The Finale: Return of the Dark Days

NEOPH

Neoph could feel that hidden rage in the depths of his heart begin to boil. Every muscle in Neoph's body tensed up. "With all due..." He said through gritted teeth only to be interrupted by Hunter. Perhaps that was a good thing, as the sudden distraction served well to soothe Neoph's anger. Hunter was always confusing to him. He struck Neoph as the type of person he would rather avoid, but still, there was something about him that actually made Neoph like him. "Very well then. We'll do the teams your way." Neoph turned to the rest of those gathered. "You heard him. Form up."

-----------------------------------

In the Forest North of Roland's Ford...

(Forgot to add the boss information. Will do so from this post forward.)
The creature shrieked after receiving a heavy blow from Kala. It turned to her and let out another roar, lunging at her with surprising quickness and lashing out with both of its left swords, catching her on the side and delivering two sizable gashes.

Spoiler: Information

Defeat the Mute!

Mute HP: ???/???
Kala HP: 21/21

Battle:
Kala attacks the Mute for 5 damage.
The Mute attacks Kala for 2 damage.

Kala HP (end of turn): 19

 

Hunter was thinking things through very carefully. "Alright. Lance, you're in the second group. You go with him, mute A" he said, pointing to Hexin's character. "Aello, you look like a fairly beefy guy so you can tank for them, and Neoph can lead you guys. Mute B...Specter? Ana, and Aedion you guys are with me. Can't have the two mutes together, and I can't have you murdering Lance instead of me, Aedion. I called dibs years ago. And well Ana I'm sure you'll make a lovely cheerleader. You've got the legs for it, I can tell you that much" he complimented, organizing the teams.​

 

Ana glowered, her face flushing with embarrassment. "You've got the legs for it?" She repeated, her hand going to her weapon strap before she realized she had left her scythe at home. Like an idiot. Instead her hand found the book, still somehow attached to her waist.

Hoping to catch Hunter off guard, she grabbed the book by the spine and hurled it towards the man in a moment of immature frustration.
In retrospect, he seemed more bark then bite, and anything was better then being teamed up with Lance.

She would reach this realization in a few seconds. Until then, she watched as the book soared through the air, towards Hunter's face.

Kala didn't register the injuries as she leapt up into a tree, escaping those damaging claws. She used the propulsion to bounce off the bough and back at the monster, slashing through one of those deadly arms before rolling across the ground.

Landing in a crouched position, she quickly checked the state of her injuries before turning her focus back on the monster. They were hardly life threatening, the gashes, but the pain would be an annoying reminder of her clumsiness when it finally penetrated the adrenaline and blood lust.

Gripping her sword tightly, she darted forward and underneath, slashing at the legs before racing for cover, hoping to avoid grievous injury from any retaliation attacks.

 

Higure's feet were getting sore from all this standing. While the Adults talked he merely made his way to a table next to the man with blue hair whom Hunter; as most people were referring to him, had called Specter. Apparently Specter was a mute even though he had just spoken not too long ago. Besides, Higure also isn't mute and Aedion could testify to that. A small sigh escaped the young lad, letting feet dangle in the air while he sat there patiently.

Lance, Aello, and myself. At least I know someone in my team...

Most likely he'd have to talk to Lance at one point or another during their mission. Lance wouldn't be the spitting image of Hunter when it came to personality. That was a hopeful thought, however. He could always be far worst. While people talked, Higure looked around for any sign of food. Whether a doorway that led to a kitchen, hallway, or just a snack lying around. Stomach was grumbling a lot now.

 

Zeal couldn't help but to stifle a laugh at Aedion remark to Neoph's plan. it was good for a quick laugh. That was followed by a new organization of the groups, this time it was provided by Hunter. Once again he had no problem with the group cause he knew very little about the people to like or dislike them.

He'd chosen to ignore Hunter's mute remark and consider which assignment to go one. Naturally he'd prefer to go on the recon mission, but he didn't know just how well the new team would work on a mission that required stealth. Namely Hunter. "This group could go on recon while the other interrogates." He'd recalled what Aedion said about sending the nicer, more approachable people on to the guard and from his view point most of them seemed that way. Well all but one. So it appeared that both groups would have a black sheep in their missions.

 

Hunter was about to speak and explain the plan, but then he'd had a book thrown into his face and slam open right on a very interesting page. "Holy shit, she actually reads porn. I didn't even know people still read porn. It's way better to just up and screw someone rather than read about it isn't it? Like listen to this: 'Angela lifted her leg up and onto the bed, showing her lover her exquisitely smooth and slender legs. She watched as his eyes went over every inch of her wet, naked body, and then she knew; he was hers'. Sounds boring as hell doesn't it?" Hunter questioned.

He then cleared his throat. "Right, a plan. Well, first step is for Aedion to stop hitting on Ana. She's a human being man, treat her like one. She isn't just a piece of fine ass, she has emotions. Your gentlemanly act isn't fooling anyone, especially not me. I'm an expert at hitting on women, you make it way too obvious" Casonova himself said. His voice was as sweet as an angel's, with his looks matching. At least, that's what he thought. "After he's put his tiny pee-pee away, we'll have the teams split into groups like Neoph suggested. He had the right idea, but the wrong people. One team does recon, the other searches for clues. I'll say my team's team one, and the rest of you guys are team two. Sound good? Good" Hunter explained. God he was good at his job.​

 

Ana smirked with satisfaction as the book hit its intended target, only to frown as he began to read from it. She had stolen a book about porn? That's what she had risked life and limb for? She mentally shrugged, though disappointment coursed through her veins, along with quickly fading anger. It had better be good porn, then. She was distracted from her thoughts by Aedion introducing himself in the most gentlemanly way. She blushed slightly, having never been treated so nicely by a male in her entire life. "Pleasure is mine." She murmured after frantically wracking her brain for the proper response.

It must have been the current company rubbing off on her that she didn't think there was any motive behind the gesture. Or perhaps it was just Aedion himself, giving off the very transparent aura that this gesture was one of politeness and nothing more. For either thought, she didn't mind. It was wearying, trying to be so wary of her comrades, of the people around her all the time. And these people were going to be her comrades.

"Hunter, you shouldn't let yourself get so jealous. It's not good for you." She smirked inwardly, deciding to test her opinion of him. "It'll make your hair fall out at a young age." Go for the vanity. She turned to Aedion. "My name is Teliana. But Ana will work just fine." She said, using her entire first name for the first time in months, perhaps years. It seemed to proper time to do it, or perhaps her mind had just been ready to accept that part of her again. She didn't want to delve too deeply into the psychology of it right now. It didn't occur to her that her last name was conspicuously missing.

"Before we go on the mission, I have to go somewhere. Grab my weapon." She admitted, reaching out the snatch her book back from Hunter's hands. "I'll take that, if you're done spoiling the good parts for me." She informed him with a wicked glare. Just because she thought she had his measure didn't mean she had to play nice. Or by the the rules. And she didn't trust him. Definitely didn't.

 

NEOPH

"Alright, they seem to be getting alo--" Neoph was interrupted by Ana throwing a book at Hunter. "Now, Ana, I don't think that's really..." He trailed off as Hunter began reading from the book. Neoph's cheeks began to turn pink. "Um... my team! M-Move out! Let's go!" Neoph rushed out of the hall in a hurry, not wanting to hear anymore of the novel. Finally outside, he calmed down a bit, stopping right outside and waiting for the rest of his team. "Real smooth." He grumbled. Once everyone was outside, he began to go over the game plan. "Alright, from here, we'll head down to the coast and requisition a boat. Once we do that, we can probably row to King's Island within a couple of hours. After we dock, we'll head to the scene of the attack and begin our search there. Is everyone armed? Like I mentioned, the largest concentration of Nobodies is there, not to mention our mystery man."

In the Forest North of Roland's Ford...

The creature let out another shriek as Kala sliced through one of its legs. The pale appendage fell to the ground before dissipating into nothing. The creature stumbled a bit at the sudden loss of support, but quickly recovered. It cried a horrific cry of anger and lunged at Kala's cover. It ripped through it like a blood crazed animal and began wildly swinging its blades. Four of the eight slashes missed, but Kala had four cuts, three of which were shallow, another that was deep and would certainly need tended to after the battle was done.

Spoiler: Information

Defeat the Mute!

Mute HP: ???/???
Kala HP: 19/21

Battle:
Kala attacks the Mute. Critical hit! 10 damage.
The Mute uses "Psychotic Dance"! 5 damage.

Kala HP (End of turn) : 14
Mute HP (End of turn) : 20

 

It would appear that in mist of the book throwing, porn reading and bickering between Hunter and Aedion that his words were completely lost. This was one of the reasons he preferred to do things alone. There was no risk of being held back by less capable people. There was nothing that could be done about it now, so Zeal folded his arms across his chest and reclined slightly in his seat. Maybe things would pick up once Ana got back.

 

Spoiler

Ana blushed at Aedion's comments, but felt pleased at his words. When had been the last time someone had asked her name? Had complimented her name? Well, to be fair, Neoph had only a few hours ago, but still, point made. She crossed her arms, tapping her foot as she quickly decided whether she should allow Aedion to follow her to Neoph's house. It wasn't like she had a weapon, but wasn't this place supposed to be safe? She frowned, biting her lip. In the midst of the commotion, there had been one member of their group who had not yet been introduced.

She glanced at Specter, then sighed. Had to start somewhere. "Hi, I'm Ana." She introduced herself to the silent, though not intimidating character. "Why don't you come with us? I won't be long, and then we can go do whatever we need to. That way we're all together." She winced at her supposed to be encouraging speech. She needed to work on her people skills. "I guess, if you want to come with Aedion, I promise I'll make it fast." She would have been faster if she hadn't been such an idiot and left her weapon at home. Her weapon. What the hell kind of warrior was she?

Without waiting for a reply from Hunter, she threw him a glare before turning on her heel and striding out of the room. Cheerleader my as[italics]s[/italics]. If he thought so highly of her, then he wouldn't have a problem following her to Neoph's home to get her weapon. Would he? She nearly hesitated, a moment of doubt creeping into her mind. What was she doing? Leading people she barely knew to a home that wasn't hers? But the second passed and she kept walking, not looking back to see who was following. Because if she had turned, and seen that no one was coming with her, she might have lost all courage.
She didn't want to be defenseless anymore.

Spoiler

Kala felt that last one, but the pain only succeeded in fueling her battle lust. Yes, she would pay for it after, and yes, she made need more then a stiff drink and a good bed, but right now, she still remained in her element. Leaping up, she tried to surprise the creature by going on the attack, so soon after being wounded. Most creatures would try to stop, take stock of their situation and reevaluate. Kala was none of those. She sliced upwards in a stroke that made her arms tremble with effort, slashing at the creature with all of her strength. There was no doubt, this was a strong enemy. But she would be damned if she was going to go down without a fight. Blood splashed on the ground at her feet, but she ignored it, sliding underneath the creature's arms and cutting horizontally, in her mind hoping that the effort was enough to nearly cut the creature in half.

It wasn't at all realistic, but it would be pretty awesome to see.

 

Zeal wasn't expecting someone to speak to him, nevertheless he responded to Ana's introduction. "Feel free to call me by my actual name, Zeal." He didn't give out his last name for he saw no reason to do so. Most people were still going to call him Specter, which was fine. "Sure, beats sitting around here waiting." Zeal said, getting up from his seat. He headed out the door behind Adeion as he continued to be gentlemanly towards Ana.

 

For the last five minutes, Hunter had stood still in a frozen state of shock and fury. That guy. Like who the hell did he think he was? You can't just insult a man's manhood and get away with it, especially when he was just promoted to the boss temporarily. Hunter thought about his words though, surprisingly. What if he was right? What if...what if he wasn't full of it? Hunter drew upon the memories of him taking a shower, the memories of him standing before a mirror and thinking 'damn I look fine tonight', and dismissed the idea that Aedion had a brain almost immediately. He then did the only other thing he could think of. He formulated a plan.

Hunter nodded as though he'd listened to everything. "Good plan, good plan. I agree entirely. Lets get this party started" he said, before racing off after Aedion. He found him nearby Ana. Of course he was near Ana. Was Hunter a little jealous? Hell no, not even a little bit. He just...it was improper conduct. Yeah, that's what it was. It was harrassment! And if anyone knew harrassment, it was Hunter! So racing in front of both Aedion and Ana, he then dropped his sword on the ground. "Ana, for your own sake I suggest you close your eyes for about ten seconds. I'll give you three seconds to do that" he advised, barely able to believe he'd just said that.

He waited three seconds, and then he undid the belt around his waist and let his pants fall down. He wasn't wearing any underwear of course, he liked to go full man mode twenty four hours a day. "DOES THIS LOOK MINISCULE TO YOU YOU SON OF A WHORE?!" he exclaimed, releasing all of his pent up anger in that one moment. And for all those who are curious, it was most certainly not miniscule. He then pulled up his pants and fixed up his belt, before glancing at Ana. He wasn't sure if she'd looked or not, but it didn't really matter. The fact her mind was still intact was probably a sign she hadn't looked. Any female who had gazed upon the awesome would have surely had her mind blown.

Hunter cleared his throat. "Aedion, this is an important operation. You need to keep it in your pants, and you need to leave this poor lady alone. A woman of such exquisite beauty has no time for the likes of us or our attempts to court her. You claim to be being a gentleman, but if that were the case then you wouldn't be trying nearly so hard as you are. Keep things professional. This isn't a request, this is an order from your new boss" Hunter said, his mouth curving into an ever-so-slight smirk. That sounded just like something Neoph would say in this situation didn't it? He wasn't entirely sure...he hadn't really paid enough attention to figure it out. If all else failed, maybe Hunter could ship him off to North Korea and then Aedion would be eaten like the pussycat he was.

Not spiteful in the slightest. Strictly professional, of course.​

 

Spoiler

Ana blinked. Then blinked again. Somewhere in her mind her thoughts stuttered to a stop, and she felt her breath catch in her throat, her cheeks flushing with blood.
Nope. Not today. Not gonna happen. She turned on her feel as Aedion was replying to Hunter's protestations. "Spect-I mean Zeal." She didn't look at him, her face still beet red with embarassment, and something else. "Let's leave the boys to their alone time."

That was how she left Aedion and Hunter to battle in the streets, for whatever reason they deemed fit, as she strolled away quickly, towards Neoph's house. She didn't say a word the entire walk, fuming about what she had just seen. She hadn't been planning on listening to Hunter, but now she wished she had. Or did she? Who knew. She was nowhere near ready to go anywhere close to that particular part of the body for a long long time, nor the male it was attached to.

Her scythe was leaning up against the frame of the porch. She grabbed it and gave it an experimental twirl, her wounded arm aching but a smile catching on her face in spite of herself. She felt comforted by the familiar weight, and let the pole rest in both hands as she turned back.

"Should we wait for them, or go out on our own?" She asked, hoping Zeal was there to answer but more then happy to talk to herself, letting her hands grip the wood tightly before relaxing. Luckily, none of her injuries seemed to damage the muscle, and despite her weariness, she would be able to do some damage if it came to battle. As much as she hoped it didn't.

 

Boredom. That's exactly what had afflicted the young Higure as he sat at the table. Blue irises hid themselves under the large wizard. Nothing was going on, simply nothing. They were getting nowhere as Adults were bickering like little children while he sat there in hunger. Eyes rolled in disappoint as a large sigh escaped him, shaking his head while the adults finally made some progress with their so called plan by walking out of the building. Good. The young boy; not minding the other adults who were left in the house, got out of the table and simply made himself at home, making it a priority to look for the kitchen; he just had to eat something. It did not take long for him to find the area in the house, and to begin ransacking the place. He had to pull up a chair in order to climb the counter, and as he did so he made his way with the snacks he found. H'oh boy, he was being a fat ass, however in his defense he was a young adolescent. Food was necessary for the growing boy.

Tush sat on the counter, and little legs dangled themselves while he ate some paopu crackers calmly, finally relieved to be chowing down. Mmm, finally something to eat.

 

When Hunter had prepared to basically call bullshit at Aedion insulting his manhood, Zeal did the one thing any man who wanted no part of it would do. Turn his head to the side. He wasn't involved in this at all and would much prefer to keep it that way. Zeal had kept his head turned to the side until he'd heard Aedion speak. It was probably safe to turn back to face in front of him when Hunter had tried to play things off, but it was waaaaay better to be safe rather than sorry in this situation.

At Ana's offer, he shrugged before following behind her. Seeing that her weapon was a scythe, Zeal was a bit surprised. He didn't think many people would use one. Mainly cause back at his village he was the only one to actually pick a scythe as a weapon and be actually good at it. That however was inside the village, out of it was fair game it appeared. "Didn't think your weapon would be a scythe." He remarked, before thinking about the options provided before him. Hopefully Aedion's and Hunter's fight wouldn't take too long. "How bout we wait for them for a bit. If they take too long, we go on without them."

 

Spoiler

"Do I look like the sword type?" Ana asked, trying to go for humor as she reached over her head and slipped the scythe into the sling/holster. "I suppose that's fair." She replied to his second question, finding a safe looking wall to lean on and rest her head. She was still tired, having been unable to sleep before going to the meeting. Couldn't hurt anything now, could it?
"On second thought, I'm going to take a quick nap." She told Zeal with a soft smile. "Just yell at me when they get here, or something." It crossed her mind that she was placing quite a bit of trust in this man that she had only just met, but if she was being honest with herself, he gave off a better vibe then Hunter. Aedion, she might have trusted with the same, but he was hardly here right now. So it fell to this man.

"You don't need to watch me, or anything." She added as she let herself slide to the ground, pulling the scythe back out of the sling and letting it balance across her knees as she rested her hands on the wooden pole. "I'm a light sleeper."
With that, she closed her eyes, head leaning against the wall, and scythe resting across the her knees as she fell into a light slumber, hoping to replenish the energy her body needed so desperately.