「Emote」 {IC/Not Taking Reserves/PG-16}

[Maeriberii Haan]

[hr]

 

"...What the hell is that person thinking she's going to? A carnival?"

 

Ilya shook his head at the sight of the woman that suddenly appeared, wearing a...dress of sort, themed around seemingly white lilies. Coupled with the ridiculously out-of-place hat, it's like she's in the middle of going to a theatre or something. Not that Ilya should care about that.

 

"I don't really care about "god", or "gifts", as you claim it. What I have is not a "gift"."

 

"Uh..." What the hell was in her mind anyway, breaking in through their church and created further chaos in the already messy place. Ilya shook his head in response, even if no one was able to notice him at that moment.

 

"I have a "skill". And I do not intend for anyone to command me when or when not to use it. My name..."

 

"Should we really care about that? And what are you even saying right now?" 

 

"...Is Madalena Vera. I am an <<Emoter>>. My rightful place, is as the slayer of evil! My burning heart, release!"

 

 

"..Wait, wait, what the heavens are you going to do? ugh...Damn it! Guess I have no choices." Ilya started to panic as he saw the woman was seemingly charging an attack, and he was right in the line of sight of the woman too. This tresspassing of his solitude...it's unacceptable. With only that in his mind, he started to close his eyes and let his instincts take control of his body as he initiated his own powers.

 

"Return to the ashes of which you came from! GOLD EXPERIENCE SPARK, EXPLODE!"

 

"I will not let you disturb this place further. Ilya's Bounded Field, initiate!"

 

As he declared his own skill just as Vera fired her blast of energy, his pseudo invisibility ran out, and Ilya seemingly appeared before the masses. And then, in just a split second, several sets of barriers appeared around his fellow church members that he could locate (not including Seraphina), and those barriers reflected most of the power of the blast away, some hitting bystanders nearby, and some blasting holes in the already damaged church building. Not really done yet, Ilya then conjured one more barrier right at Vera's location, with the intent of using that knockback barrier to push her away so his teammates could handle her easier.

 

This chaos was getting annoying, and Ilya just wanted to go home and rest.

 

[hr]

[Sethera]

All was fire. All was madness. All was anger. All was wrath.

 

"Clear your head."

 

And then suddenly, nothingness. Blissful nothingness. If Noah were able to feel anything other than numbness, he would have felt relieved. As it was, he just stared at the person in front of him in a daze, taking them in without emotion.

 

Long green hair, red eyes, a matching blank expression on their face, surrounded by mist. Blinking, the raven-haired boy attempted to discern gender, but failed, and shrugged. Not that it mattered what their gender was anyway. He glanced around the church, taking in the monsters, charred surfaces, and dead bodies without a blink. This church was dangerous to be in now, what with all the chaos going on around him. If he sought safety, leaving the place was the best bet.

 

His headphones were playing a song, how distracting. Turning them off, he stared at the person in front of him a second more. Noah had been angry, out of control, and now he wasn't. This person was the cause. And with emotions out of the way, he could think with a clear head. He had an anger problem. This person could take that problem away. Therefore, it would also be in his best interests to stay with this person, who seemed to have no intention of leaving the place, but instead trying to protect it. Speaking of that, they looked about ready to run off now.

 

A conundrum. Safety, or this person. From what Noah had seen before, this person was involved with the Church, which had previously proven itself to be nothing more than a farce. He did not agree with its ideals nor its methods. It was a proven fact in his mind, after witnessing the destruction his powers had caused, that Emoters were monsters. And yet this "Church of Salvation" preached otherwise. If he stayed with this person, undoubtedly it would mean aligning himself with the Church. He would be damning his soul if he decided to stay with them.

 

But...

 

But his powers were tiresome. And, when he had emotions, hateful to him. He had many times wished he did not have a temper, that he could control them more. Would not this person make an impossible goal possible?

 

Oh, strange, there was a rainbow-colored blast heading right for the person next to him, and therefore Noah by proxy. That looked like it would either hurt a lot or do nothing. Probably hurt, though. And oh, look, there was a person diffusing it somehow through shadow powers. And somebody had formed barriers around various people, including that person. And now everything was dark. Well.

 

Noah had always had good hearing, so the darkness wasn't as crippling as it could have been. Surrounded by the screeching of monsters and the screaming of humans, the boy decided to exit the building. Most likely, the darkness was caused by an Emoter, therefore once he left their "range" he would be able to see again. The situation here was getting far too out of control for his liking, so he started walking to where he saw the exit before the unnatural darkness arrived.

 

It was a pity to leave behind his big hope of humanity, of being normal, but things being as they were, he had a far higher chance of making it out of this alive if he left now.

 

The raven-haired boy sighed, turning the noise-canceling setting on for his headphones as he walked. I wonder when my emotions will come back, if they come back. Perhaps they never would, and in that case, he wouldn't need that person after all. Though there was an equally likely chance that this was just a temporary effect. That would be...disappointing.

 

Oh well, he thought, and walked past the chaos without pause.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

It was never going to end. This absolute hell that Louise had found herself in. She hadn’t budged and inch from her position on her knees, her face in her hands, and her body doubled over. She was shaking and shivering. Fear-produced sweat was glistening on her brow and she had begun to hyper-ventilate.

She could hear the screams surrounding her. Pain filled, fear filled, panic everywhere. She could feel the monsters around her as well. They were reveling in this fear. There was no doubt in her mind people were dying. People were dying because of her, because of her inability to control her own power. There was nothing she could do. The more she thought about it, the more it consumed her. If the monsters didn’t kill her the others would. They were in a panic and if anybody so much as suspected she was the cause of this...

Tears ran down her cheek. They weren’t from pity, or sorrow, they were purely out of fear. She had no control over anything. The people in the church. The monsters. Even her own body was beyond her control. The utter helplessness was a blow, strengthening the already strong fear.

If it kept up like this, those horrid beasts would be the least of everyone’s worries. She could feel something trying to escape. Something truly devastating about to be unleashed on the world.
She almost screamed as she felt a hand on her shoulder, but the voice that came after prevented that.

 

"You okay?"

A simple question. Which seemed out of place in this hellish setting. The oddity of it managed to break through to Louise even in this state. She was able to bring her head up to look at the one who spoke. A girl. Around her age, Louise would guess. She didn’t have an ounce of fear in her expression. Something Louise found amazing. A warmth spread inside Louise. A sort of awe directed at this strange fearless girl. A feeling that cut through the fear like a knife.

Slowly she was able to open her mouth and respond. “I. Maybe. We need...we need to get out of here.” Her voice was small, and had the girl not been so close there was no way Louise would have been heard.
Over the girl’s shoulder Louise could see one of the monsters. It had spotted her and was making its way towards her. But its movements were slow, stilted. Now that another emotion had made its way into Louise’s heart it was starting to weaken.
However it still was solid. Still was approaching. Louise knew it was coming for her and the fear fought to come back. And the more fear she felt the quicker the monster became. A self-fulfilling prophecy of terror.
She had to focus on something, anything, other than the monster. She looked at the girl near her in a panic. She blurted out the first thing she could think of to take her mind off the fear. “My name is Louise Tueber. My favorite animal is the camel and my favorite color is green. I like reading and rain and...” Her ramblings were helping, despite how insane they sounded. She could focus on something other than the monster.

And then the room filled with darkness. Louise wasn’t afraid of the dark, but she was afraid of what could be in it. The fear surged to the forefront of her mind. She felt the creature coming down on them. She reached upward and grabbed the girl. Louise wrapped her arms around her and pulled her down with as much force as she could manage. She felt the wind stir as the creature’s claw swiped just about where the stranger had been.
Louise clutched tightly to the girl, struggling to get her mind on something, anything, hoping and praying that SOMEthing came around to dispell this darkness and slay the monster whose ragged breathing she could hear nearby.

[Maeriberii Haan]

[hr]

 

"I see." Mirelia answered the little girl's statement on how much she had any ideas about the chaos that happened inside of the church with just those two words, realizing that the girl had little to no idea about it, probably due to being too shaken. Mirelia helped her to sit on the bench she was on not long ago, before finishing up packing her own poisons and syringes with her. It would definitely look suspicious to the little girl, but probably she had not much hope of looking like a saint right now as curiosity gotten the best out of her. She looked at the girl with a smile, before taking the final bites out of the hotdog she had forgotten to finish earlier.

 

"Mg mg mganyway, can you for now stay here for a bit? I won't be long, but I think I'll have to try helping the people there out of the chaos. Just stay here until the situation became better, alright? I really don't want you to be hurt, and I wanted to have some talk with you here when I'm mg mg mgdone." Mirelia stated her intent to the little girl, but between the fact that she's talking in a semi-heavily accented and slightly broken english, coupled with the fact that she's still chewing her hotdog when she talked, probably made the little girl heard her a bit unclearly. But Mirelia was not too concerned enough about it. Finishing up her hotdog and swallowed the rest in one go, she wiped the sauce stain from her lips before turning around to see the church. Mirelia then smiled a bit mischievously before walking off towards the building, though saving others was not really on her mind at that time.

 

"So yeah, I'll see you soon-ish, little girl."

 

[divider1]

 

Mirelia arrived on the church from a hole someone made on the walls somewhere on the building. As soon as she entered inside though, her vision range dropped to almost zero with how dark everything was inside of the building. Stench of corpses and burnt thing was also clearly there, and the noises made really felt like the chaos was worse than what she expected. She sighed for a bit as she prepared her knives and syringes.

 

There's no way she could really gather any pleasure in a situation like this, but, thankfully for her, the liquids coming from her body could still manifest even after long, which made turning them into weapons was a good idea. As she walked, she then felt the presence of something beastly and inhuman nearby, something that definitely was not human, of course. Whatever it was, she couldn't see it.

 

But it'd still fall, no doubts about it.

 

[divider1]

 

Around five minutes later, dozens of  police cars had gathered around the shrine, responding to the call earlier made by Mirelia. It seemed that they were eager to jump in to the church itself, but several men in suits were present among the officers, and they seemed to be the ones that kept them from just storming the church off. Oddly, however, despite Mirelia also asking for ambulances when she made her call, no ambulances were on the scene at that moment. The officers were not ever batting an eye on the people that had left the building, seemingly far more concerned about what was inside.

 

Sooner or later, they would definitely go with a more direct approach, but not now. They were not ready yet.

 

[hr]

[Astolfo]

Locking her grasp around the fireboy's shoulder, the flames surrounding him promptly hissed before being destroyed and erased. Yuri was about to throw him to the side and go after a girl who apparently started sprouting bones out of her body when a blindingly bright rainbow-colored laser blasted towards the Church members. Thankfully, Ilya managed to throw up his barriers, protecting them from the brunt of the attack. The people and walls around them were not so lucky, as the deflected beam slammed into them with a terrible force. Nodding a silent thanks at Ilya, Yuri turned back to face the situation.

Of course, at that moment, Casey let her shadows loose, covering every inch of the Church. Sighing due to the fact that he couldn't see either, since his mist only removes the shadows right around him, Yuri thought back to the mental map he had within his head before this happened. Ignoring a cry for help from somewhere near the entrance of the Church, Yuri instead opted to go at the girl who had attempted to destroy the Church with her laser.

Taking a few steps to assess the terrain before him first, Yuri leapt off the ground, his right hand poised, like a deadly snake about to strike, his left trailing just a little behind him with a vicious blade in case something went wrong. At the last few moments, instead of running straight on, Yuri yanked himself to the side, before lunging out to strike at where the girl's back probably would be, if she hadn't moved too much. Yuri didn't quite like having to chance on luck so much, but in this pitch-dark situation, there wasn't much else he could do.

[Kazooie]

Casey called out into the darkness, her voice only tinted with the slightest bit of malice as she did. "You come to our building, and attack us, and expect to win? Don't make me laugh."

She shook her head, even though she knew no one would be able to see it, and jumped back to the podium where the majority of the Church members were still standing. With a small jab, the tip of her staff fell off as she revealed the blade of her spear, taking the tip and attaching it to the other side of the staff. Her grin grew as she glanced around, the darkness causing her to consider the worst of what must be happening around the building. The sounds of these... Monsters, that had been summoned was still fresh in her mind, she knew that they must still be around. She frowned as she reached the other Church members, shaking her head softly as the sounds of the monsters attacking their guests continued. "Let me know when you would like me to dispel the darkness and it'll be done... But for now, I don't think even that girl would try to fire a laser in complete darkness."

 

[hr]

 

Devon stumbled out of the church building, shaking slightly as he held onto his arm. His bleeding had slowed down, but it still ached, his arm was mostly limp by his side as he made his way away from the building. He shook his head as he found his way to a bench, noticing a small girl sitting on it. He whimpered as he looked at her, before deciding that maybe, just maybe, she could call an ambulance or something. "H-hey, please help... I-I need an ambulance, I need help! T-those... People, at that Church down the road, they... They did something, it hurts..."

 

The feminine male whimpered slightly as he tripped, falling to his knees as he slowly made his way to the bench, before crawling onto it and looking to the girl. His arm that wasn't injured was holding onto the one that was, his eyes looking down at his torn clothing. He took a deep breath as he whimpered softly, "I don't understand... What were those things...?"

 

[hr]

 

Casey sighed as the sounds of police sirens made their way around the Church, her spear quickly slicing one of the monsters across the face as she jumped back from it. 

 

"Guys, it sounds like we have a problem... I knew something like this would happen..."

[a bad post]

Magdalena watched the church doors open from the small cafe, and also watched as many of her slaves entered the building. The young woman smiled. There was no reason to expose herself at the moment. If the church was as altruistic as churches tend to be somebody would likely call the cops on her... and well that was never much fun. Besides, Magdalena hadn't even finished her breakfast.

 

Several minutes later the young woman looked up at the sounds of screams and explosions. People began streaming out of the church's front doors, and several seconds later was appeared to be a large bone hand made an equally large opening in the side of the church... which screaming, panicked people also began streaming out of.

 

"Oh my..." Magdalena said with slight amusement, "I expect zat vill draw zee attention of zome very important people."

 

As Magdalena expected the screeching sirens of law enforcement to pull up in front of the church. What really raised Magdalena's eyebrow though were the men in suits who stepped out of the car with the policemen. 

 

"Hmph... Usually I must cut down zome of ze grunts before zey show up. Ah, vell no matter." Magdalena rose from her chair and exited the small cafe. As the door shut behind her the screams of the those in the shop caught the attention of some of the law men as those left in the cafe experienced fatal sensory overload. 

 

It took less than 10 seconds for one of the men in suits to recognize the green haired terrorist girl.

 

"Magdalena Agapi do no-" 

 

The man never finished his sentence before the loud crack of the sniper rifle echoed down the Seattle streets, and the man collapsed to the ground. The men in black looked surprised at their partner, while the police men frantically tried to identify the source of the shot.

 

"Vhy, sank you Lieutenant Bishop," Magdalena said with a smirk to one of her soldier slaves, though from his position on the cafe's roof he could hardly hear her. While they had been distracted Magdalena had closed the distance between her and the closest officers grabbing their uniforms and placing them under her thrall. 

 

"You vouldn't let zem harm your Mistress vould you?" Magdalena said sweetly to the now hypnotized cops. 

 

"Of course not Mistress Magdalena."

 

"Good. Now kill zose who do not bow to your Goddess."

 

Chaos erupted then as the two men fired on their former comrades. In that chaos Magdalena began approaching the others in the group. To busy fighting off their former friends they did not notice her touch them. Within several minutes the shooting had stopped and two men in black and six policemen remained all under Magdalena's control. 

 

The green haired terrorist approached the group of people huddled by the entrance that had been created by the bone hand a few minutes ago. 

 

"May I borrow zis?" Magdalena turned to one of the cops indicating his side arm. 

 

"Of course, milady." 

 

"Good. Now search ze crowd. Any who do not serve me. Eliminate zem." Magdalena left them to their work as the policemen approached the crowd, while the men in black remained behind her. As the young woman approached the hole in the church wall she noticed the impenetrable blackness within it.

 

"Vell zis might be a problem..." Magdalena scowled, "I grow tired of zis chaos." Magdalena closed her eyes taking a deep breath, and suddenly the whole area became much quieter. The people screaming both in and outside the church ceased at once creating an eerie silence filled only by the shrieks of the monsters within the church. Raising her borrowed gun Magdalena fired several blind shots into the church.

 

"Oh my~! It is very dark in here! Perhaps I vill just light my vay vis zis gun~!" Magdalena shouted into the church before firing off several more blind shots. "Now zat should get zomebody's attention."

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"We have to find the exit."

The girl was right, they had to go. They had to go now. But could she go? Louise’s fear gripped her and froze her on the spot. The monster above her had leapt over them and attacked...someone. A scream, filled with pain, sounded out suddenly. Louise closed her eyes tight, redundant due to the darkness, and tried to tune out the horrible sounds. Her grip on the girl beside her tightened. The girl. There was someone else right here. Someone else that was worried about her, and that she had to be worried for.

 

Had it just been Louise here she likely would’ve just curled into a ball and had the fear crush her. But now there was another who needed her. She could feel the girl’s fear. Something had stolen the courage she had radiated before. Afraid of the dark? Very likely.
Usually darkness was nothing to be afraid of. But there were things in this darkness. However Louise got the impression that it was the darkness alone that this girl feared.
Louise would like to be able to gather her courage but the truth was that she was gathering her fear. She gave in totally to the “flight” part of “fight or flight”. She got up, grabbed the girl by the arm, and ran recklessly towards the exit. Towards the sounds of sirens coming from outside.

 

Giving into her fear like this had one horrible repercussion. The monster all began to flock to her. She pushed herself, and the girl beside her, harder than ever and eventually emerged into the blessed sunlight.
She immediately raised her hands up into the air, bringing one of the girl’s with, when she saw the police. Though she didn’t slow until she was a fair distance from the church.
Relief rushed over her. Relief that would surely weaken those creatures that were following her. She turned to her companion with a somewhat embarrassed smile. “W-we did it.” But something caught her eye.

 

On the roof. A person? No, a monster. Something was there, something perched on top of the roof, glaring down at them. Panic. Did she create another thing? Even with the relief that she felt overriding her fear? Was the fear so acute that it broke that one rule that she had learned about Emoter abilities? Or was this something else, something out of her control.
Whatever the case she knew one thing. They weren’t out of harms way yet.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Back at the giant hole in the wall of the church, Malaki was still guiding the live citizens outside of it, and it sounded like they were all out of harm's way. He didn't have much hope of everyone making it out alive, and he'd hate to see that blood had been strewn all over the church. Truth be told, he'd never forgive himself. But as he was reminiscing, all of a sudden, he saw a rather short pink-haired girl in a black dress, going in the opposite direction.

 

"No no nononono WAIT!!" Malaki cried out, but it was too late; the girl had already vanished into the darkness that now consumed the church. He wished he had the courage to go after her, but if he did, he wouldn't be able to see a thing! Either he'd blame himself for not going in, or he'd blame himself for not being at the right place at the right time. There was just no winning between Malaki and his general inability to forgive himself. His thoughts then trailed off to the man in the suit that was executed in front of everyone, a few tears falling from his eyes as they did. If only he and Angela would stop running away, then maybe, just maybe...

 

Malaki wiped away the tears on his face. There was no way he was gonna tap into his sorrow; not while normal human beings were still in danger. He had a mission to accomplish first. Now, Malaki's attention turned to the cops that had just arrived onto the scene, no doubt intent on seeing if they could control the situation at hand. If only they knew the hopelessness of it all, then getting them to consider other priorities wouldn't be such a tall order. But alas, they showed no signs of backing down. So, Malaki decided that now was the time to try and put on a brave face and try to speak to everyone. Speeches weren't Malaki's strong suit at all; in fact, he would much rather not have to speak to anyone. But before he could get started, something had busted its way out of the roof of the church.

 

"Sweet... mother of f***..." Malaki whispered in horror, as he turned and faced the monstrosity with his own eyes.

 

...

 

Angela was still moving towards the Emoter that she believed was the one summoning all the monsters, when all of a sudden, she heard a beam being fired at the church members. This was deflected with ease, and ended up killing more civilians. This made Angela angry. It was clear to her now that none of these Emoters even cared about the normal human beings that were just trying to escape from the chaos. Not even the supposed 'good guys'. Angela just wanted to kill every single one of them before they did any more damage, and she had full intention to start with the b**** that fired that laser in such a reckless manner. But before she could move a muscle, the entire church was enveloped in complete and utter darkness, making battle within the church that much harder.

 

"Oh, bloody hell!" Angela cursed loudly, before letting out a brief sigh, "...just my luck."

 

There was only one thing for it; she'd have to make her arm and tendril bones even bigger, until they reached a wall or the roof of the church. She had relaxed the growth of which the bones were sprouting as much as she possibly could, but it was still hurting. Her arms, legs, head and back were all aching at once, and her entire body felt like it would buckle at any second... until suddenly, the topmost two tendril bones began to bend, indicating that they had managed to finally touch the roof. Finally, Angela had thrust a bone 'fist' up in the air with all the might she could spare, and then...

 

 

A hole was made, just big enough for Angela to hoist herself up onto the roof using all 8 tendrils she'd sprouted from her body, and finally get herself into the light. She was hoping that the hole would shed sunlight into the church, which would allow her to see what she was actually doing and make her next move accordingly, but what she discovered instead was that the darkness that had been created was strictly within the confides of the church itself. The Emoter responsible for that must've been a clever bastard indeed. However, Angela looked up, to see that she wasn't alone on this rooftop. A monster had been eyeing up everyone down below, and seemed to be in mid-transformation. This monster had obviously intended on striking from above, but before it got the chance...

 

"Oi! Ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" yelled Angela, in a bid to get this monster's attention.

 

There were now two abominations on this church rooftop, and Angela was gonna grind this other one to a bloody pulp.

[Resident Fascist]

--x--

Victoria von Schwarzerosen

--x--

 

"We will land in Seattle shortly, my lady." A solemn voice sounded over the intercom system of the small passenger plane as it began it's descent. In the luxurious back room of the plane, lined with gold and purple furnishings sat a well mannered and well dressed woman, wearing a long purple dress and her hair styled into elegant curls, this was Victoria von Schwarzerosen, the 17th daughter of the prestigious and world renowned Schwarzerosen family. A quiet knock sounded at the dark wooded door as it slowly swung ajar, revealing the equally well dressed man standing behind it, in his usual black tuxedo and white bowtie whilst carrying only his finest tea. The man walked into the room and sat beside the young heir to the family, passing her the tea.

"Your tea, my lady." He spoke.

"Ah, Geoffrey. How indispensable you are as normal. Have the reports regarding this... "Church" returned yet?" She replied in a somewhat condescending tone, although you could just make out the thankfulness hidden behind the layers of venom.

"You honour me, your lady. The reports returned earlier this morning. It is as you had suspected. Those with similar powers to that of your own have begun a revolution against those that would oppress them. Of course, they have not made any major moves yet, but do not lower your guard, my lady. We are a large business corporation and we might prove ourselves quite the target for them."

"Ridiculous presumptions, Geoffrey. A band of mere peasants dare challenge me? Hmph! I would break them as easy as I can break a teacup. I do however, take heed of your caution and must thank you for the forewarning." The woman chuckled as she replied.

 

Another transmission came in from the intercom of the plane, this time announcing landing has begun. Geoffrey still sat by the young woman, handing her reams of paperwork, all marked with the prestigious Schwarzerosen crest. As the woman read them, she clutched tightly to the ruby-engraved necklace with the same crest upon it. As she did so, her mood seemed to change from smug to remorseful. From gleeful to sombre. She slumped back in her seat, a change from her usual smart upright posture, and muttered only one word at the bottom of her breath.

"Mother...", as a tear began rolling slowly down her eye. Bouncing off the necklace as it rolled off her sorrow-filled cheek. As it did, the woman was met only with a gentle wipe of her cheek from Geoffrey's Handkerchief.

"Are you okay, my lady? I have never seen you break demure like that."

"It's okay... Geoffrey... Just bad memories of this place. Is all."

The woman raised the necklace to her lips, slowly kissing it before returning to clutching it with a warm embrace. Suddenly, there was a loud rumble that signalled the plane had touched down with the ground, forcing Victoria back into her upright position.

 

"Seattle landing confirmed. Preparing for Ground-stage transition. Would all personnel and her lady please leave the plane." The intercom sounded once more. The woman let go of the necklace, letting it slump back into resting just above the cleavage of her dress. Geoffrey instantaneously leaped into action, opening the door for Victoria. Whether he just had large amounts of respect for the family, or was drilled into this by someone, no one really knows. Either way, it became apparent he was extremely efficient at his job as Butler.

 

The two departed the plane via a prestigious exit runway attached to the side of the privately owned jet. As the two did, they looked off in the distance of the prestigious building off in the distance, also privately owned by the Schwarzerosen family. Geoffrey smiled as he held Victoria's hand and escorted her down the runway.

"It truly is remarkable how far your influence has spread, my lady." He said gleefully.

"The Schwarzerosen family has it's hands in every city. Be it above grounds or in the underbellies. We are everywhere. It's not a far cry to say I am the most powerful woman in the world, Geoffrey." She chuckled back, seemingly still stricken by the earlier events.

 

Another well dressed man, this one much more short in nature, he appeared be much younger than the old and wise Geoffrey, walked over to the two and bowed to Victoria.

"My lady, we will be unloading your personal car shortly."

"Thank you, Andrews. Impeccable service as always." Victoria chuckled.

"What is it with you and young butler boys? It seems everywhere you go you have a 20 year old dressed in full tux and serving you on both hands."

"Geoffrey, is a lady not allowed to have her fun?" Victoria chuckled back once more, this time with a much more suggestive look upon her face.

"I apologize, my lady. I have spoken out of turn."

 

The sound of pneumatics pierced their conversation as the tail end of the private jet began to open, revealing a well kept silver Bentley in the back of it, it's license plate reading "SCHWARZ1", and nothing more. As the tail end of the jet fully opened, the car rolled out and was parked directly in front of Victoria and Geoffrey.

 

"A Bentley? I expected something from your home country, my lady."

"Nonsense, Geoffrey. You are aware of my great relations with the British."

 

Geoffrey stepped into the driver's seat of the prestigious auto-mobile, as the back doors opened automatically. Victoria stepped in and enjoyed her third cup of tea within the past hour and a half. Without her even noticing due to the car's incredible comfort, the vehicle had begun moving.

"We will arrive in Seattle within roughly 30 minutes, my lady. I estimate another 25 minutes to reach the site of the church."

"All right then. I take it all of our equipment is ready?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Then, go, Geoffrey. Let us see for ourselves what this "Church" is all about." 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Whatever that thing on the roof was, Louise didn’t get a chance to examine it further. Without much warning she was literally scooped up by the girl who has just previously been nearly frozen in terror. Louise didn’t know what was going on, they had already escaped the church and the police were right there. Surely they were safe right, even with that thing on the roof.
Clearly this girl thought otherwise. Perhaps it was a lingering effect of the fear the girl had felt earlier. No, that didn’t seem right. She was once more radiating the courage from before. Some sort of instinct then? Well, whatever the case Louise decided to relax as best she could and let the other girl take the lead.

It was somewhat awkward. This person was a stranger, though she already felt like a friend somehow. But the main issue was that Louise was actually only a couple inches shorter than the girl who was carrying her.
Louise wrapped her arms around the girl, clinging onto her tightly to keep from slipping and falling. Whoever she was, she was strong. Which Louise could tell by both the fact that she was carrying her and muscles she could feel through her shirt. It was actually pretty impressive, especially for a girl, and Louise blushed as she realized she was gripping tightly for more than just practical purposes.

The stray thought flew from Louise’s mind as they were suddenly in the air. She let out an involuntary “Eep!” and buried her face into the other girl’s shoulder.
Usually being this high up, and being kept aloft simply by another person’s strength, would frighten Louise. But the fear just wouldn’t come. She wasn’t quite sure what it was but...instead of being afraid, Louise was...energized. It was somewhat thrilling in a way.

She glanced down at the ground beneath them. They were quite a distance up and yet she couldn’t bring herself to worry. She looked at the girl who was carrying her. “How...that’s amazing.” She said, unable to keep the admiration out of her voice.

[Kazooie]

"Diva..." Casey sighed under her breath as Seraphina took her leave, shaking her head slightly. If we don't die here, that girl is going to get us killed for sure... Can't trust her...

 

She sighed as she backed up against a wall, her spear aimed forward to attempt to control the reach of any of the nearby monsters. She let out a yelp as she heard a gunshot, followed by a voice.

 

"Oh my~! It is very dark in here! Perhaps I vill just light my vay vis zis gun~!"

 

She whimpered a bit as the voice was followed by more gunshots, but thankfully none of them seemed to come close to where she was. She looked down at her hands, clutching onto her spear even tighter as her mind raced. "Okay, gunshots. If she keeps firing into the darkness, then she might hit someone. If I let the darkness dispel, she'll hit someone for sure. She's probably shooting from the outside, it sounds like she's with the police... Maybe... Gah, even the police can't be trusted to negotiate before shooting anymore."

 

She growled as the shadows inside the church grew darker, swirling as she did. "Come on you idiots, we need to regroup and get out of here! There's no point in staying anymore! We've done everything we can here."

 

 

---

 

 "Lie down and show me where it hurts,"

 

"Did you see what caused this?"

 

Devon fell to the ground, rolling onto his back as he looked up to the girl. He let out a gasp as he felt her hands on his arm, shaking harder as he tried to register what she asked him. "Y-you found the first one... The thing grabbed me by the neck... May be something there too... I saw it... Its face was... Grey and empty... It showed no emotion, but it radiated fear... I was lucky to have gotten away... I crushed it, but that may not have killed it."

He groaned a bit as he rubbed his head, shaking a bit. He sighed a bit as he felt the pain in his arm began to fade, his body still shaking as he looked to the girl who had helped him. "Thank you... My name is Devon, I... I just wanted to be safe, isn't that what that Church was offering? Safety, right? So confusing..."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"I wouldn't really judge them for now, since I don't really understand the context behind all of this in the first place. But at least, they shouldn't be a problem now, especially with the media and police coming after their ass.

 

Still, to think that they staged a public execution of all things..." Mirelia said it before she munched on her fourth tuna sandwich. It had been four hours since the event at the church. During her bout in the darkness, while she managed to keep herself unscratched by the monsters attacking around, several bullets ended up grazing her, without her even knowing who fired those in the first place. Probably it was merely some stray shots. As she was a bit taken by surprise by those grazes, one or two rounds managed to hit her directly, though thankfully not lethally. It hurt a lot, but Mirelia couldn't really care less about wounds like this, and in a way she kind of enjoyed the pain. And while she knew about the little girl's, well, Sapphire's ability to heal her wound, she didn't bother to tell her about it right now. Maybe it's out of pride, but it could also be out of the fact that she's kind of not really wanting to have the girl be burdened more about this mess. So for now, she just simply wrapped some bandages to cover the wounds, while hiding the pain caused by them.

 

Right now, Mirelia was currently chatting with Sapphire and another guy, Devon, in the little girl's estate. it was a bit hard to convince her parents that they were not related to the mess at the church, especially with all the knives, syringes, and strange liquid she's bringing, but after some well crafted lies on her part, among other things, they managed to escape suspicion. Still, she did get a moment of calling out the little girl's parents of letting her go out on her own without supervision, but then Mirelia was surprised to hear that she's actually sixteen years old. Which kind of make the girl legible enough. She had to remove any signs of those thoughts from her face for now, however. Though admittedly, she kind of tempted of slipping her special liquid on the teapot to jumpstart a wonderful happy fun time, but the timing would be inappropriate if she did it now.

 

"Say...anyway, with those mess being left behind for now, can we introduce ourselves to each other properly for now? It'd probably better if we get to know each other better.

 

I'll go first. My name's Mirelia Albescu, from Rumania. I'm a chemistry major student on my last semester, though I decided to take a break to come here after hearing about the church. How about you two?"

 

Of course she had to lie. No way in hell she'd tell them that she's the boss of a underground drug empire. Though, it felt a bit nice to be able to speak English well this time, even if her heavy accent was still clearly showing. Shouldn't matter, really. Mirelia then continued to eat her sandwich after she talked. Maybe she should stay here for the night if Sapphire's parents allowed her, since it'd be a bit late for her to find a hotel room. Specifically in the girl's room. That'd be sweet.

 

Wait no, that sounded too wrong and disturbing.

 

Ugh...why am I suddenly get attracted this much to her?

 

It was something that she herself hadn't been able to answer for now. It was just, the moment she saw the little girl, something clicked inside of her. Not the usual desiring that she usually display whenever she's attracted to a stranger. It was something else entirely. Something...warm, but completely unknown to her.

 

Whatever was the case, Mirelia wished to be able to continue talking with her more and more for now. And with the guy too, since she felt that he's pretty nice too. If this was not Sapphire's house, she'd have attempted to bed him asap. Playing with that notion, to make herself look less suspicious in front of Sapphire, Mirelia then moved closer and closer to the guy, with a certain look on her face.

 

"Oh yeah, how about we start from you? I'd be really delighted to hear more about you."

 

 

It was a mess, plain and simple. Ilya and his colleagues were now inside of a nearby warehouse following the mess. The church's almost completely demolished, and even with Mary promising that she'd have it rebuilt, Ilya doubted that they'd be able to return there after what happened today. Both the government and the people would completely oppose them, and even with how much the crew could handle muggles, it'd be too much of a bother to actually go through just for a symbolic building.

 

So much for gaining sympathy from the masses.

 

"Tch.  I've been involved in a lot of operations in the past, but this is the biggest failure I've ever seen."

 

"And it could have been worse. Honestly Mary," The young man turned to the nutty nun, "as much as you're confident about being able to fix the church, we wouldn't be able to return there. Not after today.

 

This would get the widespread attention of the mass media, and it's really not something ideal for us if we want to continue with our goals and aspirations. The execution was too hasty and abrupt.

 

But oh well, spilt milk couldn't be recovered."

 

After grumpily mentioned his complaint, Ilya immediately activated his ability, disappearing from everyone's detection as he retreated to a corner to sit down and calm himself. He really just wanted to go home and tend his collection more.

 

He really just wanted a quiet life, not this kind of a huge incident straight out of the movies.

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

She finally knew the identity of the girl, Nadia. It was a nice name, Louise decided. And apparently the girl had “courage powers”. The thought almost made Louise laugh. She supposed what she had would be considered “fear powers”. Such blatant differences between the two. Louise was almost envious, this girl had such amazing abilities, while she...No, there was no use comparing. She didn’t know the girl’s life after all.
She agreed to meeting up with Nadia later, and Louise couldn’t help but be excited for the prospect. Surely Nadia just wanted to go over what had happened at the church, the thought cast a dark cloud over Louise’s thoughts, but it still...was nice in a way. Louise hadn’t really had anything resembling a friend in a long time. And she could hardly wait for the four hours to pass.

She knew she had to return home first. There were many things about today she’d have to face still. Her powers had gone haywire, she didn’t know how many had died because of her, and her parents must have heard news about the church. Louise was keeping the thought of her plans with Nadia in her mind, even so, to keep from drowning in negativity. She had to keep as positive outlook as she could, for as long as possible.

Her parents had been understandably upset. Not at her, though if they had known... They were simply worried about her, after hearing news about some sort of terrorist attack at the church. Louise didn’t want to go into details and, after making it obvious that she was safe, her parents dropped it. Until Louise told them she planned on going out again. They went on about how dangerous it would be and made her promise not to leave. She agreed.
Louise never lied to her parent’s faces before. She didn’t like the feeling, she thought. She knew the two of them would be gone within the next hour and so she wasn’t worried about them knowing she left. They would, of course, tell the help to keep her here. But they never forced anything upon Louise and would let her go without trouble.

Now, the only issue was what she would wear. The clothing she had on now was covered in sweat, mostly from fear, and disheveled. It wouldn’t do to show up in them. She didn’t think she needed to wear anything particularly fancy and so she settled on a simple dress. And her signature hat, of course.

Eventually, far too slowly for Louise’s taste, the time came to head out. She made her way back to the coffee shop. As she did she noticed people whispering in the streets, and she knew what it must have been about. Louise ducked her head as she went on. There was no way they could connect Louise to the incident but she couldn’t help but worry. It wasn’t a full blown fear but it still caused Louise’s chest to tighten. And she could see out of the corner of her eye that thing once more. The one only she could see, the one that was always there, a horrible perversion of an imaginary friend.

Keeping her thoughts on the way ahead, Louise wound up outside the coffee shop just in time. She saw a girl there. Even without the strange getup, Louise could recognize Nadia. She suddenly felt awkward and nervous, and began picking at her hair, trying to make sure it was presentable. Unable to come up with reason to linger any longer, Louise headed forward.
It appeared that the outfit was not the only thing different about the girl. There was...less in the chest area than before, and her eyes were different color. Green, in particular Louise’s favorite shade. Louise realized she had been staring and the thought caused a slight blush to appear on her face. She wasn’t used to going out and meeting someone around her own age like this.

“Good evening, Nadia, it’s...nice to see you again.” Louise said, smiling brightly at the other girl. “Shall we go inside?”

The two of them headed into the coffee shop. It was quite a nice place, despite the condition of the sign outside. It was dark, but not so much that she couldn't see. Just enough to set a mood. What mood, Louise wasn't sure.

Remembering her theory that Nadia was afraid of the dark, and worrying that even this much would cause her discomfort, Louise turned to her. "Let's get a spot near the window, okay?" She said soothingly. The tone came naturally to Louise, she was used to using such a tone on herself.

They took the liberty of seating themselves, as the waiter was busy. He had noticed them and gave them a sign that he would be there in just a moment. Louise sat down across from Nadia. She knew someone would have to breach the topic of the church, but Louise was unsure she could yet. So she just smiled warmly at the girl and waited for her to speak.

[Sethera]

Noah had managed to bypass the chaos that had arrived in the form of the police. Which was all for the better. As a resident of Seattle, if he was known to be involved, then things could get...messy for him.

 

After his apathy had worn off, he had felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. Relief because, while emotions were the biggest cause of his troubles, they were still his. A sudden loss of them, anybody would be disturbed. While he hadn't felt any such thing during his apathetic state, afterward he had felt a distinct sense of regaining something precious. Still, to be able to shut them on and off, that would be useful. Or at least, if he had something that could lessen their intensity.

 

The black-haired boy stared up at the sky and swung his legs from his perch on a park bench, the back right up against a fountain. That trip to the Church had been near-fruitless. It had only proven his innermost thoughts. Emoters were monsters. What need did the world have of such creatures? Really, they were all better off--

 

Music on. Noah sighed. He had even started sleeping with them. It worried him, to be frank. They were a crutch. What if they ended up dying on him during a key moment? Or what if they stopped working? He would need to work on his self-control some more. Leaning his head back against the rim of the fountain, the ravenette sighed. "I wonder what to do now. I guess I'll just end up going to college and trying to pretend that I'm normal."

 

"Hey, did you hear?"

 

"Huh? Hear what?"

 

"Bill said he heard suspicious noises from that old warehouse by the Church."

 

"No way! Do you think it has something to do with...that?"

 

"Maybe, either way, don't you think we should check it out?"
 

"What?! Isn't that dangerous?

 

"Nah. We'll just poke our heads in and then leave before they notice us."

 

"Well, all right then. But if anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

 

Noah stiffened at that. What were these idiots doing? Did they want to get themselves killed? And right after the Church incident too. Emoters had just proven to the masses how dangerous they really were, and these fools wanted to poke their noses right into the lion's den? Granted, neither they nor Noah knew for sure whether it was Emoters, but the sheer possibility should have been enough to drive them away.

 

Sitting up, he glared at the two idiot boys. They looked about his age. Great. I hope I don't get one of them for a roommate. "Do you have any idea how stupid you two sound?!" Normally, he tried to hold back on his anger, but these two...if he wasn't harsh enough, they might actually go through with their plan. "Emoters are dangerous! The news today should have been enough of a clue."

 

"Hey, chill out, man," the first speaker, a bro-dude with brushed-up dirty blond hair said.

 

"Yeah, it'll just be a quick in-and-out," the other, a slicked-back brunette smiled.

 

Noah gritted his teeth. "Idiots. If there really are Emoters in there, you're more likely to get caught than not. This is a stupid idea."

 

--

 

"This is a stupid idea." He repeated. Somehow, he had gotten roped up in accompanying the two idiots--Jack and Steve, respectively. It turned out that they were going to be attending Cornish as well, and while the college would probably be better off for their absence, it wasn't in his nature to sit by and do nothing if there was a good chance of people dying.

 

Speaking of dying, he had probably killed a fair few people in the Church. Guilt rose up in his throat. Ugh. I don't want to think about that, he thought. I know I'm running away, but...it's just a bit much for me right now. So instead he was running right into trouble. Nice.

 

They had taken a bit of a meandering route. Turns out that the two weren't even from around here. Noah had been ready to tear out throats when they had walked past the same coffee shop three times, or when they had circled around an estate for half an hour. And since he didn't know the warehouse in question, he couldn't very well take the lead.

 

By the time they had reached the warehouse, it was evening. Noah had lost track of the number of songs he had gone through, or how many breathing exercises he performed. Still, they were here. Finally. Hopefully. If this was the wrong warehouse, he was going to flip a s--t.

 

They had crept up to the sides of one of the garage doors. Noah was currently listening to the harbor noises, while the two idiots had pushed their ears up against the door.

 

"I hear something!" Jack whispered.

 

"Great, now let's get out of here."

 

"No way, man. We gotta go in and make sure."

 

These two are going to be the death of me. Maybe literally. "And just how do you suggest we do that? I'm pretty sure they'd notice if we tried opening a door."

 

"I dunno, man, but we can't just leave like this."

 

"Hey, there's a door in the side!"

 

"Ooh, great find! Let's go, Noah!"

 

Noah gave a much-aggrieved sigh and tried his best to hold back his rising temper. They were right in front of the side door now.