"There seems to be a rebellion forming under our noses… literally right at our front door. Have we been so careless to neglect the proper defenses?"
"Ahaha, of course not! Of course, these children do have that insolent disgust about them, yet, they are intriguing, aren't they? If even one of them persists, we may still be able to use him for that ultimate goal."
"Indeed. And so, that is your mission. Destroy the repetitive children that still come our way to challenge the might of God. Use your angelic wings to come and strike them down… from infiltrating our divine domain…"
"It'll be my pleasure, my Kings."
The rulers that controlled from the shadows the way a puppetmaster would with his strings had sunk their cancerous fangs into the skin of an angel. Dark blue eyes to mimic that of the Old World's Emperor, stepping out the darkness so the door would automatically disclose itself behind him. The Hawk King, formerly the ruler of an entire Empire, had been resurrected by the unknown mastery of the Order's magicks- but not only that. Helplessly resorted to nothing but a pawn at the hand of the most pathetic organization in the World's history... the power Hanniel Griffith commanded. Was it strengthful enough to hold the strength of these descendants back?
Even he had doubts about his skills. But what choice did he have? Could he possibly flee? Of course not. There was no other path but the one ahead, for Griffith had made the choice when he accepted to keep living when that head of his... was reattached to his slender build. That book of spells revealed its contents, a surplus of words scattering pages, that meter stretched above the spread text: 1,000 - 1,000.
How much would he spend at the end of this spat? Only time could tell. Grinding to a halt from the way he stopped himself, the plethora of monitors surveying the insides of this scraper all read the same scenario. Shedding himself of the coat he'd donned so his angelic wings would reveal themselves from within his spine, unnaturally contorting to widen so the feathers could pop tenfold, the slightest wince exited his bloody lips.
'A cruel, hideous evil, infamous in this kingdom, open in their cruelty. It sinks its fangs into its subjects' abject abandon. I can't help but wonder if in any world, Old or New... the cycle will ever end.'
Ace left a trail of red lightning in his wake, coursing through the stairways to leave nothing but rubble on the steps, guards flying off the sides for their heads to crack open like coconuts once shattering against the floor. Natalia just jumped over one body then continued to follow Katie once resuming her sprinting, carefully timing her breaths with her legs' natural rise and fall.
"This is so damn nasty," Natalia whispered, taking a scrunchie out her sleeve to put it in between her teeth, "Not wastin' any shampoo to wash this hair..."
"Kim, go with Nat! June, with Jeff!"
Katie's command echoed through their ears, Riot's members immediately nodding their nods, turning their legs' trajectories to the directions assigned. Legs leaping right into the air, spinning around the Blade to pierce the side of the spiraling stairway with the tip, Kate flawlessly transitioning to follow the King up the stairs. Even now, differing her partnership to another, Natalia couldn't help but stare up at the silhouette of her savior's daughter vanish around the corner. That look of hers, lingering ever so slightly, momentarily disappearing... was filled with hope. For the future not only for the fate of the Karlo legacy but that mask with a black beak that stabbed so far to the skies it revealed the hidden gates of the Heavens- no doubt, she would be a worthy successor to that throne.
Ace had reached the end of the stairway, stationed guards standing idle with useless rifles pointing down the corridor, clicking off the safety, the MRG enforcers pushed the trigger the second those crimson lightning bolts shone over their uniforms' visors.
'These guys're fast for humans. Too bad they're weaklings.'
Even with this advanced form of humanoid reflexes, the Scarlet King's power was beyond normalcy's domain, honing skills to the limit, for the sake of his mission.
'Even if you have to gnaw your way through... Live.'
Maybe that voice calling out to him in the back of his mind was his father, maybe his guilty conscience reminding him that the exploding balls of blood and guts had families to come home to. Whatever it was, turning his head even the most miniature amount, the Scarlet King couldn't help but register the world around him as a blur. Then again, maybe that was natural, seeing as how quickly he was moving, so much so that he could feel his legs manifesting to splatters of their former glory.
The door was smashed through with his shoulder, aching of muscles below sending a shock into his nerves, feeling his soles grind to a halt like tires on a car... Ace took a big inhalation, then pushed it all out.
"You okay?" His female cousin asked worriedly, to which he nodded, searching around rapidly with Divergence's Eternal Sight, analyzing his whereabouts.
Darkness was what enveloped them both, like the curtain of night, had descended onto the world for the trillionth time, the truth turned unknown to Katie's naked eyes. The duo needn't speak any further, their backs slapped together like a sandwich's double-sided bread, Moon branding the Blackened Blade, Ace's aura flowing as calm as a river's casual downward stream to slide right under his sneakers.
"We're not alone," Ace alerted his relative with a whisper, "I count maybe... huh?"
"What's wrong?" Kate asked the ginger, slightly glancing back, then scanning her darker surroundings to her front again,
"This can't be right. I only sense... one enemy."
The spotlights flickered on, they were put on stage, the audience watching from their wooden seats clasped together. Ace and Katie turned their heads in sync, for it wasn't a metaphor. Before their eyes, it was like their bodies had been transported across the Capital to a deserted auditorium. Spotlights illuminating their white faces, red curtains with a clamoring crew readying for an eventual performance destined to play out behind, Ace's pupils as crazily as a rabbit's rabid hopping.
Maybe a half-second passed before he concluded following his scan:
"This is the weirdest shit I've ever seen. It's like we don't exist in this world. I can't sense June or anyone else's signatures, not even any humans."
Ace and Katie were driven to turn for a second time, this time, not to a source of energy alighting suddenly, but to a sound. The dramatization of palms repeatedly gradually slapping against each other, all belonging to the man standing atop the spotlights.
"How impressive. I can wholeheartedly say that I'm surprised you managed to survive this long. After all, being in my mere presence is enough to shatter the spirits of any other human. Well, a human with no concept of life energy, that is."
"Some throw-away side character. Katie, slice him to pieces," Ace instructed coldly, Kate witness the tones of his vocals, raw without remorse.
Her hand tightened against the Blade, katana's edges coursing with black energy surrounding the dark metal, Katie aimed it right above at the enemy.
"Ah, ah, to the contrary, my friend! I'm but a double- a self duplicating one, at that! Killing me wouldn't do anything because… well, in truth, you can't kill me anyway." The shadow man teased, for even with the silhouette of his figure barely visible, he stuck out his tongue from between his lips in a teasing motion.
"You're… not one of the Bureau's puppets, are you?" Ace deduced, helping Kate put the weapon down with one hand, hand against the blade's blunt portion, "If you are who I think you are, then why are you doing this? Why help the Bureau do anything?"
"Heh. Isn't it obvious?" The shadow man peeked into the light for maybe a second, not enough to reveal his whole face, but his skin color, and his eyes… he was white, and they were black, "To breed more chaos."
Ace noticed one thing about this man's reply, that he didn't reject anything of what he'd suspected. If he and Wilder were on the same page, and the shadow was who he suspected it was… then that would be:
"You don't plan on hurting us, do you? You're only keeping us in here until the time is right, aren't you?"
"Bingo."
"But what's the point of that? Why would you want us to be kept in here and not do anything… we're dangerous to you!" Katie cried, searching for a reasonable answer.
"June Wilder. Kima Myers. Darrell Jefferson. A storm is brewing, one you will all become entangled within. When that time comes, there will be chaos raining from the skies to claim the throne of the World, no doubt about it. I want it to be properly chaotic… as it should be," The shadow explained with a hand against his chest, calmly allowing time to take its natural course, "And for that to occur, the strongest variables need to be locked away. Don't ruin the development of the others, alright?"
The clock was spiraling in a never-ending typhoon they were trapped within, Kate plopped onto her bottom, Ace leaning against the curtains as he rested against the stage. The lurking shadow vanished at the end of his explanation, and just off in the distance, there he was, allowing the wind to manipulate his hair's flow. Icarus Chrollo, agent of chaos, resident wildcard, and Jester, couldn't contain his excitement for the coming spats ahead. Sinister laughing bellowed from his cracked lips to resound throughout the alleys littered with dead bodies of rioters, chests engraved with bullet shells. For even though this maniacal laughter continued through the depths of this Capital, they continued to destroy and chaos continued to reign.
To Be Continued.