Printable View
He made a sly grin under his hair and looked to the large shadow under the minion. He warped to the shadow under and leap back, raising his hand and tendrils gripped the minions wrists and ankles. Immobilizing it in place. "Maya, stop! You're attacking your own team members and destroying new York in the process! Get a hold of yourself already!" He didn't aim to hurt her, Ryuu, or her minions. He wanted to get her to snap out of it before anything got even more out of hand.
Ryuu roared again at the taunt. He forced his wings to go as fast as they could, and tore through the air after Enzo.
Maya heard Volitaire, and stopped and held her ground where she was. Four of her minions quickly surrounded her. She was prepared for anything. Maya quickly spotted Enki and David. They both sparked hope in the inner Maya, and the corruptions' hold loosened.
The minion naturally glowed brightly, and got rid of its shadow. Where Volitaire tried to hold on, the minion slipped through his grip and left its burning acid in its place.
Volitaire sighed. "Fine. You're still being very reluctant." He converted the energy in his runes from the fire into his own. He warped to a shadow cast by a radio tower on top a building nearby. The runes spun and expanded, charging his sinister manna into one point and condensing it. Once fully charged the runes surrounded the condensed sphere of manna and fired a large burst. A black beam with white arcing energy shot at a impressive speed. Almost camouflaged by the dark of night. It made way for the giant minion below.
The minions had naturally short lifespans, and, the larger they were, the shorter their lifespan. The large minion was nearing its end already, and so it did not fight it when a beam of energy came firing toward it. It was killed instantly, and faded away.
Maya looked and spawned four more in its place, the spawning of minions taking a toll on her own energy level.
Enzo kept going higher. By now, all anyone would see is Enzo's bright flame. Against the sky, Ryuu couldn't be seen at this height. I don't want to hurt you. He looked back at the dragon, who was doing good in keeping up.
By now, Enki had landed, and put out his red fire. He saw the giant minion, amazed at how much she had improved since the Gaze. He ran past it, going straight for Maya herself. When he got within earshot of her, he stopped. "Maya, why are you attacking your friends? Do you realize what you're doing? Look around you!" Several news helicopters had shown up, shining their bright light down onto the scene below. This moment was being captured, and viewed live by the entire country. "This is not how I expected you to be...But, the Sun ring chose you for a reason.."
"That was rather anticlimactic." He saw her summon more minions and notice she was beginning to look a bit worn down. "So she's reaching her limit..the poor girl." He casted his Wings of Icarus and flew down the building. Once landed he warped to the shadows of all four minions, drawing his sword and making on slice on each individual summon. "You're wearing down, Maya. Soon you're going to overwork yourself fighting us incessantly."
Maya stopped. She absorbed the energy she had put into the minions that surrounded her, and they faded away without a life force. Maya took a step towards Enki, knowing that he wouldn't attack her unless she attacked first, and, even then, he wouldn't hurt her. "These are not my friends." She answered, staring at Enki with sorrow eyes. "If I was chosen for anything, it was for the destruction of the team I helped build."
The minions easily avoided the slices, and, where the sword did hit, it was only their outer coating of the bright glowing yellow acid.
Ryuu saw a pause in Enzo's flight, and quickly went for him, using quite a bit of energy to make a lunge for him.
David frowned more, looking around at everything that was going on and listening to Maya and Enki talk. He was close enough to Maya now that he could reach out to her, and he did. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a legitimately concerned look. "Maya, we both know you don't want to do this. You have no reason to be afraid anymore. You don't have to listen to him, either, he explained, gesturing towards the dragon. We're here for you, and we want to help you!"
"The people that help you in good times and bad are NOT your friends?!" Enki was getting frustrated, but he would not let up. He saw David come in and try to convince her as well. "These people fought along side you in the Gaze. They are not your enemies."
Enzo was hit hard by Ryuu, and was knocked out of his flight. "GAAH!" He started to fall, and as he did, he saw his own blood floating around him. This caused him to panic a little, and hover again. He was a little dizzy, but he shook it off, and flew back up towards Ryuu.
Maya twitched when David put his hand on her shoulder. She didn't fight it, because she knew that with both Enki and David so close, she was vulnerable. Instead, her posture slumped and was no longer threatening. Ryuu's angry thoughts poured through her head, but she ignored them as best she could and planned a way out of this situation. "I don't want you to help me. You don't even know me or care about me. None of you do or ever have." She replied, but stayed where she was. Maya greatly resented David's hand on her shoulder. "And it's hard not to trust someone when you share a constant mental link with them. I trust him more than I trust you both." She said, looking up at Ryuu.
Ryuu ceased his roaring, and instead went back to using his wings as tools. He spun around, aiming for Enzo with the very long reach he had with his wing, his goal being to make him lose control again.
"That's not true. If we didn't care, we wouldn't be here right now." He stepped in front of her, putting his other hand on her other shoulder, still having the concerned look on his face. "Everyone else has known you a lot longer than me, and they all care about you and your safety so much. I care about your safety. I haven't even known you that long, but I do. You don't have to do any of this, Maya. You can stop, it's okay. We won't let anything bad happen to you, I swear." He knew Enki would back him up on this, too.
Enzo tried his best to avoid his wings. He narrowly dodged each one. "Ryuu.. Why? Why target us?" He asked the dragon. Suddenly, he shot a quick burst of flame, going over the dragon completely and ending up on landing on it's back. "Is it.. Darkness, talking to you?"
"You don't understand, Maya." He sighed, and was reminded of the fact that they were still in the spotlight. "Everyone cares. Even I, the one who traded blows with you before." He looked up to see Enzo and Ryuu still in the Sky. "I.. can see the Sun flame. It lies with Ryuu's being. If you can get it, we can end this, and then, we'll have no enemies, no quarrels." He looked back down to Maya. "But you need to break out of this hold that Darkness has you in. I know you're there, Maya. I know what it's like."
Ryuu went mad trying to get Enzo off of his back, curling and twisting violently. Without either of them attempting to fly, they went into a free fall. It was basically a dangerous game of chicken. Either Ryuu could crash into the ground trying to get Enzo off, or he could accept Enzo riding him and try to fly. Neither of these options seemed acceptable, and he struggled, blowing fire everywhere as they fell.
Maya's childlike innocent gaze returned, one that had long been forgotten since returning from the void. David seemed as if he was just trying to calm her down for safety reasons, and not because he cared, but she obided anyways. What finally broke a major hold that the darkness had on her was the mention of Ryuu. In the end, she did really care about Ryuu, and didn't want him to be forced to die because of the darkness. She looked up at the sky in wonder as Ryuu and Enzo fell. Then, she slumped down to the floor, defeated. "Thank you, but... I don't know how I would ever be able to free him from the corruption. It's so deeply embedded within him..." She still looked, the last strings that the darkness held in her heart dissapearing. "Enki, maybe... you could..." she said, slowly beginning to plead with Ryuu in her head, but his thoughts were consumed by something else.
It didn't take much for Enzo to get shaken off and fall onto a nearby roof. Unfortunately, Ryuu landed right ontop of him.
Enki looked down. Quite happy now that she had come to her senses. "My corruption was removed by doctors.. I know of only one healer, and I doubt she can heal a raging dragon..."
David caught Maya right before she hit the floor, setting her down gently. He didn't want to overstep his boundaries, but he didn't want her to just hit the ground either. He glanced from Maya up to Enki when he spoke, and then up to Ryuu, still having his hands on Maya's shoulders. "Is there any way we could.. Make him fall asleep or something, without harming him? That would give us more time to figure something out.."
There was a great crash, and Maya could hear Ryuu's thoughts and feelings instantly go silent. It seemed as if Ryuu had crash landed on top of Enzo in their fight, and she suddenly felt fear and panic. "Oh, no! Crap! Crap crap crap..." Maya jumped up and dashed towards the site of the landing, fearing for both Enzo and Ryuu. She began crying as she ran, worried that she had hurt her friend. "He's definitely not awake now!" She called to David, urging the others to follow.
David shook his head and sighed, watching as Maya ran off. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind..." He got up, and began to run after Maya, also a bit concerned for Enzo.
She'd gotten a little injured scuffling with some left over minions, but it was nothing much. Sasha sighed, knowing that Enki and Enzo had a much better grip on the situation than she did. It was then that she heard a crashing sound. Instantly, the girl looked around frantically, searching for Enzo. But to her dismay, she found no trace of him.
No. This can't be happening. I fucking swear...
And with that, a panicked Sasha followed after Maya.
Enzo laid still under the crushing weight of Ryuu. It had taken a lot out of him, and robbed him of his consciousness. Half of his body was stuck under the dragon, and if it weren't for Enzo switching to his Minus Fire at the last second, he would have died right there.
Volitaire ignored the minions and ran over to Enzo, trapped under the Dragons weight. He slid beside him and used a Spatial Push to move the Dragon enough to release Enzo's lower body. But it put strain on Volitaire because of how much force was used behind the push. He pulled Enzo from under the large beast and held him over his shoulder. "He needs to be taken to a hospital.." He said while rejoining the others.
This was attracting too much attention. There were newscasters and helicopters. Grimacing, she looked on as the fight seemed to settle down. Oh, good.. The dragon crashed. --On top of that guy. Shoot She wasn't sure if she should run away, or go and try to help. Of course, going over there now would be to show to everyone that she had abilities. Or at least 'friends' with magic users. Who the hell were these guys?
It was absolutely absurd how this came out of no-fucking-where. Gods...The whole block was probably in chaos. She could see people crowding around at a safe distance from the fight. One of many times that she wished she could have a super Useful ability. Like, weather manipulation or something. Taking a step forward, she stopped for a moment, unsure if she should do anything..
Seeing the others rushing to the aid of the boy, she made her choice. Pulling away from Harley, she offered a slight, apologetic smile before running out behind the safety of the building to see if she could help. No way in hell were any medical teams going to help a magic user. Especially someone who was in the middle of all this chaos.
What Volitaire said made Sasha panic even more. A mad dash ensued towards the direction of Enzo, and when she finally got there, her heart nearly stopped. Seeing Enzo so battered up like that caused the girl to freeze up. She just stood there, unable to close her eyes or look away.
"Sky.." Enki frowned as he saw his true friend in shreds. Even though it was the corruption's fault, he couldn't help but blame himself on the inside.
The news choppers had buggered off, due to a major illusion. To their eyes, the situation, being the people involved, the dragon, and the destroyed landscape, had simply faded, and for a while, the choppers lingered, but after a few minutes, they buggered off, not having enough fuel to continue filming. Unfortunately, the illusion can't go through cameras, so they didn't have much time before someone realized that it was a trick.
Reaching the othrs, she almost hesitated at seeing the damage the boy was in. Recognizing them from the club, she stopped a little bit away until se was sure they wouldn't attack. Her arms up in a peace offering, she spoke. "I can help him. We need to get out of here so I can heal him." Of course se had no idea that they didn't understnd her. All she knew, was that the boy needed help. He probably had internal bleeding.
The battle was horrific. Maya’s dragon had turned on them in an instant, or at least it seemed as if the beast had taken an aggressive stance against the group from Sorcerers. JD blanched as he watched the events unfold, but still fresh in his ear drums was the rattle of machine-gun fire. Unfortunately he was of no use against a flying enemy- or at least JD assumed that the American cops wouldn’t want him unhinging lamp posts, hurling benches, and launching cars into the sky.
Instead he bolted towards the sound of guns rattling.
It took a moment but he found their teacher- Marcus it might have been- with bullet holes riddled through him and oozing blood out of every single one of them. “Ballsack,” JD breathed unceremoniously before running up to the fellow and checking his pulse. After your previous employer passes out drunk one too many times in various alley- you get used to knowing where to check for life signs. “Still alive but barely,” JD grumbled as he looked at the other man. He was much much larger than the boy, and he knew he couldn’t use his usual strength to handle such an intimidating figure.
So JD channeled his power- it was easy with the thoughts of Eos being pretty much being attached to Voltaire’s hip- and his skin armored itself almost immediately. He didn’t do an entire cover, but just enough that he could hoist the other to his torso without snapping his back in two. Not to imply Marcus was that heavy, but JD was just that short.
Attempting not to jostle the man too much he made his way back to the others. “Get E,” he grunted. His shirt was practically soaked in the accumulated blood that painted their teacher. About that time he noticed that Enzo was also in critical condition.
This was not good.
But JD felt that might have been an understatement.
David got to the place where everyone had been and looked around. Where's Silver? He saw a girl standing alone, blankly staring into space. Yep, that was Silver. He walked over to her, waving his hand in front of her face. She didn't even seem to realize he was there. "Hell-ooo. Earth to Silver. Are you okay?" She didn't respond. David brought his hands up to the sides of her face, right by her ears, and snapped a couple times. She blinked, jumping a little and kicking him in the stomach, a bit hard. He clutched his stomach, groaning. "What the hell, Silver?" Silver looked at him, blinking a few times before realizing what she had just done. "Oh, David.. Oh! I'm sorry!! I was.. a bit focused..." David coughed a bit, still rubbing his stomach. That kick hurt. "Yeah, I noticed.. Why?" Silver glanced up to the helicopters above, and then back down to the citizens below, who were calm despite the fact that there was a huge dragon and tons of destruction not too far away from them. "...Let's just say I hope no one finds out, otherwise I'll be in trouble.." David glanced around and realized exactly what she was doing. He took a few steps back and let it sink in, and suddenly, all the chaos disappeared. "God damn, Silver.."
Marcus let out an involuntary grunt when his body was hoisted over JD's shoulder. A bit of blood dribbled from his mouth. His eyes opened for just a moment in a bloody and fuzzy haze. Only to be met by the blinding lights of helicopters above, he let out another grunt, followed by another spurt of blood before fading back out of consciousness. He couldn't help but feel useless, and almost pathetic in the eyes of his students. A ridiculous condition was close to causing his death, and possibly the deaths of countless others, had he not fallen. What sort of example was this to them? There was so much he wanted to teach them; to show them the potential in each and everyone of there abilities. But instead, he was dying, from the wounds given to him by a single enemy, which the kids could have handled easily on their own. If he survives this, it will take him a long time to recover. But hopefully, he will still be able to look the students in the eyes afterwords, and teach them the upcoming semester.
9:00PM
Maya had watched Enzo be pulled away, but she stayed kneeling before Ryuu. There was nothing more she could do, other than wait there. *"Go, help him, then."* Maya replied to the new female. Even though she didn't trust her, Maya didn't fight it. She softly pet her dragon's head, and, in response, she noticed him beginning to dream. At least he's alive.
In this dream of his, she talked with him as she had before on the plane. Only, this time, the darkness was nowhere to be found. The real Ryuu, presented as a small, scared dragon in the dream, felt horribly ashamed and was in great pain. Maya tried her best to console him, hoping that he would be able to wake up soon.
Maya looked up at the new girl, and at Enzo. What did I do?
An entire day passed.
The illusion Silver had over the area had lingered long enough for the people of New York to think that the entire event was an illusion. Enzo was snuck back into his hotel room, and was kept there. Putting him in the hospital would arouse unwanted attention.
But thanks to Red, both the Sorcerers and the staff at the Snake Pit was informed that Enzo had led the police to the concert.
Enzo was laying on his bed, still unconscious. Kenji was nearby. How in the hell did Enzo get into this situation... He thought to himself.