♚|| 1x1 with Phire Fenix ||♚

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Both Dark and Aephon jumped away from one another as a shot echoed around the streets outside the Emporium, Dark smiling crookedly as Aephon cursed. "Looks like my reinforcements are here." Jason tutted and stepped away from Stella, sweeping his hat off in a weird kind of bow.
"Do you really think it would be that easy?" He pulled a remote out of his sleeve and clicked it like a magician. For a second, nothing happened. Then, like out of a horror show, the ceiling opened and dozens of puppets spilled out all over the floor with a clatter of wood and plastic. Dark's eyes widened, and he staggered away from them.
"W-what the hell?" They lay there, immobile, until another click of the remote had them up on invisible strings, the silvery glint of hundreds of tiny knives flashing in their twisted hands. Their little necks creaked as they surveyed the shop, eyes stopping on Kanra who shivered and raised his knives threateningly. From the way they ignored Aephon and Stella, he could safely assume that the Jishin and Jason were working together. Then, to Dark's horror, they lurched away from him and towards the back of the shop in a wave of clacking jaws and flashing blades. He swore, and turned to run after them, but Jason then pulled out a small music box and threw it casually in his direction. It exploded outwards into a weighted net, wrapping around Dark's form as he slammed into the ground, cursing, "dammit Jason, what do you have to gain from helping them?!"
Jason walked over and crouched by Dark's face, and he could feel the unseen eyes boring into him. "They promised me Zenin." Jason breathed, an evil smile twisting up his face like a snake, "something I would never get from you and the Black Coats."

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Zenin pulled a face and opened his mouth to object - after all, he was used to being in the thick of things, not taking out the goons outside - but shut it just as quickly. It was likely he would be more hindrance than help in his current state, and this was a battle they couldn't afford to lose. "Fine. No hero stuff, alright?" He muttered to them, before pulling out his dual handguns and advancing silently towards the Jishin cronies lounging around in the alleyway, neglecting to wait for any backup. Guessing that Anika and Alex would make enough noise anyway, he spun them around his fingers before firing twice into the crowd of thugs. Three went down immediately, their close proximity to one another helping Zenin's attack. He advanced further, firing one gun after the other, each shot bringing down at least one of the Jishin. Once his clip ran out, he pocketed them and pulled out two long knives, spinning on his heel and slashing through the crowd.

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Aephon turned on Jason, pointing to his slashed face irritably. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"
Jason shrugged, uncaring as he straightened up from where he was crouched. "I thought you two needed to fight some. You know, get it out of your system-" He broke off as Aephon's knife pressed against his throat.
"If you ever hold out on me again, it'll be you who will be doing the fighting." Moving the weapon away again, the Jishin leader stared out of the window, only shadows visible on the streets outside. "Get ready, we're about to have company."

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Streets | Tags: Anika, Dark, Aephon, Stella

Alex looked after Zenin for a moment, then looked back to the Emporium. He dashed in, took in the sight of dozens of creepy puppets, froze, told himself that he was no longer afraid of creepy puppets, then jumped right into the chaos. He was sure that Anika would go for her Roses, so he needed to get Dark. He fired off at several puppets, cursing whenever one of them looked at him. He couldn't help that he had always been scared of things like puppets and clowns. He made his way to Dark, trying to cut through the net. No doubt, somebody would soon start trying to kill him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Roses fighting off the puppets, but then a blade flew by, almost hitting him, and he had to jump away from Dark. He engaged in the battle with Stella, attacking more offensively that usual. He had to get back to Dark.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Alex, Aephon, Stella, Dark

Anika followed Alex in, cringing at the sight of puppets, but then, realizing that her comrades were in danger, she rushed to the group huddled in the back, yelling orders to them. "Jackson, get in here! Everybody, get rid of the puppets as quickly as possible, then we help Dark and get out of here!" Jackson was supposed to be outside, but his expertise with guns would definitely help. The Scarlet Rose may be a small group, but they were fierce. She felt so powerful, shooting down puppets in a flash and reloading as fast as she possibly could. She let Alex handle Stella, and continued his work on cutting Dark free from the net.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Aephon, Dark, Anika, Alex

Stella was relieved when she realized that Jason was working with them, but the relief was short lived when Alexander and Anika burst through the doors. Alex tried to free Dark, but Stella threw a knife towards him, making him retreat, then launched herself to him, barraging him with an onslaught of attacks. He was defending well, but also counterattacked well. She would hold up just fine; she was confident in her stamina. Plus, he had the puppets to worry about while she didn't. She saw an opening when he had to defend against a puppet, and got a solid cut on his thigh. He let out a yell, but recovered quickly, returning to lunge for Stella and land a cut on her forearm.

❄ғʀᴇʏᴀ ᴀxᴇʟ❄
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Koritan | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags:

Freya shivered as the day grew darker. She would have to go out and look for Zenin or freeze to death outside his office. But where could he be? She sighed, getting up and beginning to walk around.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark wriggled in the net as chaos erupted around him, arms bound tight against his sides. His knives were still in his hands, but even as their blades grated against the webbing stretched tight over his legs, he knew it was hopeless. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Even Jason would know to use carbon fibre. He was helpless to watch as Alex tried to free him, only to be ambushed by Stella. He wriggled harder, trying to find where the net met its other side to see if he could unwrap it himself. Then Anika appeared, and he half-smiled half-grimaced. "Sorry you always seem to be rescuing me, I don't know how this keeps happening." Just then, his eyes widened as he shouted a warning. Behind Anika, Aephon's eye was dark and murderous as he slashed downwards with his knives, aiming for her neck like the blade of a guillotine.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Zenin blew some smoke off the muzzle of one of his guns, feeling pleased with himself. All around him lay the scattered bodies of the Jishin goons, all dead or too bloodied and bruised to move. Holstering the weapons, Zenin bent down to retrieve one of the knives that had been knocked out of his hands before re-sheathing that too. His eyes scanned over the empty street for more enemies before he nodded to himself, satisfied he'd gotten all of Aephon and Stella's backup. From inside the Emporium, the sound of knives clashing and gunshots could be heard, and he pondered going in to help. Would he be of any help? Then, a sound split the air. A cry of pain. Alex. Zenin clenched his teeth and strode towards the entrance to the Emporium. Someone was going to hurt.

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-Ehm, check Dark's post?-

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Streets | Tags: Anika, Dark, Aephon, Stella

Alex winced as his thigh throbbed from the wound there. He couldn't put a lot of weight on his leg without having pain rip through his leg. He stayed back on defense now, putting all of his focus on making sure Stella's strikes didn't hit him. He saw Anika take a blow from Aephon, but seemed to be able to hold herself up fine. He needed to persevere through this. He trained his eyes on Stella and her stance, trying to not let his leg slow him down or be bothered by it, but he still gained more injuries. Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping his whole body from burning in pain.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Alex, Aephon, Stella, Dark

At Dark's yell, Anika, rolled away, but not fast enough. She shrieked in pain as Aephon's blade cut the back of her neck. She could feel warm liquid dripping down her neck, but she had to get up. She had no idea if the back of her neck being injured was something fatal, but she hoped not. Although she knew she had no chance of winning against Aephon, she still lunged towards him to keep him away from Dark. Their blades met again and again, but she was slowly being pushed back. Then pain was more of an ache now, but it still hurt just as badly, and it was distracting her. She had to keep herself stable, even though she was growing weaker. Just until Zenin finished and the rest of her Roses could help.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Aephon, Dark, Anika, Alex

Now that Alex was injured, he would move slower. Stella smirked. Now she had an advantage. She increased her viciousness, making bold movements and attacks because she knew he wouldn't be able to defend as well. She would take his weaknesses and exploit them to defeat him quickly. She soon landed another solid hit on him, this time on his abdomen. He staggered back, clutching the wound, but still kept a knife up in defense. She would finish him off soon enough, though.

❄ғʀᴇʏᴀ ᴀxᴇʟ❄
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Koritan | Location: Streets | Tags: Zenin

Freya continued through the city, keeping her eyes and ears open for any noises of conflict. Soon enough, she walked down a street where she could hear the faint sound of daggers clanging. Oh. Jason's Emporium. She had heard of Jason, but had never personally dealt with him yet. As she neared the store, she noticed a figure standing over several motionless bodies in an alley. A very familiar figure. It was Zenin. "Kirai, you piece of crap!!" She yelled, sprinting towards Zenin and launching herself into the air to kick him square in the back. "I thought you were dead! I was so worried, and you don't even tell me that you're actually alive?!" She demanded, both furious and relieved.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark strained against the net, teeth gritted as he saw both Anika and Alex being pushed backwards. If only he hadn't been so careless as to get caught... Tilting his head as best he could, he checked the state of the Roses battling the puppets down the aisles of the Emporium. They seemed to be alright, but they would be able to defeat the Jishin easily with pure numbers alone if they weren't preoccupied with Jason's dolls. Just like how the devil appeared if you spoke his name, Jason appeared in Dark's peripheral, hovering like an unwelcome purple gnat. Dark spat at him in disgust. "Is that all you want? Zenin? Get over your petty rivalry, you're like an obsessed lover, bitter over the fact your partner doesn't love you back. Zenin doesn't care about you, get that in your stupid head." Jason sneered, grabbing the net by Dark shoulders' as he began to drag him away from the conflict.
"And you're going to lose. You lost Jigoku a long time ago, why don't you get that into your stupid head?"

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Kirai was about to walk out of the alley when the infuriated yell made him tense, his hand going to the knife strapped to his thigh. However, this new being was far faster, and he jerked forwards as a force hit him from behind, hands grazing as he hit the concrete of the ground hard. His shoulder throbbed from taking his weight and he hissed before rolling onto his back and fumbling for one of his guns, flipping the safety off and pointing the muzzle at this new threat. However, as he was greeted by the shock of white hair, and that oh-so-familiar outfit, his mouth dropped open and all the blood drained from his face. He was speechless as she shouted, still on the ground and gaping like a fish. Finally, he managed to force some words out. "F-Freya? What the hell are you doing here?"

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Aephon's face was twisted into a look of pure vexation as he threw attack after attack down on Anika, pushing her backwards. As they fought, he was pleased to see Jason had taken initiative and was getting Kanra out of the equation. Without him as their figurehead, the Black Coats would be like headless chickens. Of course, there was this girl, not a Black Coat, who might continue the rebellion, but if he disposed of her now... Aephon pressed his attack harder, raining blows down on his opponent, looking for an opening.

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Streets | Tags: Anika, Dark, Aephon, Stella

Where was Zenin?? He should be done by now. Alex wasn't sure if he could hold up against Stella for much longer, and Zenin should've been done by now. He was offered a bit of relief as a Scarlet Rose joined him in his battle against Stella. He was given more time to recover, and they both managed to get a few hits on Stella. He made his mind up that after this, if he survived, he would train himself to be better in combat. "Somebody help Anika!" He yelled in hopes that another Scarlet Rose would help her, because she was slowly getting more beaten up.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Alex, Aephon, Stella, Dark

Anika began to feel light headed and disoriented. Blood loss maybe? Alex yelled something, but she was too engrossed in trying to fend off Aephon, and she couldn't pay attention to his words for long enough to understand. But it must have been for somebody to help her out, because soon Isabel was right next to her, hair flying as she defended Aephon's blows. Now less attention was focused on Anika. She caught a few gasps of air, but noticed that Jason was dragging Dark away. What for? She would go to him herself, but she needed to stay with Isabel and Aephon. "Mina, take somebody and get Jason away from Dark. But be careful, Jason is tricky," she told her subordinate before jumping back into action with Isabel.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Aephon, Dark, Anika, Alex

Stella had almost gotten to the point where she could have defeated Alex, but then somebody just had to join him, forcing her to focus on defending against two people instead of just attacked one. But she could still handle them just fine. Plus, Aephon was wearing down Anika. They were outnumbered... But they could still make it. The puppets would still hold off the other Scarlet Roses for a while. Plus, without Zenin and Dark, they didn't really have anybody to lead them or to be an extra especially hard opponent; she and Aephon were already dealing with the best.

❄ғʀᴇʏᴀ ᴀxᴇʟ❄
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Koritan | Location: Streets | Tags: Zenin

"What do you mean, what am I doing here? What else?? To find my boyfriend, who let me believe he was dead!" She yelled, not even flinching away at the sight of his gun. He would never hurt her. She offered a hand to help him up, then asked, "But why are you here? I thought you and Jason hated each other." If it was like she had thought, then she might have to intervene in a war, but that might also lead to negative repercussions for Koritan.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark huffed as he was dropped, watching through the net holes as two Roses advanced on Jason. They had the disadvantage, the Emporium was his territory, and who knew what kinds of things Jason had in store? Jason answered that question pretty quickly, pulling two small clay lions off the nearest shelf and throwing them at the Roses. One missed, but the other landed on a foot, cracking as foam rapidly began to spill out and harden, gluing the unsuspecting Rose to the floor. Jason then tapped the ground with a foot, and a trapdoor opened underneath him. He fell through it and vanished, but Dark knew that was no retreat. He had a plan. What was it though? He watched the two Roses with concern, hating how useless he was.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Unlike Freya, Zenin did flinch. Like she had said, he had neglected to tell her of his continued life outside of Gerriku, the city he had used to operate in. Licking his lips, Zenin lowered the gun slowly, eyeing the proffered hand suspiciously. Freya was as sharp as a dagger, quick as a whip and twice as deadly. Only a fool would underestimate her. Eventually, he took it, and let her haul him to his feet. "Jason has Dark. Without him, the rebellion against the Jishin will fall on its face," he said flatly, pocketing the gun once again and crossing his arms. "Besides, Freya, that's not all, is it? You didn't just come here to find me, surely. Unlike old times, you don't need my help to build up your already powerful gang. So what's your angle?" He was aware of the sounds of fighting from inside the Emporium, but Freya showing up was another complication. Being one of the few people that could match Kirai mentally, as well as being his superior in fighting ability, she was another unknown variable, especially since he wasn't sure what her real agenda was. That, and he didn't want her meeting Alex. That would be... far too uncomfortable.

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Aephon growled as another Rose joined the fray, having to parry two attacks rather than just one. The hand that was injured was beginning to go numb, and the knife felt heavy, no longer a comforting and familiar weight. If he didn't finish this quickly, he and Stella would lose everything they had come for. Feinting left, he deflected a blow from Anika's companion before kicking her in the stomach, clearing a space for him to recuperate. Turning on Anika, he recognised the beginnings of the glazed look that stemmed from blood loss. She would be finished soon enough, even without his help. Backing away, he halted as his side touched Stella's, murmuring, "Jason's got Dark. Deal Alex a crippling blow and we can go. Zenin can wait." Aephon spun on his heel, slashing downwards across the Rose's torso, driving them away from Stella.

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Streets | Tags: Anika, Dark, Aephon, Stella

Alex caught a flash of dark clothing. All he saw was Aephon fly by, then suddenly the Rose he was working with was down. But he couldn't spare a second trying to help the person on the ground, as he still had to deal with Stella. But she wasn't trying to keep the fight going. Instead, in one big lunge, she stabbed her knife into his shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain and fall to his knees. At first, it didn't hurt that much, but then as he registered what had happened, the pain hit him, causing his vision to swim. He took in rapid, unsteady breaths. There was a knife inside his shoulder. That thought just made him panic more, and he began to feel sick. He grew dizzy from blood loss, and he felt like he was going to throw up. By now, he wasn't sure if his swirling vision was caused by dizziness or tears. Suddenly everything, but especially his shoulder burned. He felt like his arm was being ripped off. People dropped down to help him, but he couldn't focus on anything except the pain erupting in his shoulder and his churning stomach.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Alex, Aephon, Stella, Dark

Anika was confused as to why Aephon had just left, but didn't have the energy to chase after him. But as she looked at Stella to see how Alex was faring, a gasp escaped her mouth. Stella was gone, but Alex was on the ground, bleeding profusely from his shoulder. He was hurt badly, but Anika couldn't find the will in herself to help. She felt like she would collapse any second. And, indeed, her legs did give out under her. But she had to get up. She groaned as she stood back up, looking for Dark. "Dark... How the heck do we get you out of that?" She asked as she located him.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Aephon, Dark, Anika, Alex

Stella acted quickly upon her orders, making a bold movement to stab Alex's shoulder. It would keep him down for a while, but wasn't enough to kill. She didn't look behind her after she completed her orders, not wanting to see him suffering. She didn't enjoy seeing people in pain. She followed Aephon, glad to get rest after what she had endured.

❄ғʀᴇʏᴀ ᴀxᴇʟ❄
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Koritan | Location: Streets | Tags: Zenin

Freya sighed, knowing that her plan's wouldn't be unnoticed by Zenin. "I wanted to gain a favor or maybe a position in one of the groups. My preference would have been Jishin, but now that I know for sure that you're involved, I'll have to settle for the Black Coats. Or, if you're willing, I can partner with you. I can provide people and supplies, so I wouldn't say it's a bad deal," she told him. "Why do you make it sound like I'm heartless though?? You know, I really did want to see you," she whined. But her small fit was interrupted by a loud cry of pain coming from the shop. "Huh. One side obviously isn't doing very good," she commented, looking at Kirai to gauge his reaction. She was willing to help, but would demand payment for it later.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark winced as he saw the blade go through Alex's shoulder, cursing loudly and openly now as the net refused to give way. As Anika appeared above him, he shook his head. "I don't know, help Alex, he needs medical attention now. I'm not going anywhere, I can wait, you need to help him." As the last syllable left his lips, a sound emerged from the floor below him. It sounded like the grinding of... gears? Eyes widening, he swore one last time before the floor opened up beneath his cocoon and he fell into the darkness below, the trapdoor shutting with a firm snap behind him.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Kirai's eyes narrowed as she mentioned the Jishin. If that was her clear preference, would she be a trustworthy ally? It had been at least a year since he'd last seen her, he no longer knew her aims, or even if she'd changed as a person. From that kick earlier, he could already tell she had gotten better at fighting, and the fact she'd managed to sneak up on him in the first place helped reinforce that assumption. He was about to respond when another yell of pain ripped through the air, and he spun on his heel and sprinted into the Emporium without saying another word. Freya could wait, Alex had been injured. He burst through the door, sharp eyes catching Dark in the corner with Anika, and Alex on his knees on the other side of the shop. Suddenly, Dark disappeared into the floor, but Zen didn't go and investigate. Instead, he strode quickly over to Alex, taking in the jagged knife in his shoulder. Kneeling by his side, Zenin muttered in a growl, "dammit. You got careless." Not one for sappy stuff, this kind of anger was the only way Zen could show he cared, that, and his swift revenge on Stella and Aephon. "Don't remove the knife," he snapped at the Roses, placing his arms gently around Alex and allowing the other male to lean against him. He knew elevation and pressure were important when dealing with stab wounds, but with the blade still in, he didn't want to aggravate the injury by trying to put pressure on it. Besides, with the knife blocking any catastrophic bleeding, it wasn't as important. "Someone call an ambulance, do it now." He spoke quietly and slowly, the only indication of the fury boiling below the surface. The Jishin had gotten Dark, he'd be damned if they took Alex too.

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Exiting the Emporium from the back, he lay a hand on Stella's shoulder reassuringly. "Well done. We achieved a lot." The sound of something being dragged could be heard from around the corner, and Jason appeared with an unconscious figure covered in net.
"What're we doing with him, Aeph? Killing then dumping the body?"
"Alive. His friends are more likely to be rash and impulsive if they think they have a hope of saving him." Aephon crossed the space between them, grabbing Dark around the middle and slinging him over his shoulder. "Let's head back to base, there is a car a few blocks down waiting for us. The sooner we leave the better."

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
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Male | Black Coat | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Anika, Zenin

When Alex felt steady, familiar arms around him, he almost wanted to cry with joy. "You took forever," he told Zenin in between small whimpers of pain whenever his shoulder moved. "Aaaaaa, it hurts a lot. I'm scared, Kirai," he confessed quietly, squeezing his eyes shut. He could only focus on one thing at a time, or else he would start to get confused and panic again. That one thing would be the pain. Alex's breathing started to even out, but he started growing more tired, and the sharp pain in his shoulder started getting worse. Now that he had no more adrenaline, the pain felt so much worse. His breaths began to speed up again, and he clutched onto Zenin tightly. "Aagh, it hurts. It hurts so much." As the pain spiked, he cried out again, feeling tears stream down his face, but not caring enough about his appearance to do anything about it. He buried his face into the crook of Zenin's neck, hoping that something familiar and soothing would calm him down a bit.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
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Female | Outsider | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Alex, Dark

"Dark!" She lunged to grab him, but was too slow. She stared at the floor where Dark used to be in shock. Her brain was working quite slowly. Yes, Alex. She turned around, and found Zenin helping Alex up. She had never seen him like this. Alexander had always seemed so calm and collected, and yet... At Zenin's, she snapped out of her trance and whipped out her phone, dialing 911 and stating the injuries, but not giving and specifics on the fight. She doubted the police would even help if some of the higher ups were with Jishin, but if the police weren't corrupt, she also didn't want an investigation. A few of her Roses rushed up to her, supporting her. "Thanks," she murmured, but started to feel an ache of regret in her heart. Now Dark was gone. What would they do?

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
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Female | Jishin | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Aephon, Dark

Stella loved it when she was praised by Aephon for doing well, and she practically glowed. She followed closely behind Aephon, not wanting to get too close to Jason or get into a conversation with him. She still found him creepy, and even if they were partners for now, he was still a neutral party. "You holding up okay?" She asked Aephon. She hadn't forgotten about his wound from before, and fighting against Dark was definitely a grueling experience.

❄ғʀᴇʏᴀ ᴀxᴇʟ❄
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Female | Koritan | Location: Jason's Emporium | Tags: Zenin

Freya knit her eyebrows in confusion when Zenin rushed to get inside after the scream. He almost never showed such panic or emotion. She followed him inside, and her eyes scanned the scene, taking in any useful information. There were some people who weren't from the Black Coats, but they seemed to be working with them. Aephon, Jason, and Dark were nowhere to be seen, so she could assume that Dark had been taken captive. There were creepy puppets lying motionless on the floor, probably caused the work of Jason. Zenin was by the side of some guy who had taken a pretty bad hit. Stabbed in the shoulder, hyperventilating, a general mess. But Kirai obviously cared a lot about the injured male. Could it be...? She had never seen him act like this before. It was a possibility, but if it was true, then it would certainly be annoying.