The Coming Darkness

As the hand attempted to crush down on Marcus, he swiftly removed his coat and threw it in the face of the attacker. He rolled to get out of the way and flipped onto his feet, but he staggered suddenly. Looking down at his hands temporarily he noticed they were shaking tremendously, his vision blurred, his head swam, and he felt his body begin to sway from side to side. In his time arriving in New York, he had only had the one drink on the plane, the side effects were taking over. It was the adrenaline that kept him from experiencing the effects sooner. He feebly attempted to reach for his flask, but his shakes and staggering caused him to drop it, and it spun towards a large crack in the ground, falling in. "No...no, no no no no!" His speech was becoming slurred. Inherited through his family, Marcus had an odd condition, while most drank to get drunk, he was forced to drink for sobriety. He could hear chanting in his ears, though they were all in audible words. Suddenly, the shadows appeared, demonic shades and ghouls sprung from the pavement below. Of course, no one else could see them, no, this was his hallucination. They were approaching him."Get back!" he screamed, his voice shaking with anger, throwing an arm out in front of him, his hidden blade extending and ripping one of the specters in half. As the panic set in, his pupils dilated at he looked up at the Brute, David had jumped onto it's back and back off. "D...David..." Marcus slurred. With a few staggering motions, he began to approach the beast, now extending his other hidden blade. The whispers continued, the ghosts were surrounding him, he let out a blood curdling scream, before charging through them all, swinging his blades wildly, without rhythm. "All of you! Get back!!!" Subconsciously, he prayed none of his students, or civilians got in his way. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of the events from years ago. When he went into a drunken rage, everything in his path would become decimated, eventually everyone he saw was a demon, and they all...would..."DIE!" His scream echoes at the feet of Brute. He flailed his arms unpredictably, though somehow with precision, the blades tearing its flesh asunder, tearing through whatever lied beneath the skin. Within seconds, one of the legs of the Goliath was severed, Marcus moved to the other leg.

Another failed attack.. Kuro sighed. America wasn't a good place to set up shop. First magic was banned, then an encounter with a rabid dragon, and now the Justice League had swarmed in, under a minute's notice. Brute was about to attack David after his speech, when he felt his leg turn into a blood hose. He instantly fell over, making the ground under the three give away, and making them fall down into the dark train tracks below.

Before anyone could give chase to the three, a barrier that pushed away objects like magnet. "It seems we no longer need interrogations. The boy i'm looking for is already here.. I can sense him." He descended down to the ground and faced the others who had shown up out of nowhere. "You are all from Sorcerers..."

"I wouldn't expect him to help.." He pulled Enzo's shoulder. "Forget Red. We gotta help. I'll go get Eos to safety." He grabbed Eos. "Where's your brother? You should get to safety." He felt a familiar Manna go by, he looked up and saw someone jumping across roofs in the distance. "Who's that..?"

JD was enjoying his alone time with Silver. Well it wasn’t so much alone because they were practically being mobbed by countless fans, but it was as close as he was getting now. Those fingers of his laced around the others, and he leaned in a bit as he watched the musician come on stage. Immediately he was confused and a bit floored as he couldn’t quite figure out the gender of this person; but at least he was assured that they were definitely a punk rock group. No one sports a mohawk without owning grungy lyrics, and brassy guitar riffs. Sadly enough only a bit into the performance did all Hell break loose.
“Seriously we are in bloody America- can’t shit just leave us alone?” JD whined.

Following the flow of the other Sorcerer members- JD tugged Silver with him out of the Snake Pit. Unfortunately he was a bit on the slow side given the sheer terror that lead everyone to bottleneck around the door. About the time her erupted outside he became extraordinarily aware that something damn magical was going on. The boy overheard Voltaire ask where he was- and hoped to drag Eos to safety. Someday they would realize his sister was not a harmless little mouse, but apparently they hadn’t had a chance to learn that lesson yet.
“I’m here- sorry about that- probably would have started throwing people if we could use our powers.” He remarked. “Though I’m noticing that refrain from magic was a mistake- we have trouble on the horizon.” He let go of Silver’s hand- unknowing if she had hauled her swords with her and needed full freedom to release her own personal brand of ‘ass kicking’. “If it comes to Voltaire- E and I make a damn powerful team.”

Silver was a bit surprised by all the commotion, and she found herself being pulled away by JD to get away from the group of people a bit. She sighed, knowing that if anyone should use their magic it should be her. No one would be able to tell the difference, let alone know who's causing it. Suddenly she thought of something. "Where's David? JD, wasn't he with you before?" She looked at him as he let go of her hand.

Meanwhile, David had fallen below the ground onto.. Train tracks? He looked back and forth, noticing that there was only tracks next to a wall, no area to get out of the way should a train come by. He saw the giant next to him, and wondered which way he needed to go to get out of here. The ground was too high above and he couldn't jump out at all. He frowned, deciding to start running in one direction to get away, praying that no trains would come by and squash him.

The water instantly shot up to Sasha's waist, surrounding the girl like a disc as she readied herself for battle, "So?" she snarled, "The hell do you want?" Her glare was intense; this man radiated 'dangerous'.

Maya settled down on the roof, a spark of excitement flaring up in her. She mentally called out to Ryuu, and they mused about the silly fight. Now is as good of a time to attack as any, she thought. Come, Ryuu. We have hell to raise. A smile appeared faintly on her lips, and she decided that she was neither with nor against the strange attackers. That didn't mean that she wouldn't be on her best guard around them, though. Maya cracked her knuckles in anticipation.

Upon the conformation from Maya, Ryuu's paws clawed through the asphalt he was standing on. Ryuu had been waiting just outside of New York, trying to keep hidden in the day and resting. He didn't hesitate before leaping into the air, flying at full speed.

Marcus's face was busted from the fall, as were his glasses, which added to the blur of the intoxication. Though he was still able to make out David running the opposite direction, in the back of his mind, he was happy for this, it meant it put a distance between the two of them once Brute was deemed 'dead enough' by his drunken self. His body staggered approaching the hulk before him, "Not...dead...must...die..." he muttered, blood spewing from his lips, dripping over the face of the 'demon'. With a swift movement, a blade was driven through Brute's left eye, he pulled it out, only to shove it back in. Again and again, he stabbed the already bloody and mutilated eye of his enemy. He started to chuckle, a low rumble at first soon becoming a loud maniacal laugh that echoed across the empty walls of the subway. "Why aren't you screaming? You should scream, you should suffer. Why's aren't suffering? Come on...whine and cry...your silence only makes me want to kill you slower..." Every couple of stabs, he would twist the blade in the eye socket, scraping the muscle from the bone.

Kuro sighed. The situation had gone out of hand fast. Even if he were to find who he was looking for, there were too many people standing the way. "I don't have business with any of you." He crossed his arms, not caring for the police arriving or the fact that he was surrounded. "Besides, you have a 'bigger' problem to deal with." He was refering to the dragon that was closing in on the city. At that, he flew straight up. Spotting him against the black night sky proved to be difficult. Another day, Volitaire.

Unwary of his partner's flee, Brute grabbed and tossed Marcus back, and bought himself some time. His mechanical eye was damaged quite bad. Luckily, because of his experience, he could ignore even the most intense pain. Such was the way of their group. He knew David was getting away, and he wouldn't have that, but he had to get rid of the maddening drunk, first.

Brute's left arm had transformed, the skin was shown to be fake, and had metal and steel under it. The hard, steel skeleton arm changed to form a chain gun. "I'm just about fucking tired of you..." He panted as he talked. Even though he was doing a good job ignoring the pain of his leg being gone, and his fake eye being torn apart, his aim was a little shabby, having to fire while on his back.

He knew he was going to die soon. He had not encountered so much trouble before. And for a brief moment, he wished he had taken a different path in life. One that his own family and friends had urged him to do. It was too late now.

He aimed his chain gun at Marcus, spun up the multiple barrels, and fired.

Maya tried to urge some caution into Ryuu, but he would not have it. He flew high in the sky, roaring as he went. Being as large and fearsome as he was, he felt he had nothing to be afraid of. After locating Maya and the group down below, he turned and dove towards them. Brandon is a boob. On his way down he passed by a man, and Ryuu made it his goal to make him fall. He spun wildly, swiping the man with his incredibly large wings and then thinking of him no more. It was time for his grand entrance.

Ryuu crashed onto the roof that held Maya. She had the mind to leap off before he landed, nearly getting crushed in the process. Rubble flew and dust filled the air. Ryuu shook and stood upon the rubble, filling the area with fire. His silhouette could be seen through the dust, emphasized by the fire all around him.

Maya stood up, almost scared. Here goes nothing...
About 6 minions formed around the pair, having enough mind to guide themselves. They didn't shine as brightly as some did before, but they were not any less dangerous. Maya turned to face the group [team Valor and enemies] threateningly.

Kuro saw the dragon coming in advance, and swiftly dodged it's wing as he went up. Mindless beast.

Enzo and Red had finally shown up on the scene. He had mustered up enough courage to see what was going on. If it didn't involved him or his friends, he had no need to be in it. The first thing he noticed was the large dragon on the rooftop of a nearby building, and Maya glaring at them with her minions at bay. "Maya! Wh-.." He looked up to the dragon, then back at her. Is this Ryuu? He wondered if the once small, adorable pet dragon had become a terror and hell-bringer that this dragon was portraying. But more importantly, did Maya turn on them?

He quickly ran up to her, and waved his hands around to try and snap her out of it. "Maya! Is that yours?!" He pointed up to the breathing firecracker.

The NYPD had no choice but to pull back, with the large crack still in the ground, and their sidearms, they would do no good here. One by one, the police retreated. Though they had successfully blocked off the street from any other civilians.

Volitaire saw the dragon. He returned to normal seeing how whatever Manna he felt wasn't as present. He had no idea how to tackle a mythical beast like this. He stood there and began thinking about this as fast as he could. He could chain the wings, but for all he knows it could break free. He could use his Spatial Magnetism, but that may be too big a spell... He rushed over to Maya and tapped her shoulder. "How do you calm this thing?"

Marcus's unpredictable and erratic stumbling and staggering allowed him to weave in and out of the line of fire, "Hey..." he chuckled again, "that's no fair, you're cheating. How can we have a fun game if you're going to cheat?" The wavy sporadic movements of the drunk were making it increasingly difficult to aim, and he drew closer to the machine's line of site. It was very much like a drunken master from a cheap sixties kung-fu movie. As he closed the gap between the two of them, bullets started to tear through his human flesh, blowing a piece of his ear off as well as the complete little finger on his right hand. As the bullets struck his abdomen, they barely missed his vital organs, but they wounds still bled profusely. As painful and gory as the display was, Marcus's inebriation blocked the pain. Finally, he made it to the crippled 'demon' who was unable to get a clear shot as his hulking muscles disabled his ability to aim at close range. Blood dripped from his body all over Brute's. "Enough play time..." he slurred before the blood lose caused his body to drop on top of his enemy's. With the remaining ounce of his strength, and in an incredible display of speed, he sliced through the behemoth's brachial artery, then his aortic arch, and finally, in a clean sweep, his jugular. The blood spouted like a fountain over the two lying figures, for a final moment, he made eye contact with Brute, noting the fear and even seeing a small tear roll out of the remaining intact tear duct. Before he could even make a sound, or a witty comment, the blood loss took over, his vision blackened, his breathing slowed and his body went limp and cold. Though he was still alive, he was barely holding on.

Maya stepped back a bit, completely surprised by Enzo's unusual temerity. Her eyes showed her inner fear for a few seconds, but as Volitaire approached, she stepped back more, away from both of them. Her face went cold as two minions floated to her side, and Ryuu took a demanding presence directly behind her. He had heavy footsteps that made everyone around shudder as he walked. He stood at his tallest and most indomitable.

"Ryuu has grown quite a lot, hasn't he?" She glanced briefly at the large force behind her, taller than the 1 story building that he had crushed. "Why be calm? Nothing is truly calm with us. Plus, calm is just, so, boring." She replied, a faint evil smile appearing on her lips. She tried to hide the fact that she was almost forcing herself to be like this. The real inner Maya fought very hard to be brought back to the surface.

David had managed to find his way back up to the streets where he saw a large dragon standing behind Maya. She seemed to be facing both Enzo and Voltaire. Oh boy.. This isn't good... He remembered the time when he heard her thoughts, or whatever it was that happened, and frowned at her. Was this the being that was frightening her like that? He decided to call out to her. "Oi, Maya! You might want to move, there's a huge dragon behind you about to crush everything!" He felt like she wouldn't want to destroy everything around her, but he couldn't be too sure considering they hadn't known each other for that long.

She'd lingered in the background until a familiar figure showed up. Instantly, the water separated into small spheres, as Sasha glared at Maya. She seemed off. Something was wrong. Well, no shit something was wrong, Maya was usually kind and caring, not snarky and evil. But she was clearly threatening Team Valor, and something had to be done.

Narrowing her eyes, Sasha tried the intimidation tactic, "Don't make me hurt you."

Maya looked at David and then Sasha, unfeigned. "At least someone gets it," she sighed as she looked at Sasha, letting the silence fill the air for a moment. Ryuu hated the silence. Maya sensed what he was about to do and slinked behind one of his giant paws, mostly safe from Sasha's water. Ryuu's skin was nothing if not dense and tough.

Not wasting a second more, Ryuu lifted his paw, revealing large claws like knives. He roared and then lunged forward, bringing his attack down upon Enzo. Ryuu's attack was sure to horribly injure him if successful in the slightest. He also partially aimed for Volitaire, but his focus was Enzo. Maya noted that attacking Enzo was the quickest way to fire up Sasha.

In a panic Volitaire lunged in front of Enzo and drew his sword, aiming at the Dragons paw. "Enzo!" He jabbed the paw with his blade and did he best to hold back the strength of the beast.

Enzo, again in a daze, snapped out of it as Volitaire had saved him just in time. Enzo's eyes were wide open, and full of shock. "V-..Voli.." He knew he had to do something. He jumped back, away from the dragon's reach. "Volitaire! Get back!" He shouted.

A mere sword was no match for the strength of the large dragon. Ryuu knocked the blade down, his tough skin not willing to break without a lot of force. Ryuu continued forward, continuing his attack and swiping at Volitaire in a very quick movement. He growled more as he went, preparing the fire.

Meanwhile, Maya was ducking around and avoiding Ryuu's feet. Her minions knew what to do even before she could tell them, and they sped off for Sasha. Maya followed at full speed, leaping towards her.

He leaped back and pay attention to the Dragons swipes. They were easy to predict, even in the speed of the swipes. He moved back and forth away from the razor sharp talons, though one managed to cut his shirt and slice him a bit. He ignore the pain and looked up to see it igniting its fire. "Oh great.." He activated his rings flames, the embers surrounded his hand and turned to runes. He waited for the dragons next attack.

Ryuu was no stupid dragon. He probably even had more intelligence than a human, but his only problem was that he was young and inexperienced. Still, Voltaire angered him. With the pressure that Ryuu had been building in his stomach, he released a heavily concentrated blast of fire upon Volitaire and Enzo, encasing them both in flames.

Enzo continued to watch in shock as Volitaire was nearly hit by one of Ryuu's swipes. If I don't do something.. Then, he saw several acid-like minions rush for Sasha. I.. have.. to do something! He closed his eyes in all of the panic.

Spoiler

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I'm sorry, Maya, Ryuu. I must rid you both of your Darkness.

Enzo suddenly disappeared as the fire seemingly hit him. Sky flames trailed upward, and Enzo was seen hovering above Ryuu.

Volitaire threw his rune guarded hand forward at the flame. The fire spread around him and was absorbed by the runes. It was a massive flame and he was still suffering from the heat but managed to take in a lot of the energy through his runes. He turned around and saw Enzo activate his flames. He felt a little more secure with some backup. He focused back on keeping the fire back best he could.

The 2 remaining minions that were on either side of Ryuu rushed into the flames, unphased. One went for Volitaire and one for Enzo, but Enzo was out of sight before the minions reached them. They both attacked Volitaire, unable to be burned, and, if touched, would spread their acidic coating onto whatever unlucky thing touched them.

Ryuu's flames calmed, and he leaned back.

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Maya glanced up at Enzo very briefly, some part of her hoping that he could help the real Maya free from corruptions clutches.

Volitaire's eye began to glow and black spheres opened a rift in the atmosphere. He pushed out his manna forward and created a Spatial shield around him. He increased the power of the force the longer he held it out. Keeping the minions at bay. "Clever, Maya.." He blew the shield apart pushing the minions back an shot multiple tendrils at them both while they were airborne.

Enzo prepared a mid-air X-burner. This was one that was weak, and wouldn't do much but lightly burn him. "X-burner: Air!" He fired, letting his Sky flame catch his attention.

The shots mostly fired straight through the minions, with only one or two tendrils injuring them both. They both lowered closer to the ground, their ability to fly being diminished. The minions only took a few seconds before combining into one significantly larger minion, being repaired in the process and gaining back energy. It went for Volitaire again, firing little balls of acid as it flew.

Ryuu quickly shielded himself from Enzo's X-burner with his wings. He roared after him, furious, and took flight in one swift leap. Ryuu had very large wings, and so he was a very fast and flexible flyer.

"Come, let's see who's the better flyer." Enzo taunted Ryuu as he took off to into the night sky. Now would be a good time... Enzo thought.

Suddenly, Enki appeared next to Enzo. "I'm here!" He shouted. "Help Maya. She's corrupted." Enki nodded, and flew down, widely avoiding the dragon, and heading for Maya and Volitaire at street level.

David stood there, watching as they fought back and forth. He looked at Maya and frowned. He knew she didn't want to do this, and something was obviously way wrong. He wanted to help her. But how could he do that at this point? He saw Enki flying towards Maya, and slowly inched his way toward them both, trying not to attract attention to him. Maybe the three of them could talk her down from this. Trying to talk to her is all he really wanted to do at this point.