Insert Animal-Based Martial Arts Here

The feathered lizard-like humanoid jumped back, avoiding a roundhouse kick. The blue armored figure continued with another kick and this time caught the creature in the head. Yelling loudly, he leapt up and slammed another kick into the dazed creature's head.

"Storm Punch!" Drake shouted, drawing his fist back and envisioning a smirking Sue in place of the monster. He charged at the raptor and slammed his crackling fist into its chest. The first hit knocked it backwards, the second one knocked into the air. "Storm Kick!" Drake leapt upwards, thrusting his foot forward, the same blue crackling energy surrounding his boot. The kick connected and the monster exploded in a massive orange fireball.

Drake dropped out of the cloud, landing on one knee. He gasped loudly partially from lack of breath, partially from his emotions. He stood up and his armor vanished in a flash of light, revealing his street clothes. He wore a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt bearing a blue dragon on the front. His blue and silver jacket had been left behind in the Library. The attack had been too sudden for him to grab it, but that was the last thing on his mind.

Adrian's door had dumped him out in the middle of a desert. He wished he had covered more of this fandom with forests and the like when creating it. Deserts provided some great scenery, especially cliffs and rock formations, but didn't offer much in the way of shade.

Fortunately, there were plenty of monsters running around to take out his frustration on. He wished they'd just said to hell with the Librarian's orders and stayed to help in the fight. The Library had been his home for months now and abandoning it to the Sues felt wrong. Especially when stuck here, where he was safe and someone else was out there risking his neck.

He glanced around, hoping to spot another monster, but cactuses were the only thing in sight.

-

X Hours Ago…
(Where X is equal to whatever number is plot convenient.)

Drake watched as Chi once again shot out of the trap door and slammed into the ceiling. She fell back into the hole, screaming and shouting curses at the agents.

"You'd think she'd have been knocked out by now," Tyler said as his gaze followed the Sue back upwards.

"I wish I had a video camera for this," Drake said as he pulled his cell phone/communicator out. He flipped the device open and hit a few buttons, several different colored arrows appearing on the screen as he did.

"What's that?" Tyler asked, glancing over at the screen.

"A LPS, Library Positioning System," Drake replied. "This place is so big I couldn't make a map of the whole thing, besides I think its layout changes occasionally. Therefore, I've got tracking beacons set in various rooms of interest. This way I can at least know what direction I need to head in."

"So where should we go?" Tyler asked.

"If all of the Sues have escaped, we're going to need firepower," Drake replied with a smirk.

"The armory!" Both exclaimed with identical expressions of mischief.

-

Cactuses make horrible shade, Drake thought as he lay under one of the plants. He'd walked around the area he'd originally arrived in; weary of going too far from where the door had first dumped him. So far, sand and cactuses were all he had found.

A shadow fell over him, blocking out the light. Drake groaned and sat up. A giant crab loomed over him. It snapped a claw closed and Drake found his gaze drawn to the large appendage.

Not pausing to ponder the weirdness of a giant desert crab, Drake stood up and summoned his armor. He addressed the crustacean. "Good, you brought my order of seafood."

-

"Slicing Gale!" Drake shouted, swinging his spear and sending three arcs of spinning wind magic down the hall.

"Random explosives!" Tyler exclaimed, tossing a handful of spherical bombs after Drake's attack.

The blasts struck Amanda Shoemaker "Shefreak" Orlando Disney SeaWorld and sent the purple clad, blue-skinned super heroine flying backwards. She crashed into the wall and slumped to the floor.

"All right! Let's grab some high explosives and take back our Library!" Drake exclaimed.

The duo dashed towards the armory door, but slid to a stop as it slammed open and a blonde haired Sue stepped out, belts of ammo wrapped around her ample chest and small weapons dangled off the belt wrapped around her freakishly thin waste. A smile spread across her face as she saw Drake who stood frozen at the sight of her.

"Well, if it isn't just the person I wanted to see," Abigail said, pulling a pair of light sabers from her belt and switching them on. The blue and purple laser blades hummed as Abigail assumed a fighting stance.

"How many times am I going to have to fight this bimbo?" Drake groaned, raising his spear.

"At least this time you have backup," Tyler said.

"So do I," Abigail replied.

The distinct sound of webbing being fired announced someone behind them. Tyler yelped as he was yanked backwards. He landed on his back, staring up at the ceiling at Emerald. She wore her red and gold spider-costume. The Sue released her grip on the ceiling and dropped down, feet first. Tyler rolled to the side, avoiding her. He lashed out with a foot and tripped her.

Drake and Abigail leapt at each other. Their weapons collided in midair with a loud hum from the sabers. Both hit the ground in a kneeling position, weapons held to the side. Drake spun around, pointing his spear at the Sue. He gasped as he saw that the lightsaber had sliced the spearhead clean off.

Abigail smirked and charged at him. Drake leapt around a dual overhead slash and slammed the pointless spear into Abigail's side. She barely reacted to the blow and spun around, swinging the deadly lightsabers. Drake ducked under the glowing blades and swung his weapon at her. She sliced off another few inches of shaft.

Growling, Drake tossed the shaft at her. She swung both sabers and sliced it in half. Her eyes widened in surprise before Drake's fist connected with her face.

Tyler swung his staff at Emerald, who nimbly dodged the weapon, bouncing off the floor, walls, and ceiling. She used a back handspring to get some distance and tapped her webshooters, sending globs of webbing at Tyler. He held his staff up and spun it, deflecting the impact webbing and sending a barrage of wind at Emerald. The small tornado unbalanced her for a few seconds, long enough for Tyler to close the distance and slammed his staff into her nose.

She stumbled back, holding her bleeding nose. Her hair somehow managed to remain perfectly in place despite Tyler's windstorm. She raised her head, teeth clenched in anger. Tyler was a few feet down the hall, crouched down with his hands over his ears. Emerald blinked in confusion before her spider-sense went off and she glanced down at the metal orb at her feet.

"Uh-oh…"

The explosion rocked the hall, nearly knocking Drake over. Abigail's perfection allowed her to handle the shockwave better and she managed to score a flesh wound across Drake's chest. The armored agent quickly backed out of saber range. Abigail calmly stepped after at the wall, Drake kicked off of it and sailed over the Sue's head. Abigail had enough experience by now not to turn around and simply ducked, letting his foot slam through the wall and get lodged there.

She raised a saber, ready to take advantage of Drake's mishap and finish him, but a ball of magic slammed into her and knocked her backwards. Drake quickly yanked his leg free.

"Thanks," he said as Tyler stepped forward to stand next to him. Drake raised his fists and Tyler morphed his bomb back into staff form.

A transparent figure wearing a blue jester outfit with yellow trim stepped out of the wall next to Abigail. Rapid footsteps sounded and a second later, Chi appeared at the end of the hall. She spotted them and charged forward as a severely singed Emerald pushed herself off the floor.

"I got an idea," Drake said, glancing back to find they were now in front of the armory. "Buy me two seconds to find what I need."

"What?" Tyler gulped.

"Trust me," Drake said, patting his shoulder and turning to disappear into the armory.

He quickly dashed along the aisles of weapons. Outside he could hear the sounds of battle.

"Ping Pong Power!" CRACK!

"Luke, I am your father!" VOOM! VOOM! BOOT!

"I see that your Schwartz is as big as mine!" CRASH! SPLAT!

"Will you hold still?"

"No!" SPLACH!

"Splach?" Drake frowned.

"My spider-sense is tingl-." BOOSH!

"Will someone just hit this idiot already?"

"Oh, muffins…" BLAM!

Tyler crashed through the doorway and into a shelf of guns and ammo knocking it over. The three Sues entered the room, Abigail pointing a laser pistol skyward, Emerald to her left in a kung-fu pose and Chi in a similar pose to the right.

"Suck gas, evildoers!" Drake exclaimed, raising a small purple handgun. He pulled the trigger and a canister shot from the barrel, clattering to a stop at the Sues' feet. A cloud of gas surrounded them and they all coughed for several seconds before dropping over.

"Took you long enough," Tyler gasped.

"Come on, let's grab some stuff," Drake said.

"What's that?" Tyler asked.

Drake glanced up to find a large green creature with a flower on its back standing in the doorway sniffing at Chi's hair.

-

The sun had set and the stars came out. Fortunately, Drake had the foresight to collect enough tumbleweeds and bushes to start a fire. He huddled close to the flames debating whether he hated the heat or cold more.

He turned the large piece of crabmeat impaled on his stick over so the fire would cook the other side. He leaned back against one of the beast's claws.

Now, that the anger had subsided, Drake felt a sense of longing for the Library and the table at the kitchen. It was fun to sit and listen to the chatter at the dinner table. Not many in the Society could be pronounced sane and thus you could count on at least one weird story per day.

What was taking so long? Surely, the Sues had been recaptured by now. Adrian must have had some sort of plan to deal with them; he just needed to get the Society agents out of the way. He was supposed to be a billion years old. Surely, he'd foreseen this crisis and planned for it. Any minute now, Tash or someone would appear and it'd be back to the Library and the usual routine.

A lock clicked to his left and he glanced over to find a door where seconds ago had been air. He tossed the crabmeat to the side and stood up, slowly approaching the door. Drake wrapped a hand around the doorknob and hesitated for a few seconds.

Finally, he twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Stepping through into a room that looked like it had been on the receiving end of several of Ben's nukes. Walls were charred black, had holes blasted through them, or were missing entirely. Books littered the floor, charred black or pages torn out.

Aster and Doug stood staring at the wreckage. A red-eyed Tash stepped over to another door. Tash's blank expression was his first clue that something was wrong. The Library could be cleaned up and repaired; it did not merit crying one's eyes out. He stepped over to Doug and whispered quietly.

"What happened?"

"Adrian's dead," Doug replied remarkably clam.

Drake stepped back, mouth open in shock. He'd always thought Adrian's blindly heroic nature would get him killed, but he'd never really expected it to happen.

Tash pulled open the door and Christoph tumbled out of it. He glanced around at the group and, like Drake, quickly realized something was wrong.

"Lady Tash? Doug, Lord Drake, Aster... what happened?" Cristoph asked, completely confused.

Drake offered no reply and instead stared at the wall. Doug stepped forward to explain the tragedy that had occurred.

-

Drake kicked debris to the side and leaned down to pick up his charred and torn jacket. He slung the jacket over his shoulder and glanced around the disaster area that his room had become. At least his safe seemed to have survived.

He stepped over to the container and entered the same ten-digit code he used for the electronic lock that had once been on his door. The lock released with a load click and Drake pulled the heavy door open.

Pieces of gold and silver, ancient artifacts from his home dimension, and small pieces of replaceable fandom technology lined its shelves. None of these wonders caught his eye, instead the Hershey bars, Oreos, jellybeans, and ice cream drew his attention.

He pulled a chocolate bar out and stared at it. He could remember every single trap of Adrian's that he had thwarted and suddenly felt guilty. Those thefts perpetrated for greed and simple fun now seemed cruel. He wondered how much Adrian hated finding his hordes raided. Had the Librarian hated him?

The piece of rubble at his foot shook and he blinked as it began dragging itself across the ground towards the wall. Other pieces of debris followed it and hovered up, fitting back into the space and changing from charred black to the bright blue paint Drake had applied himself. He glanced around to find the rest of the room repairing itself. The mattress clattered back together, the blankets arranging themselves neatly on top of it. Shriveled posters unfurled and pasted themselves back on the wall. The computer pulled itself together and flickered on, beeping proudly.

Drake threw his reattached door open and stepped out into the hall, watching as the wave of repairs swept through the Library. He followed it into the urban fantasy section and watched with fascination as the shelves pulled themselves up and the books flew back into their places.

A loud clatter sounded behind him and he spun around to watch as a shelf was lifted up and tossed to the side. For once, the world had ravaged Abigail's appearance. Blood dripped down her charcoal-covered face. Her hair stood up in all directions. She closed her eyes and sucked in deep breathe. Drake felt a surge of power as her hair untangled itself and laid itself flat against her back. The black smudges faded from her face and the tears in her tight clothes sewed shut. She opened her eyes and an expression of uttered hatred appeared as she spotted him.

"So you survived," Drake frowned, not caring now. He didn't feel like fighting.

Abigail regained her composure and tried to smile. "Yeah, but it looks like your beloved leader didn't. I felt his power disappear."

Drake sensed a shake in her voice. Whatever Adrian had unleashed to take out so many Sues, it had left Abigail rattled.

"Why don't you buzz off?" Drake growled. "I'm not in the mood for you."

She sneered and Drake realized his mistake. He shouldn't have given the Sue any indication of weakness no matter how much emotional trauma he was experiencing.

Instead of forcing a fight though, she stepped off the mound of rubble. The pile quickly reconstructed itself into a shelf. She raised an arm and a plothole opened between them.

"Come on, Mister Big Bad Society Agent. Are you going to let me get away so easily?" Abigail sneered and stepped through the portal.

I don't have to bother with you right now; Drake spun and marched away from the still open plothole. He halted abruptly as he remembered something one of the Counter Guardians had once said. He had called the Society a bunch of kids playing Cowboys and Indians. Drake had wanted to knock his teeth down his throat after he said, but now he realized that the annoying jerk had been right. About him anyway, he had only joined to chase down the Sues, but he didn't take the job seriously, it was like when he stole Adrian's chocolate. It was just a game to him.

The armored agent spun around, slinging his jacket on. The plothole shrank as he charged at it, leaping through a second before it closed. He hit the ground on the other side in a roll and came up in a battle crouch.

Abigail stood a few feet away, now dressed in a short, slinky black dress with her hair tied up. The surrounding hills didn't give much clue to what fandom he had entered.

"Now, you're going to pay for getting in my way so many times," she hissed.

"If I had a quarter for every time I heard that," Drake replied.

Drake expected her to summon some sort of armor as she usually did, but instead she just charged at him. He dashed at her and threw a punch. Her own fist slammed into his face. They stumbled away from each, Drake shaking his hand. The Sue's face was surprisingly hard!

Abigail leapt forward, swinging a right. Drake ducked and let her fly past, jamming an elbow into her back as he did. He turned to face her as she went into a roundhouse. Her shoe collided with Drake's jaw, loosening a few teeth. She grabbed his shoulder and pummeled his gut with her free arm, before slamming a fist into his jaw.

Drake spun with the blow and stumbled away. He spat out a mix of blood and spittle before glaring at Abigail.

"You miserable weakling!" she raved. "Why have I lost so much to you?"

"You haven't lost anything to me," Drake shot back. "Nothing you took ever belonged to you. All that admiration and love characters had for you? That was just you making them say what you wanted them to say, or act the way you wished, nothing you've ever had was real! You're a big empty ball of hot air."

"No, that's not true!" The Sue exclaimed. "I just encouraged everyone to act the way they really feel. That's all I did! I'm flawless!"

Drake stayed silent for a few seconds. "And that's why you suck. You're just a raving lunatic demanding attention. You claim you're perfect to justify subverting everyone else's will. Perfect? You're the worst kind of scum in the world, the kind that takes away freedom."

"Shut up!" She growled and charged at him. Drake waited until the last second and then stepped forward, slamming a punch into her gut. He spun around and grabbed her arm, flipping her over his back. He landed a few kicks to her side, before her leg shot up and her foot met his forehead.

"Darn it!" Drake swore rubbing the swelling bump on his head while his opponent rolled to her feet.

"Rinki Gaiso!" Abigail exclaimed, raising an arm in front of her face. A spectral black lioness with gold trimming appeared around her, before splitting apart and attaching to her body as black and gold armor. The lion head enveloped her head last, forming a helmet.

"Die!" she exclaimed, raising an arm and launching an orb of darkness at him. It struck the ground in front of him and exploded in a cloud of dust. She snorted smugly, until a figure appeared through the dust cloud.

Drake stepped out of the cloud, clad in his armor and with his solidified cape around him. The fabric turned black and he flung it to the side, charging at Abigail. She generated another orb and flung it.

"Storm Kick!" Blue lightning crackled around Drake's left foot as he leapt into the air and kicked the energy ball. The blast bounced off his foot and back at the Sue, but she just knocked it to the side where it exploded against a cliff.

She leapt backwards onto the top of the cliff. Drake leapt after her, jumping off two small ledges, since unlike the Sue he couldn't make it in one leap. He reached the top and an armored fist slammed into his face. He stumbled back and wind milled his arms to keep from falling. Abigail started forward to push him the rest of the way, but Drake twisted to the side and shoved her.

The Sue gasped as she fell head over heels. Drake spun around and leapt after her, summoning his spear. Abigail managed to twist around and landed on her feet, before spinning to face the falling Society agent.

"Ringi! Goyu Koha!" Abigail spread her arms wide as a golden aura pulsed around her. The spectral lioness charged out of her body, running on the air. It snatched Drake in its jaws and slammed him against the cliffside. The Rinbeast snarled and dragged him up the cliff edge, earth and rock scrapping over his armor.

"Storm Punch!" Drake exclaimed, slamming his fist down on the creature's head. The Rinbeast didn't seem to feel the attack and just went on grinding him against the rock. "Damn it!"

Finally, Abigail lowered her arms and the lioness faded, leaving Drake to tumble down the mountainside. He groaned and slowly pushed himself up. His cape had been reduced to a few scrapes of cloth and the back of his armor dented. He brushed some dust off his shoulder, wincing visibly. "I've taken more damage making mud pies."

Abigail growled and moved forward, becoming a black blur. Her fist impacted with Drake's chest and knocked him back against the cliff, leaving an indention this time. His attacker slowly approached, pounding one fist into her palm.

"Ringi! Goyu Shoda!" Abigail yelled, glowing brightly again. This time Rinlioness formed around her and moved in synch with her as she charged. She drew a fist back, swinging it forward in time with the lion's jaws moving to bite. Drake meanwhile stumbled out of the indent, seemingly exhausted. However, he tensed up, as the Rinjyuken user got closer and leapt over her at the last second. Her momentum carried her fist into the cliff and the earth rumbled ominously.

"Oh, no…"

Cracks spread across the entire rock face, Abigail's attack had been so powerful. The stone and earth fell forward. Drake dashed away while Abigail was too close to escape. He turned and stared at the settling mound of rubble.

An armored fist punched through the dirt pile and pulsed with gold Rinki. Earth and rock went scattering as Abigail blew it away with the sheer force of her power.

"Goddamn nightlight," Drake muttered as the glowing Sue approached him. Being buried in a landslide had done nothing to disfigure her armor, but Drake could see a slight limp in her walk. Of course, the Sue managed to make moving with the limp look graceful and elegant, somehow.

"Ringi…"

"Shut up!" Drake exclaimed slamming a fist into her visor. The black glass cracked and a small piece of it came away, revealing Abigail's left eye. A lightning fast blow from her right hand caught him in the head, denting the side of his helmet. She tried to follow up with a left, but Drake raised his arm and blocked. Abigail grabbed his arm and spun around, pinning it behind his back, she wrapped her other arm around his throat and squeezed. The agent grabbed her arm with his free hand and tried to pull it away, but she was too strong.

"Let's see you get out of this," Abigail cackled. Drake tried to make a reply, but a fresh application of pressure cut his jib short.

Drake raised his foot and brought it down on her toes. She howled in pain and slackened her grip on his throat; he twisted around, got a hold of her wrist and flipped her onto her back.

"Storm Kick!" Abigail raised her head, only for Drake's foot to collide with it. She went rolling across the ground a good distance, blue electricity crackling over her armor. The Sue managed to get to her knees before Drake was on her again. "Storm Kick!" The attack connected with her chest and sent her skidding across the ground into the rock pile.

"And one more!" Drake exclaimed, jumping forward, his foot still ablaze with light.

Abigail raised an arm and launched an orb at his chest, knocking him back. He crashed down and rolled across the ground. A gold aura flared to life around the Sue once more as she launched Rinlioness at Drake. With the lion only a few feet away, he did the only thing he could. The armored agent dropped onto his back and the lion charged over top of him, its four legs missing him.

Moving in a blur, Abigail leapt skyward and plummeted back towards the downed agent, fist drawn back and body glowing with power. Drake rolled backwards just in time to avoid the impact, which sent pieces of earth flying in every direction. A boot slammed into the Sue's face, shattering the rest of her visor.

"Slicing Gale!" Drake exclaimed spinning around and summoning his spear. He slashed the weapon across her chest, releasing the bursts of cutting wind at point blank range. The blast sent both combatants skidding back.

Abigail gasped and dropped to one knee, placing a hand over the large slash mark in her armor. "No! You're not putting me back in that cell! Never again!"

Drake sighed and started towards her. He halted as the Sue slowly pulled herself back to her feet; her eyes were wide with rage. "Ringi! Mugen Reppa!" She pushed her thumb into her chest and her aura changed from pulsing gold to a pitch-black glow.

"Mugen Reppa? Oh, no!" Drake dropped into a crouch, both of his feet crackling with blue magic. The wind in the area picked up and thunder rumbled in the small cloud that formed over Drake's head as his spear vanished.

"Ringi! Daikaiho!" He wasn't sure, but Drake could almost swear he heard the Sue cackling insanely over the sound of the wind. He charged towards her, praying he'd reach her before she launched the suicide attack.

"Double Storm Kick!" Drake yelled, leaping into the air and coming down on Abigail feet first, the cloud launching bolts of lightning down to strengthen the attack as Abigail leapt into the air and almost seemed to fly at Drake. They collided in midair and a massive fireball exploded outwards.

Drake hit the ground and bounced across it, his armor dissolving into motes of light as he did, until he came to rest, bruised and bloody against a small hill. Abigail crashed into the cliff and dropped towards the ground, her armor detaching in the fall. She landed facedown and remained motionless for a few moments before her body began to dissolve into motes of yellow light. In a few seconds, the Sue's body was gone.

Drake groaned and tried to pull himself up, only managing to raise his upper body a few inches before falling back down. "Yeah, I think I'll sleep here for the night…"

He wondered if the Society would notice he was missing before he died of blood loss.

-

The rider slowed his horse to a stop as he approached the campsite. He glanced over the crab carcass. He scanned the mangled cracked shell where the killing blow had connected. Not a bad hit, but he could do better. A piece of crab meat seemed to have been discarded without being touched and the foot prints ended abruptly as though the owner had suddenly grown wings and taken flight.

"Are you going to sit there overanalyzing everything or can I do my job?" An amused voice purred next to his ear.

"Sorry," he replied, extending an arm. "Go ahead."

The small gray and red creature scurried down his arm and leapt off his wrist onto the ground. It stood on its haunches, front legs held in front of its chest. Its large black eyes scanned the night, a large bushy tail pressed against its back. A pair of small horns extended from the back of its head. Two miniscule wings sprouted from its back.

The draguirrel padded over to the piece of crab, sniffed it, and took a bite of the cold meat.

"Hey! Now who's wasting time?" the rider asked.

The creature sighed and bounded over to the end of the footprints. "Work! Work! Work! That's all I'm good for!"

"Yeah, as soon as I don't need you, I'm going to boil you for stew!" the human exclaimed chuckling.

The draguirrel sniffed at the footprints before turning and bounding back to his companion, leaping onto his arm and perching there. "Yep, the big guy was right."

"Open a portal then."

The creature nodded and turned around. He inhaled deeply before spitting a line of sky blue flame forward. The flames twisted and whirled in the air before a plothole opened in the midst of them. The draguirrel gasped loudly and nearly fell off his partner's arm.

"Good work," the man said, gently patting its head. He hugged the exhausted creature to his chest and pulled back on the horse's reigns. The horse reared up, whinnying loudly.

It dropped back onto all four hooves and charged at the plothole. It crashed headfirst into a barrier around the portal and its riders were sent flying. They collided with the sand and rolled across it.

"You okay?" the man groaned as he pulled himself up.

The draguirrel pulled its head out of the sand and glared at him. "You and your stupid theatrics!"

He ignored his partner's annoyed chirping and approached the plothole. He moved his hand towards it, only for the barrier to push it away and a loud raspberry to sound. "Darn it, now what?"

"I've got his scent. If he moves to a realm where we can follow him, I'll know."

Drake had volunteered to help clean up Adrian's office. Valerie tried to persuade him to get more rest, especially with one arm in a sling, but Drake had been too insistent. He felt he could handle going into Adrian's office better than the more upset agents could. The rest of the group also seemed to have gotten their feelings under control quicker than the rest, but none of them spoke much.

They halted outside the office for a few moments, feeling awkward. Doug took the initiative and opened the door. They filed in and glanced around. Drake wondered why this room hadn't repaired itself like every other place in the Library.

He glanced over to find Cristoph staring at an empty bottle of Tabasco sauce. Drake glanced down at a bar of broken chocolate. Quickly tearing his gaze away from the floor, he headed over to help Doug stand up the filing cabinet.

Insert Red Skies Twilight Here (part 4 of 6)

"All of this hate
 And all of this pain--
I'll burn it all down 
As my anger reigns,
Till everything burns."
-'Everything Burns' by Anastascia

Willowe strode into Adrian's office slowly, glancing this way and that as she took in the bookshelves, his desk, the picture of Tash on the wall, and several pictures of people or places she didn't recognize. "For one of the most powerful men in existence, his office is surprisingly simple..."

"Feh, who cares? He's finally dead and that's all that matters." Harold shouldered his way past the female Sue and flexed his fists a bit. "The only good thing the Librarian did was get rid of that annoying Silver for me...bastard..."

He marched to the rear of the office, casually blasting the desk out of his way and reducing it to smithereens. Stopping at the seamless, handle-less door, he drew back his fist and with one punch, sent in flying into the darkened stone hallway beyond. "There. This is what we came for, right?"

"Yes." Willowe stepped him behind him, four or five of the remaining Agent Smiths and Chi hanging back behind her. Adrian had wiped out a huge chunk of her forces, barely leaving her anything that could be called an 'army'. "The Fourth Wall should be at the end of this hallway."

"Good. Let's go already." Harold started down the hallway, even his Super Saiyan aura failing to light up the dark stone passage. His eyes flicked left and right as he passed the alcoves, growling in frustration as he heard and saw little whispers of movement in them and voices humming in his ears now and again. "What is this freaking place, anyway? Is there something alive in here or something?"

"Perhaps. It would be wise not to disturb the alcoves" Willowe said and glanced at one of the alcoves, waiting as a shadowy figure slid into view and then out of sight again. "Runoa said this is the section of the Library where the Librarians keep the things that are too dangerous to the Library's normal visitors or even things that the Librarians themselves cannot understand..."

"Tch..." Harold sneered and flicked a marble-size sphere of energy into one of the alcoves , watching as it exploded, destroying whatever was in the alcove, but strangely, the flare of light the explosion produced did not extend beyond the alcove. It stopped like it had hit a wall before it reached into the hallway. "It's all a bunch of junk..."

Then his eyes widened and he backpedaled as something reached out of the darkness of the alcove and latched onto his wrist with a skeletal hand. "What the hell!" He strained to break free, but even with his improbable strength, his caught arm wouldn't budge an inch. "Let go, you freak!"

He started to charge up an attack his other hand, but then he screamed as he saw his caught hand was decaying, bits of flesh and muscle and nerves dropping away like leaves off a tree, revealing pearly-white bone beneath. "Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Then Excalibur slashed at the grasping hand and it instantly released Harold, retreating into the shadows whence it came while Willowe backhanded Harold across the face. "You idiot! I told you not to disturb the alcoves! We've come too far for you to screw it up now!"

Harold rubbed his cheek and glared at Willowe. "Watch it. What's stopping me from killing you right now and performing this plan myself?"

Then he went pale as he realized Excalibur was pressed against his throat and he hadn't even realized Willowe had moved at all. "Ahhh..."

Willowe narrowed her eyes at him. "You had better hope that first punch kills me, Harold. Otherwise, I'm going to slice off your limbs and let Runoa do Immaculation on you." She leaned closer to him and her sword point drew a droplet of blood from his throat. "Want to see if you can regrow limbs?"

"N-no..." Harold shook his head fervently. "No..."

"Good." Willowe resheathed her sword and started down the hallway, the subdued Harold following her. "Then remember who is in charge here."

The little group made their way farther down the hallway, Harold, Chi and the Smiths doing their best to ignore the things that moved in the alcoves or the faint whispers that sounded in their ears and minds or the soft touches that had them glancing back nervously over their shoulders every few minutes.

"InTruDErs..."

They all stopped and glanced around, Willowe's hand flying to her weapon as Harold charged up energy in his fists. "Who's there?"

"IntrUDeRS...WHo EntERS ThIS PlaCE...? YoU Do NoT HaVe PermiSsiON AnD yoU ArE NoT WeLComE..."

Willowe glared at the surrounding darkness. It sounded like a hundred voices were speaking all at once. "Who are you! Show yourself!"

Shadows and light swirled around in front of them and when it cleared, something was standing in their way. In the darkness, its form was impossible to make out and they only caught the outline, shimmering in and out of sight like a mirage...a clawed hand...a spiny shoulder...a barbed tail. "We aRe ThE UnWriTteN...YoU ArE noT oF Us, InTRUders..."

'Unwritten?" Harold growled and the energy in his fists glowed brighter. "What the hell is this guy?"

"Runoa mentioned something like this to me..." Willowe murmured, hand still on her sword's hilt. "Some ideas that are never fully formed or never written into stories, but through sheer force of will, manage to avoid being pulled into the Vault of Abandoned Ideas... but she never said they'd be in here!"

"AdrIAn bAdE Us tO GuARd tHIs plAcE... He GaVe uS a NaMe AnD PuRpOSe... To PrEvEnT tHE WrITtEn FrOm CrOSsINg thE WaLl..." The Unwritten's shrouded form shifted and stirred before suddenly launching forwards and falling over them like a thick blanket. "YoU wiLL BeCome Us..."

Willowe struggled to draw her sword, but the Unwritten pressed and swarmed around her, feeling like it weighed a hundred tons and pressing against all of her senses at once. She felt rather than heard the Smith copies dissolve away and Muhammad screamed as his body started to dissolve away into mist, which was drawn into the Unwritten.

She herself felt it crushing her, sapping away at her spirit, her memories, her thoughts, her past, stripping everything that made her a individual and she felt tired, so tired...

(No!) Willowe drew herself together and felt the draining away slow, then stop. (No! I will not be taken like this! I am Willowe Foxblade! And I will NOT yield!)

With a howl, she unleashed a flare of crimson energy that blew the Unwritten away from her, the shadowy fog retreating like it had been stung. "I am not afraid of you, you pathetic shell!"

The Unwritten swirled angrily and regathered itself. "YoU WilL BeComE uS!" Then it hurtled towards Willowe at full speed. "We WilL FuLLfIll OuR PuRPosE!"

"Then fulfill it by dying!" Willowe drew Excalibur and slashed it through the air, a crescent of golden energy leaping from the tip and slamming into the mass of the Unwritten, the entity letting out a hundred-voiced howl as it was dissolved away and scattering into miniscule wisps of shadows that were absorbed by the darkness around them and faded from view.

"Erggg..." Harold got to his feet, rubbing his head. "Did you really manage to kill that thing?"

"No." Willowe replied and shook her head. "You can't kill an idea...but I hit it hard enough that it will take a very long time before it collects itself, so we shouldn't have to worry about it anymore."

"Good." The Saiyan turned and yanked Chi off the ground by her collar, causing the smaller Sue to squeak and tremble in fear as he glared at her. "What's the big idea? How come you didn't warn us there'd be something like that guarding the Fourth Wall?"

Chi squirmed in his grasp. "Xavier and I never entered the Library ourselves! We just sent Subplot Bunnies through the crack in the Wall! And none of them ran into any defenses!"

"That's because all species of Plot Bunnies are not really alive-they're just ideas." Willowe explained as Harold gruffly dropped Chi on the ground. "We're Sues and Stus-we are more than just ideas..." She glanced at the pile of empty suits that had been the Smith clones. "But if our grasp on our identities isn't strong enough, it can be stripped away from us, as Muhammad and the Smiths just proved..."

She turned and started down the passageway, the other two falling into step behind her. They had gone about a few dozen more yards and then Willowe jerked to halt, Chi plowing into and bouncing off the leader's legs.

"Hey! What gives?" Chi muttered, getting back to her feet and rubbing her nose.

"It's another defense..." Willowe replied and gestured in front of her where a set of floating words were in front of her. "It's an invisible barrier and I'm guess we have to solve this riddle before we can move on."

She took a couple of steps back and studied the riddle from top to bottom:

"I am what all want.

Use me as if I were a sword and those you slay will rise up against you

Use me as if I were armor and I will trap and suffocate you

Use me as if I were decoration and only your mirror will look upon you.

Use me as if I were a fire and you'll find my flames do not warm you.

Use me as if I were food and I will never chase hunger away from you.

Use me as if I were an enemy and I will be heavier than any chains upon you.

Use me as if I were a friend and I will devour you.

Use me as if I were medicine and I will poison you.

But if you do not use me, then I will serve you well forever.

What am I?"

"Rrrg..." Harold cracked his knuckles. "I hate riddles and we don't have time for this!" He wound up and threw a sledgehammer-like fist at the barrier with the force of a small bomb. "Let's just smash it down!"

Then he gasped as his fist disappeared into the barrier and then emerged right in front him, smashing into his face and sending him flying backwards, clutching a bloody nose. "What the 'effin hell!"

"Looks like the barrier throws whatever you throw at it right back at you!" Chi laughed at the bigger man as he got back to his feet. "Means you have to use your brain, porcupine-head! And you don't have one!"

"Shut it, little brat!" Harold growled menacingly. "Before I squish you and wipe you off my heel! And if you're so smart, then why don't you solve it?"

"Of course!" Chi stuck her tongue out at him. "And I already have!"

Willowe raised her eyebrow. "That was awfully fast..."

Chi waved it off. "We're Sues, stuff like this is easy for us." She walked up to the barrier and smirked broadly. "That answer is love!"

They all waited a few moments. "Is... something supposed to happen?"

"Hey! What gives? I know I got it right!" Chi stamped her foot. "Come on, you stupid barrier and words! Disappear!"

Then she blinked as she felt something chilly wrap around her feet. "Huh...?" She glanced down and screamed.

Some kind of light was working is way up her feet and legs, hardening and turning her into crystal. "Aggh! No, no! Make it stop! Make it stop! Stooop!"

Willowe and Harold watched with wide-eyes as the crystalline light worked its way up Chi's legs and then her torso. "What kind of power is this...?"

Chi squirmed and writhed, desperately trying to chip away at the light, but it was turning her entire body to crystal and there was no way to free herself without shattering her own body. "Help me, help me, help me! Make it stop, stop!" She jerked and gave one final scream as the light crept up over her head and it was over in seconds. Where once a Sue had stood, was now a perfect crystal statue of her, her face transfixed into a look of horror.

The other two stared at her for a long moment and then Willowe reached out to touch, but withdrew her hand as the shadows from the edges of the hallway swarmed over Chi and dragged her away, drawing into her in a nearby alcove and into the darkness.

"Now what, Willowe...?" Harold asked. "We gonna bring everyone else up here and keep guessing at answers till we're all a bunch of cheap art decorations?"

"Hush." Willowe folded her arms and studied the riddle for a good minute, trying to put herself in Adrian's shoes. He had thought it up, obviously...

Then she grinned. "I have it." Stepping up to the barrier, she spoke her answer.

TTTTTTT

"So... what do we do now?"

The question was posed by Michael, as he sat at one of the tables, Claire sitting next to him and holding his hand. Across from the couple was Kuroneko, who as idly sharpening her claws with one of her fans. The Society Agents were scattered about the room, in pairs or groups, subdued and quiet after hearing Adrian's letter. Tash was sitting in a corner, clutching the Codex of Index to her chest tightly while she just stared out at nothing, as Val and Miriku sat with her, cuddling her and trying to reassure her.

The Counter Guardians were far more relaxed, Vergil, Saito and a man white-haired man dressed in a some kind of molded armor and red trenchcoat that told them his name was 'Archer' were all leaning against various walls, arms crossed as they waited patiently and Saito smoked a cigarette. Aramayis was seating in another corner, legs crossed and hands clasped before as him he meditated. Despite the loss of one of their own, they did not seem all that affected by it.

Kuroneko held out her claws and looked at them carefully. "We wait. Counter Guardians could travel to the Library and fight them there, but against such powerful enemies, we risk destroying much of the information and knowledge stored there and it would take centuries to regather it all, if it would be even possible."

"Wait?" Michael narrowed his eyes, obviously not happy with that idea. "Adrian is dead, Willowe has the Library and she's going to invade here at any moment and you want us to wait?"

Kuroneko fixed him with a sharp look. "I just told you we can't invade the Library and it will be easier for us to fight Willowe on our own terms here than letting her pick the battle ground. And you Society Agents are here in an advisory capacity only. You are not going to fight."

"What!" Michael stood up, slamming his fist on the table and knocking his chair over, as everyone in the room (sans Tash and the other Counter Guardian) fixed their attention him. "How can you say that? Adrian sent us out of the Library so we would have a chance to fight back! He gave his life for us! And you expect us not to do the same for everyone else!"

Kuroneko's glare hardened." Adrian was an extremely powerful Counter Guardian and the Librarian and he sent you to the Real World to save your lives! Do you really think that you're going to be able to fight against the Sues and Stus as ordinary humans? Willowe, Harold, the others? They could probably wipe out entire human armies out by themselves! What hope do you have, boy?"

Michael didn't back down. "I refuse to sit by and do nothing while our world is taken over!"

As the two glared at one another, a door burst open, halting the rising tension before it could burst and Stacey, who had gone with a few others to try and distract themselves by watching TV, poke her head in the door. "You guys better turn on the news. You'll definitely want to see this."

Saito detached himself from the wall and picked up the remote from off an end table, flicking on the TV with a press of a button. "This should be interesting..."

Everyone watched as the image jumped, jerked and then settled down, where a news reporter was standing on a rooftop with what looked like Big Ben behind him...and an ever-growing cloud for red twilight growing in the background. "Scientists and meteorologists around the world today can other no explanation for the mysterious spots of red twilight that are appearing world-wide..."

The image switched to the Eiffel Tower, where a second cloud of red twilight was growing, then the Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, The White House and the Hollywood sign, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, the Pyramids, the Vatican...all of them with growing clouds of red twilight in the sky. The people the Agents could see on the cameras reacted in incredible extremes, some running away in a panic, while others fell to the ground and prostrated themselves or prayed or screamed about the end of the world. Others tried to ignore it, some were taking pictures and some were rioting and looting, swept up in the world-wide panic of the fear of the unknown.

It switched back to the reporter. "Everywhere, people panic and riot, some claiming the end of the world or the Rapture or an invasion by aliens. Some claim it to be the arrival of the devil and world leaders urge their peoples to remain calm and that this mysterious phenomenon will be explained by scientists soon. But we have heard theories ranging from meteor showers to alien race. One scientist, Professor Ron Hamilton of NASA, a different theory..."

The screen split, showing a bearded man with glasses and dressed in a lab coat. "Well, I believe it is merely the light from several stars that have gone supernova in distant galaxies eons ago finally reaching us. The odds of several of them going supernova and reaching us at the same time, let alone being visible all over the world, are indeed very high, but not all that unlikely given the fact that many of the stars in our sky are already long gone, but their light will be reaching us for centuries to come.."

Saito muted the volume. "It looks like it's beginning, then..."

"What is it?" Hati asked, the look of confusion and fear on her face mimicked to varying degrees by the other Agents in the room.

"It's a Red Skies Twilight..." Archer explained from his position against the wall. "In comics, it's a term used when major crossover events happen that threaten the whole of that Universe all at once and the skies turn red to signify this, hence the name." He gave a small smirk. "Fitting, considering we are about to be invaded by super powerful fictional creations..."

"That's not all..." Aramayis stood up. "I can sense the energies coming from those spots of twilight and it's becoming much stronger as they grow in size. That energy is what will let Willowe and her cohorts enter this world at full power. Once the world is completely covered by them, the invasion will begin..."

All of the Society Agents all seemed struck still by this realization...then Michael bolted for the door and vanished through it outside and all the others followed him a split second later.

TTTTTTT

Willowe stood in front of the Fourth Wall, the mishmash of building materials that looked like had been built by a child who merely squashed everything they could find together. It looked decidedly unstable and like a good push would knock it over. Hard to believe such a mishmash of construction represented the ultimate barrier for beings like Sues and Stus.

A barrier that was now a barrier no more.

Behind her, arrayed in a semi-circle, seven pedestals bearing the Necrominicon, Fountain of Youth Water, Spear of Destiny, Tabula Rasa, the Holy Grail, Rosetta Stone and her Excalibur, stood. The seven items glowed the colors of the rainbow and their energies leached into and through the Fourth Wall, connecting to their Real World counterparts on the other side. The energies blended together and formed a swirling portal of red that was their hole in the dike, so to speak.

She watched as the Sues and Stus and the Smith copies poured through the portal, one after another. It had a been moment she had longed for, planned for and now it was finally here...the Real World would be theirs and they'd be able to complete any fandom, any story, any myth or legend, however they wanted.

Willowe was almost disappointed. It wasn't as grand or epic as she had imagined it...just stepping through a portal, like every Sue and Stu did when they traveled from place to place. It was so simple...and in this case, it was everything. Quite the irony...

"I can't wait..." Harold smirked maliciously and flexed his muscles. "The first thing I'm gonna do is use my energy blasts and carve my name across as many States as I can..."

"That will have to wait." Willowe told him. "We still have to worry about the remaining Society Agents and by now, the Counter Guardians will have caught wind of us and probably be waiting."

"So what?" Harold smirked and his Super Saiyan aura flared brightly once. "We're Sues and Stus. We're perfect! There's no way those guys could beat us!"

Willowe nodded in agreement after a moment. "Destroy them all, Harold. All the Counter Guardians and all the Society Agents. Destroy them, kill them, blast them, crush them, it doesn't matter. Once they are gone, there won't be anyone to stop us."

The Saiyan-Stu smirked. "My pleasure." With that, he stepped through the portal and was gone, leaving Willowe completely alone.

She remained still for several moments, then turned and grabbed Excalibur from its pedestal, slung it over her back and quickly stepped through the portal before it winked out of sight.

There was no turning back it. It was truly victory and total domination of the Real World... or death trying.

TTTTTTT

The Agents burst outside into the hotel's parking lot and gasped and stared in awe as the crimson light spread out over head, overwriting the starry night sky with ease. From horizon to horizon, it was nothing but a Red Skies Twilight.

"Oh my god..." Valerie shivered at the sight. Despite the fact being in the Real World toned down her empathic abilities sharply, the eerie sky still felt incredibly unnatural to her. "It's like... like the sky is bleeding..."

"You think that's bad, just look around us!" Ossa said, pointing across the street. A man was frozen like a statue, clutching at his hat as he ran away, one leg in the air.

The Agents glanced around and realized she was right. Everything around them was frozen in time. A car driving through a puddle of water, and they were able to count every droplet of the spray. A boy waiting to catch a ball that would never come back down. A woman falling as she tripped over her heels, stuck at an angle that no human should have been able to hold. Birds frozen in mid-flap, squirrels pausing in mid-leap, dogs and cats chasing one another in a race that they would never finish.

"What... what's going on? Why is everyone frozen?" Hati murmured, reaching out to touch a nearby pedestrian and immediately yanking her hand back. "They feel so cold... like they're covered in ice... or dead..."

"Not everything..." Miriku reached out and grabbed a bit of the nearby water spray. She shook out her hand as soon as she grasped them, drops of water flying off. "It's just everything that's alive is frozen... if we touch something that's not alive, it seems to become unstuck or thawed or whatever..."

"I don't get it." Marcus folded his arms. Out of all the Agents, he seemed to be taking this whole thing the best. "Why freeze time? Why not just invade? A show of force by destroying some kind of major landmark or capital would definitely show the world how powerful they are..."

"Because Willowe's a lot smarter than that, fools!"

The Agents gazes fixed on the center of street as a form landed their gracefully and twirled about a bit, their dress swirling with the motion. "Hehehe... ah, it's amazing! I feel so powerful here!"

"Mary-Ann Twilight..." Michael murmured and positioned himself in front of Claire. "They're invading faster than we thought...and how'd she even get here? Even Sues and Stus can't just teleport themselves around!"

Mary-Ann giggled and stuck out her tongue. "Foolish fools! We're Sues, we can all flash-step if want!" She danced around a bit. "We're all more powerful here, too. It's incredible...to breathe real air and to feel real water on your skin..."

Then she pouted as she noticed the Counter Guardians all filing out from the hotel and pushing their way to the front of the Agents. "Well, crap... we were hoping that you guys and the Society wouldn't have hooked up yet...guess Adrian was more thorough than we thought..."

Aramayis fixed Mary-Ann with a sharp look. "Indeed he was. Though I will admit none of us anticipated the spell you used to crossover freezing time across the world..."

"Hehehe, that was Willowe's idea." Mary-Ann smirked. "Instead of having to make a statement or do a lot of fighting, Willowe is going to simply freeze the world until she's finished with her entrance statement. She's going to alter the world to the point where, when she unfreezes everything, they'll have no choice but accept she's the new ruler of the world!"

"Hmmmph...quite a lot of arrogance, if you ask me..." Saito smirked mockingly at Mary-Ann. "And just where is your beloved leader, child? You are outnumbered by quite a lot, in case you aren't perfect at math and even a single Counter Guardian is more than enough for you."

Mary-Ann scowled at him. "You're an annoying man... and Willowe's in the Sahara Desert, if you must know. Not that you'll be able to do anything to stop her..."

"The Sahara?" Kuroneko blinked in surprise. "Why go there? She's just wind up getting sand everywhere..."

"You see, you are foolish fools." Mary-Ann giggled. "Where better to prove your power over reality than the Sahara? Willowe's going to turn it into the site of her capital and create a giant castle and make the entire Sahara a paradise. There is no way anyone can ignore that or deny that her power is that great!"

She put a finger to her lips, as she had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot this...it's almost an afterthought..." She pulled something out from her sleeve and flicked it towards the group of Agents, where it bounced and skidded to a halt at Tash's feet. "Willowe thought you might want this... it's all yours..."

Tash reacted for the first time since she had finished reading Adrian's letter and knelt down, picking up the object. It was small and attached to a broken chain. Her eyes went wide when she realized what it was. "It's... his... no..."

It was Adrian's pendant, cracked and chipped and top left portion of it missing completely. Originally, it had been a way to store Hoshikuzu, but he had switched methods and so Tash got him a replica for their six-month anniversary. Tash ran her thumb over the pendant and it smeared red and it was only then she realized it was covered in blood. Adrian's blood.

"We don't know how it survived the fighting and his death...but did." Mary-Ann shrugged and then grinned evilly. "Do you want to know how he died? It was rather sad, really... he fought well for a while, but then he started weeping and begging for mercy and calling Tash's name over and over... it was so pathetic... like a little child crying out for mommy..." She laughed. "Willowe slicing off his head was probably the most merciful thing she could have done... that way, even he didn't have to listen to his own mewling!"

"You bitch!" Michael clenched his fist and started to step forwards, but Claire's hand on his other wrist stopped him.

"Don't... you can't fight her, you know that..." she whispered. "And I don't want you to die, too..." Then a blur rushed past her. "What?"

Ossa bolted through the Counter Guardians before they could react and leapt towards Mary-Ann, fist cocked back to strike. "Shut up and die!"

Then Mary-Ann's hand flashed out and snagged the Cherokee girl by the throat. Despite the fact she was several inches shorter than Ossa, the Sue easily held her off the ground like she weighed nothing at all. "That's not very nice... and it was very stupid, too..."

She took a step back and held the struggling Ossa out in front of her like a shield when the Counter Guardians all reached for their weapons. "Ah! Don't move! Or I'll snap her neck right here!" To prove her point, she shook Ossa like a ragdoll and then let out a yelp of pain as Ossa's foot smacked into her cheek. "That hurt!"

"It... was... supposed... too!" Ossa clawed desperately at Mary-Ann's hand even as she glared death at the Sue, but it was impossible to break her grip. Mary-Ann had her in a vice and she wasn't letting go. The Cherokee girl coughed and struggled harder when she realized blackness was forming at the edges of her vision. (Damn... damnit...)

Hati, who had been keeping one eye on the situation and one eye on Tash, ready to leap to defend her friend if Mary-Ann should target her for some reason, paused she when realized Tash's shoulders had stopped shaking and she had stopped crying and had gone very quiet. (Uh-oh...) "Everyone, scatter!"

Most of the Agents and even Mary-Ann shot her a bewildered look, but the British founder pushed the nearest people away from Tash to emphasis her command. "I said, scatter! Now!"

As the Agents hurried to do so, Tash stood up, her head still bowed and clutching Adrian's pendant and the Codex in her hands tightly. "You took him away..."

"Beg pardon?" Mary-Ann blinked at her, pausing in her strangling of Ossa.

"You took Adrian away..." Tash's hand clenched hard around the pendant, so much so that blood began to trickle out between her fingers. "You took him away from me..."

"Well, it wasn't me personally, but I would have liked too..." Mary-Ann gave Tash a smile. "Maybe I would have played around with him first...he might have made a good toy..."

"I loved him..." Tash's shoulders trembled and she clenched her fist tighter. "I loved him and you took him away for me!" Her head snapped up and Mary-Ann took an involuntarily step back at the blazing emotion in them. "SO NOW YOU ALL HAVE TO DIE!"

Then the air around her ignited into a roaring inferno of flames that swirled around her like a tornado and hid her from view as the Agents all shielded their faces and shied away, so bright was the light and so intense was the heat.

The flames roared and twisted, contracting around her as the spun until it was a narrow fiery pillar that reached skywards for what seemed like forever, scorching the concrete and melting a nearby letterbox into slag. With a flare of blazing sparks and a wave of searing heat, a pair of wings snapped free and blew the pillar apart.

Mary-Ann lowered her arm and then burst out laughing as she saw Tash. "That's it? All that yelling and fire and heat and all you got out of it was a sword?"

Indeed it was. The fire-orange blade was nearly four feet long and the silver hilt was shaped like a phoenix, the wings curving down towards the handle to form a guard. Light glinted off the faint gold-etched name just above the hilt on the blade: Nephthys.

Tash's wings, now made entirely out of burning orange-and-red flames beat folded against her back as the British girl gripped her great sword with both hands and twirled it around in a series of maneuvers, little sparks dancing around the blade and trailing it's wake as she did so and she fixed Mary-Ann with a cold stare, her blue eyes nothing but ice.

The Sue was still laughing when she blinked and realized that Tash was behind her. "Huh..?" She looked over her shoulder and saw that Tash was holding Ossa in one arm. "But... I've got that girl, here in my hand..."

She looked to at her hand, as if expecting to see Ossa magically appear there... only to realize there was no hand. And no arm.

Tash dumped Ossa on the ground as the Native-American Agent yanked the Sue's now limp arm off her throat and gulped down air before turning around to stare coldly at Mary-Ann.

"H-hey... that... that's my arm... give-give it back..." Blood pouring from her wound, Mary-Ann reached her other hand towards the pair, her eyes wide and a bit disbelieving. Then there was a 'fwoosh!' sound and she glanced at her stump of an arm, realizing it had caught fire somehow. "Oh... how odd..."

Then the flames roared and washed over the rest of her and she screamed wildly as she was burned. There was one bright flare of flame and heat that forced everyone save Tash to shield their eyes.

Aramayis lowered his hand and stared in quiet astonishment, for where Mary-Ann had been, there was now a tiny pile of ashes. (I don't know how she managed get that blade... no human should be able to do that, yet she did... and the blade was so hot it ignited that Sue's body on fire and incinerated her in seconds...)

Tash watched the pile of ashes that had been Mary-Ann blow away and her wings flared open and with a single flap, she launched herself skywards in a shower of embers and sparks.

"Tash, wait!" Hati yelled after her, helplessly watching as the streak of flames that Tash had become arced towards the south, becoming smaller and smaller.

"Holy crap... just how fast is she going?" Kuroneko asked, helping Ossa to her feet.

Saito brushed a few embers off his sleeve casually. "She's probably pushing just below Mach1... and is probably heading for the Sahara to fight Willowe."

Michael frowned. "It'll take her hours to get there!"

"Much less, actually." Aramayis said. "She's flying in an arc, not a straight-line. She'll fly as high as she can and then arc towards the Sahara and hit Willowe like a meteor...at the most, her trip will probably take half an hour."

"We've got to go after!" Valerie said, grabbing Aramayis' arm. "There's no telling what she'll do in the state she's in and we can't let her die, too. Besides, Willowe is the threat you Counter Guardian's have to deal with!"

"I know. But only two of us will be going after Willowe. The rest of us and all you Agents will be going to Stonehenge." Aramayis explained calmly and then smiled at the confused/surprised looks he got from the Agents. "Stonehenge functions as a gateway between Earth and other places. It's the strongest type of that signal on the planet and the obvious location for Willowe's forces to finish arriving."

Kuroneko dashed for a car, gesturing for the Agents to follow her. "We'll use the vehicles. Stonehenge is only twenty minutes away from this village by car. And don't mind the traffic laws, kids. No one's aware enough to give you a ticket."

As the Agents all scrambled for vehicles, Aramayis made a few gestures with his hands, trails of shadow in their wake and then he and Saito were swallowed up by it and he tried not to dwell on the fate of Earth and a massive portion of Multiverse came down to these two battles... and if they lost, there would be no tomorrow.

Only a twilight of red skies...

Insert Red Skies Twilight Here (part 1 of 6)

 Note: Here it comes, the beginning of the end! ...of Season One. =P


Hold on to your hats, dear readers.




"All the whispers, the warnings so clear.
I see the angels. I'll lead them to your door.
There's no escape now. No mercy, no more.
No remorse, 'cause I still remember...
The smile when you tore me apart."
-"Angels" By Within Temptation

Somewhere in the world of 'Twilight', Bella and Edward were falling deeply in love and trying to reconcile the differences between human and vampire, while Jacob was attempting to cope with the fact that he had lost the woman of his dreams and come in second place in the game of love and somewhere else, both vampire and werewolf forces were planning their next moves, all centered on the fact that a vampire had fallen in love with a human girl….

But this story is not about those people and events, for they are some else's story to tell.

This story is about another young woman, one whose destiny was just as grand as Bella's, but whether it would be dark or light had yet to be determined.

This young woman knew very little about Bella and Edward and all the things that those two entailed and if she did know everything about them, she would hardly care at all. Because in the grand scheme of things, this little fandom out in the corner of somewhere would be nothing be a minor conquest, a footnote on her way to greatness.

You see, this young woman was a Mary-Sue by the name of Willowe Foxblade. There used to be more to her name, but it was gone now. Not that she minded, as Willowe had never understood why Sues and Stus had a fascination with such long, fanciful names that were also so hard to pronounce. So she relished the fact she had a much simpler name now, one that rolled off the tongue fairly easily. When one intended to become an empress and have slaves to speak your name, it was best to have a name that everyone could say.

Willowe was, however, far from becoming any sort of empress at the moment. Though she still possessed her fine looks and gorgeous hair, they were…plain. No longer was she able to exude the natural aura of perfection of a Sue that magnified their beauty and made them irresistible, thanks to the four Prohibitors clamped around her wrists and ankles. No longer was she able to call upon the powers of the fandom and Plot Holes to twist reality to her whims. Instead, she was forced to languish in this horrible, overly-cliché fandom full tragic romances and a strange variation of vampires.

She'd been in the world of 'Twilight' for several weeks, unable to escape nor find a way to remove the Prohibitors, either. So Willowe was forced to wait.

But today… her waiting was about to end.

Willowe settled back on the park bench and reached into the bag by her side, pulling out another handful of breadcrumbs and scattering them in front of her for the pigeons to eat. She smiled softly as the gray birds fluttered about, cooing as they pecked at the ground for their meal.

"I did not think you would be one for bird-feeding, Willowe."

The Mary-Sue didn't bother to turn to face the speaker who had suddenly materialized behind her, leaning back against the bench and facing away. "I'm a Sue, not evil. I appreciate many things that are already in existence for what they are. I do not wish to have every little thing under my command, like so many other Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus."

"That is why you remained free for so long…" The speaker folded their arms across their chest and continued. "But then, unlike the other Sues and Stus, who are by-products of canon storylines have unfulfilled gaps or loose ends, you had a completely original story… though it took place in a canon world, you had the center stage all to yourself, didn't you? Until dear mummy decided to stop writing…."

The bag crinkled and crumpled as Willowe's fist tightened around it. "I know how it happened, Runoa. I was there. She put me away and forgot about me, leaving me stuck in the same damn pattern over and over again… there was no ending… just an endless circle…"

Runoa glanced back over her shoulder to look at her compatriot. "So all of this…the plotting, the scheming, the conquering… all of it is for revenge on that one woman?"

"No…" Willowe scattered another handful of grain as she spoke. "In fact, I thank her for it…she taught me several important lessons… that there is no such thing as 'fate'… that if you want to change something, you must do it with your own two hands… that in the end, the only person you can count on is yourself…" Her hand clenched into a tight fist.

"Hmmmph…" Runoa closed her eyes briefly. "Well, it's no business of mine what you want to do with your life, Willowe. I have no interest in conquering fandoms or twisting canon…"

"I know…" Now it was Willowe's turn to glance out of the corner of her eye at Runoa. "All that matters to you is your precious research on Immaculation…" A small smirk crossed her face. "That… and making up for all those you couldn't save…"

Runoa's eyes opened and she glared at the auburn-haired Sue. "Don't push your luck, Willowe…I may be indebted to you for saving me from the void between dimensions, but that is all. Don't think I harbor anything like sentiment or affection for you or any other Sue. Push me too far and I may just decide to leave you here…" Her eyes narrowed dangerously, lethally. "Or I could save the Society the trouble and destroy you…"

Willowe's confidence didn't falter in the slightest and the smirk broadened a little. "My apologies, Runoa…" She stood up, brushing breadcrumbs from the front of her dress. "I take the rest of our plan has gone smoothly, then…"

"Yes…" Runoa turned to face her and reached for something inside her robe. "Cassie Anora was captured by Adrian and Tash before she could complete the transfer ceremony and I did not receive all of her powers. And thanks to her author, Cassie's powers have sealed beyond our reach… it was as we expected."

"I never liked Cassie… she was too arrogant for her own good." Willowe raised an eyebrow as Runoa pulled a blue-and-gold sheathed sword from out underneath her robe, handing it to her. "You brought Excalibur with you?"

"You will need it if you are going to fight the Society. Though I gained a portion of Cassie's powers, enabling me to remove the Prohibitors, I cannot restore your powers to you…" Runoa raised her own eyebrow. "Unless you wish to attempt the Immaculation process?"

"No...unlike the others, I earned my fighting skills the hard way. Coupled with Excalibur's powers, they will suffice." Willowe grabbed the weapon and slid it into the belt around her waist. "I assume you can get me into the Library one last time?"

"Of course I can…" Runoa said calmly and handed Willowe a small syringe. "This is an acid I've been developing. It should be strong enough to remove the Prohibitors on the Sues and Stus captive in the Library Basement… a few drops for each one. But this is all I have and as it requires essence of dead Sue to make, I doubt I will be able to mix anymore, so do not waste it."

Willowe nodded, slipping the syringe up her sleeve before holding out her wrists. "Now then… if you'll so kindly free me?"

Runoa reached out and touched one of the Prohibitors before closing her eyes and concentrating. For a moment, nothing happened… and the all four Prohibitors gave a great cracking noise and crumbled apart, clattering to the ground. "There you go…."

"Thank you." Willowe smiled and let out a soft gasp some of her power flooded back into her, her hair becoming shinier and her skin becoming fairer and paler while her eyes acquired a soft sparkle to them. "That is much better… you have no idea what it felt like to be so powerless with those Prohibitors on…"

The former Librarian made a non-committal noise. "Indeed… now then… I have acquired some assistance for your proposed takeover."

As if summoned by her words, the flock of pigeons on the ground suddenly took flight, cooing and calling as a man strode forwards in their wake. He was tall, with a square-jaw and dressed in a dark suit and tie. A pair of sunglasses was on his expressionless face. "Miss Foxblade…"

Willowe glanced at him skeptically. "And just who are you?"

"He is Agent Smith…" Runoa smirked softly. "He's something of a Stu from his home fandom…very nearly took it over, in fact. But he was defeated and supposedly destroyed… I managed to bring him back, though at greatly reduced power."

"Then what good will he be to me?" Willowe folded her arms across her ample chest. "The good number of strong Sues and Stus captured in the Library Basement will be more than enough to takeover the Library."

"Willowe, you will need his help." Runoa said sharply. "Especially if Adrian is present when you start your attack… there is much more defending the Library than just the Society's agents."

"Fine…" The Mary-Sue slid another glance at Agent Smith and then smiled brightly, cunningly. "It's time to go… are you sure you do not want to come, Runoa? This may be your last chance to get into the Library so you may finish your research on Immaculation."

"No." Runoa turned and started to walk away, cloak flapping behind her. "I have told you, Willowe, that I do not care for conquests or revenge… I will reclaim what is mine in due course…" Then she faded away, vanishing like a mist…

Agent Smith watched her go. "She hates you, doesn't she?"

Willowe only smirked. "She does…she hates all Mary-Sues, Gary-Stus, the Society, the Library… her hatred for everything is only outweighed by her hatred of herself…" She readjusted Excalibur and her smirk grew bigger. "Now… it's time to go… and take what is mine…"

She laughed and in a flare of white light, she and Agent Smith vanished…

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"It's not that I don't appreciate your work… it's just that I don't appreciate where you put it…"

"But you said I could paint any of the rooms I wanted so long as it had a large blank wall!"

"I know I said that, but I didn't think you'd take it literally…"

Emily Smith folded her arms across her chest and pouted up at Adrian. "But it's one of my best pieces! And I thought you'd like it…" She pouted more and her lower lip began to quiver.

The Librarian sighed and looked down at her. (She's giving me the puppy-dog eyes… I must resist… I must resist…) "Emily… I love it, really I do. But I would have really preferred it on canvas or something, so I could frame it and hang it or something. Not have it painted onto the wall of my office."

She pouted and her eyes got real big and sweet. "But I had this really cool idea and I wanted to try it out right away! You're a writer! You know you can't suppress the creative urges when they come!"

"Did you have get a creative urge that would give my girlfriend reason to kill me?" Adrian glanced over at the giant mural that took up one of his office walls and moaned softly. "I'm so dead…"

Done in a beautifully bright style of paint was a full-length mural of Tash, lying on a bed of what appeared to be clouds. She was smiling happily and was bright-eyed, little flames dancing around her form while a great pair of fiery wings stretched from her back and her staff was in her grasp.

She was also completely naked.

Luckily, her wings and the clouds were strategically positioned to cover everything necessary, but it was still very little coverage…

Adrian started it with a mixture of awe at Emily's talent, desire and appreciation for Tash's wonderful, sexy form and dread at what his other half would do to him when she found out. "Emily… why do you do this to me…?"

She looked at him, the complete picture of innocence. "What?"

"Nnnnnn..." Adrian found his anger and frustration at her slipping away at the sight the sweetness and puppy-dog eyes on her face. "Next time, Emily...will you at least please ask me if you going to paint in one of the rooms I use often?"

"Okay." The ten-year-old nodded her head and then blinked as blur of some sort hit Adrian in the head and floored the Librarian. "Ummmm..."

"What the-?" Adrian muttered to himself and tried to sit back, only to feel a weight on his back keeping him down... and it felt like someone was nibbling on his ears. "Chrys!"

"Nomnomonomnomnom..." Chrys giggled and continued to nibble on Adrian's kitty ears, her own ears flicking back and forth while Adrian just sighed deeply and propped his chin in his hand.

Emily stared at the sight, tilting her head as a question mark popped into existence above her. "Why is Chrys trying to eat your ears?"

Adrian pushed himself back to his feet and stood up, dislodging Chrys from his back. The hanyou let out a small noise of irritation and, despite the fact she was only a few inches shorter than Adrian, climbed him like a monkey and continued to nibble his ears. "She got into Tash's chocolate again..."

"So?" Emily, despite the oddness of the situation in front of her, also found it rather cute and endearing, as occasionally desu-sparkles would appear around Chrys. "British chocolate has more sugar than American, but it's not enough to cause anything like this."

"Not British chocolate, Tash's chocolate." Adrian corrected and squirmed a bit as Chrys shifted her weight to nibble his other ear. "When she's being devious, she likes to make me some and mix in a little catnip to uh... er..." The Librarian blushed red as he realized what he had about to say. "Well, she never gets any sleep when she makes me chocolate, let's put that way. Anyway, when Chrys eats it, she kinda goes a bit loopy..."

Then he blinked as he noticed that Emily had whipped out her sketchpad and was already hard at work. "Hey! Don't draw this!"

"But it's cute!" Emily's drawing hand was nearly a blur and then she grinned and flipped it around. "See?"

Adrian felt his eye twitch a bit. The picture showed his ears being nibbled on by a chibi-moe Chrys and there were several desu sparkles around them both as well. "I think I felt another piece of my dignity die..."

"Sorry, Adrian..." A slightly-out-of-breath Mizuho appeared the corner of a bookshelf. "She got into the chocolate and before I knew it, she gone after you..."

"It's fine, Mizuho." Adrian replied, reaching behind his head and plucking Chrys free, the hanyou whining a bit and grabbing desperately for his ears. "I just wish Tash would label her chocolate ..."

"At least this wasn't as bad as last time..." Mizuho said, grabbing Chrys around the arm. "That was a bit of a mess.

Emily looked back forth between the two. "Why? What happened last time?"

"Chrys surprised Adrian as he getting out of the shower...he was clothed, but still..." The sprite tightened her grip, as Chrys was starting to eye Adrian's tail intently. A devilish smirk appeared on Mizuho's face. "You look pretty damn hot shirtless, Librarian.."

Adrian blushed while Emily giggled at him. "What is it with women and teasing me? Honestly..."

Then his ears, as well as Chrys' pricked straight up.

In the next second, Adrian had taken two swift steps forward, Hoshikuzu appearing in his grasp even as he slammed it onto the floor, a wave of violet of light racing around the floor just in time to intercept the blast of silvery light that blew through his door like it was paper.

As the two attacks pushed against one another before dispersing away, Adrian positioned himself so that he was between the doorway and other three Agents in the room. "Silver..."

An arrogant chuckle sounded as the Soul Reaper Stu stepped through the ruined doorway, his robes a bright white and his sword's blade gleaming glowing with light. "Hello, Librarian. I'm here to kill you. I hope I'm not interrupting."

The kitty-eared man narrowed his eyes slightly. "If you're free, I guess that means Willowe has made her move..."

"So what?" Silver flicked a bit of hair behind his ear. "You should be worried more about me, for how can you hope to defeat a perfect being like myself?" He smiled and a tooth glinted with light.

Adrian squinted a bit in the light, swearing that Silver's skin was sparkling. "You sparkle more than a Twilight vampire..." Then he blinked as he felt something blur past him, ruffling his coat. "What...?"

Silver blinked as he felt a shadow fall over him and lifted his head, jaw dropping. "Holy *$#%!"

"NO! NO EVIL DESU!" Chrys slammed into the Stu and floored him, Silver flailing around as she attacked him. "RAWR!"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Okay… now concentrate again… don't try to force it… just let it happen…"

Valerie nodded at Tash's words and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright…" The bracer attached her right arm began to glow blue softly and then twin beams of blue light shot up and down, forming into a large energy bow in her grasp. Reaching up her left hand, she grabbed the bow's 'string' and pulled it back slowly, a large arrow the same color as the bow forming there. She took another breath and let it out, aiming her weapon down the range… and let fly.

The arrow shot down the range towards the target… but at the last second, it suddenly flew to the side, missing completely and striking the floor as it releasing a small spark of power and left a tiny scorch-mark.

"Nuts…" Valerie sighed and then yelped as the bow suddenly flared briefly, doubling in size before vanishing completely with a 'zzzz-shiwsh!' sound. "Damn it!"

Tash smiled ruefully and shook her head. "You're concentrating too hard, Val… you can't make the bow and arrow happen… you have to let it happen."

Val nodded and glanced down at the bracer on her arm. "I'm trying… but it's difficult… the bow either gets too much power or too little… maybe I'm not opening my shields enough."

"That's not it…" Tash said as she walked over to her friend. "Adrian said that it didn't matter how much your shield are open. What matters is how firm your resolve is… That's how the Seiryu works."

The Seiryu was designed for empathetic people, to help give them an edge in fighting. Because empaths routinely avoid conflict so as not to overwhelm their spirits with the strong emotions battle produces, they make weak fighters. Empaths posses a stronger spiritual pressure than most individuals and this is what makes them sensitive to the feelings of those around them and as such, they develop 'shields' to keep most of outside forces at bay. With the Seiryu, it wasn't necessary. Normally just a bracer, to an empathetic individual, it was a weapon of great power. Because the bow requires a flow of spiritual energy to work, the empathetic user was forced to devote most of their energies to making it work, thus enabling them to fight and avoid being overwhelmed by the pain and fury of the combatants.

In short, the Seiryu kept the empathy busy enough that they did not have time to be overwhelmed by battle's emotions. At least, that how it was supposed to work…

Valerie glanced down the range, where a few dozen scorch-marks all over the floor and the wall, but not the target gave testament to her struggle to master her weapon. "I think I'm going to need more practice…"

Tash nodded agreement and then glanced over towards a second target, which was now nothing more than a smoking ruin. "Adrian made it look so easy…"

When demonstrating the weapon, Adrian had channeled his power into the bracer and it instantly formed into a metallic longbow of white and violet and quickly volleyed off several shots of violet energy arrows, all of them thin and sleek and all had exploded with great force on impact with the target. However, when he was done, his fingers were bleeding a bit and he explained (as Tash scolded him for hurting himself and wiped his hand clean) that though he could use the bow, he lacked the open empathy that prevented his own energies from backlashing on him.

So Tash and Val had spent the last two hours trying to get the weapon to work for her, but their success had been minimal.

Val winced and flexed her fingers a Seiryu for so long was making her hands hurt. "I'm starting to get blisters... since Seiryu is pure energy, I'm surprised that it just doesn't burn my fingertips off."

Tash nodded. "I was worried about the same when Adrian taught me Jurai-Ken. I kept thinking I was going to light my clothes or my hair on fire, but it never happened. He said it was something it being our own natural energies and so they wouldn't hurt us..." She grinned a little as she remembered how her training had gone. "Of course, that didn't stop me from lighting other things on fire..."

Valerie chuckled. "I seem to remember treating him for burns on his tail a dozen times during the first week or so..."

The British girl's grin grew bigger. "He kept getting annoyed that I kept 'accidentally' burning his trenchcoat and clothes off...not my fault he looks so hot with his shirt off..."

Val just shook her head, smiling. "Do you ever not think about him bedding you, Tash?"

Tash gave her a look of mock-indignation. "I'll have you know that I do not always think about him bedding me..." She dropped the look and giggled. "I think about him taking me everywhere else, too!"

Both Tash's giggles and Val's sighing and smiling were both interrupted as a golden blast of light burst through the floor nearby, both women leaping back as bits of debris rained down where they had been. "What the hell!"

There was a heavy crash and a figure landed at their feet, rolling to halt and moaning, their body covered in cuts and bruises and they spat out a globule of blood as they managed to sit upright and lurch to their feet. "Kyle?"

"Hehehehehe..." A deep chuckle filled the air as a golden-glowing form rose slowly through the hole, his spiky golden hair sticking up and to the back. Muscle atop muscle bulged as Harold flexed and cracked his knuckles. "So... who wants to die first?"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

"Drake…"

"Yeah, Tyler?"

"How you doing?"

"Considering my position, pretty well…" Drake was currently eagle-spread against the wall upside down, a hail of arrows and knives having pinned him to the stone wall by his clothing. "What about you?"

Tyler, for his part was dangling from the ceiling, a lasso having snared his wrists together and hauled him high. "Okay… though my wrists are starting to hurt some…"

They both glanced down below, where several packages of Oreos and chocolate lay scattered on the floor and Drake commented. "You know…we should have known it was a trap when he left it out in the open like that…."

"Yeah…"

"Oh my god!" A high laugh echoed down the hallway and both of them glanced to see the blonde-haired form of Chi skipping towards them. "You guys are really idiots if you actually fell for that kind of trap!" She snickered and laughed and clapped her hands. "Of course, it makes destroying you both so much easier for me!"

"What the hell!" Drake managed to free himself as Tyler did the same and both Agents readied themselves for battle, Drake tapping his wrist controller and his arm activating around him while Tyler whipped out his Ping-Pong paddle as it morphed into it's staff form. "How did you get out of your cell!"

"Oh, just a secret!" Chi giggled and stalked towards him. "But you're going to die, so I won't tell you…" Then she paused as she heard a 'CLICK!' noise from underneath and glanced down. "Oh… no…."

A trapdoor dropped open beneath her feet and she fell, screaming into the darkness below. "Noooooo!"

Both Agents blinked. "Well, that was... anticlimactic..."

Tyler paused. "Wait... you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"It sounded like a 'sproing!' sound... like a giant spring launching something..."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Chi screamed she rocketed up off the trapdoor and smashed into the ceiling...then started fall back the way she came. "Daaaammmmmmmiiiiit!"

Drake and Tyler watched, their heads going up and down like bobble-heads as Chi kept bouncing off the spring, up through the trapdoor, into the ceiling and back down...only to hit the giant spring...

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Aster blinked slowly as a shadow fell over the manga she was reading, blocking out her light and preventing her from seeing the page. "Eh...?"

She lifted her head to see a man dressed in a suit-and-tie, wearing dark sunglasses standing over her. "You're blocking my light..."

Agent Smith smiled darkly. "I'm sorry. But don't worry, it won't matter much in a moment." Then his hand came up and he knifed it straight towards Aster's chest. "Just relax…"

Then the man felt his arm stop instantly and glanced down to Aster's hand clamped around his wrist like a vice. "Wha...?"

"You blocked my light..." Aster summoned her moon-staff and her eyes narrowed in irritation. "Now I'm never going to know how Gai-Rei ends!" She cracked Smith across the head with her staff and with a twirl of the weapon, followed it up with a powerful gust of wind magic that blew him across the hall and through the wall... and the next wall and the next wall...

The fae sighed. "If he's here, then Adrian-kun was right..." Shifting forms, she beat her wings and took off, casting a forlorn glance at the massive pile of manga on her bed before darting down the hallway. "Now I need to go find him..."

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Michael sighed and buried his nose in the Lovecraft book he had, desperately wishing for a way out of the room he was in.

(I could always teleport you out...) The Darkness offered from inside his head. (I don't like being here much more than you do…)

(Thanks, but no thanks... do you realize what they'd do to us if we disappeared?) Michael replied. (And I don't think you'd like Claire getting at you with those pinecones again…)

The Darkness made what sounded like a soft whimper. (I didn't even know you could do that with pinecones...)

Across the boy and his parasite, Claire and Miriku were seated on a couch and digging through the piles of dozens of wedding magazines, occasionally pulling one out and flipping through it and animatedly chatting about the upcoming wedding and the dresses and everything.

Michael was there solely to go 'Uh-huh.', "Whatever you want, love. I'm happy if you're happy." and 'Yes, dear. That would look good on you.' whenever he was asked a question. And so far, neither his fiancé or little sister had noticed that he had occasionally mixed up his answers.

"So, Michael, what do you think?" Claire held up a magazine and pointed to a picture of a flower arrangement. "Should we stick with this color set up or switch to white and purple?"

Michael flipped another page in his book and continued reading.

"Michael!" Claire got to her feet and loomed over her other half. "This is our wedding we are planning! Only the most important day of our lives and how can you-"

As Claire ranted at him, Michael casually lifted his head and said the two words that he had developed in response to when she was like this. "Claire Wasson."

Instantly, the British girl stopped ranting, got a dreamy look in her eyes and rocked back and forth on her heels, sighing happily.

Miriku poked her brother with a rolled-up magazine. "That's not playing fair, Aniki."

Michael grinned at her. "All's fair in love and war."

"Quite right." A laser blast came out of nowhere and seared off the top of the magazine Miriku was holding. "Including an ambush."

As more laser blasts zinged their way towards the trio, Michael leapt forwards and tackled Claire, two Darkness tentacles lanced out, one yanking Miriku down while the other flipped the couch over, making it an impromptu barrier.

Mytheus Primal stomped out from behind a bookshelf, laser rifles in each hand. "That's not going to hold for long..." Then he opened fire and the hail of laser blasts began to eat away at the couch, making the trio's shield smaller and smaller...

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Marcus ducked a knife swing and then skidded back to avoid a foot in his gut. "How did you get in here!"

The False Tash grinned and walked her knife along her fingers. "I walked!" Then she cackled insanely and charged again, the Society Agent catching her arms and they grappled, the knife flashing dangerously close to Marcus' neck.

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Cristoph and Doug coughed and waved the smoke from the explosion away even as they grabbed their weapons, Dough pulling out a pistol and the ninja flipping his sais into his hand.

"Hi, boys." Mary-Ann Twilight grinned cheerily at them as she stepped through the rubble that had been a wall only a few moments before. " Can I join in on the training? I know I don't fight well..." She hefted up a rocket launcher larger than she was onto her shoulder and took aim. "But I make up for it with a really, really big gun!"

TTTTTTTTTTTT

Aimee, Ossa, Jess and Jamie all sat in Hati's office, sitting in a neat row in front of the Society Leader's desk.
Hati assumed a serious mien. "As your leader, I would like to bring to your attention a very serious situation."

All four of them nodded as one.

"It is something that we must remedy at all costs, as it concerns the welfare and comfort of the Society's Agents and as we all know, a stressed and irritated Agent is an Agent that will fail with missions and generally be crabby and bitchy."

All four of them nodded again.

Hati slammed her fist on her desktop in frustration. "We need to persuade Phoenixia to sell the tapes of Adrian and Tash doing each other to us! They're the hottest things around and after seeing that brief clip she let us watch that night, they are most definitely worth getting our hands on! Any questions?"

Jamie raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Why am I here? I didn't even see the first clip and to be honest, it doesn't really interest me at all."

Ossa shushed him. "You're one third of the Ossa Power Trio and this is the only way you'll get a cameo in the movie." Nobody paid any attention to the rumbling of the Fourth Wall.

Aimee blinked. "I thought we were Ossa-tachi..."

Jess frowned. "No, I thought you guys were Team Ossa or something like that..."

Ossa sighed. "I'm Ossa, I write the stories and I say we are Ossa Power Trio. And because I can beat you all six ways from Sunday, do you really want to argue with me?"

Then the door to Hati's office exploded inwards and threw all four of them forwards as a second concussive wave of energy hit the room and blew the desk and flooring apart.

Harriet moaned and stirred, brushing off debris and dust that had been the door to her office and her desk as she stood up weakly, coughing sharply. "What…"

"Hey, Mummy…" Willowe strode through the door, Excalibur still glowing from the power she had unleashed. "I'm home…" She raised the blade and smiled evilly. "Want to see how happy I am to see you?"