(Titus & Yuri)

Yuri took his time as he strolled towards the last known location of his old friend, Titus, the man behind the Grizzly-1 and other mechanized beasts of war. It was a new day, and the air was faintly sweet. His long hair blew in the wind as his white hair clashed against the deep dark black and white of the garbs he was wearing. Accented with shimmery crimson red here and there, with stitchwork of a phoenix along the front and lower left of the outfit, there was no mistaking that Yuri's outfits cost money and yet he wore them and not the other way around. His earrings were luna moth that dangled at just the right length. In one hand he held two cups of coffee perfectly balanced and in the other hand his grip on his fighting fan was tight and he flapped the beautiful fan to help regulate his fluctuating temperature.

Yuri stood in front of the hidden doors, well hidden to humans. He's only found the location because he visited Titus on sporadic occasions. Some of Titus senior staff knew of him, but younger newer staff would not, and therein was the issue. If he went barging in, they would try to shoot him, try to disarm him as best they could, but given who he was and given what Titus knew about him, he would have a lot of explaining to do and apologizing. Still, it was always fun to ruffle a few feathers to make sure Titus's men were up to date in their training. There was a soft voice that kept asking for identification and was rather polite in its questioning, but Yuri tucked the fan into his waistband and touched the door softly.

His energy pulsed into the electronic device and pried the door open against the groaning gears that tried to keep it locked. There was enough space for him to briskly walk in, and he did with such elegance and poise. Each step he ensured that the coffee was protected, and with each step, he knew that security personnel would be working on a solution to apprehend the intruder. That was only the first entry, the main entry point to the facility was still a short distance and as he approached, he could feel the presence of lifeforms behind the door. Once again, the door strained against his power as it gave in and opened to reveal the numerous men with their weapons drawn and pointing at him.

"Well hello to you all as well. I knew you'd be happy to see me," Yuri said waving politely at the men half of which would shoot if he made one wrong move. When Titus' voice filled the area over the intercom, Yuri placed a hand to his lips and laughed.

"Ahhh, but where is the fun in that. I will see you shortly," Yuri replied.

The newer recruits couldn't help but ask who he was to the senior staff and they all shook their heads as they watched the elegant man move through the entryway further into the facility.

"That's Yuri. He tends to do this from time to time, no worries, you'll get to know him. He's really nice, and wicked on the battlefield. That fan you saw on his waistband, yea it's no ordinary fan. It transforms into this amazing blade that can cleave through metal. You'll have to ask him to show you next time," one of the senior staff said almost saddened that Yuri didn't have the time to stop and chat with them.

Within minutes, Yuri was in Titus' office, walking in with much respect to the man who was sitting behind a desk on which was a pile of paperwork.

"You look busy old friend," Yuri said moving to place the coffee in front of Titus, "and I figured you could use a cup of coffee. It's been nearly a week since Grizzly-1 was on the battlefield. Have all the repairs been successful? More importantly, are you getting enough sleep with all of that on your desk?"

Titus passively noted that he should probably send one of the engineering teams to recalibrate the hydraulics of the doors after Yuri's little stunt. Security doors designed to prevent even Class III entities from breaching the base and yet, Yuri stood before him. Nary a sign of significant effort marring his person. If Titus were to fall, he was glad that the magic user was on the side of Humanity and Earth. With the combination of the young Yuheng agent and the Hydromancer? Earth will be in good hands regardless of his wellbeing.

"That's putting it lightly." The older man chuckled dryly as he thanked the butterfly mage for the coffee and taking a long swig of the drink. Black coffee with just a splash of milk. The exhaustion and stress he felt earlier soon washed away from his body as the warm brew reached his belly. The taste reminded him of his old life prior to him faking his death and going into hiding. The lazy Sunday mornings in the suburbs. Watching his son race with the other neighborhood kids on their bikes around the cul-de-sac. His loving wife singing lullabies to their daughter as the little girl idly drifted off to dream land in her crib.

Only memories of a better time now.

Titus cleared his throat and refocused his mind to the present just before the sharp pain of remorse struck his heart. "Repairs made on the Grizzly-1 unit were successful. We were fortunate that the armor did its job well enough to protect the exoframe beneath, so the whole thing didn't even take an afternoon to fix. For sleep however? Things could be better." Titus said as he removed his shades to reveal dark and heavy circles under his eyes as he cleaned them briefly before wearing them again. "The public was in an uproar about the whole thing. They were very upset about keeping such big secrets away from them to say the least. Reports were flooding in non-stop and almost every country in the planet requested significant aid in dealing with the masses. There was also the matter of locating the enemy's base of operations and preparations for another incursion." He sighs before taking another sip. "If this had happened ten years prior, I'd have worked myself to death before the week ended. But thanks to Minerva, I've been able to get an average of four hours of sleep a day." The effeminate synthesized voice then chirped in through the intercom speakers of the room. "Quite welcome, sir. Also, welcome back Mr. Yuri. Your stunt earlier was quite crude but I do understand the humor behind it." "Minerva, don't encourage him." The AI titters in response. "Anyway, is there anything else you needed?"

Luna took the moth pendant and turned it over in her hands as Yuri gave the people another show, fluttering away into the morning light as a swarm of moths. Was he expecting more monsters to pop up or what? Shrugging, she slipped the pendant around her neck for safekeeping and tilted her head at Gou. "Whelp, he has somewhere to be. What about you, you gonna turn into a pack of wolves and head off somewhere?"

It only took a little bit to establish that Gou, in fact, did not have anywhere pressing to be. In fact, he hadn't even arranged for a place to stay yet. She supposed she could recommend him a hotel or something, but...

"Nope, can't be having with that." She said, shaking her head. "You showed up in my town to protect it from aliens. What kind of daughter of Coral City would I be if I just pointed you as some cheap hotel? Nah, I'll put you up. It's safer, cheaper, and a great view. Hop in!" She straddled her scooter again and tapped the sidecar insistently with her palm.

They road down the ever filling highway for a while, sloping gently downward as the got closer and closer to the beach. Luna took a little unpaved sideroad, almost unnoticeable unless you were looking for it, that snaked its way through a grove of palm trees. Just as the sound of ocean waves began to hit their ears, she found it.

Casa de la Luna was a modest, unremarkable wooden building. Kind of shabby, really. The walls needed a fresh coat of white paint to cure their peeling, enough of the roof tiles had cracked to be noticeable, and the place where she parked her scooter was little more than an overhang to keep the rain off of it. A hammock swung between two of the nearby trees, and around the back of the property a few wooden training dummies had been set up and had mean looking faces scrawled on their wooden heads.

As she stepped up to her door, bag over her shoulder, she turned the nob and frowned a little as it made a jamming noise. "Ahhh, Guru." She said, opening her bag and rummaging about for the key. Unlocking the door and opening it, a small post card fluttered down from where it had been wedged in the door. She picked it up and read it. "He took off for Hawaii while I was gone. At least he locked my door this time."

As she stepped in she put her oar in an umbrella stand beside the door that was otherwise full of finely crafted fishing spears. The living room was dominated by a big blue couch that took up two entire walls. A tv sat against the other wall, and around it were various framed photos of Luna with many other people. Men, women, young and old, obviously from many different countries based on their dress and the eclectic backgrounds of the photos. To a one, they all held themselves like someone that could handle themselves in a fight. She walked over to the middle of the room and, with her foot, shoved a wooden coffee table laden with National Geographic's into the corner before turning and lifting up the cushion of the couch to show him the handle underneath. "This is your bed, pull it out when your ready to go to sleep. I'll get you some fresh sheets, all right. In the meantime make yourself at home."

Luna walked off down the hall, tapping a door in the hallway with her knuckle on her way. "This is the bathroom, btw." She said, before turning and walking through a bead curtain into another room. If one looked around they would see that the bathroom door was, in fact, the only interior door. The living room and the kitchen were separated only by a metal strip in the floor where the carpet ended and tile began. The other two rooms down the hallway only had curtains of brown and blue beads the draped down like the stingers of a jellyfish.

After some rummaging sound she retuned with a pillow and big blue and black Wave Body brand comforter she set on the side of the couch. Then she flopped down next to it, leaned her head back, and breathed in the familiar air. There was no place like home.

---

---

Luna had ordered pizza that first night, seeing as the only things left in her refrigerator were a couple of frozen juice pops and a bunch of drinks called Alova, which were made by mixing Aloe Vera and various fruit juices. Guru was a practicing breatharian, or at least he claimed to be, but she was beginning to find that claim very suspicious.

After a few trips down to the ocean, though, she had restocked her stores of fresh fish. That was the thing about her little house, if you walked just a little ways toward the sound of waves the dirt very quickly turned to sand and you emerged from the underbrush onto one of the less popular, more out of the way stretched of Coral City's famed beaches. Luna relaxed here, did some of her daily training here, and sometimes just wandered down into the surf with a spear on her back and swam out until she found that nights dinner.

Her focus for the week was spilt two ways. The first was practice, trying to find the correct form for her Salmon technique. Every day she took some time to go out back and swing the old Oar around, picturing the Salmon. It's movements, it's form, what it had to have felt like swimming upstream. She tried to be the salmon, shape the water into the essence of the salmon. It was slow going. It was hard getting into the headspace of something with that kind of single minded drive. The other was getting Gou acclimatized and showing him around if he wanted to. She was used to seeing new places herself, so the opportunity to play guide for somebody else was excruciatingly exciting to her.

The only marring bit of the week, to her anyway, is that when she tried to watch tv a lot of her shows were getting preempted by footage of civil unrest around the world on account of the aliens. They really seemed to be throwing people into a tizzy, to the point where the news was seriously threatening to harsh her vibe. "We should film a monster fight if we get the chance." She mused one night. "People wouldn't be freaking out like this if they saw how we'd handled it."

---

_{@Gentlemanvaultboy}

A loud yawn filled the room as the disciple slowly opened his eyes. Lifting himself off the sofa-bed, he wiped his eyes and slipped on his wooden sandals. Click-clacks sounded against the wooden floor as he made his way to the bathroom to freshen up.

While the process of brushing his teeth with something other than a mint-infused tassel branch came naturally to him, his immediate surroundings were still a mystery to him.

The man continued to clean his canines, brushing vigorously in circles as last week’s memories came and went. Yuri had left prior, wishing them both a farewell with pendants that now hung around their necks. It glowed faintly in the dim morning sun, the color of ashen jade seeming its brightest at this time of day. This mission was expected to be difficult, never once thinking he’d be away from home for so long.

Upon agreeing to Luna’s suggestion, they both ended up at a wooden house that allowed the sea breeze to waft in and out of it. If he could describe the place in one word, it’d be ‘refreshing’. It was built with a unique type of wood, designed not for luxury or defense, but for comfort. A thought had occurred to him then, upon stepping foot inside the first time - he just could not remember the last time his guard was up! Of course, the fight with Sign Master came to mind, but the sense of calm his new allies brought him was something he just wasn’t used to.

Luna’s home was the epitome of peace, and it was clear to Gou that her relaxed demeanor extended to this place as well. Staying there brought a familiar feeling; not much unlike his rooftop spot back at Yuheng. However, he knew that the longer he allowed himself to relax, the more issues it would bring. As great as this new world seemed, his training came first and foremost. At the very least, should another abomination show up, he would not be caught lagging behind. The disciple had felt much respect for his martial sister in this regard - not only was she endlessly accommodating, but she took the time to train every day… even if, to him, the movements seemed strange and rather foreign. The water-based sects around the world did seem to cultivate differently.

He spat minty foam into the sink and rinsed, shaking leftover droplets of water from his face. The day was young. And since he had spent the last week being brought out to explore, then laze around the beach, he needed to make this one count for his training. With teeth and face cleaned, he slipped on his inner robes and stepped outside of the house.

Luna happened to be there, continuing her days of practice to come up with a skill that involved salmon. Thinking of salmon, Gou found it both funny and painful - he had eaten more fish in this week than he had in his entire life. Wooden sandals smushed against the sand, the warmth enveloping his toes as he approached Luna with his sword in hand. She looked calm, focused, but mostly at peace in her pursuit of the salmon ways. Positioning himself further from her, he swung, and brought a torrent of wind down with the motion. Another swipe up followed, the precise movement raising the sand as air rushed up to meet his blade. Training was usually peaceful this way.

“Elder martial sister,” the disciple kept swinging while he commented on her form. “Your salmon keeps getting better. I look forward to seeing you use it in battle!” From the looks of it, the technique was still unfinished, but it brimmed with an intense energy that only came about when one's chi was at its strongest. Could it be that these forms were the key to mastering the elements?

Gou's arms began to feel tired, but he had left mountains of sand all around. It looked awkward with the rest of the beach, so he motioned carefully to sweep the wind and level the sand back down.

“Sister Luna, perhaps we could try what you mentioned the other day-- shall we “film” our fight should the next opponent show up?” He was not sure of what this plan of his entailed, but aside from excelling in his training, he’d also like to bring something back for his Master and the rest of his sect.

Yuri enjoyed his time listening to Titus. The man's brain was extremely valuable and the man himself was kind and accepting of Yuri even though he knew he wasn't from this world. Yuri was always fascinated by technology and the degree to which they worked in the confines of the base led by Titus was amazing. The various machines doing their necessary jobs proved that with the mind anything was possible. Yuri had crossed his legs and was floating in mid-air sipping his coffee floating around the room as Titus talked.

To him, it was better than sitting in his house training. The large mansion-like house sat on the outskirts of Coral City, hidden by the beautiful flora that seemed to protect it from the outside world. Titus has helped furnish some of the technology within the house, but it was a leisurely buy that Yuri didn't regret. All the glass was bulletproof, with a security system that rivals the government. Yuri's house could easily house several of the fighters for Earth's peace. Four bedrooms decorated in a minimalist style each with its own adjacent bathroom, a beautiful open kitchen, a living room with nothing left out, and that was just the top floors, beneath the house was the dojo, the area he practiced in, and where most of Titus' technology came into play. A "danger" room that allowed for simulations to help Yuri hone his skill, a meditation room, and a weapons room.

He thought about this as he hovered close to a bookcase in Titus's office that had a picture of the house in it with Yuri sitting on top of the house. One would think Titus took pride in the work he'd put into it. Yuri smiled and turned his attention back to Titus who was still talking. Of course, the world was in an uproar about what had happened. Coral City was under attack and had the alien been successful, it would've surely spread to other parts of the world. They had a right to be upset, but sometimes things were better left in the dark where they belonged. Not everyone could handle the truth.

"Sometimes people just don't understand how fortunate they are to be in the dark and not know what's going on. Could you imagine if every time there was an attack they knew it was coming? It's better to let us handle those things. Bringing in the military and all of that only complicates it." Yuri paused to take a sip before floating over to another part of Titus' office. "But I do agree with one thing. I wish I knew the location of the ship that evades even your scanners. If we could get to it, we could remove that thorn."

Yuri's head snapped around when Titus mentioned Minerva resulting in a voice coming from the speakers in the room. Yuri scratched the back of his head at her words and smiled.

"Lovely Minerva at least someone still has a sense of humor. It's always a pleasure, now if we can get sir stick in the mud here to liven up little things will be great, but I have nothing to do today so I imagine hanging around the base will be fun. Tell me, is that grumpy guard under your employ still here? I swear that man hates me with a passion, or maybe he likes me, I never thought to ask."

---

SeaShell Bakery was not exactly old but not exactly new either. It had been around for a quite a few years but certainly not in a historical sense. The best part about the bakery was its location, with a view to Coral's marvelous beaches but far enough away that it wasn't in too much danger when a hurricane or heavy storm came in. Close enough to attract the beach crowd but far enough away to snag others as well.

The store front was quite modest, but like its name had plenty of sea decorations plastered on to make a variety of patterns and even ocean scenery. Seashell fish and octopi dotted the exterior and even some preserved seaweed was used to make a more convincing, ocean floor scene. The inside of the shop had various larger seashells on display and a few actual photos of colorful fish and ocean sunsets to add to the ambiance. It was a cozy place with plenty of breads, cakes, and ice creams to choose from, among other confections.

A somewhat hefty man was minding the registrar as other staff members worked in the back on special orders and other treats. A tourist was currently being served as they made their order at the counter.

"I'll have one fruit tart to go, a mint-chocolate ice cream cone, in a cup, and one dark-roast coffee."

"Coming right up sir!"

As the man behind the counter turned to pick up the man's requests, the tourist couldn't help but ask about some rumors.

"Say, I heard there was some monster attack just outside the city limits, kinda freaked my wife out a bit. Got the scoop on what really happened?" Of course he said scoop as the man scooped out some ice cream into a cup, no doubt the word on his mind at the time.

"Well I don't know too much considered it never got close to the city, but it was taken care of before there was too much damage so I don't think there is anything to worry about. Here are your items sir."

"Thanks, I'll have the ice cream here before I have to get back to the family. Well at least whatever it was happened outside the city so the authorities must be doing something right." With that said, the man retreated to a window table next to the picture of a clown fish hiding in some coral and took a spoon to his ice cream cup. Suddenly there was a bright light that momentarily blinded everyone in the area. When the moment had past, the man behind the counter had to blink a few times as one of the most colorful individuals he had ever laid his eyes on was in front of his counter.

It appeared to be a beautiful young woman, with pearl smooth white skin, but aside from that everything else was extremely colorful, especially her hair which had every swirl of the rainbow. He had seen a lot of interesting people in his time, but this lady certainly took the cake...perhaps literally.



"I see, so you want something freshly baked? I think a rhubarb pie should be ready in just a minute." The man tried to keep a straight face as he tried to figure out just how this woman had managed to make her dress look like a moving gingerbread house. Whoever had made it was a genius with a needle and thread.



"Everything?" The man asked not sure what exactly everything entailed. As he watched he saw the woman do something completely crazy. She plucked a peppermint earring off of her ear and popped it into her mouth and immediately a new peppermint sprouted in its place. The man had to shake his head, wondering if it had been some kind of hallucination.

"The crap is with this lady, she's tracked in a trail of mud or something on the ground!" A customer complained as they were trying to head out, when suddenly a coil of hair exploded from her head and pinned the customer to the door, the icing quickly hardening into a thick shell.



"The heck are you lady? What did you just do?" The man behind the counter could tell something was very, very wrong and had started to back up toward the kitchen to make his escape.


Suddenly everyone in the building panicked as he leapt over the counter with hardly any effort at all. They tried to make a break for the emergency side exit but before they could reach it, it too, was covered in instantly hardened frosting.



She licked her lips in anticipation as she quickly covered all the windows in icing and headed to the back of the bakery.

---

Every sweet and pastry puff had been eaten by the monster who was currently working every oven to their max potential, her mastery of confections greatly speeding up the process as she sang a certain song to the terrified employees who were all stuck in place by her powers.

As she sang, from out of the ovens kept appearing small muffin men, who quickly grew to human size and for each one, she would outfit them with various candy weapons. Candy cane staffs, rock candy clubs, jawbreaker shields, and a piece of candy from her dress that she implanted into each of their bodies.





The muffin men were soon pouring out of the SeaShell Bakery as they started to run all over the city to locate the shield generator.

Luna launched herself into the air, water enveloping the paddle of Walrus Whisker as she rose off the sand and swept it in an upward arc through the air. There was power in the blow. Passion. She knew that must be a part of it. A strength that carried you up he river, over waterfalls, to a place of safety.

There was something missing, though, as she landed back in the sand. She tucked the oar into the crook of her arm and closed her eyes, thinking. There was more to this fish, an aspect that continued to elude her. So long as she wasn't able to see that she would never be able to capture a salmons shape.

She was so deep in though she hardly noticed the increased breeze until she heard her new roommates voice calling over to her.

“Elder martial sister. Your salmon keeps getting better. I look forward to seeing you use it in battle!”

She opened her eyes to see Gou in the middle of his own training regiment, wind swirling around him to pile makeshift dunes. "I don't think it's going to make its debut for a little while." Luna replied. "There's something about this fish that it feels like I'm not getting." Maybe that was the reason Guru had sent her out to the salmon run. There was something intrinsic about the fish that he wanted her to understand.

Nevertheless a little encouragement went a long way toward convincing her to keep going for a while longer. Knocking off too early in front of someone that called her something like "elder martial sister" just didn't feel right. She was gonna at least keep at it as long as he was.

As both of them finished up practicing their particular element for the day and Gou swept up the damage he had caused to the beach he brought up something she had said in passing a couple of night ago about recording their next battle. She had walked over to a beach chair she had laid out for her bag to pull out a fluffy blue towel to dry herself off with, and as he said she instantly grinned and dived back into the bag to pull out her phone. "It's probably not as good as the camera's that were on the big guy yesterday," she said, fiddling with the touch screen as she walked up and showed him. The phone had not come away from its bump on the road totally intact and now had one long crack running down the screen but behind that you could see the sand of the beach as the phone recorded it. "With one of these, anyone can record anything so long as they point it in the right direction." She brought it up, pointing it out over the ocean. "Next time we fight a monster we can just set this up somewhere. Fun, right?"

There was a sudden commotion from down the beach, a yell breaking apart the peace, that she turned the phone to record. A couple of teenagers, probably kids just looking to have fun, were sprinting down the beach as fast as they could. It wasn't that weird, usually one or two people a day wandered this far down, but they were in obvious distress and the lead guy had a strange brown residue around his mouth.

It wasn't hard to spot what was causing them to panic. They were being chased down the beach by...by...Muffins? Two muffins, wielding giant candy canes. "Keep going kids. We've got this." She told the boys as the sprinted past. The muffin men, seeing two people much more confident than their pervious victims, skidded to a stop before the two of them and eyed them cautiously. "Kind of far from Candyland, aren't you boys? Nice of them to send two this time." Luna said, moving closer to get a more detailed shot. This triggered one of the muffin men, who swung his cane around to try and brain her. Luna jumped back, just out of range of the attack. "Actually, this is perfect." She said, turning to film Gou. "You're up, little bro. Show the world what you can do. If you think you need help just yell, baked goods are notoriously weak against water."

Titus rolled his eyes as the butterfly mage agreed with the AI, but he knew of the guard Yuri spoke of.

"Oh I don't think Agent Lorenzo hates you. More of a begrudging respect as I do believe that he considers you his rival...even if you don't." Field Agent Lorenzo M. Brooks. Graduated with top marks from the academy and was personally hand picked by both Minerva and Titus himself. Not to mention an exceptionally strong psychic even prior to his enhancements. If he remembered correctly, Enzo was still acting undercover in Coral City. The rather lax mood of the office room then was cut abruptly as the alarms were set off once again.

"Sir, multiple anomalies have been detected in the business district of Coral City. Law enforcement are attempting to mitigate the anomalies but they are being overwhelmed at an alarming rate. " Titus immediately stood up from his chair and immediately started making his way to the command room. "Sorry friend, our little moment of peace has been interrupted by the call of duty." He apologized to Yuri before issuing commands to Minerva. "Begin emergency evacuations within a six kilometer radius from the initial location and activate any undercover field agents in the area and direct them to the origin of these anomalies. Deploy all available Security Teams to assist in containing the anomalies before things get more out of hand." Titus considered authorizing the deployment of heavy duty interceptor units such as the Knights or Grizzly-1...but the looming danger to infrastructure and unnecessary endangerment of civilians was more than enough reason for him to hold off the big guns.

At least for now.

---

It was chaos.
A tide of civilians poured into the streets as they did their very best to avoid the not-so-affable muffin creatures that captured and force fed those poor unfortunate souls with confectionaries. Their cries of despair reverberated the city streets.

"No! You don't understand I'm diabeti-urk!"
"Nooo! *chew-chew* My diet! Ruined!"
"You fiends! You delicious friendly looking fiends! Oh is that the Sinfully Sweet Roll from SeaShell Bakery? Oh, YES please!"
"Run kids, run! No! Not towards the muffin things! Grah!"

"Oh dear. Quite the mess we have here..." A strange man in a business suit said before shadow creatures were upon the muffins and were devouring them with reckless abandon. The still dazed civilians looked up to their savior with both confusion and fear in their eyes. Who was this man? What were those muffin things that attacked them? And, more importantly, what the hell were those things that were eating the muffin things!? "Waitwaitwaitwait! Before you scream in fear, I'm a friend. My name is Lorenzo and I work for the government...kind of. It'll take me ages to explain but I'm here to help. So you all better split before the proper fighting begins, aight? Cool." Without question the civilians run away to safety. Wordlessly, Enzo walks deeper into the business district of the city; the shadow creatures immediately stop brutalizing and gorging themselves and follow the man in suit.

Like some twisted and macabre parade, they venture forth.

Yuri floated carefreely around the office as a child would. It was interesting how his body resisted gravity so easily. He was from one point of the room to the next and listened as Titus explained that Agent Lorenzo thought of him as a rival and didn't dislike him. It was interesting to Yuri as he stopped mid float and smirk.

"A rival you say?"

Yuri pondered over the idea of having a healthy rival and his smile was broad. The thought made him giddy with excitement for some odd reason. Maybe it was the idea that someone actually thought he was worthy to compete against. Yuri didn't think he was the strongest of anything. Every battle he'd had only improved his skill, but he never boasted as if he were the best at anything. His thoughts were violently interrupted by Minerva informing them of the intrusion in the city.

"Well, duty calls Titus. See ya later. If I were you, Grizzly-1 might be a bit much for this one. Go with the smaller-sized warriors."

A vortex of beautiful butterflies suddenly surrounded Yuri, and when the vortex subsided Yuri was gone.

==

Teleportation spells took little time to get the caster from one place to the next, but it was arriving inconspicously that was often the issue. There was always some grand display of beauty that occurred right before the caster was revealed. This time was no different. Yuri's form appeared out of a swirling vortex of flowers. He levitating, watching as what looked to be baked goods the size of a human man stormed the streets force feeding innocent humans and looked to be searching for something. Screams filled the streets as Yuri continued to levitate. It was when the muffin men caught sight of him that they started marching towards him as if he had some sort of target on his forehead.

"Strange," Yuri said as he landed and popped his neck. "This is going to be a slight workout, but it should be fun."

Yuri flicked his wrist, allowing the soft breeze produced by the fan in his hand to blow his hair gently. The muffin men came, and as they charged, Yuri met them in battle, colliding in an explosion of energy. Though they were simple henchmen, they were strong and were not to be taken lightly. Yuri maneuvered with the expertise of a master, deploying abilities he'd hidden from others. The fan sliced through the muffin men and absorbed their essence. Their shields were nearly unbreakable, and carried the strength of diamond. Their weapons sharper than the sharpest steel, stronger than the hardest rock. They used their weapons expertly, and Yuri retaliated with his own knowledge and skill.

Flipping away, he took a stance and nodded.

"That's quite enough," Yuri said as the fan shifted into a beautiful sword. He gripped it and ran his hand of the blade allowing the text to glow down the length of the blade. Yuri dashed through the many muffin men and slid to a halt. To the human eye and even the trained eye, it would look as if he hadn't moved at all. His movement was very hard to detect, and one would think he had teleported from one place to the other, but to those able to see, they would have a front row seat to his complex movement and skill. Yuri had dashed through the muffin men slicing through them in their weak points with the blade that hummed as it sliced through the air. When he sheathed the blade on his back, all of the muffin men in his path crumbled to the ground and exploded. This would gather the attention of any nearby.

"Now to find the source of these delicate monstrocities."

Yuri closed his eyes and slammed the blade of his sword into the ground. He slid his hand across the edge. Blood began to pool from the cut and Yuri began to speak.

"From the realm of Monarchs, come forth masters of the sky."

Yuri slammed his bleeding hand on the ground and a spell circle exploded with energy causing two more to replicate. From the center of the circles, beautiful butterfly winged creatures shot out encircling Yuri and releasing a powerful shriek. Seven total hovered close to Yuri waiting on an order.

"Four of you surge through the city and protect the innocent. Destroy the muffin men and ensure the city is safe. Two of you find the source of these creatures, and be careful. One of you will come with me."

Yuri mounted the back of the creature and watched as they all dispersed to do as ordered.

---

The monsters were spreading, searching for something, searching for what was being concealed from the world for its own protection. A lone individual stood in front of door, a massive, titanium door that had no way of being opened from the outside; there was no keypad, no sensors, no lock to pick or code to crack, the only way to open it was from the inside making it the perfect lock box. The door was specially designed that way in case its location was ever compromised, designed to keep intruders out at all costs.

The lone individual outside was a...secretary of sorts. It was their job to transmit any messages from inside to the proper channels. They did not know what was inside, only that there was a who, and that someone would occasionally send them text messages and instructions. The man on duty sat at a desk with a computer that was connected to a special, encrypted server designed to be untraceable. Of course often there wasn't much to do, so like any sane person, they had sneaked in some games on a thumb drive to pass the time. Just as they got to a very important jump on an extremely hard level, their phone rang and the character on screen plummeted to their death. They groaned at the interruption and looked at the phone to see a single line of text.


The secretary did a double take since he couldn't believe his eyes. Sapphire protocol hadn't been activated in almost a decade. Heck, he didn't even know what it referred to in the first place. All he knew, was that Sapphire protocol was only be be activated in times of crisis. With a sigh, he closed down his program and went to the proper access point to get in touch with his superiors. Sapphire protocol it was.

---

It was just a normal day in the office, sure there were reports of strange muffin creatures forcing citizens to get diabetes but the office was no where close to the epicenter of the chaos, with those weirdos on the case, Suzanna Delilah Everest would have nothing to worry about in the office. Suzanna went about her work, putting together papers, checking figures of all varieties, even colleagues, and using the ever sputtering copy machine like a good white-collar worker should. The work was monotonous at times, but Suzanna enjoyed the mundanity of it all. Some colleagues looked a little stressed by the reports but Suzanna didn't let it bother her in the least.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, her first thought being a request from her boss but when she saw the single line of text sent to her, she went as white as a sheet.


With the press of a button the message was deleted...but only for about five seconds before another popped in its place. With a groan she deleted that one too, but now it took only two seconds for the next to appear. After five deletes in a row then her phone started to ring.


She cursed a few times and tried to shut down the calls, but they kept on coming until she finally broke down and answered the call.



Suzanna cringed as she recognized the voice on the other end and quickly found her way to an empty storage room in the building.


Suzanna's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at the lame nickname.



Suzanna grimaced at the mention of Omega Point, the secret location that only the select few had any knowledge about. Omega Point was a location so secret because it was so integral to the defense of the entire planet from extraterrestrial threats. Admittedly it didn't do jack squat against the homebrew types of threats but usually there was enough information about those to counter those annoyances, it was the alien kind that was so hard to understand and counter.




Suzanna rolled her eyes at the metaphor and turned off her phone. Now she just had to convince her co-workers that she was suddenly sick and had to take the rest of the day off, certainly easier than having to explain she was leaving to fight angry muffins blowing their tops all over the city. This was going to be a pain, in all forms of the word.

---

Meanwhile the Duchess was continuing her factory spewing and the poor trapped humans were reaching dangerous levels of sugar overdose as they were forced to eat all manner of sweet morsel. The Duchess grinned as she tapped into her sweet network as the muffin men scattered throughout the city to spread joy to all its inhabitants, and narrow down the location of the barrier producer. On a table was a spread of hard candies ranging from fruit flavored to root beer. She peered over the candies and noticed that a few of them were already cracked apart.


Several more of the candies cracked or split open, as the matching muffin man on patrol was defeated by one of the 'heroes' trying to save the city. The candies were connected to the muffin men and the also to the Duchess Confectionary, like a transmitter of sorts, feeding her telemetry data to be sent back to the ship. As soon as a muffin man was defeated, the connecting candy broke, shed off from her connection so she wouldn't be getting any 'blank' data. From the data coming back, she was already starting to get a clearer picture of which direction the barrier device might be. If she had a bit more time, she could really make some progress and come that much closer to taking a vacation to explore all the delicacies in the world to find out which sweets were truly the pinnacle of confectionism.


With that she returned her full attention to the ovens to bake something, extra special just for Coral City to enjoy.

---

_{@Gentlemanvaultboy}

Gou was busy staring in awe at the flat piece of metal Luna pointed at the running teenagers. The tiny thing captured the scene before them in real-time, and he was just about to praise the idea until he realized something was amiss.

Behind the kids were two… he struggled to find the right words. Desserts? Men? Whatever they were, they brought with them a scent so delightfully sweet that the disciple almost began to salivate without realizing it.

“Keep going kids. We’ve got this.” It was a funny thing, seeing people run for their lives on one side, while his elder martial sister filmed so calmly on the other. He wanted to laugh, but then the scent grew even stronger-- this time, it irked him to a point he could not describe. Last week he drank a slush, and that had been enough to drive him crazy to the point of exhaustion for a while. Thank the Nine Heavens for Luna's couch-bed at that time. But this? This was too much. Sweet things are truly nice and all, but only in moderation, as he’d been taught all his life. This was straight-up disgusting!

Luna kept her cool. Perhaps such delicacies were normal in this city, save for the ones attempting to murder the two kids currently running with all they had. With the mention of a “Candyland”, she had gotten them riled up enough to attempt a strike in her direction. Gou shook his head to get rid of the stench, irritation growing as the living, breathing, walking desserts stepped up. These damn things were giving him a headache, and it had been only a couple of minutes!

“You’re up, little bro. Show the world what you can do.”

Like a dam bursting open, the disciple angrily hurled himself at the closest bread-like man. The both of them fell to the sand as his body collided against the figure with a thud. Sitting on top, he straddled the sickeningly sweet bread of a man and began to pummel it into the ground. Chunks of his opponent tore away as it got beat deeper into the sand. Colorful ornaments broke under the student’s unrelenting fists. Soon, he noticed the enemy relinquishing control of its hook-shaped weapon-- able to do nothing as it crumbled into pieces along with itself.

Gou stood up from the mess and wiped his hands, grimacing at the presence of the smell still in the air. Luna had been recording him the whole time, and so he reached a hand out to her.

“Elder sister, my turn to film. Please get rid of the other one quickly. This stench is almost physically paining me...!”

Enzo's shadow creatures cut down any of the muffin men he encountered and freeing their captives in the process. Most were grateful for the rescue, some were upset that the party was over. All of them were terrified of the creatures that rescued them and made a hasty retreat back to safety. "That could have gone better without the terrified screaming..." The masked field agent said with a disappointed but understanding tone as he slightly threw his hands up in exasperation. A voice rang through his ear from the tactical visor. "Agent Lorenzo, need I remind you that you are here to search and destroy the anomaly before it manages to deal significant damage to the city?" "Yes yes, Minerva. I haven't forgotten. It's just...difficult to play the hero when the people you save are more scared of you than the bad guys." The agent says with a disheartened shrug while a rather large shadow creature in the background lifts a muffin man skyward and rips the poor thing in twain and smashing the remains on the pavement before devouring the remains. "You have my sympathies...but please do focus on the crisis. Can't really help your public relations if we fail to protect the city." "True." With that communications go silent as he moves closer and closer to the epicenter of this disaster.

---

Strangely enough, the closer he got to the suspected origin point, the muffin men's attacks grew even fiercer than a couple city blocks before. Enzo surmised that these things weren't mindless drones wandering about aimlessly causing chaos. Something must be functioning as a hive mind and controlling the actions of these things to coordinate reinforcements to points that have the most resistance. The muffin men were near endless in their assault. Where he and his creatures cut down a score, another would easily take their place. It would seem to be an impossibly unwinnable situation but, unluckily for his foes, he too had a small army at his beck and call.

Channeling his enhanced psychic power, he summoned more and more shadow creatures to deal with the increased numbers of muffin men. "Heavier resistance? I must be heading in the right direction~." He says with a sing-song voice as he moves closer and closer to SeaShell Bakery. A patches of road stained with the gooey remains of the muffin defenders left in his wake.

Luna threw the phone over to Gou as she dashed toward the other one, tilting her oar forward and driving it into the earth before using it to launch herself at the Muffin man. It looked cocky for a moment. Luna wasn't doing a flying kick or anything. In fact, she had her arms spread wide as though she intended to grapple it. She wasn't even flying towards it, she was too high. If the dessert monster did nothing she would just pass right over him, but why would it waste the opportunity to bat his opponent out of the air? It reared back with its candy cane lie it was pinch hitter about to knock one into the stratosphere.

He took no notice of the oar, or that the water that had been swirling around the paddle had vanished. He didn't see the wet distortion in the sand, the beach soil raising slightly as it did when water travels just under its top layer. It didn't notice when the distortion settled under his own feet. He did notice when it bucked.

There was a wet explosion under the muffin mans feet as the water suddenly rose to the surface and burst with enough force to throw him into the air. He flipped like a table, tumbling backwards with his arms flailing, and as his head looked down at the beach that's when Luna caught him. She wrapped her arms around his torso, held his arms wide with her legs and drove the muffin mans head right into the beach. "Wavebreaker Style: Flounder." She said, letting go and rolling backwards back onto her feet. It didn't feel right saying it after you did the move, but you didn't really have a choice when you were going for a sneak attack.

She turned around and flashed a peace sign to Gou. "And that's a wrap. Good hustle everybody." She said, but something was nagging at her. When she had gotten up close and personal with this thing the smell had been intoxicating. Intoxicating and familiar. She looked back down at the muffing man, still and half buried in the sand, and not caring at all how weird this might look reached down to his muffiny thigh and ripped off a piece before popping in in her mouth and thoughtfully chewing.

"I know this taste!" She declared as the emergency alert on her phone suddenly sounded in Gou's hand. "This is no space muffin, he was baked on earth. Come on, we got to get to the Seashell Bakery." She sprinted back down the beach, grabbing her oar on the way as she headed for her scooter. When Gou followed, they'd zoom off toward the city.

As Monarchs flooded through the streets keeping the civilians away from the delicate pastries, but no matter how many they saved from diabetes, there were some who were grateful and some who screamed and ran away from the gentle Monarchs. A few decided to pet the Monarchs before the creatures took off into the sky to continue their job. The two that had been sent to find the source of the muffin men did in fact locate it. They hovered over the SeaShell Bakery for a moment watching as the muffin men came marching out to spread the glorious sweets that the mutant inside prepared. One of the Monarchs hovered low to get a better view, but the windows had some sort of substance on them to keep visibility low. Still, the creature picked up on subtle whimpers and cries for help from those trapped inside.

It looked at the other Monarch and lifted its head. From its maw an orb shot up into the sky like a flare and exploded, giving a signal that this was where the source resided.

Yuri moved silently on the back of the Monarch as it breezed through the street towards the source of the flare. As he surged forth, out of the corner of his eye he saw Lorenzo being followed by what looked to be masses of walking shadow, except the shadows, had claws and looked to be pulled straight from a child's nightmare. Yuri hovered closer and sighed.

"Ya know, for someone who is supposed to be undercover, it was rather easy to find you," Yuri teased, "alas if you follow the flare I'm sure you'll find the source of this infection."

Yuri's attention remained in the direction the flare had come. His Monarchs had found the source, while his other Monarchs continued to destroy muffin after muffin keeping them from the source of the Earth's barrier within Coral City, even though the Monarchs didn't know what they were protecting or the location of the device. All they knew was that Yuri, their master, had ordered them to protect civilians and destroy the muffin monstrosities, and that's what they did. Yuri unmounted the Monarch he was riding and sent it off to join the other four in keeping civilians safe. Coral city was large, and no doubt taxing to keep safe, but they were doing it.

"Try to keep up handsome," Yuri said to Lorenzo throwing a wink in his direction before dashing towards SeaShell Bakery.

---

_{MENTIONS: @Gentlemanvaultboy, @Searat Lorenzo's shadow minion, @WindsofFate's Monarch}

Gou placed a frantic effort to catch the phone, hurriedly pointing it to Luna as she flew to make short work of the leftover dessert. The student was thoroughly unfamiliar with the device, but did just as she taught him; tapping on the glass once to focus, and dragging two fingers apart to zoom in.

Suddenly, a powerful layer of water erupted from the ground and before he knew it, the bread man was in the air. In his awe, there was only a second delay as he remembered to bring the phone up to document the scene, fiddling with the zoom functions to really capture the right feeling. He watched through the screen as Luna cocooned the bread mid-air, and proceeded to lead it to its demise.

”And that’s a wrap. Good hustle everybody. The cameraman grinned, and raised her a thumbs-up. “Excellent!” he mouthed from behind the screen. The recording was going still, and soon the man’s smile formed a grimace. He cringed at the otherwise innocent scene, and lifted a hand to cover the lens for a moment-- this wouldn’t be so good for the younger disciples around the world.

“I know this taste! This is no space muffin, he was baked on earth. Come on, we got to get to the SeaShell Bakery.” Making sure not to drop the precious piece of metal in his hands, he ran awkwardly after Luna to her bigger hunk of metal and got on the move.

”Elder sister, earlier, I heard you say ”Flounder”-- right? As in the flatfish? If so, that was an amazing demonstration of such a fish’s ambush skill! I’m beginning to understand how your skills work!” Gou mused as they drove towards the city. He was learning a lot during his time outside the Sect, and for that, he was truly glad. The Yuheng Sect. set such a path for him, and him only! Abound with learning experiences everywhere you turned. With Luna’s camera, he pointed it all around him for a good view, preparing before their supposed fight. He continued this for the next 5 minutes until something caught his eye as the city drew closer.

Or rather, some things.

Surrounding them were bread-men, and the undead.

There were many of them, crowded to a point that made it difficult to drive on forward. Not only this but they were engaged in intense battle! Gou quickly hopped off the sidecar, taking care to point the camera at things he thought important. First, a random breadman’s face, and then a shadowy creature-- unfortunately, it took notice, and proceeded to slowly grin back at him. Shivers ran up and down Gou's spine as backed up slowly.

“Elder martial sister, we have to be very careful... I do--”

Then, he felt something soft behind him. Something… furry, and sturdy. Whatever stood behind him blocked all rays of the sun, casting him in a giant shadow.

At the back of his throat, his heart threatened to jump out. “Everything, is a learning experience… a learning experience--” Gou steeled himself and swung his head around, only to have been met with a face full of fur as the creature growled in response to the flustered disciple. A loud yelp echoed between the buildings, earning a hand over his own mouth. The disciple could then be seen jogging back to the scooter in an effort to stay composed in front of his Martial Elder. In the midst of building his fake confidence, he could’ve sworn he saw the creature roll its eyes. It proceeded to continue its work against the dessert army.

”...it seems that the strange creatures are occupied with keeping this part of the city safe.” Gou spoke to the water stylist, desperate to change the topic to more pressing matters to save face. Fear? This disciple knew none...

”Do we… have any idea as to where Yuri and Sir Bear could be?”

---

Luna slowed to a stop as she came upon the oddest sight she had ever experienced. The muffin men she had expected. The shadow zombies were something she was completely unprepared for. The two factions were locked in the throes of fierce, tonally noncongruent violence with one another in the streets that led to the Seashell Bakery. Their way was completely blocked, at least if they still wanted to ride.

Gou had hopped out of the sidecar to get a better shot of the conflict and had backed up out of view, but Luna quickly turned when she heard a cut off yelp thinking that a muffin or shadow might have snuck up behind them but it wasn't wither of those. It was a...well...if Luna had to put a word to it the word would be "Pokemon." A beautiful bird-lizard with brown and white feathers that, as Gou ran back to the scooter, quickly descended on another of the muffin monsters.

Gou was saying something about how the dragon-moth-bird seemed to be keeping the city safe, but she had to shake her head back into the present to pay attention. "Wha? Yeah, yeah, looks like it. Sorry I'm just...wow...when I woke up this morning I didn't live in a world of cosmic fantasy." She said, watching the thing rip a muffin man out of a shadows arm and bite a chunk out of its chest.

At the mention of finding Yuri and Grizzly she was brought back to considering the battle in front of them as a problem instead of a spectacle. "They're probably smart enough to head in the direction we're going. I'm surprised we haven't heard Grizz already, honestly. Maybe-"

He thoughts were interrupted as an orb of light shot up into the sky and exploded right near where the bakery was. "Looks like the beat us to it. No way we're getting through there on this. Time to run." She said, hopping off the scooter and grabbing her oar and a bottle of water from the sidecar. She popped the cap and doused the paddle to get a good layer of water started, then ran forward and jumped into the battle. Literally.

Luna took a flying leap and managed to land right on a shadows shoulders, bouncing off and onto the back of the dragon before sliding off its back and onto the street. Most of the muffin men and shadows seemed preoccupied by one another, but there were a couple of muffins that didn't have dance partners and one of those ran at woman with a raised rock-candy club. It brought the club down as Luna dove under it, the force of the blow shattering the asphalt of the street. It began to turn, but Luna had already swung her oar back. The whirling waters sliced through the muffin mans leg like a river through gingerbread and sent the man tumbling onto the street where it was an easy target for its shadowy opponents. Strangely enough the shadow men didn't seem too interested in living flesh though whether that was because the were friendly or their chosen prey was just tastier she couldn't know. Nevertheless, she kept an eye on them as she moved forward trusting Gou to keep up.

---

It was a relatively quick run, weaving between combatants and dealing with whatever muffin broke away to try its luck against them, until they turned a corner and stepped into a pile of moist muffiny sludge that made Luna regret that she wore sandals everywhere.

The whole street was like that though, covered in what could only be taken as muffin man viscera. Candy weapons lay in the street where they fell, and from out of the various buildings that lined the street fearful faces could be seen peeking out through the windows and glass doors. "Somebody was busy." Luna mused, impressed. She looked up the street and saw, at the end of it, a deep dark blob. That was the way to the bakery, so she pressed on in that direction.

As they approached the sounds of battle grew ever more loud and Luna realized that the dark blob was more of those shadow men. If what they had passed through to get here was a battle than this was full on war, a tide of shadows and muffins crashing against one another. In the middle of it, hard to make out from the rest due to his dark suit, seemed to be a man. Seemed to be, only because he had on a equally dark gas mask and looked to be commanding the shadows. "Yooooo!" Luna called as she began to run towards him and the battle he was evidently winning.

The agent paused his stride as he heard a familiar voice. Glancing above him he saw the youthful visage of his sworn rival Yuri, the butterfly magus. The magic user teased him about his lack of subtlety and even going so far to give the field agent one last teasing taunt questioning his capabilities before dashing off to SeaShell Bakery. "Bet your glittery ass I can keep up! I'm one of the FDN's finest! You hear that butterfly boy?! FINEST!" Lorenzo yelled at the distant form of Yuri as he shook a hand at him in defiance against the other's well intentioned teasing just as he noticed a strangely adorable chimera creature composed of a dragon, butterfly, and bird. "You're one of his lackeys, right? Then bear witness to my heroic prowess!" He emphasized with an accusatory finger point before pouring more and more of his psychic power into amplifying his psychic links to the existing shadow creatures to empower them and attract more paranormal beings for him to make use of. In mere moments, the small army of shadow creatures nearly doubled in number.

The number now was more than what he was advised to drag into this plane of existence by Minerva, but to hell with it. His pride couldn't willingly let himself be outperformed by his rival...well self-proclaimed rival. His great psychic power acted as a beacon for all sorts of nasty things that went bump in the night. For most psychics this would be a cruel curse, to be forever haunted by these malevolent entities and never lose the attention. But to Lorenzo, this was his greatest strength. He was akin to a dream catcher for spirits, allowing those innocent souls respite and a way to cross over while putting the malevolent ones to work. Poetic actually. Making nightmares face nightmares.

But it seemed that Enzo was pushing himself a little too hard as he started to smell ozone, his vision going hazy, and a slight metallic taste in his mouth. But if he wanted to protect the city, he'd have to go further...though before he could push himself any harder, fate smiled upon him and distracted the overly zealous agent in the form of Luna. She called out to him and broke his focus. 'Aquarius is here, and, if their information was correct, Lycan should be with her as well...but where was he?' The agent thought to himself and thought to the FDN's files regarding them. Two martial artists, one with an ability to manipulate water at her whim and another from a secretive sect that can polymorph into a wolf. He should be careful with his interaction with them.

Then he realized that he had been staring at her blankly for nearly a minute. "Ah Sorry...got other things on my mind. Name's Lorenzo. Class III Psychic and Field Agent. You can call me Enzo." He tried to pull off a cool pose but felt that it was a little intimidating and promptly stopped. "Sorry. Still working on my heroic pose."

---

_{mentions: @Gentlemanvaultboy @Searat}

The disciple took off immediately after Luna, sprinting quite a distance behind her to give her room as she took out stray breadmen. For a moment he felt grateful as the road effectively cleared up but was soon distracted at the sight ahead. Beyond them were masses of black and brown, each mob tearing the other to shreds as they shrieked and groaned to form a messy chorus. Chaos! He ran faster into the fray, quickly beginning to run out of breath. A fast runner indeed-- but his stamina as a man was subpar compared to his beast form.

The phone in his hands was capturing all sorts of blurs and afterimages. Still, Gou hoped he'd managed to film something good on the way, recalling Luna taking out the breadmen. At this thought, he sped on forward to catch up to her.

Gou had arrived just in time to see a gas-masked man strike a strange, almost threatening gesture at his elder martial sister.

"Hey!" the runner was out of breath, but was ready to defend if need be. His hands held up the camera, and through the screen he noticed the pose was gone the next second. Clearly, the man meant no harm... but there must have been a good reason for him to be standing in the middle of the battlefield so casually. Gou tucked the phone into his side for a moment to glare into the mask's eyeholes, then at the scene before them. The shadowy figures were relentless in their pursuit of the breadmen, and vice versa. Though, there was something truly strange about these creatures.

The breadmen had a life force; the monstrous figures did not.

Gou's eyes widened at the realization, taking a step forward to the man to properly look at the masked figure. In the cultivation world, there were only very few masters they had heard of who could perform such a feat. They were extremely powerful, but also highly misunderstood. This was a mysterious type of cultivation, and everyone who attempted it ended up having entire Sects against them simply because of fear. In time, they had disappeared from the cultivation world entirely.

Was it possible that this man could have been part of that lineage? As for the matter at hand-- his intentions were in the right place. Gou would not make the same mistake as his predecessors, and so his mind opened to wholly accept their new ally.

"Demonic cultivator, my name is Gou. It is an honor." the disciple gave him a deep bow, then straightened up to extend his sword in a quick motion, stabbing through a breadman attempting to sneak up behind the masked figure. It felt much denser than the last one he'd destroyed. "The breadmen seem to be getting stronger-- let us all continue on to the beacon!"

---

A good chunk of the deployed muffin men had already been trampled, smashed, or devoured and it certainly showed in the amount of decimated candies inside the Bakery. Mistress Confectionary pursed her lips together in annoyance at the turn of events. The enemies defeating her minions were getting closer and closer, meaning her time crafting the perfect sweets to share with the world was soon coming to an end.


The monster quickly scooped up a ton of material from storage which was instantly absorbed into her own body. She set a few of of muffins to complete the baking process while she headed outside to see who would show up. Of course she didn't actually need to see them, her senses were connected through the muffin men as long as they were still functioning. Something caught her eye as she looked up and noticed the monarchs hovering above, acting as beacons to locate her headquarters.


Lifting her hands up to the sky suddenly streams of frosting burst forth from her hair, creating a sticky net which wrapped itself around a majority of the monarchs in the area. The net quickly hardened and soon a giant clump of monarchs came crashing down to the street below with a splat, struggle as they might the net just got stickier and stickier until the monarchs couldn't move at all.


Suddenly the monster started to throw hard candies into the guts of the nearby muffin men and suddenly everyone was carrying a souffle that hadn't risen yet.


One of the muffing men nearest to the shadow creatures threw the souffle at them. They easily dodged and it fell to the ground, for a second nothing happened, but within a flash the souffle started to raise at and extraordinary rate, quickly enveloping the nearby creatures. Instead of the shadows devouring the sweets as before, the sweets had started to devour the shadows, or at least the souffle bombs. Once a souffle had reached the size of a small truck it would burst, revealing nothing inside except the shell of a souffle, with no trace of whatever had been enveloped by in.


Mistress Confectionary laughed, the laugh of overconfident ladies with amazing vigor, so much so it somehow managed to echo down the streets. It was truly terrifying to watch as small trickle of chocolate syrup started to eek out of the side of her mouth, like saliva from a salivating person thinking of their next bite.

"Demonic what now?" Enzo said with slight confusion to what the Yuheng agent said. The psychic looks to the bowing Gou scratching the back of his head to emphasize the cluelessness of what a demonic cultivator was; only to quickly jump aside as the younger man suddenly thrust his sword at his direction. He was quite glad that he only managed to draw out his Hummingbird Self-Defense Pistol when he noticed that a muffin man drone with Gou's sword ran through it. He was about to thank Gou and apologize for pulling a gun on him when another muffin man drone came to attack. Gou didn't need to intervene this time, despite its small size, the Hummingbird had good reason why it is the preferred sidearm of any agent or security officer of the FDN. Made nearly completely out of a synthetic wonder material developed in the labs of the FDN, the Hummingbird SDP is an electromagnetic coilgun puts the stopping power of a high caliber rifle into the compact ultra light form of a pistol.

It was safe to say that there was little left of the muffin after Lorenzo dumped his entire magazine into it.

Two managed to sneak past his defensive line of minions? How? He had bound double the original amount of nightmares. Then he saw it. "What the..." Was the only words Lorenzo was able to say while looking at multiple giant soufflés the size of a van absorbing a number of his creatures and promptly exploding and knocking him back a couple meters. The enemy forces now had a means of countering the numbers of his own small army. It didn't help his mood now that he could hear the xeno life-form's smug laughter. "Change of plans. We need to deal with the alien before I pass out from the psychic strain." Lorenzo said before, without a moment's hesitation, bolstering the number of shadow creatures on field and spearheading the assault on the bakery.

He could feel warm liquid running down his face from his nostrils. He had burst a blood vessel. Not a good sign.