Aquila 2

He hung up without saying goodbye. Aquila blinked, shrugged and put her phone away. Then she changed into an eagle and flew home.
Her parents had just started to watch a movie, so she joined them. Actually, she was lucky enough to catch a place on the sofa - usually her parents were on that and she and her brothers were on chairs or the floor.
At about the middle of the film she shifted her weight, the remote fell to the floor, the language setting switched to Engllish and the batteries fell out. At about the same time she heared someone open the door. Probably the landlord on his way to his half of the building. She ducked under the table to pick the batteries up, when suddenly the door opened and some feet she didn't recognise stood right in her living room. Someone shouted 'Freeze', loudly, too. Aquila got up rather surprised, while the movie went "I think we should blow this place up." and
"Yeah, I'll get the bombs. You get the cars.". She was even more surprised to find someone with a gun in her living room. No one normal walked around with guns, it was probably even illegal - she was just about to ask who he was when he switched on the light and Dragona walked in. She sighed to herself, then said: "You know, you could have just used the door bell, right?" "Well this is awkward.", he replied. Aquila sighed again, this time not just to herself.

She made sure they went far enough her parents couldn't hear them, though their English wasn't that good anyway, then she arched an eyebrow, then said: "Why did you run in here with guns? I'm perfectly safe."
"You were there when Ytol was killed." Dragona answered, "He'll want to pay you a visit too. The best thing we can do now is all get together. Get a large group of us in the same place. I have some friends that could help. It's the only chance we have."
The first guy, looking like a motorcyclist wearing all black, nodded, "And, we have to assume there are more people than Ytol Heas that have come back to life. The person, or whatever managed to revive them, must be very powerful. We need somewhere easy to defend." Aquila wondered why he hadn't taken his helmet off, yet.
"My island. It shows up on no map because it's so small, and it has some magical and physical defences. Particulary a huge naval cannon, that I'm rather proud of." Dragona told her. "It would be the best place to go under the circumstances."
Dragona's phone rang and he answered it.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hello Emit. And yes, I do. All wear gas masks and black clothing, carry automatic pistols and ride motorbikes? Fun to shoot? They the ones you mean?"
"Thanks Emit. Any ETA on them?"
"Come to my island tomorrow, Emit. We need your help."
"Our last meeting hasn't even happened for another... thousand years or so? So not long at all, in fact."
"Bye Emit."
Aquila hadn't uderstood a thing. She was just about to ask what that was about, after all he sounded a little worried, but before she could he turned to Cabader.
"We have some of our friends The Blue Moon heading this way. I'll get up on that hill over there with my sniper. You need to stay on the road and Aquila... to make sure you're safe, could you stay in the car?"
She liked his car. It had a clever talking computer in it, called Steve. Maybe Steve knew what they were on about and would tell her, too. So she nodded, smiled and answered: "I'll talk to Steve."
"My car isn't called Steve." Dragona said, a little confused.
"The artificial intelligence is."
"No it isn't, it doesn't have any name." Now he was confused and surprised.
"It told me it was called Steve. We're good friends." She had a hard time not to laugh.
"Ok then, you can talk to Steve whilst Cabader and I shoot everyone." Not a hard time not to laugh anymore. Oh well...
Before she left she made sure her parents were occupied with the movie and wouldn't look out. If anyone was about to shoot anyone else, it'd be better if they didn't look out the window or move around so they'd be seen from outside. Just in case. Then she went to talk to Steve.

She closed the door behind her, sitting where the drivers seat should be - in a German car. But English cars were the other way round. "Hi Steve!" she said. "How are you?"
"Hi Aquila! I'm fine, you?"
"I'm fine, but... confused. Maybe you could answer me some questions?"
"Sure, what would you like to know?"
"What's the blue moon? Who's Emit? Why does he get a bye and I don't? Where's that island? And will I have to pack warm clothes? How long will we stay there? .... will he really kill people?", she finished.
"That's a lot of questions" Steve said, "How did you end up with them?"
"I guess Dragona was so worried about me he forgot to explain things to me. But it's fine, you know the answers, right?"
"I do. Which one would you like to be answered first?"

By the time Dragona opened the door they had established that the Blue Moon weren't nice, Emit was a friend of Dragona from the future, the motorcyclist guy was Cabader, Dragona probably just forgot the bye already thinking about how to get to her the fastest, that the island wasn't in tropical seas and that she'd better pack some warm clothes.
Steve had shown her how he could use his windows as screens right at the beginning, so Aquila had been sitting in a nice forest for the past while. Their talking hadn't mannaged to block out quite a few gunshots, though. She had tried to ignore them, anyway.
She really liked Steve's ability to create smells, too. She hadn't only seen but also smelled the forest, and so their conversation had been a lot of fun. She was quite sure that a cloud of forest-smell hit Dragona in the face when he opened the door, but he didn't react to it. Maybe he hadn't noticed.
"Me and Steve had a wonderful conversation," Aquila said with a smile.
"All the Blue Moon are dead." Cabader said without any emotion, "We are leaving."
"Oh, ok. That was quick." She was glad she couldn't see anything.
"We didn't waste any time," Dragona replied. He and Cabader agreed that Cabader would fly and him and Aquila would take the plane. "Want to see my island now?" he asked her. "Could I get some clothes first? I also have to tell my parents I'll be gone."
"I think I still have some of your clothes, and you can call them?"
"Ok."

They left a few minutes after Cabader had gone. The flight didn't take long, maybe an hour, but Aquila really enjoyed it. She had windows on both her sides, and so a great view on the sunset. It started when they had risen between two layers of clouds, and the whole world seemed to turn pink, red, purple, light blue, and then dark blue. The channel had glittered in a red-ish gold when they crossed it, though she had no idea where exactly they had crossed it. She had seen the shadows of ships on the sea, though, a lot larger than the ships due to the low sun.
The island seemed more like a small rock in the sea, to her. It didn't have many plants, hardly any at all in fact, and the only animals she noticed were a few birds. But the house seemed friendly enough to her, and it turned out to have a room for guests. Cabader had arrived before them, but he said he wouldn't need a room, and Aquila decided to first occupy the room before asking questions.
She was just about to fall asleep when she realised that they had left all the bodies on a frequented street of a German town, ready to be found and reported and top of the news for the next few years or so - actually, by now they probably already were. Bodies, in a part of Germany where leaves on a pavement were frowned upon. There was no way they could've gone unnoticed. Not feeling too happy, she fell asleep.

Komodo Devious - Part 1

Komodo sat, huddled in a corner in the ghost house, desperate to remain unseen. He had just found out that there was someone out there, mutilating people into bloody, mangled corpses, that had his face, his name, and, most worryingly, his powers. Komodo’s powers were a unique gem, unseen in the mage world. He never asked for them, never trained for them, never paid for them (which was becoming a thing in the black market, the transfusion of one mage’s powers to another host.) He just went through the surge, and there they were, the ability to create force-fields, shards of light. They required concentration, but were very powerful.

He looked around his hidey-hole for something that could help him. Even his wallet was at his home. Komodo stood up straight and examined every aspect of the house. Every crack, every nook, every cranny, to get accustomed. Komodo committed it to memory and started to ponder the uses.

He then remembered to check out the basement, which was often a very helpful room for hiding and/or planning strategies. He turn on the lights and crept down the wooden stairs, keeping his long black fringe out of his eyes with one hand. Komodo found nothing to help him fight, but he did find something.

DARKNESS RISINGKevin woz ere

Wit TINa

And on the floor in front of that wall there was 2 bodies, one split down the middle with its head and legs stuck in cavities in the torso, the other was disembowelled, a signature of Komodo’s worst nightmare.

“Jesus Christ, he’s been here”, Breathed Komodo, panic crossing his face. If he had been here, he would probably have sentries. Komodo whipped out his mobile phone and dialled Dragona

“WHATTHEFUCKISDARKNESSRISINGANDWHYARETHEREDOPPELGANGERSANDWHYTHEFUCKDOESNOONETRUSTME!”

“Wait, what? Slow down.”

Komodo slowed down, took a deep breath, and started to explain. “Ok. A mage recently “escaped” from the Haven insane asylum in Wicklow. He has the same face as me, the same huge black eyes as me, the same hair, voice, claymore and even powers!”

You could feel Dragona’s frown through the phone. “But your powers are an oddity. No one knows how to train for them.”

“I know! He’s the exact same as me. Even the same personality. The only difference is that he’s a more experienced mage and he’s a psychopathic sadist. So, naturally, he’s been seen mutilating people and everyone thinks it’s me. He’s been slow about it though. With his power he could charge through any mortal.” Komodo sighed. “ So I’m currently in hiding, wondering what the hell is with me.”

“ Yeah, well, I’ve got a few problems too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ytol Heas is back to life, apparently, and the words “Darkness Rising” are showing up all over Europe. It’s like the Passage all over again. Also, he knows where Aquila lives and recently tried attacking her.”

“Shit. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIIIIIIT!”

“Woah, what’s going on?”

“Darkness Rising! Shit shit shit shit shit shit balls fuck! KOMODO DEVIOUS I WILL HAVE YOUR SOUL!”

“Uhhhh.”

“Dragona, do you think you’re high enough up in the sanctuary to get me out of this mess? You know no one will believe me, with my past.”

“Well, I can try.”

“Good. I am gonna rue the day I was born.”

Dragona Pine - Part 2

"Hello?" Dragona said as soon as he answered his phone. He had pulled over to the side of the road, not wanting to break laws he didn't have to. The engine of the Porsche rumbled softly.
"Someone sprayed 'Darkness Rising' on my clearing!" Aquila pointed out in her German accent, clearly not happy in the slightest.
"The graffiti has turned up everywhere," Dragona replied, "Someone sprayed my car, and according to Cabader there's some all over Europe."
"It's annoying," she said simply, "Oh wait, your car? How did you get it off again?"
"I just made it change colour, that refreshed the paint. I know it's annoying. Trust me, I wasn't happy when my car was vandalised either. Cabader has heard that Ytol Heas has some back to life, and he thinks that is connected with the graffiti."
"But the poor grass didn't do anything to him!" Aquila said, "... I shouldn't go to my clearing for a while, should I?"
"It's probably a good idea not to. You should go somewhere safe... I will come and pick you up. Where are you?"
"I'm in an oak. I'll be at home, though. I'll just tell my parents I'll be staying with you for a while."
"I'll be with you in about an hour. Just make sure you're safe," Dragona responded, then disconnected.
He then turned to Cabader. "You might want to hold on. We're going invisible, for a start."
Cabader nodded in response, "You said an hour. She is all the way in Germany... we are in London. I can tell you are going to make it into a plane. You do not have to warn me. I am not stupid."
Dragona took off the cap of the gearstick to reveal a red button. He pressed it, and it clicked. The outside of the car shimmered, then disappeared completely.
"Once we're in the air, we won't have to be invisible. It's only for now," he said, "F-22 Raptor." he told the artificial intelligence inside the car.
The Porsche whirred inside as invisible wings slid out from either side of the car. The windscreen became thinner and longer. Cabader's chair moved so it was behind him as the glass bent out of place so it covered their heads. Meanwhile, the back of the car folded in on itself until it was much thinner than usual. More metal sprouted from the top of the tail and after several more moments the transformation was complete.
The Porsche had now become an F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet very popular with the American Air Force. Dragona just liked the plane because... well, now that he thought about it, it was because he could absolutely kick ass with it on an aeroplane game he had on his PlayStation 3. But he did like the look of it in comparison to the other fighter jets.
He switched the F-22 so it had a VTOL function. The Vertical Take Off and Landing procedure was impossible for a standard Raptor to have, but he had installed it on to the artificial intelligence because it was incredibly useful for urban flights. A straight road which spanned for the length of a runway was rather rare.
The steering wheel and the pedals, despite the rest of the Porsche, had not changed. He pressed the accelerator pedal and pulled the steering wheel towards him and the Porsche slowly lifted into the air.
When he gained enough altitude, the Porsche shot off into the horizon.
However, his flight was cut short by another phone call. He slowed down the Porsche, then answered mid-flight.
"Hello?"
"It's Austin."
"Oh yeah you, what is this about?"
"Ytol."
"S**t. Yeah, what about Ytol?"
"He told me to give you a message that he is gonna kill you," Austin said.
"God..."
"But I'm sure I could help fight this Ytol guy until he's dead."
"Yeah, we could use you but right now I'm busy. I might meet you later, right?"
"Ok," was the reply.
"Listen," Dragona said to him, "Tomorrow text me and I'll text you back saying where I'll meet you. It'll be nice to catch up again."
"Ok. Bye."
"Bye."
He pressed the disconnect button then concentrated on flying.
Cabader cocked his head, "Who was that?"
"It was Austin. Ytol has promised to kill me," Dragona said, "So it's important we get to my island. It'll be about an hour or so to Germany. You're on the guns, so if you see any hostile aircraft - particulary Ytol - just blast him out of the sky. Austin will text me tomorrow, and I'll go and pick him up."
And so they went to Germany in the fighter jet.

Dragona activated the cloaking device again as he neared the road. As soon as he landed the plane, he returned it to the default Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
He pushed down on the accelerator again, making the Porsche roll to a stop outside the house of Aquila Felis.
Dragona opened his door and stepped outside, shutting it behind him. There was a clunk as Cabader did the same from the Porsche's other side.
He went to the boot of the car. He swung it open to reveal a pump action shotgun. He threw it to Cabader, who caught it, loaded it, then held it in his hands.
Dragona, however, prefered a different type of gun.
He opened the space where the spare tyre would normally be. There was a black Arctic Warfare Super Magnum, a sniper rifle that was perfect for shooting long distances. There were numerous different sights and scopes he could use as an attachment set into the black foam where he retrieved the sniper.
He screwed on a silencer to the muzzle of the gun, then clicked an ACOG scope in place. He checked it was level by looking down the sight, smiling slightly at the crosshair with the smiley face in the middle. He had designed it out of sheer randomness, but he found it amusing.
Despite the fact the sniper was a long-range gun, the ACOG scope reduced it to 4x zoom, instead of 12x that it had been previously.
Dragona pushed the five round magazine up into the weapon then extended the pull bolt so a bullet was moved into place.
The gun, being entirely customised, was able to have several other attachments native to other guns such as rifles and pistols. There looked to be no lighting in Aquila's house, so he clicked a tactical light in place, and a grenade launcher underneath the barrel.
He turned to Cabader, with a gun at least twice the size of his shotgun, and also twice as heavy. He didn't mind, though. It looked cool, it was cool, and he could kill people from over a kilometre away.
"Ok, let's go," he said, shutting the boot of the car.
Cabader tilted his head, "Now that is a big gun."
"I know, right?"
They ran over to Aquila's house. The gate was left open so they slipped inside. The door however, was locked.
"I'll take it down with a grenade," Dragona said, then slid a grenade into the hollow pipe of the grenade launcher set underneath his sniper.
"Do not do that," Cabader said, "She may be in no danger at all, and the grenade could take out half of the house."
"Ah. Good point. Oh well, there's plenty of other things to test it on... Ytol Heas, mainly," he said, "I'll see how Ytol likes having a face full of a grenade."
"I doubt he would be impressed," Cabader said, "You can open the lock with the air. You do not have to destroy half of the door."
Dragona nodded, then propped the gun up against the gate post. He raised his hand and inserted some particals of air into the lock, then formed the air in a solid barrier in the shape of the key. He twisted it and it unlocked the door.
Cabader turned the handle and he pushed open the door. He went first, striding into the hallway with his shotgun raised.
Dragona followed, aiming over Cabader's shoulder with his large sniper rifle. The red crosshair of the ACOG scope glowed in the dark, which aided his vision. He clicked on the tactical light and the white beam lit up the darkness.
There were voices from inside the living room. Cabader slowly twisted the door handle and barged his way through.
"Freeze!" Dragona yelled at the top of his voice.
There were movements from within the room and a strange glow that kept changing every few moments.
"I think we should blow this place up," said a voice.
"Yeah, I'll get the bombs. You get the cars," replied another.
A light clicked on.
Dragona searched for movement with his tactical light as he entered.
"You know, you could have just used the door bell, right?" Aquila's voice said from within. As the full room came into view, he saw her sat on the sofa with her parents sat in chairs either side of her.
She was watching a film.
And her parents were looking at him and Cabader with their eyes wide.
"Well this is awkward," Dragona said.
Aquila sighed, then turned to her parents, "Sorry, wartet einen Moment. Ich rede mit ihnen."
"Ok," was the reply from her father.
Aquila stood up and walked towards the door. Dragona and Cabader went back to the hallway. She shut the door behind her.
When they were out of her parent's listening range, she arched an eyebrow. "Why did you run in here with guns? I'm perfectly safe."
"You were there when Ytol was killed," Dragona said to her, "He'll want to pay you a visit too. The best thing we can do now is all get together. Get a large group of us in the same place. I have some friends that could help. It's the only chance we have."
Cabader nodded, "And, we have to assume there are more people than Ytol Heas that have come back to life. The person, or whatever managed to revive them, must be very powerful. We need somewhere easy to defend."
"My island. It shows up on no map because it's so small, and it has some magical and physical defences. Particulary a huge naval cannon, that I'm rather proud of," Dragona told her, "It would be the best place to go under the circumstances."
Dragona's phone rang.
He took it out of his pocket and swiped the screen to answer the call.
"Hello?" he spoke into the phone.
"Dragona, listen," said the voice on the other end. A deep male voice with the hint of a German accent - Emit Sargo, "There's a group of sorcerers called Blue Moon. You know them, right?"
"Hello Emit. And yes, I do. All wear gas masks and black clothing, carry automatic pistols and ride motorbikes? Fun to shoot? They the ones you mean?"
"Yes. Those are the ones. Big fan of apocalypses and stuff. Tend to help people who want to destroy the world... I'm just tracking twenty nine of them heading towards your position. Better get out of the building you're in and prepare for a lot of gunshots."
"Thanks Emit. Any ETA on them?"
"About seven minutes. They're coming in from all directions."
"Come to my island tomorrow, Emit. We need your help."
"Roger that Mr Pine. Tomorrow it is," Emit replied with a smile in his voice, "After all, how long has it been?"
"Our last meeting hasn't even happened for another... thousand years or so? So not long at all, in fact."
"Bye Dragona."
"Bye Emit."
He turned to Cabader.
"We have some of our friends The Blue Moon heading this way. I'll get up on that hill over there with my sniper. You need to stay on the road and Aquila... to make sure you're safe, could you stay in the car?"
She nodded and smiled, "I'll talk to Steve."
"My car isn't called Steve."
"The artificial intelligence is."
"No it isn't, it doesn't have any name."
"It told me it was called Steve. We're good friends."
"Ok then, you can talk to Steve whilst Cabader and I shoot everyone."

Dragona went and laid down on top of the hill with his sniper. He had changed the ACOG scope for its traditional 12x rifle scope and the grenade launcher for a bipod so he could steady it against the ground. The silencer, however, was still on.
He could see the Blue Moon motorcycle riders coming over the horizon. Cabader was stood next to the Porsche, ready with his shotgun to take on as many Blue Moon soldiers as came at him. Aquila was sat in the Porsche, with all the doors locked. She was talking to the AI inside his car.
He raised his sniper and rested the bipod on a small mound of dirt, then aimed down the scope.
Dragona sent out a hollow tube of air from the barrel of his gun, all the way to the Blue Moon members who were rapidly approaching the Porsche. This would make sure that he could fire straight. He wouldn't have to compensate for gravity nor the wind speed.
He slowly twisted the gun on its bipod so he was constantly aiming at the Blue Moon members.
Dragona waited until the perfect moment, then fired.
The gun hardly made a sound.
The bullet, meanwhile, travelled at eight hundred and fifty metres per second. It took just over a moment to flash towards the Blue Moon members. It struck the leading rider in the temple, blowing a large chunk of his head off. The bullet carried on, however, and struck a second member in the neck. Both fell off their bikes and hit the floor.
Dragona made sure another bullet was in the firing chamber, then aimed again.
He heard a rustling sound from behind him and there was a disturbance in the air.
There were two Blue Moon members sneaking up on him from behind, one with a savage knife raised. It had a serrated edge and a gut hook on the tip. Not something he wanted sticking out of his back.
As the Blue Moon member swung the knife towards him, he rolled over, brought up his sniper and shot the person with the knife straight through the glass of their gas mask.
The second member took out a sword, so Dragona dropped his sniper and drew both of his. He would have used the gun, but it would take several seconds to move the pull bolt to put another round in the firing chamber. Several seconds he didn't have.
Dragona noticed shadows swirling around the blade.
"Oh s**t, Necromancer," he hissed as the Blue Moon member sent tendrils of darkness at him. He rolled out of the way, managing to slice the tips off several of the strands before he twisted to his feet. He set his swords alight. They glowed with a blue flame, travelling the full length of his katanas.
Dragona sliced his sword sideways through the wave of shadows that were sent at him. He felt the slight metallic clang as his swords met that of the Necromancer.
The Blue Moon member spun and lashed out with a sharpened blade of shadows. He blocked it with a solid barrier of air, then swiped at the Necromancer's legs. The Necromancer jumped, and swung his shadow-infused blade down, which Dragona blocked with the flat of his blade and opened up the Necromancer's defences by pushing his sword out wide.
He used the advantage to elbow the Blue Moon member in the chest, instantly winding him and again giving him plenty of time to slice a long cut down the middle of the Necromancer's chest, which he only had time to do before the sword-wielding man leaped out of the way.
The Necromancer shadow-jumped behind him, but Dragona was ready. He elbowed the Blue Moon member in the face, ducked underneath a wave of shadows then, as he spun, he opened up a long and deep cut through the Necromancer's stomach. Something next to no one could survive from.
Disembowling.
The Blue Moon member dropped to the floor, and he sheathed his swords.
He picked up his sniper again and made sure a bullet was in the firing chamber by pulling the pull bolt. The gang members were definitely near Cabader now.
And he wanted to be in the middle of the fight.
Dragona jumped off the edge of the hill, pushing the air to slow his descent to the bottom. He landed softly, and sprinted down the slight incline towards his Porsche.
It took him about a minute to get there. He opened the boot, put the sniper in and took out an MP5A3.
The Heckler & Koch MP5A3 was famous for being a perfect counter-terrorist weapon. It provided plenty of fire power in a small package, and had a good rate of fire perfect for nearly any environment.
And Dragona liked the sound it made.
He loaded it, then crouched next to the Porsche. He rested the gun over the bonnet and aimed his gun down the road.
"Nice for you to join me," Cabader said.
"Being a sniper is too boring," Dragona replied with a shrug, "This is much more fun."
A machine gun slid out from Cabader's forearm. It began to spin with a whirring noise that was audible even from the other side of the Porsche.
As soon as the first motorcycle rider came into view, Dragona and Cabader began firing at the same time. The MP5A3 had a much faster rate of fire, so it fired several rounds in the space Cabader had only fired one.
Dragona, though, had a perfect aim, and the first rider dropped after a few rounds. He didn't stop. They flooded all over the road, so he began spraying bullets everywhere. Several dropped, but most bullets only hit the motorbikes.
When the sub-machine gun clicked empty, Dragona put it down on the ground and drew his swords.
Bullets pinged off the bodywork of the Porsche as he closed in on the Blue Moon members, who were climbing off their motorbikes. Cabader still fired his machine gun, though he was allowing them to come closer to engage him in close-quarters combat.
A blast of energy hissed past Dragona's head as he sliced through the side of one of the members, then he spun, blocking a blow of a large hammer with his sword, whilst opening up the stomach of the Blue Moon member with his other blade.
He blocked a gunshot from a silenced automatic pistol using the air, then allowed the bullets to fall to the floor as he carved his way through the Blue Moon soldiers.
Dragona spun his swords in his hands, then blocked a swing of a heavy greatsword with his katanas in an 'x' shape. He twisted the swords and the blade of the gang member shattered into several pieces. He immediately had to block another strike of a blade, whilst kicking another masked figure in the chest.
Dragona ducked underneath several swipes of blades and splayed his fingers over the ground. The floor shook as cracks spread in all directions. He made water flow to the surface, then rolled out of the way as a silenced pistol fired and the bullet hit the ground instead.
He altered the temperature of the air, and the water froze. The ground was covered in ice.
Several of the Blue Moon members fell instantly, but Dragona danced over the ice. His feet made as little contact as possible to the ground, only a half of his feet at the most. He blocked swipes and stabs as fast as they came, and responded with those of his own, which killed or knocked over many of the gang members.
He swung his right katana into the gut of a gang member, then as he doubled over in pain, Dragona rolled over his back and continued the fighting in a seperate space where he wasn't currently surrounded.
A fireball crackled next to his arm and he felt the flames scorch his arm, but he didn't lose concentration.
Block. Swipe. Parry. Stab. Dodge. Duck. Block. Swipe.
He continued the fight, still not feeling tired unlike the Blue Moon members who definitely were. They hadn't got his stamina. They hadn't got his speed. And most of all, they had next to no experience. Their blows were clumsy and most of them went wide. They were too close for comfort, however, which made him instinctively block their blows despite the fact most didn't need them.
He had already killed most of them, and several more were laying on the floor, not moving, blood coating their clothing.
The ground was already slippery under his feet, even without the ice. There was a thick layer of blood over the ground. A crimson blanket that covered the floor.
However, it didn't break Dragona's stride. He was trained to fight on any surface, even up the side of a building. He only changed his foot position slightly with every step and made sure that he had enough grip to be able to swing his sword, but otherwise his fighting style was no different.
The Blue Moon members were not so fortunate. The combination of blood and ice kept making them fall over, and that allowed them to fall victim to his swords which spun in a vicious ark. He showed them no mercy. They weren't here for him, or Cabader. They had left no trace of their trip to Germany, which only left one possibility.
Aquila.
They were after Aquila.
No one wanted to hurt Aquila. Unless...
Ytol. He had planned to take her hostage. He, however, had not counted on Dragona and Cabader's presence. That much was clear. If he had known Dragona would have been there, he'd have come in person. Not leave it up to the clever, but inexperienced Blue Moon. As far as Ytol was concerned, it would have been a simple pick up and go. Not a bloody firefight that painted the road in blood. If it had been, he would have sent a hundred. At least. Not nearly thirty.
He despatched the last of his group of the Blue Moon with a swipe of his sword, then wiped the blades clean on one of their jackets.
Cabader meanwhile, had about ten surrounding him. He was spinning and twisting and sending jets of fire everywhere. Corpses littered the ground around him, some charred, many with cuts in their chests.
Cabader extended his hands, letting blows rain down on him. None had any affect, even the magical ones. Dragona sat on the bonnet of the Porsche and watched. He didn't want to help - Cabader was definitely able to take on a couple of gang members by himself.
Just to prove it, as if Cabader had read his mind, he sent waves of fire out. It instantly cremated all of the men, living and not.
Dragona smiled at him, "I've never seen you do that before."
"I have never done that before. I thought it would be effective on multiple targets," Cabader replied with a shrug.
"We need to get going. No doubt Ytol will recieve news of us killing the Blue Moon. We need to get to my island, and fast," he replied, and opened the Porsche door.
"Me and Steve had a wonderful conversation," Aquila said with a smile.
"All the Blue Moon are dead," Cabader pointed out, "We are leaving."
"Oh, ok. That was quick," she said.
"We didn't waste any time," Dragona replied, "Black Jaguar XF."
The Porsche deformed and twisted and folded, making a slight whirring noise as it did so. The paint changed to black and the lights became elongated and stretched, until they looked fierce and cool.
After a few moments, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS had changed into a black Jaguar XF.
"Unless you count a helicopter," Dragona said, "That would be very slow; the best way of travel, with four seats, would be a car until we reach the sea. It won't take us long, maybe a few days."
Cabader shook his head, "I can use the fire to fly, remember? You and Aquila can take the plane, and I will fly alongside."
Dragona turned to Aquila, "Want to see my island, now?"

Austin Daran - Part 2

Austin ran away from base with his phone and nothing else. This guy called Ytol was very evil and he didn't want Dragona to die. After all he was a friend. He would ring him up and tell Dragona about the threat and then together they would kill this guy. He speed dialed Dragona after ten seconds of ringing he picked up.
"Hello?"
"Its Austin."
"Oh yeah you what is this about?"
"Ytol."
Austin heard him curse and then he spoke.
"Yeah what about Ytol?"
"He told me to give you a message that he is gonna kill you."
"God..."
"But I'm sure I could help fight this Ytol guy until he's dead."
"Yeah we could use you but right now I'm busy I might meet you later right."
"OK."
"Listen," said Dragona. "Tommorow text me and I'll text you back saying where I'll meet you, it'll be nice to catch up again."
"OK, bye."
"Bye."
The landline went dead. Austin ran on the base would be after him soon.

The lady, Rastana, came into Austin's room. He wasn't there. The only thing there was a not saying HAVE GONE TO FIGHT THE DARKNESS RISING!
"No he'll be killed I must find him."
A man walked through.
"What's the matter?"
"Austin he's gone!"
"Quick we must alert the rest of the nest we must absorb the rest of his energy."
"Yes we cannot let him go he will feed our nest for another seven hundred years."
"Come on then lets go."
They both headed out to catch their pray their lives depended on it.

The young boys parents had left him. Deserted him. He was in a dark tunnel and he was screaming there was no light and every once in a while he would shiver. He had been like this for two hours until the woman in the light came. 
"Are you OK, child."
"My Mummy and daddy left me."
"Oh but it alright should I take you back to my place OK."
"OK."
They walked home in the brutal wind until they reached a black building. They entered
 it and the boy was left in a room. He was happy... for now.

Austin didn't know where to go. He was lost he couldn't get help of Dragona until tommorow he was doomed. In fact it reminded him of a time when he was four...
Austin carried on. He walked until he felt like his feet could not carry him anymore. He fell down and just sat down... as he sat down all he saw was DARKNESS RISING... wrote in deep piercing blood. Whoever these people were they were tough.

Aquila Felis - Part 1

Aquila slowed down and landed on a branch. She liked being in that form, able to fly away if there was danger and at the same time having good enough eyes to check every time of the clearing properly. Even though she once had been kidnapped from it, she had kept it as her place for training. She couldn't afford a huge house with rooms for training in the basement or something of that kind - in fact she still lived with her non-magic family. The clearing was her best option. It was in the forest close to her town and she could easily reach it in a five minute flight. It had enough space and it was well off all paths through the forest.

After a while she considered the clearing safe and flew down to the ground. After changing into a fox she went down a fox hole and came up again with a bag. She shapeshifted again, and now a human girl with brown hair and brown-green eyes, neither fat nor thin, neither tall nor small, she opened the bag and looked in. "Hm." she thought, before choosing some flour to start with. She liked flour. It was not suspicious at all, and yet suited her abilities well. She took some of it in her mouth, blew it out creating a small cloud, made sure to step away from it and clicked her fingers. She couldn't do much more than create a spark, but that was enough to set part of the flour on fire leading to a dust explosion. Flour explosions were powerful. During mediaval times, millers and bakers never worked at night. The only source of light apart from the sun they could have used was fire - and all the flour in the air of their workplace would have done to blow the whole building up. The bit of flour she usually used couldn't do that, of course - but it'd do well enough as a surprise.
She also had taken a liking to magnesium. It burned bright enough to blind any enemy she might encounter. And freshly made magnesium powder had a tendency to heat itself enough to randomly start burning. Put some flour in the enemy's buildings air, add some magnesium powder... both flour and magnesium were easy to get and unsuspicious. She could probably be checked by the police and they wouldn't bother to even ask what she had them for. The pure alcohol was a little harder to explain, but it burned with a really dark flame that hardly created any light and therefore was difficult to see - and hopefully easy to step in accidentally. She hadn't really tried that, yet...
If she put enough thought into it, most every day things could be dangerous. And if there was no obvious way for them to be, you could still hit someone over the head with most of them. So Aquila didn't bother to wear a weapon, usually. She loved her bow, though. She wasn't really good with it, maybe good enough to hit someone 20m away, but it was fun to do archery. She didn't really have any enemies, so she didn't worry about defending herself too much. In case of doubt she could just become an eagle and fly away, right?
The animal she liked to be most was usually a cat, though. They liked it warm and comfy, just like her human self. Her cat form was brown with darker brown stripes - easy to recognise if you knew her, but to strangers it was just another cat.

She hadn't found out why she had been kidnapped yet, though. And so Dragona had asked her to be careful. She had started to check the clearing before arriving there, and going there as an eagle instead of a human - assuming it safer that way. Just after she had put the bag back into the fox hole and changed into a cat to climb the next tree, she heard something. She hurried up an old oak with lots of leaves and waited, not moving. Maybe it was some deer or wild boars or something. She liked watching them, she never got as close to them as a human.
What entered the clearing wasn't a boar or a deer, though. It was a human, though they were wearing thick clothes and a hat so she had no idea whether they were male or female. In any case they took out some spray paint and worte 'Darkness rising' on her clearing. They had horrible handwriting. Aquila was quite annoyed by that act of vandalism, but she decided to stay on her branch and didn't move. Once they had left she changed into a human and called Dragona, though. She definitely needed someone to complain about that to.

Eli Brave: The Anti-Necromancer Necromancer.

Eli kicked the assassin in the stomach and punched him in the face. The assassin stumbled back clutching his stomach. He recovered quick though,  The assassin swung his scythe at Eli's face. he ducked and under it and flipped back. he landed on his two feet, thankfully, and whipped shadows at the his opponent.The shadows wrapped around the assassins neck and tackled him to the ground. Before he could pull away the shadows and stand up, Eli cartwheeled over to him and kicked him in the jaw. He gagged up some blood and his face became red. The shadows that Eli had threw were slowly strangling him. Eli took a small blade from inside his jacket and held it above the assassins  stomach but before he could drive the knife into his opponent ,  the assassins head rolled to one side and his body fell limp. The shadows had fully strangled him.

Eli left the park that the man had tried to kill him in.  It didn't really come as a surprise. It wasn't the first time the Necromancer Community sent an assassin after him. Ever since he left the  Temple, they had sent him multiple letters and warnings about how he couldn't tell anyone there secret and if he didn't come back then he would be killed. He obviously didn't listen. he hated the temple. he really hated the temple. his necromancer training wasn't finished at all and he had only recently got his necromancer weapon, but after he heard the truth about what his meaning was, after that, he left. He didn't want to do that.  In doing that, he could kill his loved ones or even himself. it was crazy. So he left and now he is and Anti-Necromancer Necromancer.

Eli drove around Dublin for a while, until he decided to pop into Easons to buy a new book he had read about. As he climbed out of his car and locked the doors, he noticed a man in a black hoodie standing in a dark corner at the end of the street. Eli knew he was staring at right at him even though he couldn't see his face. Eli raised an eyebrow at the man and turned away. He walked into Easons and glanced up at the digital clock on the wall. He nodded and moved into the maze of shelves.

He emerged from Easons with the new book in his hand. he loved reading magic books, just to see if the mortals authors got anything right about them.  He sat into his car and turned the key in it. The car spluttered, groaned and died. Eli tilted his head in confusion. He tried again but to no avail. he opened his door, walked around to the front and lifted up the bonet. Wrote on his car battery in graffitti was "Darkness Rising"

Eli stepped back and whispered, "Oh god".

Aretha Tesla: The Best Kind of Tea

Something hard and fast swept my legs out from under me and I shifted into a roll as I hit the ground, righting myself again quickly. The last thing any close range fighter wants is to be taken to the ground. I felt a disturbance in the air directly behind me and moved my head just in time to avoid a blow to the back of the skull, simultaneously kicking out backwards, but by the time the kick would have connected my assailant had already gone.

He re-appeared a moment later just to the right of me and I turned hard, setting up a perfect hook punch- it was, without a doubt, what I called a go-home punch- a knockout shot. But at the very last second my fist went straight into his jaw, the rest of my body following closely behind. I passed through him like a ghost, momentum driving me forward, and once he had my back he solidified again and slammed his elbow into the base of my skull. Black stars danced before my eyes. I knew he had gone easy on me, but even so, I couldn't catch myself a second time and before I could blink he had me pinned to the ground beneath him, my face pressed against the cool dirt. There was only one thing that could possibly make the situation worse.

Of course, the moment I thought of it, I felt his arms wrapping around my neck in the choke hold that we both knew was impossible to break. He released me almost instantly, however, and relinquished his hold on my back. He took a few steps away and stared at me critically. "That wasn't as bad as your last half hour, but still not good enough. You cannot allow me to take you to the ground like that, do you understand?"

I pushed myself up to a sitting position, gasping for air, and noted how every muscle in my body ached at the slightest movement. When I thought about it, I hurt all over whether or not I moved, it was just that moving made it worse. "Yes," I managed in between labored breaths. Niccolo showed no signs of expending any effort at all. You wouldn't think that he had been more or less tearing me apart in half-hour intervals for the past several hours. I, on the other hand, imagined I looked just as horrid as I felt. The fact that I had grown quite used to it didn't make it any less exhausting.

"Good. Now get up." He ordered after waiting another moment for me to try and catch some much-needed breath.

"Five minutes?"

"Fair. And if you're not back here in that time..." He didn't have to say anything else. I dragged myself to my feet and started running laps- five minutes to run, then we'd spar for another half hour. At the end of the day he would heal me, but until then I would just suffer through it. I was reminded of what my favorite ballet teacher had always told me- 'Suffer, it's good for you.' And it was. but that didn't mean I didn't hate every minute of it. It was a weird kind of hate, though- not even hate really, just numb. And somehow I craved it.

I never got to finish that run- about halfway through Niccolo appeared in front of me again. "Slight change of plan," he explained as he laid his hand on my shoulder to heal me, "You're going to work instead." He saw the question in my eyes and answered it before I could speak. "The detectives have just figured something out. Signs of something called 'rising darkness' are popping up everywhere. They think there's a group behind it, and they want you to start looking up their list of suspects."

In a split second I went from running through an obscure forested park to strolling through the streets of Manhattan towards the Sanctuary. Niccolo had gone, but I knew he was still watching. He was always watching. The strangest thing was that it never scared me. I was used to having him there- like a shadow. If you were to wake up one day and stand in the sun without casting one, it would be weird. Wrong. I took the steps down into the Sanctuary trying to count how many times he had saved my life, and comparing it to how many times he had almost killed me. The latter won out.

Rosa Evergreen headed straight for me the moment I came into her line of sight. "Would you like some tea?" She offered shyly, "I made your favorite kind."

"Really? I thought we were out- you went all the way back to Teavana?"

"Oh, it was no trouble, really, I-"

"How bad is it?"

"Um, I'm sorry, what?"

I let out a sigh. "Look, I know something's up, ok? The nearest Teavana is pretty far away for the City, and you rarely ever leave the desk. Something bad has got to be happening- you don't have to hide it."

"...I'm not exactly sure," She finally gave in, "And I don't think the detectives are so sure either. But whatever's going on, it's global. Bigger than anything you've ever taken on before."

"Right then. I think I'll have that tea. And could you please supersaturate it with sugar?"

"Of course! It's my pleasure. I'll only be a moment."

"Thanks again, Rosa- you're a lifesaver!" Her cheeks reddened slightly as she trotted away. I took a deep breath, then strided on to the briefing room. Life can be hard, but it's exciting, and I always have loved a challenge.