan. He let that sink in for a bit as he caught his breath. "Remember the school we go to, now look at my girlfriend, and then remember the school we go to." Rurik just shook his head. Christine was an easy contender for prettiest girl at St. Lucifer's, AKA Mephisto's. In a school populated mainly by assholes and bullies, it had been commonplace for people to try and remove him from the equation -- violently. "This isn't really new for me." Worse, but not new.

He wasn't about to just back away from the one truly good thing in his life just because her sister was a hyper-violent psycho-bitch.

That said, he was already sweating and the heat hadn't even hit him yet. She'd just had to get even more psycho, hadn't she?

Yuuto

@Gentlemanvaultboy @6slyboy6 @killamriX88 @RoflsMazoy

As the ninja watched, Clara proposed an alliance between herself, King, and Alto. An interesting development, but what interested Yuuto even more was what waited the three (four) on the top of the building. A full-blown Demoness. Something was up here. Perhaps that was why King was here? Yuuto didn't know, but what he did know was that he should try to remain hidden. So, as the three advanced, he waited beneath the stairs, re-emerging form the Void once the fighting started, so as to regain energy. After he heard an impact of metal, however, he quickly made his way to the roof via some creative wall-walking. As he emerged, he saw the form of Bak laying in front of him.

"Bak-san, is assistance required? You look like turtle stuck on back." Whatever else the ninja was going to say, he didn't get the chance. One of the copies (not that Yuuto knew they were mere facsimilies) had started to rush right at them, perhaps seeing an opportunity for two easy kills with the machine girl down, and the unassuming boy next to her. The copy smirked, thrusting her hand out. However, Yuuto held a hand out at the demoness in response. "You will not be harming Bak-san today, monster. Have taste of Void power." With that, Yuuto let loose a Void Beam, managing to catch the demoness right in the chest. In a spectacular collision that sent several sparks of harmless gray Void energy shooting across the roof, the Demoness was thrown back, landing near Thobias and Rurik.

"Void Wisdom say: 'Never underestimate foe. Foe who is underestimated may show true fangs, like cornered animal.' So is proven here." Yuuto intoned, intending on keeping Bak protected until she could get herself back into the fight.

Brutus

@Gentlemanvaultboy @Bartimaeus @RoflsMazoy

Whatever Brutus had been expecting when he finally recovered and made it to the top... well, whatever it was, it certainly wasn't this. Brutus quickly circled around a... wait, was that a ninja!? Like, an honest-to-gods ninja? Nevermind. He quickly found Aram and Nasaraph, and it looked like they were in the company of a St. Laurel's student. Brutus dodged a gout of fire, quickly rolling into the fort that had somehow appeared. He glanced around.

"Huh. It appears as if your power is more interesting than I first thought." Brutus said to Aram. Well, that was an understatement. Never had the electricity wielder ever seen anyone just... create a fortress in as little time as this had probably taken. "Not sure how useful I'll be. I can try tagging them from here, but I dunno if they're too high-level to be tagged."

With those words, Brutus made his way to one of the windows, using the hole there to take aim at the Demoness fighting with King. He then shot out one of his tags, hoping to feel the connection that'd allow him to light the otherworldy entity up like a Christmas tree.

---

Christine was taken aback when Kath suddenly hugged her when she woke up. But she quickly smiled and hugged her tightly back, patting her on her head as well. She could feel the warmth of her body contrasting with her own cold skin. Something she sometimes disliked about her power was that it always made her entire body cold. She couldn't turn it down to the point that she had the body temperature of a normal person. So she knew if someone hugged her, they would feel her cold instead of her body warmth.

"That's wonderful!" Christine replied to Kath agreeing for a ceasefire. She rose up as well when Kath stood up. And when Thobias said for everyone to grab onto him, she did as she was told, landing her hand on Thobias' shoulder.

When they landed, Christine once again showed her resistance against the disorientation caused by Thobias' power, as she was among the first that discovered how the three school leaders had gathered, and how they were seemingly fighting against what looked to be a bunch of demons.

"Clara! We're here to help you!" Christine shouted.

Before she could do anything however, Bak had engaged against one of the demons. And the result wasn't that pretty as the metal girl ended up being thrown right towards Christine and the others. Thobias teleported away, but Christine and Kath remained behind. Thankfully, Kath managed to throw back the 300 pounds metal girl right at the demon, by boosting her own strength with her power. Christine could only watch in awe as Kath turned luminous with heat and power, even though it was burning her clothes.

Wow, I could never do something like that... Probably...

Christine's cold power couldn't really enhance her strength. If she were the one to deal with that, she would probably have to freeze Bak mid-air before she crashed into her. Cold could kill momentum after all.

"Whew, that was close!" she said to Kath afterwards. "Though I guess I should really get going and get my own demon to fight."

Christine looked around the chaotic scene. Now which demon should she take on?

She then saw Clara fighting against one.

"Oh, I know! i'm going to help Clara!" she declared, before running right towards her new target. As she ran, she began manifesting her power, surrounding herself with coldness as the floor under her froze. Instead of making her steps slippery however, it just enhanced her speed as she could slide down the frozen path with great dexterity. Being the master of cold, she had taught herself to do this ever since she was a kid. This was also why she was a really skilled ice skater.

And with said momentum, she did multiple rapid spins with her right leg raised like a ballerina as she sled right at the demoness. She didn't care if this technique exposed her panties. Her spin would be too fast for anyone to look after all.

And with a crash, she landed a kick right at the demoness' head.

The kick wasn't just powerful as Christine had added extra mass to her right feet with her power, covering it in a thick block of ice, which shattered the moment it received the impact, it would also transfer the cold into the demoness. This was why fighting Christine at close range might be unwise, as if she grabbed, or even just touched, any parts of your body, she could end up turning you into an ice statue right then and there.

The demoness was thrown back, and Christine quickly stopped on her tracks. She said to Clara, "Christine here to the rescue!"

@KillamriX88@Gentlemanvaultboy@6slyboy6

Naseraph only faintly heard Brutus when he entered the wonderful little pillbox. The very second it had been completed he's sat crossed legged on the ground, eye closed, hands clasped in front of him. The muffled noise from outside vanished almost completely as he focused his mind and, one by one, snuffed out his senses. Hearing was nothing. Touch was nothing. Smell was nothing. Taste was nothing. Even sight, the plain black view of the back of his eyes, fell into nothing. He could be nothing. He opened a void in his senses, a hole into the cavernous emptiness inside, and into this void flowed all the orphaned power of the world.

He had never before experienced this sort of variety in the remnants of power he took into himself. Every energy had its own flavor, texture, feel, and like a good feast he sampled everyone one of that roof. He felt the rough touch crunchiness of impact, of all shapes and sizes from the boot on the ground to the big gulps of what felt like a car being skipped like a stone across the ground. He felt the remnants of explosions, still large and bold and like swallowing a watermelon whole, and along the edges of a few he could swear he felt the scattered remnants of something extraordinarily kind. He could feel the demons fire, hot and disgusting like fresh vomit, and the feeling of divine fire that pointed at his throat like a defiant sword even as it went down. He felt ice and the paradox energy that was used to create this absence, and a true void that was like absorbing inexplicably itself. There were the shattered remains of pure will that floated around this pillbox and the very energy left circling in the stone from where in changed shape. There was the sharp sting of two swords of light. The, finally, there was the small, jittery feeling of electricity.

Brutus through his tag at the Demon fighting King and it tagged her right in the back. It was a little thing. She didn't feel it coming. When it hit she felt it and for a moment was shocked. For just one fleeting moment her attention was not totally dedicated to King. For just one, small, infinitesimal moment, she wondered how she'd been so foolish as to allow an attack from some nobody to graze her skin.

In that moment King took her wing.

It was a clean cut, right from underneath as causal as culling a apple open for lunch, and she plummeted on the room. The strangest thing was, though, that every demon on the roof seemed to feel it. Every last one of them flinched, stopped. Christine's attack took the head clean off the clone that fighting Clara, scattering its skull in little red crystals across the roof. Alto used that moment to cleanly divide his opponent into six roughly equal pieces. The one winged demon, the real Greater Demon, landed on her feet on the roof and stared up, then around at all the students that had just so blindly stumbled onto its lair. The sheer killing intent that flowed off her body in waves felt like a guillotines blade dropping repeatedly toward your neck.

Naseraph opened his eyes and shuttered. "Someone did something." she said, breathlessly, his face white. The demon energy he had been absorbing had suddenly spiked and threatened to overwhelm him. An overcharge wasn't good at the best of times, but he didn't want to think about what would happen if he overcharged on that malicious shit. He was evil. He knew that. He was a murderer. He'd taken the lives of his entire family, there was nothing he could stand before the gods and say to justify what he had done and he was fine with it. But that thing out there...that was evil.

And it was building up to something.



@Hammerman@rawkhawk64@KillamriX88@6slyboy6@Bartimaeus@RoflsMazoy

The crackling, ominous energies of the demonic rune spell coming to life belittled its effect. Little by little at first, but then increasingly fast, Wolf's shattered and bruised body snapped and fused back into place, as the dark conjuration bathed him in a ominous -yet healing light. Meredith's usually easygoing expression was now showing a stern gaze, her visage being concentration incarnate as she kept maintaining the energies required to heal Wolf. Wolf. Herself. The spell. That's what her world had been reduced to, as everything around herself became background noise. Even when the ghost of his best friend's girlfriend perked up with an accusatory finger and demanded explanation, Meredith's stare did not waver in the slightly.

It was the touch, some cloth draped over her that provoked a response. Her face darted to find the interruption, as she gave a withering glare to the person who dared disturb her in the middle of something. Had it been earlier, she would have had the restrain to keep her thoughts to herself. One of her hands, still covered in claws, drew its own accusatory finger to Vera, as the eerie light of the night gave Meredith's eyes... a certain sinister glare. She spoke. But it wasn't her usual energetic and somewhat squeaky self. Her voice was more solemn, grave, and mature, carrying a certain aplomb that reminded which parent she had gotten her eldritch powers from.

"Don't. Ever. Interrupt. My healing spells. Unless you want your boyfriend to explode in a rain of magical energy and flesh." She said. Fortunately, she had finished for the most part when she had felt the distracting presence, but something had stirred deep in her mind.

And then she blinked twice. "Bweh?". Her face immediately flushed red, as all the stimuli and information she had blocked to concentrate came rushing to her. She promptly tried to shield herself with her arms, trying to cover what her skimpy clothes could not, as she eyed the tiny jacket, that sadly had been a futile effort. Her wings were in her way, so it was just looking like an oversized scarf. "L..loo...looo...lookIcan'thelpitOkay?". She stammered flustered."These clothes have runes that bolster my...mag...bwwe!!? She added, as she paid attention to some kind of detail in her minimal clothing. "...Nowaynoway.Theybolster...that...". She fumbled, unable to form a proper sentence. It was the sirens and the people leaving that brought her back to some kind of functional sort, as she smiled tiredly at Wolf's words. "You're welcome Wolfie. But you owe me a good dinner for this one." She smiled with that stupidly placid grin of hers. Meredith was back, despite the embarrassment.

It was then when he noticed some of the other people. That Ascott woman. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow before looking back to Wolf, and shrugging. Too tired to even try to make sense of that woman's antics. The name Galbrek seemed to bring forth a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth. Typical of that other half demon.

Meanwhile, Anna after having one real painful case of running face first into Vera's palm and nursing her nose for a good while, neatly regained the cool for a 10-year old, and hovered towards the wounded woman, as she smirked like a predator does before defenceless prey. "You are most kind. But I already have in sight what I want." The half-demon brat lunged without care for personal space, pushed her tongue out of her mouth, and gave Vera's wounds a long and way too dedicated lick. "Mother does not let me have human blood as treat. And you're shedding lots." The little brat squeaked with delight. "Sooo good." . She bit one of her fingers, and painted a rune in Vera's forehead with her own blood, a smaller version of what Meredith had used.

And just like before, energies crackled, mending the flesh and skin. "It is done. The agreement has been fulfilled, mortal." She finished, a little too theatrical.

---

The Demon had decided that defeating these three would be simple. That was before the distractions. That had been before all this damnable noise. Now the roof overflowed with the babes of man and she was being forced to use all her power against children. Her! A Greater Demon! The very fact that she had to consider this a battle instead of sport was an insult to her entire race.

King landed and stepped forward, as casual as can be, the cat now sleeping in his embrace as though it weren't in any danger at all. Alto stepped forward over the remains of the clone he had been fighting, stoic and intent on just ending the night event. Clara stepped forward, smiling slightly at Christine, eyeing the demon with hungry eyes more befitting a shark than a girl. All three of them stepped forward.

The demon duplicated again. And again. And again. The duplicates warped and teleported, coming at the trio from all angles. From the left one dove at King, and was swatted down at his feet like an annoyance. From the right came one at Clara, but the darkness that welled up around them made it impossible to see whatever altercation took place. At the end it lay dead as she kept moving. From behind one came at Alto, but suddenly Alto was behind it and it was bisected and left in piece on the ground. Over and over again they flew at the trio, the best, the very best Rhea had to offer, but nothing stopped their relentless, steady advance. Someone look at this battle with fresh eyes would have completely mistaken who was the monster and who was the victim.

The demon back away as they advanced amid the broken bodies of her duplicates. Then the demon did something unexpected; it grinned. It thrust its arms out, wicked circles flaring to life
along them and every deliberately weakened duplicate the trio had taken down. They burst into flame, a fire that seemed to melt off them and spread like a fungus across the ground under the trios feet until it reached the wing that King had sliced off. The energy it got from consuming that caused the flames to burst upward, accepting all the sacrifices that she had given it. Under their feet the fire rose up and then folded in on itself, enclosing the three of them in a blazing dome that was soon covered in demon seals.

She let her shoulder sag and breather deep, ragged breaths he then began to chuckle. The chuckle became a laugh and a laugh rose to a wild cackle as she bathed in the warm, nostalgic light of her creation. “Do you feel that, insects? Breath it in. Bask in it! That is but a paltry balmy day for my kind. Experience Hell on earth, the Hellfire Seal! But this is not the authentic experience. There are no screams of the damned undergoing torture.”

She turned a cold gaze across the roof, looking at each child she could see in particular. “Don’t worry. Your ambiance will be provided momentarily.”

Despite her cocky demonour, however, it was clear that she had sacrificed much to create such a trap. The once blazing energy that had been felt had greatly diminished in intensity. There was still that confidence though. That total conviction that she could kill everyone on this roof.

A peculiar sound reaching Rurik’s ears got his attention. He looked up to see a demon flying at him, almost like a perfectly spiraled football. However, it recovered and seemed to decide that if it was going that way anyway, why not take a victim? And then it flinched. Rurik would discover why in a moment, but for now he just deployed his shield, stepping in front of Thobias as he did so.

The demon deflected off the shield and flew in a new direction, towards some sort of weird bunker the Vigilante’s had thrown up. Good. The best kind of problems were the kind that he could make into someone else’s problem.

With that, Rurik was brought fully back into reality, and scanned the chaotic field before him. And there went Christine, pirouetting her way into danger. It was all fine and dandy at first until the demoness got really, really mad. She let loose a veritable horde of clones and Christine wasn’t all that far from the fray.

Of course she’d had to go run into the thick of it.

Rurik pinched the bridge of his nose. Just one moment of peace. Just one. Just once he’d wanted to stay out of it.

Fine.

“Thobias. Christine. Fetch. Now,” Rurik demanded with unusual firmness. Something told him that just moving Christine a little farther from the action wasn’t going to cut it, though. The shivers that demon had sent down his spine told him so.

And so, with everyone distracted, he made a break for it. In a flash, he zipped across the battlefield, over to where Bak had landed. He stopped for a moment to look at the… ninja? Yes, it was a ninja. Wh-

Never mind.

“Thanks…” Rurik said. It was hard to tell if he was thanking him for covering Bak, or sarcastically complaining about the demon he had so generously sent his way. He then crouched down next to Bak. She was conscious, at least.

“Laying down on the job, huh? Don’t tell me I’m starting to rub off on you,” he joked, but he didn’t sound all that amused. He was far too stressed, and it was plain to see on his face. “Can’t have that, I'm gonna need your help.” He then squared his feet and grabbed Bak’s hand.

It was a strange sensation, but he’d grown up on a farm. You got used to grabbing weird shit… sometimes literally if you weren’t lucky. Well, that was his first thought before his hair on his arm stood up. OK, so maybe it was a little more weird than he was used to. Regardless, not his biggest concern at the moment. He then grabbed her shoulder with his other hand and hauled, “Up we ggghh-” Damn she was heavy…

Bak tried to help as hard as she could in her dazed state. Her feet dug scores in the roof as she struggled to get them underneath her, finally getting into a good, steady spot and pushing along with Rurik's pull to get unsteadily back of her feet. “And look at you, Mr. full of surprises today. Rushing into war zones, fighting the enemy, are you so sure my discipline is not finally having some effect?” She laughed, even though it wasn’t really a joke. Then she noticed that he was still holding her hand. This was like getting hit in the face with cold water, the reality of the situation coming back to her instantly. She rapidly pulled away from him, gripping the hand with her other, holding it flush to her chest for a moment and looking at him anxiously before she started digging around in her breast pocket for her glove.

“Uhhhhh,” she said, looking around halfway between embarrassment and horror to find something to keep Rurik's mind off anything he may or may not have felt. “Have you met the friendly ninja?” She said, pulling out her glove, slipping in on over her hand, and gesturing to Yuuto. “The one I told you of? He is the one that helped me earlier today, and just now. Thank you friendly ninja.” She bowed as deep as she could chance at him, as she had seen other ninjas do in her movies.

“Right… friendly ninja. Uh, coin chihuahua… how’s your mustache… whatever.” Rurik mumbled and shrugged.

She came back up and looked out over the battlefield. She’d unfortunately only gotten bits and pieces of the demons gloating, but looking at her she could tell that the worm had turned. The big ball of hellfire sat on the roof like a miniature sun casting an evil light that could be seen from the street below, and right there, far too close for comfort was, “Christine.” She called out. “Get away from there!”

“If Thobias is doing his job, Christine will be fine,” Rurik told her, now done butchering the ninja’s presumed language. “Instead, just keep an eye on me, all right?” he told her and patted her. Not her shoulder or even her head, but her… cannon? He then bent over and scooped up a handful of the gravel that Bak’s feet had torn out of the rooftop and began walking… right toward the angry demoness.

“Wait, what are you doing?” She asked as he walked out. “Where are you going?” This heroic stuff was a welcome change, but this was serious. Just a cone of this thing had tossed her like being hit by a big truck. She willed her guns to whir to life, the one under the broken armor winding up in jerky burst before finally firing up. She groaned. So, that was a months worth of growing she had to do then. She leveled all her guns at the demon, hoping to the gods the Rurik really had a plan and wasn’t just winging it.
He had a plan. Perhaps a very dumb plan. It all hinged, unfortunately, on making one horrible demon monster very, very angry with him. It looked like she was getting ready to kill them all, so it was now or never. He began by flicking a rock at her head.

POP! It blew up, right next to her face. A minor annoyance, barely more than a distraction. POP-POP! Now it was probably really annoying. POP POP BANG BOOM CRASH BANGBANGBANG! And then it was like a cluster bomb going off around her.

The demon just dusted her shoulder off and turned its gaze to the boy that had so kindly decided to volunteer for the slaughter.

As it’s gaze fell upon him, Rurik just put on a shaky smile and motioned with his finger for it to come get him. It’s response was a bit more immediate than he’d hoped, though...

A circle flared to life in front of her hand, flashed, and fired a white hot stream of light at the young fool.

“Ah sh-” He threw up his hands and projected his shield. Hot hot hot hot! The flames reacted strangely to it, sort of balling up as he did his best to hold on rather than reflect it immediately. ‘Please have gotten the message, Bak…’ he thought to himself. He couldn’t take the heat anymore. He hadn’t lasted quite as long as he’d hoped, but this particular bit hadn’t been part of the plan.

He was sort of improvising, but he had an idea that stemmed from his fight with Kath earlier. He pushed back, the gathered flame and energy that had accumulated against his shield flew back into the beam, forcing it back and actually making it almost halfway before detonating, and with any luck leaving the demoness open.

The demon covered herself with one arm to steady herself from the force f the detonation, and was just lowering it for another shot when-

“You fool, this is plan!?!” Came a shout, followed by a bang! Suddenly the demons face was engulfed in an explosion. Bak stood back, cannon smoking. Rurik had felt that shot go right by his ear. The only reason she hadn’t opened up with the chainguns was that he had put himself between her and the demon. “Next time if plan is to just fight let me go in front of you.”

The demons head had snapped back, and then back down to stare at the two of them. Blood poured from its nose and its perfect teeth were cracked in the front giving it a by far more devilish appearance. It looked like it had just been caught between a hammer and an anvil, except usually the victim of that wasn’t alive enough to be as pissed off about it.

As Yuuto watched on, Rurik came over to help Bak up. He then began to… well, butcher wasn’t even the proper word for what he did to Yuuto’s second language. However, the ninja didn’t even bother to correct him, not that he would’ve had the chance anyway. The two of them started to attack the Demoness with a renewed vigor. Ah, of course. The Demoness had trapped Claire-san and the other two in a dome. With the foe distracted, Yuuto let loose another burst of power, slamming the Demoness with another Void Beam. This one he kept concentrated on their otherworldly foe as long as possible. “Is never wise to harm friends and allies of a ninja. When that happen, ninja usually know how to strike back!”

Rurik’s jaw went tight at the cannon shot. She’d cut that a bit close. He lifted a shaky hand to his ear, touching it to make sure it was still there. He let out a sigh of relief that he was intact. The demoness looked worse for wear. Had they actually done it? Just like that? A headshot to the source?

Then she looked back up and she was clearly pissed. However, before she could attack, the ninja joined the fray. Rurik realized he had the right idea. He quickly stepped aside and lifted his hands, unleashing a barrage of mini-bolts from all ten finger-tips.

“Light her up!” he called for Bak to join in. She had enough bullets to suppress the demon til the sun came back up, but hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary.

“SUPPRESSING FIRE!” Bak yelled yelled, her guns lighting up and adding her fire to Rurik and Yuuto’s.

Andras watched with awe as the two healed Vera and Wolfie. Meredith may have been strange to Andras at first, but she seemed to have a level of magic that was unlike anything she'd seen before. Andras felt the need to take notes, if only she had anything to write on handy.

Even the child had a good sense of showmanship. Though, licking wounds kind of... Seemed strange to Andras, she definitely noted that the child got results. 'I'll have to remember these rituals for future use. This kind of practical magic can't be ignored. It'd be perfect for a poem or story.' Andras nodded to herself cooly. Her creative notebook would most definitely see something like this in the future.

Andras noticed that she was staring. Despite their unorthodox appearances, these two were the real deal. 'I can't just keep staring at them! What do I say to a true half-demon, though?!' Andras was visibly speechless, trying to think of something to say but coming up short every time.

William Ascot, Gilgamesha Ascot (NPC) and Alexander Ascot

Gilgamesha smiled widely at the percieved flattery, saying to Michael as she shook his hand, "Yes, and thank you! Cyrus - my husband - did his best to raise them well, while I did my best to teach them how to use their powers effectively! Of course, I wasn't born to the Ascot line unlike Arthuria, but I still knew how to creatively use powers and exploit them like a powergamer..."

Alexander would turn to Michael and give a nod of acknowledgement to the boy's words about the stress, saying, "Indeed. Dealing with superpowered teenagers leads to 'interesting times' all around. Same for immature parents who serve as a bad influence to their children, other children, and the people they hang around with."

It was then that William turned to his mother and elder brother and said, "Mom, Alex, I need to sleep. It's early morning and I don't think I will be able to pull an all-nighter." The boy would then walk over to where his older brother was, and say, "I'm about to collapse."

And falling forward, William Ascot lost conciousness as Alexander swiftly caught him with both hands. Smiling, Alex would say to his sleeping brother:

"I genuinely didn't think you've grown enough for this. I guess I was wrong. Let me carry you back to the car." And before anyone (coughVernoncough) could object, Alexander would pick up his brother and take him back to his vehicle.

@Crowvette@KillamriX88@Bartimaeus@Dezuel@AtomicNut@RoflsMazoy@Scarifar@Gentlemanvaultboy

@KillamriX88@Hammerman@Gentlemanvaultboy@rawkhawk64

---

Thobias watched in amusement as Rurik pinched the nose of his bridge. A small part of him could relate to him, but he was mostly above worrying in combat situations. His abilities always allowed him to go from grave danger to the comfort of his own bedroom in a second using his portals. That said, it was getting harder and harder to make portals and jumps in and around the building. He has spent too much time here using his abilities, and reality doesn't like that too much. Then again, who needs portals when you have a Kath in psycho mode?

“Thobias. Christine. Fetch. Now!” He gave a sideway glance to Rurik before warping away to the twins. Go fetch my arse Rurik The idea crossed Thobias's mind to give Rurik a unique torture only he could do. Maybe teleport Christine straight into the demoness's grasps or drop Bak on the boy. Sweet revenge.

Ultimately he dropped the idea of trolling Rurik for such a minor insult. That said however, he was in the middle of the battle again, next to Clara and Christine. "Hey Chris, Rurik sent me to pick you up. Need a hand or a lift?" He only asked if they needed help out of kindness, as he really didn't want to engage the demons in a fight. At all. Teleporting away was so much easier than trying to beat down on these demons without any powers that give you super strength or damaging abilities.

Meanwhile, Kath was dealing with a significantly bigger problem. Well, two, if you count the fact that she was pretty much standing clotheless on the battlefield. Still, the group of three demonspawns coming for her after the Bak throwing stunt was considerably more dangerous. They didn't seem interested in playing around, and were dashing with their claws readied towards Kath. She turned towards the panting Cassius and put her hands on her shoulder. She really hoped she didn't acidentally burn his shoulder in doing so. "Yeah, I'll take care of these three. Take a breather."

Kath readied herself for battle, raising her fists in front of herself like she had done thousands of times before. Let's see what I can do in this form The first demon arrived with claws outsrtetched, ready to do a horizontal swipe across Kath's abdomen. Kath used her left hand to slam the demon's hand downward, delivering a crushing elbow to it's face with her right hand and stepping closer in doing so. The demon stuttered and dashed aside, making way for the two other behind it. The other demons held their arms outstretched between themselves, ready to deliver the nastiest clothesline in the history. Kath, having moved forward to deliver her last attack had no place to evade to, the pair of demons were practically on top of her already. Shit Instead of trying to evade, she took the force of the impact by shoulder dashing towards the demons. Kath found her body to be faster than usual, executing the move in split second.

The force of the impact threw her on the ground, but the sound of cracking bones assured her that the demons didn't get through the attack unscaved either. She jumped back up to face the demons but the first one delivered an attack across Kath's face with it's sharp claws. However it wasn't fast enough, and Kath grabbed it's wrist as it was trying to get away. "Wrong move." The demon tried to struggle free, but Kath's grip was unrelenting as it squeezed her victim's wrist together. The demon let out a loud cry as it's wristbones shattered, and it turned back to claw at Kath once again. This time Kath dodged around it, and pushed the demon's arm up against it's back, locking it in front of herself.

The other two demons seeing the fate of their kin began to close up on Kath, much more cautiously this time. Their limp arms already began to regenerate, but they weren't fully healed just yet. Kath saw this as an opportunity to attack, and tossed the demon she was grabbing towards the demon on her left. It crashed into the other one with significant force, staggering both of them for a second. That was enough time for Kath to strike, and she began to ran towards the two demons, leaping into the air on the last step and delivering a wild haymaker.

The punch hit the head of the first demon, but the impact sent both of the demons flying backwards and tumbling to the ground. The neck of the first demon was completely dislocated, it's head deformed beyond recognition. Before the grizzly sight could burn itself into Kath's mind the demon disappeared and revealed his injured friend laying on the ground. Kath walked towards the demon as it was getting up from teh ground to finish it off, when a set clawed hands grabbed her neck from behind. Oh right, there's three of you bastards.. The grip of the demon was painful, and Kath felt her trachea getting squeezed together from the incredible force. But Kath wasn't about to go down from any old demon.

She leaned back and then put all her power into swinging his upper body forward. She felt the grip of the demon loosen as it went spiralling over her head, and then landing on it's legs in front of her. She was amazed that it could land, but she didn't have much time to ponder as the demon dashed towards her, unleashing a barrage of strikes with it's claws. The swings landed not an inch in front of Kath as she kept backing up ever so slightly. The demons were strong, even for her, and she didn't want to block their attacks without knowing the full extent of her powers in this new form. "Ugh, you're annyoing me."

Kath noticed an opening in the demon's attacks, when it swung with it's broken arm. As it did, she closed the distance between them stopping it from swinging again, and used her elbow to hit the demon's head sideways. It stuttered back as it recovered, and Kath used this opening to grab it by the wasit and lift it up. Gotcha

The demon was well aware of it's unfortunate situation in Kath's arms and it swung wildly at her back. The swing clawed into Kath's skin, but the now malleable body absorbed the attacks without taking much damage. It still hurt like hell and Kath let out a loud hiss. She gripped the ankle of the demon and then leaned forward to slam it into the ground using it's weight to to damage. As the demon's back landed teh concrete floor cracked and bent under it, blood spewin out of it's mouth. Now that the demon's legs were up in the air grappled by Kath next to her side, it was utterly defenseless. Before it could do anything, Kath moved in for the finisher.

"TAKE" Kath stomped on the head of the demon, rendering it unconcious and forming ever more cracks in the floor. "THIS!" She stomped on it's head again, caving in it's skull and turning the demon's head into a gooey substance splattered across the floor. Then it slowly turned to ash, leaving only the laarge carck filled indent on the floor behind.

There was only one demon left. Kath wasn't that interested in killing it, and her attention turned towards the fight on the other side of the roof. Rurik, the mech girl and some ninja were fighting against a demon different from the others. It seemed...much much stronger. Exactly the type of enemy Kath would want to fight if she wanted to know just how strong she was now. She walked up to the injured demon that was healing on the floor, most of it's bones broken from the impact of her previous haymaker. "You're coming with me." Kath grabbed it's ankle and began pulling it behind her across the roof.

Halfway to the other side she noticed Cassius and waved for him with her free hand. "Come buddy, we've got some fighting to do. You shouldn't miss out on this one."

As she arrived to the Demoness with the copy in tow, his allies were already pummeling it with a barrage of attacks. She figured she'd get their attention with her little gift to the Demoness. Kath grabbed a hold of her victim's ankle with both hands and then began spinning around. After 4-5 spins she released the demon and sent it flying towards the Demoness, crashing the copy into it with a force that it stumlbed sideways from teh force of the impact. Kath walked up to the others and gestured for them to listen. "Mind if I take it from here boys? I got one hell of an ache in my fist that I need to get sorted."

---

(Rewinding time a bit because I missed something in my last post but it's not too late...)

Vernon grinned at Masami's spontaneous hug and then even more at her flinching away from him, "Oh, I assure you dear fox lady, I am a very bad guy." A sort of malicious wildness crept into his eyes, his grin growing lopsided and predatory. But then it was gone, prompting the question of if it had perhaps all been in Masami's head, and replaced with a simple smile. "But fret not, I am on your side. Well, William's side specifically. So as long as you're also on his side, you don't have too much to worry about."

---

Vera was too busy contemplating whether or not she'd really almost gotten her boyfriend exploded, while simultaneously warding off any perverse onlookers with her patented "Death Glare From Hell"™, to realize what Anna was up to. Thus, she was left there, eyes wide and one twitching in disgust as Anna's tongue was dragged across her face. In the end, her only response was for her horrified eyes to turn to look at Anna, displaying just how fucked up she found it all deep down.

That said, the feeling of her pain subsiding as the wound knitted back shut was enough for her to just forget it had ever happened. This time.

Meanwhile, Wolf was in a similarly relieved state. He could breathe again and that was a huge plus.

"Sure thing," Wolf said in response to her asking for dinner. "And don't be too hard on Vera this time. I'd rather not dissuade her when she decides to be ni- err, less mean," he told her, mostly as a joke. That said, he was still trying to process the fact that Vera had actually not gone ballistic.

But it seemed he'd spoken too soon. Or rather, he shouldn't have spoken at all.

Now healed, Vera had no trouble standing back up and rounding on him.

"Fuck you, Wolf! I'm not a fucking dog! I do what I see fit to, when I see fit to do it!" she spat at him. "I don't give two shits what Meredith thinks!" She twisted Meredith's name in her mouth as if it tasted bad.

At that moment, Wolf received both a gift and a curse. William passed out.

Vera, who had been hit in the head and nearly run over by a car, looked at the boy who had just fallen unconscious... apparently because he was sleepy. William. The one who was supposed to be in charge. The one who supposedly had a plan.

Wolf who, for the sake of consistency, had actually been run over by a car, just sheepishly shrank back as Vera slowly turned her head back to him. She wore a look that forced him to swallow any retort he might have had in defense of himself or Meredith. A look that asked on, simple question: 'What the hell have you gotten me into?'

Vernon raised an eyebrow at Alexander's words, but made no move to stop him, though he did fall in step with him, a few last words to share before he went his own way,

"Now now, don't be getting soft on him just because he's your baby brother," Vernon gave him a wry smirk. "It's our job as those closest to be the most critical, isn't it? We've only barely cleared our first hurdle here, and if not for the timely arrival of Mr. Fights-With-Cars and the world's bitchiest girlfriend, we might have been in real trouble." Then his expression turned a tad more serious. "Point is it's likely only to get harder from here on out, so don't go encouraging him too much. I think we'd both like to see him come out the other end of this mess alive."

He then gave Alexander a perhaps overly heavy-handed slap on the back, "but hey! I'll keep doing my best to keep him in one piece, and you just make sure you tuck him in real good tonight!" He smiled, but he obviously wasn't happy.

No, they'd only just begun with William's insane idea. Practically day one and they'd already gotten into an all out brawl and just barely managed to keep their most important piece in hand.

'You may have plan, William, but are you really ready to see this through? Something tells me this isn't going to go the way you hope it will.' With that, he split away from Alexander. "Hey, Wolfie, keep Lady Demonface safe tonight, all right? I almost died keeping her from getting stolen." And then he went on his way. He'd be back when William needed him.

"So did we, dickhead! Fuck off!" Vera snapped at him. "Don't give us orders!"

"Well, he's right, though. We need to keep an eye on Andras for a bit," Wolf told her, trying to hide his embarrassed blush at the nickname. Dammit Meredith. "What do you think Meredith? There's definitely no place safer in Rhea than your home. No one could get past your parents. But if you don't want to, my house is probably just as safe with my dad around." Of course, none of that mattered if Andras didn't want to go with them. "Would that be all right with you?" he asked the girl in question.

"The correct answer is yes," Vera stared Andras down. She didn't want to drag the girl around the city all night. She wanted to find a bed to fall into and get to work on turning this night into just a bad memory.