Ryudo Lee's Legacy

[Gareeku]

As he ran, Gareeku surprised to rind Rei landing in his arms from out of thin air. Catching her and stopping, Gareeku quickly laid her down on the ground and examining her wounds.
"Damn..." he muttered, before comforting the feline. "Ssssshhh...it'll be ok..."

When she had fallen unconscious, Gareeku looked at Stygian's assistant with a disapproving look.
"I do have a name, you know. It's Gareeku" he replied, an annoyed tone in his voice as he spoke and not realising that she hadn't caught his name yet.

[Cheese Foxlee]

Winger had made his way into a clearing, before he notice that the buzzing in his ears had died down, and when he found that he was alone he let out a little sigh and stopped to catch his breath and get his bearing.  His plan was obviously no longer needed, but the avian couldn't help but feel a little foolish for getting so far ahead of the others. He thought to himself how cowardly he must have looked to the others as he ran out of sight.  Now he was alone an he had a choice to make. "should I press on, or go back?"  he asked himself, and he was surprised to get an answer from a low grumbling voice.

"Go back..." it said.

Winger gripped his sword hard in his feather digits. "Who's there?"  he called out in a nervous but stern tone. "Show yourself!"

"Go back..."  The voice came again, much louder than before. 

Winger shook a bit and ruffled up his feathers. he heard something new. It was kind of kind of creaking sound the you hear from a rusty door hinge, followed by a soft thud like someone stepping hard onto the soft ground. Winger couldn't place where the sound was coming from.  "Come out and make yourself known" Winger shouted again!" His voice becoming louder and more angry. 

The rusty foot steps became louder and faster, then there was a loud shriek, "GO BACK!"

Winger felt a sharp pain in his back and then found himself lying with his beak in the dirt.  when he rolled over he could hardly believe his eyes.  Before him stood the golden figure that he and his companions worked so hard to recover and put back together.  It growled and flexed it's wing a bit. It was taller than winger, but not by much. It was made out of gold, but it seemed to be different from what he remembered somehow. Instead of being the pure and radiant genderless embodiment of power it once was. it had become dull and tarnished,  it was cracked and beaten. From the cracks there seem to radiate a dark energy.

Something was terribly wrong.

Winger got to his feet and took a step forward to get a better look; the angel withdrew. Winger took a step back and the angel advanced. The pair of them repeated this step a few more times before winger spoke out in protest.  "I don't have time to be dancing with some broken golden toy all night. Why have you returned?"

"Go back?" The angel spoke and too another step forward, this time winger did not withdraw.

"The hell with that." winger spat and rubbed his back where he had been hit before. "I asked you a question, you rust bucket! What do you want!?"

"The core" The angel replied, in his grumbly tone.  "Go back and get it! GIVE IT TOO ME!"  It screeched, before it reached out it arm and tried to grabbed a hand full of blue feathers out of wingers arm. 

Winger recoiled a bit. from the shock of the pull;  he let out a loud "Caw" and then raised his sword and slashed at the Angrily taking the fist of that had plucked his feathers before.  With out thinking he grabbed the hand And dashed back in the direction of the party.  he flapped his arms, and thankfully he was still able to fly, the angle hading removed any important feathers, but it was chasing him now and what was worse was it could also fly!  So winger sped back to the others clutching fist which still had his feathers in it's tight grip..

[Cogidubnus]

"Mmm-hm". Cog says, walking over toward Gareeku and looking Rei over. "Unlucky for her. I don't think she had the most sturdy constitution to begin with. The ultimate bee stings are not going to help: Most likely that's an unfriendly venom in there, and very probably she'll just bleed out if we just rip out the stingers." He stares at her for a moment, and reaches into a side pocket. "The necromancer bought my best healing charm, but I think I might have something else that would work." He shuffles around in his pocket for a bit, and brings out a bronzed coin, two sided, and etched with a very intricate tree on one side, and a storm on the other. "At this rate, I'm going to lose all my trinkets before I even see a fight." He holds up the coin. "This coin inundates with light magic. It might heal her." He reaches over towards one of the knives that she dropped on her way to Gareeku. "But it needs blood to work." He cuts his left index finger, hissing a bit when it bites, and smears the blood over the coin. It glows for a moment. He places it in one of her pockets. "It will heal her slowly, if at all. With luck, she should be fine in about 30 minutes or so." He nods at Sylva. "The necromancer could probably speed this process up, if she would be so kind."

[Stygian]

Lusia looked with an almost annoyed face at Gareeku as he spoke.
   "I k..." she began to say, but then stopped. Her face became ashamed instead, and she blushed. "Sorry... I didn't catch it earlier. I'm Lusia," she said, looking into the other wolf's eyes. She seemed to want to apologize for having spoken so directly, but held her tongue.
   Then, she watched the human getting to work with interest. As he placed the coin inside the feline girl's pocket, the wolfess nodded.
   "I still think that we should get the stingers out," she said, and then took the coat Sebastian had given her. "I have both bandages and strings here, so we can wrap her up and stop her from bleeding through the wounds..."

   Then, seemingly from nowhere, Sebastian appeared behind them. His face was worried. You could almost feel an intent gaze from him, despite the wrappings across his eyes.
   "I am aware that the girl is in need of attendance, but I still think that we should get moving. There is something dark to this place, and I can feel tension. And one of our party members just went out of sight as well." He turned to Gareeku. "Perhaps you can stay with her and catch your breath whi..."
   The bat priest stopped, and both his and Lusia's head simultaneously turned in one direction.
   "We know that one, don't we...?" Sebastian said, almost hesitantly. Lusia just looked, fear and suspicion on her face. She gripped her little cross-and-scales pendant hanging from the chain on her neck. "Yes, we know it all too well..." Sebastian said. His face was twisted with distaste.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha smirked, watching Gareeku dispose of many more of the insects in a most convenient way.  She had to admit, he quite loved showing off.

After watching, she turned to run alongside the others of the party until, finally, it was quiet again.  Finally, no more were following her and the buzzing was dying down...she could stop to catch her breath.  The pain in her upper arm from where one of them had stung her was now more prominent, and she noticed the stains of blood on her sleeve.  There was a low growl as she held her arm and looked about the path, hoping to catch up with Winger.

However, he must have ran ahead, for he was nowhere in sight.  Sighing, and not wanting to get lost, the pantheress turned around and ran back to where she last saw the rest of the party, glimpsing a shadow soaring above her head.

"Winger?" she muttered loudly and glanced up, just as he passed over...and noticed that something was in pursuit of him.  Aisha could only keep running in that direction, the dense woods obscuring her view...otherwise she'd have used her boomerang.

[Gareeku]

Noticing the wolfess' reaction, Gareeku smiled apologetically.
"Forgive me, I did not mean to snap. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lusia." the wolf replied, bowing his head slightly in a polite gesture. It was then, however, that his head suddenly perked up. He could feel it; the darkness lurking further within the forest. With a slight grimace, Gareeku rose to his feet.
"I'm very sorry everyone, but I must investigate." the wolf said apologetically to the group, bowing slightly before taking off into the forest.

As he neared the source of the dark energy, Gareeku could feel something begin to stir within him. Trying to surpress the feeling, he continued to make his way to where ever the dark energy was. his eyes narrowing, the wolf sped up slightly. Winger had also disappeard, as had Aisha, and his worse fears was that they were with this dark energy...

[Joat]

Sylva casts Cure Critical Wounds on Rei and begins to chant another spell. This leaves her too busy to respond to what is going on around her.

“Sylva, the next time you decide to put yourself at such great risk, change your mind. In a major battle, the last thing we need is to lose our healer.” Pan says.

He sees Winger pass overhead. “I’ll be right back. TELEPORT!” he says. He then disappears in a puff of smoke.

Pan appears atop Winger’s head. “What is going on?”

[Stygian]

Stygian was getting stressed. It did not like being stressed. Suddenly, things were happening all around, and it was caught somewhere it didn't want to be. That had to be seen to immediately. It didn't trust its new pet enough that it wanted to send her off alone for this encounter, no matter how much control it had over her. And it hadn't expected the Angel to turn up so soon either. There really was only one thing to do here. It was good, at least, that it didn't have to leave anything else behind to do what it wanted.

   Sebastian started running along with Gareeku, and looked to the wolfess as he shouldered that huge crozius.
   "Come on!" he shouted to her, and Lusia got on her feet in a hurry, coming up beside them.

[topher chee]

    Topher thought to himself.  He hadn't ever made Winger out to be a coward...why now?  This wasn't like him to leave the rest behind.  Or had something gone wrong?  Had he too been teleported to an unknown place?  Whatever it was, he and the others had to investigate.
    With that Topher hopped from to a branch and continued his way about 20 feet up the nearby trees.  He looked outward towards the end of the forest.  He saw a faint flash of blue followed by a murky gold.  Was that Winger?
    He called down to the other's and pointed to a spot some yards in front of where he saw the flash.  "OVER THERE!"

[Azlan]

Carran who had been attempting to dash after Winger, was surprised to find him sailing overhead.  A loose feather drifted down and landed on his nose, odd, he shouldn't be loosing healthy feathers at this time of the year.

A golden, flying shape chased in Winger's wake, in its hand were some very familiar blue feathers.  The shape resembled something very familiar to the fox, but he could was not exactly able to place it. 

It attacked Winger!  That is not acceptable.  I'll just bring it down for a little chat.  scare the wits out of it with my faerie might!  Wait, that sounds lame... nevermind.

Using a very odd springtail incantation from his repertoire of faerie arts, Carran leaped into the air and summoned a great concentration of dark force into his right hand and utilized a rather trademarked cubi's vaunted maneuver, the sucker-punch.

Carran and the figure both sailed down to the ground, but only the fox landed gracefully.  Carran stood there seething with fae rage and power, all mostly a clever illusion of intimidation, "whoever attacks my friends and companions must deal with the Prince of the Fae, now identify yourself mortal."

To the fox's horror, a golden figure arose from the small pit in the street and regarded the fae and his overly-dramatic display coolly.

Carran's ears drooped, "wait, wait I did not know!  I'm not in the habit of attacking angels..."  His voice trailed off as he noticed the presence of the being was neither radiant nor imposing, the golden angel was dull and tarnished, it almost seemed a creature that could be pitied.

It took a step forward.

"Now wait one moment!  I'm armed with a sword and staff here, you don't seem to have any weapons... it wouldn't be fair..."

The golden angel took a quick step forward and punched Carran straight in the jaw.

The fox rubbed his chin and swore, "kah, I guess you don't need a blooming weapon."

It took another step forward and Carran put his weapons up, "now wait, wait one moment here, we don't want to commit to a serious fight here.  Sure we can fight with our full strength, laying waste to whole continents and civilizations... but think of all those people and you are still unarmed and all..."

The angel took another step forward.

[Cheese Foxlee]

Winger Was moving as fast as he could to make his escape from the angel, he already knew he was no match for it alone.  It was all he could do to cut off the damn thing hand and escape with most of his feathers still intacted.  he was surprised that he was able to do that, considering that the angel had the power to bring an end to all life on contry. 

Why was the angel doing this? Winger thought. Which was hard to do with a rat perched on his head. 

Winger grabbed the rat and gave it a quick squeeze.  "Listen you-" he started to yell , but then looking into the rodent's eyes he remembered Whisper,  his friend, who had a habit of popping in and out at random to try to cheer up.  "That thing that is coming me is very dangerous"  Winger spoke a bit more softly but still in stern tone. "Someone has to stop it. or else everyone here is in a lot of trouble."

Winger looked behind him and noticed he he was no longer being chased.

"Oh,  where the hell did he go?!"  Winger complained as he looked all around for any sign of the angel, before he spotted it assaulting Carran.  Winger settled on the ground and slipped the severed fist into his bag along with his remaining gold and then thinking quickly as he could dashed at  then angel and tackled it knocking it onto it's front.  "I owed you one, you rusty bucket!"  then he glanced over at Carran, it's not exactly like old times, but close enough!"

[Joat]

“It’s inorganic, right? If I teleport into it, will I be able to mess with its internal mechanisms? Maybe shut it down?” Pan asks.

EDIT: Sylva, meanwhile, completes her precautionary Remove Poison spell. She looks to see how well the Cure spell worked.

[Gareeku]

"I wouldn't reccommend it." a voice suddenly said from behind. Stepping forward, Gareeku looked on at the angel, a grim look on his face as he spoke. "That thing is seeping dark energy. If you were to go inside it, I wouldn't like to think what would happen."

Stepping forward and walking towards the angel, Gareeku began to persperate, a slight grimace on his face as the feeling inside of him grew stronger as he approached.
"Hey! Angel! Over here, you stupid walking pile of rust!" he called out to the angel to get its attention, hoping that the angel would be distracted so some other course of action could be carried out by Carran, be it an attack or an effort to restrain the angel.

[Stygian]

Sebastian stepped up beside Gareeku with a stomp of his boot and swung his crozius down with a sharp woosh.
   "What he said, you bucket of corrosion! By the jurisdiction of the Church and Conclave of Justice, you are to stand down! All of you!" he shouted with a fierce scowl. "Failure to cooperate will be met with force!" Lusia slid up beside him, smacking another pair of magazines into those handguns and training them on the Angel.

[Aisha deCabre]

Panting a little from the running she had to do in order to keep her eyes on Winger's form, she stopped with a bit of disorientation as the thing that was chasing him suddenly fell from the sky and landed in a darker point of the woods, somewhere off the path.  It was gleaming and metallic...and it was quite familiar.  It...can't be...

Following the path, Aisha burst through the foliage to find the others of the party face-to-face with the entity, having entered just as Sebastian was commanding the others to stand down.  Her boomerang raised, the panther came up beside Winger and watched her friend with some concern before facing the angel with the rest of them, surprised.  "Que es esto? (What is this?)  Is that the thing that fell?"

[Azlan]

Carran sheathed his sword and moved Winger farther away from the Angel, "best to be farther off their lad before the Gunslinger reject begins firing those mechanical contraptions again.  Especially with what you seem to have picked up."

Carran, with Winger, took up a position near Gareeku and Sebastian.  He de-fae'd himself and stood by calmly, "so now what?  Something is obviously wrong here, this is not the same as before, this Angel seems lacking or corrupted somehow."

[Gareeku]

Hearing Carran speak beside him, Gareeku nodded his head in agreement.
"Yeah. It appears to be some form or dark energy I think, at least that's what seems to be seeping out of him." the wolf replied. He was started to sweat more, and subconsciously was holding his chest with a hand. The feeling side was continuing to build as he prayed he could keep it contained within.
I won't let it out. Not now! he thought, the slight grimace appearing once more on his face. "Damn it..."

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog catches up with the group, his shoes making slow, regular thumps on the ground. He pauses for a moment as he surveys the Angel. He removes his hat, dusting it off before throwing it to the wind, and places his shades inside his jacket. His yellow eyes run up and down the creature.
"This is what fell from the sky?" He looks at the stump at the end of it's arm. "Doesn't seem to be all that durable." He cracks his neck, takes a deep breath, and drops his posture into a lower stance. He sighs as he feels the familiar rush of adrenaline and power start to flow into his limbs.  He walks slowly towards the Angel, stopping a little behind Stygian. He risks a question toward the obviously agitated cleric. "Are you going to kill it, or shall we wait for it to respond to the hostility?" He says, resting his hand over the hilt of his blade.

[Stygian]

"It is fallen. That means it's a force of darkness, and either to be contained or destroyed," Sebastian answered him clearly. "But we don't force or use violence against anyone unless they violate our peace." His stance was heavier than Cogidubnus', and not just because of the size of his blade or that he already had it out.
   Lusia though, had turned her attention to Gareeku, her eyes widening at him as he clenched his chest and his speech turned grunting. The bat then noticed too, and his eyebrows rose.

   Oh bloody Hell... Stygian thought. It knew this sensation. That dark buildup that started to turn the bright and glowing sensation of the wolf into crimson and raging fire at the edges. It had felt it before, and wasn't at all pleased. There was much darkness here, yes... But was the fallen Angel really exuding so much of it? No. The wolf was sensitive, that was all. Events had probably made him more so. If only he could accept the darkness... it muttered to itself, and then started to think on its next move.

[Snuggles]

Rei heals very well but something is wrong. As Rei gets closer to the "Fallen angel," she starts to go transparent. Almost like she was to blink but in slow motion.

[Cheese Foxlee]

Winger growled, a bit turning to Carran "Lad?" then he turned his attention to Stygian. "You listen here, Don't go lecturing me about this thing. There are people here who know more about it than you can ever hope to dream about!"

The angel creaked as it got to it's feet and also turned it's attention to Stygian.  It took a step forward, and grumbled. "Return the Core." It said raising it's arms which began yo morph and taking on the shape of the bat's prized weapons. "Return the Core."

"Or maybe you'd like to tell me what the devil he's going on about." Winger snickered.

[Stygian]

The bat's eyes narrowed, and he hilted his crozius with both of his hands, while taking a step forward. But it was Lusia who answered Winger's question.
   "An angel's or demon's appearance is only so much. They are aetherial, so the soul, the will..." she said a bit hesitantly. "I... I am no expert when it comes to these things, but I think the heart of its being is missing. That's the Core it's talking about. But why would it turn dark...?" Her green eyes stayed transfixed on the darkened thing for a while. Then she turned to the other wolf beside her and asked him with concern; "Are you allright?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha lowered her weapon to her side, staring with narrowed eyes at the fallen entity standing under the gaze of the group's epicenter.  With the dark energy it emitted, her tail ring was glowing a steady green light, the light enchantment pulsating in little sparks of what looked like electricity.  Not only the sensor, but the fibers of her own mind were up in arms, waiting to either run or dispose of whatever caused it.

But upon swinging her tail around, as it stopped twitching a little more towards Gareeku there came another pulse, lower but growing.  The panther glanced over at him in question, and her eyes widened when she saw how much trouble her companion seemed to have keeping his composure.

As if sensing something ominous about it, and through a fit of concern, Aisha bared her fangs in an impatient snarl.  The observations the others made were helpful indeed, but it was still moving.  "Well...what do we do with this thing now that we have it surrounded?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog tilted his head at Aisha's query. "The cleric says to wait until it tries to kill us." He says, obviously distasteful of the idea. "Treaties, or some such."
As he is looks back at Aisha, he notices both her and Mrs. Fors are looking towards Gareeku. Who seems to be in quite a bit of distress.
"Is he going to be alright?" Cog says, taking a step backwards from the Angel.

[Stygian]

"No. No treaties," Sebastian said lowly. "I wouldn't be so conceited as to believe myself capable of destroying it so easily in the first place. And if it is indeed an angel, the best choice would be to put it to peace through ritual, not combat. That is what I am saying. There is a solution to every problem." He still raised his blade though, readying it in a striking stance with the blade almost horizontal by his head, its tip pointing at the Angel. "But if circumstances do not allow..." He seemed to shoot a glare to Gareeku.
   Lusia still held her black guns steadily, pointed at the Angel, but her eyes were turned all to Gareeku now. Her face was a mixture of worry, confusion, fear, and something else. You thought it could be irritation, even anger, but that seemed a bit out of place.
   "Father Paladin, can we please end this quickly or move? I think that our friend here is..." she said. You almost heard the unspoken ending. She was worried, but also wary.

   Damnit, We're being rushed! There is a reason for why We usually plan much farther ahead than this... Stygian thought. It did not like stress, not at all.

[Joat]

Sylva walks over to Rei and says softly, “You’re starting to disappear.”

Pan hears this and looks at Rei. Then he thinks aloud, “Great, as if we don’t have enough on our hands as it is.”

I’m running low on magical energy. If this turns into a fight, I’m gonna probably need to go with plan B, Sylva thinks.

[Azlan]

Carran gave a sideways glance and a small snicker to Winger, "would you prefer lass then?"

The fox patted Gareeku on the shoulder, "you are a strong one indeed, but proximity is not helping you any."

With the Angel's attention elsewhere, Carran stepped between shadows and appeared next to the Angel.   The fox was already primed for his recent favorite technique, the sucker-punch.  As his fist connected with the creature's face, his discharge of dark force sent the Angel hurling 50ft away. 

"I didn't sign any treaties."  Carran grunted as he shook his hand, "can we decide what needs to be done now?"

[Gareeku]

"I..n-need to get...a-away..." He managed to say, albeit half to himself, backing away from the creature as much as he could. Why was this feeling...this darkness...why was it bulding up within now? Had the dark energy the angel was emitting triggered it? The energy seemed somewhat unstable within the angel, so it seemed likely. However, the main thing on the wolf's mind at that moment was trying to contain the darkness within.

The wolf could not help but feeling a large sense of relief when Carran hit the angel, sending it hurtling away. However, the sense of panic quickly returned as the darkness refused to sleep. It wanted to be unleashed, to be free.
"E-everybody needs to...g-get a-away..." the wolf said as he desparately tried to contain the boiling darkness within...

[Cheese Foxlee]

"I say we chop it up and then smelt the peices into gold coins" Winger half joked.  "Look what he did to my arm." Winger said raising his wing so that everyone could see the bald patch that the angel hadl given winger.

Then angel raised it's newly formed weapons, and fired a volly  into the air.  It was obvious that it was not ammused. Then it turned it gun on winger Who drew his sword. 

"What ever we do  we need to do it fast!"

[Stygian]

Sebastian looked about to say something at Winger's comment, but his face froze before he could say a word. He turned his head against Gareeku, and then to Lusia. She in turned looked at him with an intense gaze, as still as he was. Then the angel opened fire, and Winger shouted. There was a brief pause for a second.
   The next moment, everything happened very, very fast. Sebastian made a lightning-fast swipe with the broadside of his crozius-sword to Gareeku's midsection, somehow moving even faster than he had before, and sent the wolf hurtling much the same way Carran had done to the angel. There must have been tons of inertia in that blow, but he barely moved. Then, he made a similar blunt swipe, but of much less force, at Winger to knock him out of the angel's gun's way. He spun the long blade of his crozius, and metallic tinks were heard.
   Simultaneously to Sebastian, Lusia had swung around and in short order replaced the clip of one of her guns, and aimed it at the angel. The blasts from the gun this time were almost white and made ghostly howls as the bullets swooped against the creature's chest. She didn't keep her aim at it though, but simply emptied a few rounds, and then darted after Gareeku as he was knocked into the darkness, Sebastian following close behind her with his sword raised for an impaling strike.