Dreams and Answers

It's been a while. I apologize for that. I haven't been much in the mood for writing. Plus, I've been rather busy building my new Extractor. As tragic as what happened with Tyler was, and how hard it's been to cope with, I suppose the destruction of the old model was a blessing in disguise. It's given me the chance to start from scratch, and better implement some newer ideas I've had. My work on it is almost complete. I have to do a test run at some point, which will likely require another sample, which will likely involve another mission from the SMSC, but that can wait. I'll also need to design a new Vambrace, and possibly a new Enhancer. I haven't decided on that one yet. After what happened, it might be too risky to have something like that lying around...

In other news, I've had a few more of those dreams. Like the last couple. I haven't spoken about them yet because, as I managed, I haven't really been in the mood, but they've answered a few questions for me.

The first dream starting in that dark room again, with that little girl, Emily, sitting nearby, coloring another picture.

"I don't understand why you keep hanging around me," I said.

"You seem nice," Emily said.

"Based on what?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"You lack any form of logic," I informed her.

"How did you get hurt?" the girl asked me, nodding at my wounded leg.

"I told you," I said. "I'm a monster. And some humans... like to hunt monsters."

We sat in silence for a few minutes. That silence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door up above being forced open, and several gunshots going off. Emily almost cried out in panic, but I rushed toward her, putting pressure on my wounded leg, and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Shit!" I muttered. "Just had to speak of the devil, didn't I?"

I could barely make out a commanding voice from above us.

"Kieda's here somewhere!" A man barked. "Don't leave any survivors! He could be with any one of these bastards!"

"I fucking new it!" I muttered, turning to Emily. "Go hide in the corner over there, and stay out of sight. This is serious!"

I didn't understand why I was doing this. I just... had a strong urge to keep her unharmed. She nodded, clearly terrified, and went to go hide. I stood up, fighting against the pain in my leg, and turned to face the only entrance to the room. I ignited a small flame in the palm of my hand.

"Come get me, you assholes!" I growled, as the door started to creak open.


That's where that dream ended. The next dream occurred several days later.

I was lying on the floor of that laundry room. I was in excruciating pain. I had suffered several bullet wounds. The wounds themselves were non-fatal, but they were absolutely debilitating, and I would surely bleed out soon enough.  I could see the dead and charred bodies of two Timberwolves nearby.

Emily emerged from hiding and ran up to check on me.

"Are you okay!?" she asked, clearly panicking.

"I told you to stay hidden!" I hissed. "And keep your voice down! There's more of these assholes nearby."

My mind was racing, trying to make a good decision. Timberwolves had barged into this building with the sole intent to find me and kill me. at that meant killing everyone there. I was wounded, could barely move, and there was no way of knowing when more Timberwolves would come to investigate this room. And even if Emily went back into hiding, I had no idea how thoroughly they planned to search for survivors.

This girl was doomed.

Unless...

A thought hit me, and the more I considered it, the more I knew it was the only option to get her out of there alive. I raised the only hand I could seem to move, and placed it on her forehead. I ended up getting a bit of blood on her face in the process, but that was the least of my worries.

"Before I make this ump, I need you to know something," I told her. "This body isn't me. Once I do this, I'll be a part of you, and we'll leave this body behind."

"What do you-"

Before she could finish her question, I made the ump.

I was no longer in my previous body. I was seeing through her eyes, looking down my previous body, which looked nothing like I do in real life. It was a badly wounded man, with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

We need to go now, I spoke into the back of her mind.

"What?" she gasped. "Who-"

It's me, I said. We need to get moving. Like I said; we leave that body behind.

"I don't understand," she said, trembling.

Remember our pinky promise? I asked. You promised to keep quiet about me. I refused at first, but I did the pinky thing anyway.

I took control of one of her arms and reached into the coat pocket of my previous body. She struggled against me. I got annoyed. People with strong light were always tough for me to control. Why do so few of us share that flaw? In the end, I managed to pull out the crappy looking dinosaur picture and held it in front of her eyes.

You drew this for me, right? I said. You even signed it. You said you like the big letters.

She relaxed a little bit, but was still shaken by everything hat was going on.

"Is... is it really you?" she asked.

You don't like when I fucking swear, I said.

"Hey!" she snapped.

Mommy says it's not nice, right? I said. And you don't like when your dad drinks.

"It's... but... how are you...?"

Don't question it, I said. Just get up and move, and don't struggle too much if I need to take control. I'm going to get you out of here alive. I promise.

She raised one of her hands, extending  pinky.

"Pinky promise?" she asked.

I sighed internally, before taking control of her other hand, and locking pinkies.

Pinky promise, I told her.


That dream ended as well, but it served to confirm all of my suspicions, concerning these dreams. But before I get to that, there was ne last dream to discuss. And it's a little... dark...


I was there, guiding Emily as best as I could, and trying to stay out of sight. There was a Timberwolf guarding the front door. I could have taken him down easily, but drawing attention would be a bad idea, so I stayed out of his sight instead. I looked through Emily's memories to find an alternate route out of the building. There was a fire escape a short distance away, and after sneaking a glance at it, I realized it was unwatched.

We crept over to it and snuck out. We were now in a dark alleyway. I looked out into the street, and was met with a horrible realization. This apartment building wasn't the only place in danger. several Timberwolves were patrolling the streets, and other nearby buildings were being assaulted or burned.

They were prepared to destroy this whole neighborhood if it meant I'd go down with it.

I crept back into the alleyway, trying to think of a plan. Some way out of this mess. I good use my full power, but getting in a fight would be too risky. I needed to flee. Stay out of sight, and get this girl to safety.

I failed.

While I stood there hesitating, a Timberwolf stepped out of the same fire escape I had left through, and spotted us. He raised his gun, and Emily, being in full control with me distracted, raised up her hands and begged him for mercy.

He ignored her.

I took control and tried to dodge his shots, but he just kept firing at us until one of his shots tore through her throat.

We collapsed.

She started fading. I tried to save her. I tried to cling to her life, and heal her wound, but nothing I did was enough. Her pulse came to a stop, and her body went limp.

She was dead.

And I was trapped there in her body.

Another Timberwolf arrived to join the other, and gasped in alarm.

"What did you do!?" the newcomer demanded. "She's just a kid!"

The newcomer rushed up to check if she was really dead. I could still see through her eyes, and noticed he was carrying a shotgun.

"The boss said no survivors," the other Timberwolf said, coming a bit closer. "Kieda could be possessing anyone here. Our mission is to destroy him, no matter what."

I pulled forth what little strength I could. Manipulating a dead body is no easy feat but I at least got one of her arms working, and I managed to grab onto the newcomers ankle. Before either of them could react, I had jumped to the newcomer, and taking control of his arms, I aimed the shotgun in the other pricks face and pulled the trigger. A moment later, I had full control of this new body.

I gazed down at Emily's body. I felt terrible. I'd failed. I promised to save her. I'd broken that promise.

My shame was quickly overcome by rage. My goal to get to safety was replaced by a desire for revenge.

That first body I had was wounded and weak. The girls body was weak and vulnerable. But this new body. A body that new battle. A body that had trained its muscles. A body that was armed. This was a body I could work with.

But it needed something. Something... monstrous. I remembered my conversation with Emily about what a monster should look like. That the eyes... the eyes are the scariest part. So I changed my eyes again. Making them look as wrong nd intimidating as I could. After doing so, I got to work.

I don't know how much time was spent on my rampage. All I know is that every Timberwolf I came across met a painful end. And any time I found myself near death, I was able to jump to another Timberwolf and continue my fiery path of revenge.

Eventually, the entire street was up in flame, and only one enemy stood before me. But he seemed different from all the Timberwolves I had carved my way through. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I could tell he was more of a threat. He was also completely calm, despite witnessing all the damage I had done.

"You've made quite a scene," the man said.

"Are you the man in charge?" I asked.

"I am," the man said. "My name is-"

I interrupted him by hurling a ball of fire at him. It hit him full force, but as it did, an inky blackness coated his skin. Some of his clothes got burnt, but his body seemed completely unharmed. He seemed to slouch for a moment, before regaining his composure.

"-Jared Krane," he finished.

I hit him with another fireball. It had about the same results, but I noticed he slouched just  little bit more that time.

"What are you?" I demanded.

"I am an Apostle," he said. "The Angel's Flesh."

Flesh, huh? That put a thought into my head.

"You realize that invincibility you've got won't stop me from trying to kill you, right?" I asked.

"So you've gone from cowering in fear to slaughtering all in your path," Jared said. "Quite a sudden and drastic shift, isn't it Kieda."

I scowled at him, and ignited one of my hands.

"Kieda died with that little girl!" I hissed at him. "You can call me..."

I swung my hand in front of me, using the flames to carve a large word into the ground between us. Jared raised an eyebrow as he looked down on my new title.

"HELLFIRE?" he asked.

"I like the big letters," I said. "They have a bit more... impact."

Jared chuckled.

"I see," he said. "Either way, what you call yourself doesn't really matter. You can't possess me. I'll warn of that right now. Furthermore, you can even harm me."

"Wrong," I said.

I may have been bluffing a little bit, but I had a plan. I forced my new body through the God's Way, teleporting right up to him, and grabbing him by the throat, igniting my hand as I did. He reacted by activating that inky blackness that seemed to make him invincible. My body was in quite a bit of pain from that brief trip through the God's Way, but I ignored it for the time being.

"Let me go!" Jared demanded angrily.

"I don't think so," I said, igniting my free hand.

"Let me go, you fucking asshole!" he shouted.

I grimaced at his language.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" I asked.

I proceeded to force my hand over his open mouth and started pumping fire down his throat. You see, when he mentioned tht he was the Angel's "Flesh", I had deduced that his invincibility was likely limited to his... well... flesh.

And even if it wasn't, inhaling flames runs the risk of igniting the oxygen in your lungs, so either way, this was bound to hurt him pretty fucking badly.

And I guessed right. Not only were his insides completely vulnerable to my flames, but the fact that he had made his skin invulnerable meant that all that heat was trapped inside of him, causing him to burn alive from the inside.

It wasn't long before his body collapsed in a lifeless heap. I collapsed as well, weakened from the God's Way.

The dream ended, and I found myself back in my subconscious laboratory, accompanied the the shard.

"You weren't supposed to see any of that," the shard informed me.

"And yet I saw it anyway," I said. "You just couldn't help bleeding those memories out, could you, HELLFIRE?"

"Can't always help it," he replied. "Especially with you. The subconscious of a Devil Killer can have... interesting effects on those inhabiting them."

"So," I said. "Are you... sure you don't wanna talk about any of that?"

"Not any time soon," he sighed. "Just... wake up already..."


And that's where that conversation ended.



So yeah. I've learned quite a bit more about our little shard friend. I'll update you all as this progresses.

Back to work

Hey. Kallaway here. Sorry for breaking the trend of Daniel and I taking turns writing, but he's been... in a bit of a slump ever since what happened with Tyler. When he came to after Tyler made his escape, he just sat up against the wall for a while, looking miserable. He wouldn't say a word to any of us. At least not until Raoul got up as well and approached him.

"You were a fool to trust such a broken man," Raoul informed him.

Daniel looked up at Raoul for a second, before lowering his gaze again and responded.

No," he said. "I was a fool for breaking him."

Raoul turned and left after that. I went and sat down next to Daniel.

"Hey man," I said. "Do you wanna talk?"

"No," Daniel said.

He remained seated for a while, blankly staring at the crushed remains of his machines.  Jane eventually came up to try and talk to him, but he calmly told her that he wanted to be left alone. She hesitantly went back to talk to the others. Ren and Elie soon came up to address me.

"We're gonna head back to the University now," Elie said. "You guy's coming with?"

Daniel silently shook his head.

"I'm staying," I said.

"Okay," Elie said. "We'll be in touch."

"We'll keep an eye out for Tyler," Ren assured me. "If anything comes up... anything at all... we'll let you know."

"Thank you," I said. "And if you run into him at any point... please don't hurt him."

Ren sighed, resting a hand on his sheathed blade as he did.

"I can't promise you anything," he said. "But I'll try not to."

I turned to Elie.

"Tell my cousin what happened here," I said. "Ask if he can... um... keep an eye on destiny. Let us know if he catches a glimpse of Tyler."

"Professor Malkator isn't the easiest man to talk to," Elie said. "But if it's a message from you, I'm sure he'll listen."

"Thanks," I said.

"We'll se you later," Elie said. "Stay safe."

"You too," I said.

"Goodbye," Ren said.

They returned to where Kimiko and Jane were waiting, and they got ready to set out. Kimiko turned to me and waved.

"Sorejiya mata!" she said.

"I have no idea what that means," I said.

Daniel closed his eyes and sighed.

"It means 'see you later'," he said, before opening his eyes and looking up at Kimiko. "Jiyaane."

"Oh, right," Elie said. "We eft my car at the Black Garden."

"We're a couple cities away right now," Daniel said. "You'll need to catch a bus or something."

"I'll call up Paris," I said. "I'm sure he'll be willing to give you guys a lift."

I called him up, and he arrived shortly after. Everyone said one last goodbye, before departing. I went back to check and Daniel, who was still sitting in the same spot.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Of course not," he replied. "Would you mind giving me some space? I just... need to think."

"Sure," I said. "I'll check up on you later, okay?"

"Whatever," he said.

"I'm gonna go see if I can get a hotel room," I said. "See you later."

Daniel sighed, and on my way out, he call after me.

"There's a futon in the next room," he said. "You're welcome to use it."

I turned back to him.

"You sure?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Thank you," I said.

I spent the next couple days checking up on him, only to find him in the same state of apathy. At least he was feeding himself. Kind of... he seemed to be subsisting mostly on ramen cups and cheap beer. Paris had returned as well. He had been caught up on what had happened, and told me he'd handle checking up on Daniel for a while.

I left after that, making a trip to the office of Tony Helioson. By this point, Tony had read my last post, so he was fully aware of what had happened. He assured me that he was currently investigating what had happened to Tyler. Apparently, there had been a handful of sightings of a man with a treelike right arm. He's going to keep looking into it, and update me if he learned anything else.

I just got back to Daniel's base the other day, to see that he had seemingly gotten over his apathy. His office was now filled with whiteboards covered in mathematical equations and scientific formulas and a bunch of other stuff my head couldn't process.  On his desk was the skeleton of what appeared to be a new Extractor that he was constructing. He was standing before one of the whiteboards when I came in, jotting some stuff down next to what looked like a blueprint.

"Is he okay?" I asked Paris.

"He's in a zone right now," Paris said. "I wouldn't bug him right now if I were you."

"Yeah, well, you're not me," I said.

Paris just shrugged as I went and approached Daniel.

"How you holding up?" I asked.

"Just fine," he said, as he wrote out an equation I couldn't make heads or tails of.

I took a deep breathe before continuing.

"What happened with Tyler wasn't your fault," I told him.

This comment was met with a snapping sound. It took me a moment to realize it had come from the marker in Daniel's hand, which was now bent at an obtuse angle.

"Didn't I?" he asked coldly.

"Of course not!" I said. "Dawson was there, egging him on. Getting under his skin and encouraging him to take that step."

"I'm the reason he was craving power in the first place," he said. "I'm always searching for ways to increase my power, to grow even stronger than before, but I've never consider how strong of a shadow I was casting. How weak I was making people like him feel."

He spread his arms, gesturing to all of his whiteboards.

"And look at me!" he said. "I still can't stop! I'm still seeking power, after everything that happened!"

He lowered his arms and fell silent. I noticed a few seconds later that he was visibly trembling, and tears were forming in his eyes.

"This is my fault," he said. "I created that monster."

I placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder, and turned him to face me.

Then I slapped him.

"Pull yourself together!" I snapped.

Daniel was stunned by what I had just done, and Paris seemed worried and confused.

"You didn't create Tyler any more that Raoul created me!" I said.

"What?" Daniel asked.

"I didn't realize this until recently, but Raoul was there," I said. "The night I killed my father. And the night I killed that orphanage owner. He was there. I saw the world shift into photo negative, just like it did when he used his powers in that court room. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a voice encouraging me to attack. To seek revenge. Revenge for my mother. Revenge for all the kids that lady mistreated. But I didn't realize it was him back then. It wasn't until I saw him using his powers upfront that those memories came back."

I took a deep breathe, pulling myself together. I realized I was on the verge of tears as well.

"Raoul was trying to make a monster out of me," I said. "He encouraged me to commit those murders, and even earned me an innocent verdict when I was brought to trial over it. And he would have continued driving me down that dark path if I hadn't have made that choice."

"What choice?" Daniel asked.

"I chose not to go any further down that path," I said. "I didn't wanna kill anyone else. I wanted to become a better person. I heard that voice a few more times, trying to drive me toward violence, but I chose not to. I chose to be better. I made a choice. Just like Tyler did."

I let that sink in for a few seconds.

"Tyler chose to claim that power," I said. "That's not your fault. You tried to talk him out off it. But he ignored you. He ignored both of us. There's no point in blaming ourselves for that."

"Than what should we do?" Daniel asked.

"Whatever we can," I said. "There has to be some way to save him."

"And what if there isn't?" Daniel said.

I remained silent for a while.

"I don't know," I eventually said. "I just hope it doesn't come to that."

We both remained silent for a while. Daniel's cell phone went off after a while, but he just sent it to voicemail.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Agent Touchshriek," he replied.

"Are you ghosting the SMSC," I asked.

"Whatever missions they have more me can wait," he said, sighing. "So can all of this."

He gestured back to his equations.

"I need a break from things," he continued. "I'm gonna go nap."

He left the room after that. At least he's recovered a little bit from his slump, but I don't think he's stopped blaming himself for all of this.


Before I sign off, I just have a couple things to say concerning Tyler. First of all, if any of you reading this see him, Please let us know where and when. The giant wooden arm should be a giveaway.

And, more importantly, if you see him, be careful! I have no idea ho far gone he is. All that eldritch power could have gotten to his head, and after that first display of his strength, it's safe to assume that he's at a very high level of dangerous. Stay safe...

We fucked up big time

I might have well titled this post “Hitting the fan part 4.”

So, as planned, me, Elie, Ren, Tyler, Jane, and Kimiko met up with Raoul at the Black Garden. He had changed his getup, now wearing dark robes and a blindfold, and his neatly combed hair was now mussed up.

“You kept me waiting,” he said.

“We were waiting for the rest of our party,” I said. “How'd your case go?”

“Perfectly,” he said. “As per usual.”

He then nodded to Elie, Jane and Tyler one after the other.

“Are these three up to the task?” He asked.

“Why wouldn't they be?” I asked, folding my arms.

“The Path of Black Leaves is a dangerous place,” he said. “We are both Demi-Gods so we should be fine, and the swordsman and swordswoman you brought seem like they can hold their own. As for the scholar, the runner, and the pipsqueak, I have my doubts.”

“Pipsqueak?” Tyler asked, annoyed.

“Elie and Jane are smart enough to stay safe,” I said. “And Tyler is way stronger than you think he is. He's made a lot of progress in his training, and-”

I was cut off by the sight of Raoul suddenly teleporting directly in from of Tyler, staring him down. Even though he's a blindfolded blind man. Tyler took a startled step back. Raoul stood before him for a minute before turning to me.

“Do you insist upon his accompaniment?” he asked.

“I do,” I said. “He has a lot of potential. Let's let him live up to it.”

“Very well,” he said. “I'll allow them to come along, if they stay out of the way.”

“Whatever you say, Murdock,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow, which I could barely see through his blindfold.

“You know, 'cause your a blind lawyer, just like... you know what, never mind,” I said. “Let's go already.”

Raoul nodded, and snapped his fingers. A rift opened up, leading into a dark forest. The leaves on all the trees were either pitch black or gray, and many of the trees were seeming to wither away.

“Come on then,” Raoul said, stepping through. “I'll lead you to the nearest Tree.”

We followed him through.

“So what exactly is this place?” Tyler asked.

“The Path of Black Leaves,” Raoul explained. “The dominion of my old master. Unfortunately...”

He nodded to a particularly withered and leafless tree.

“It's been slowly declining since their death...”

“You're master was a Fear, right?” Tyler asked.

“Close enough,” Raoul said. “Even I'm not entirely sure. They were known by many names, but one you may be familiar with is the Slender Man.”

“I thought that was just a bad meme,” Tyler said.

Raoul chuckled at that.

“Not quite,” he said.

“You said they died, right?” Tyler asked. “How'd that happen?”

Raoul shrugged.

“Something involving the color blue,” he said. “I wasn't there to witness it, but rumors did get back to me after the fact.”

“Oh,” Tyler said.

We continued for a while longer before Raoul froze in place and raised an arm to halt us.

“We're not alone,” he said.

Everyone who had a sword drew it, while Elie and Jane withdrew to the center of the group.

“What is it?” I asked.

Raoul hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

“Dobroslav Abreu,” he said. “An old friend, once upon a time. I'd keep those weapons drawn if I were you.”

“Is he dangerous,” I asked.

“He's like me,” he said. “One of the master's oldest living servants. Centuries old, and wielding great power. And like me, he's developed followers of his own. Unfortunately, our path's parted with our master's death, and he has since grown.. somewhat crazed...”

Shortly after, a number of masked goons swarmed us, led by a Slavik man wearing the same dark robes as Raoul, and wielding a large knife. He charged straight at Raoul, who quickly ripped off his blindfold.

This was first time I had ever actually seen Raouls eyes. Or, rather, lack thereof. His eye sockets were completely empty. He made a Naruto-esque hand sign, and fully turned his attention to the man charging him. The man froze in place, and his colors became completely inverted.

“I'll hold Dobroslav as long as I can,” Raoul said, seemingly struggling to speak. “Deal with his minions!”

It took a while, but we managed to incapacitate Abreu's goons while taking minimal damage ourselves.

“Okay, they're down,” I said, turning back to Raoul, who was still immobilizing Abreu, but I could see that Abreu was visibly struggling against his imprisonment, and could break free any second.

“That great, now could someone knock this fool out and restrain him!?” Raoul hissed.

I struck Abreu on the back of his skull, knocking him out, and Raoul released his hold on him. I went to assist Raoul while Elie and Jane went to disarm and tie up Abreu.

“Again, why didn't you use that power against Daniel?” I asked.

“Again, downsides,” Raoul panted. “It only works on one person at a time, and I have to focus entirely on them. If my concentration wavers for even a second, I lose my hold on them. Good for restraining someone powerful, but only if I have enough backup to justify it. And Dobroslav is far weaker than the Doctor, and easier to restrain. The Doctor would have broken free far sooner.”

“I see,” I said. “So, what should we do with him?”

“Give me a minute,” he said.

After he had recovered his strength, he snapped his fingers, and Abreu shifted into negative again, and began floating.

“We're taking him with us?” I asked.

“This magic trick is a lot simpler, requires less focus, and will last as long as he remains unconscious,” Raoul said. “Speaking of...”

He drew a syringe and stabbed it into Abreu's arm.

“This should keep him down for a while,” he said. “I'd like a chance to speak to him later. Just make sure he's well restrained.”

“This could end badly,” I pointed out.

“So could bringing along the weaklings,” Raoul said.

“Enough of that,” I said. “Let's get moving.”

We kept moving, and I kept an eye on Abreu, and even tried seeing his destiny, but something was interfering.

“You'll find that some beings are harder to predict than others,” Raoul said. “If you keep growing stronger, your penchant for foresight may grow as well.”

We eventually found the Tree. It was large, and had a dark mahogany color to it. Twisted faces seemed to grow from the trunk, and drops of blood leaked from the branches.

“Here we are,” Raoul said. “Now go on. Get your sample.”

I sprouted my gauntlet, and snapped off a bloody thorn from the tree, and placed it in a small black box we had brought with us.

“So, where next?” Raoul asked.

“We should go to Dr. Ferris's base,” Tyler suggested. “We can use his Extractor.”

“Elie's Extractor could work too,” Jane said.

“Whichever is closest,” Raoul said. “Doesn't matter to me.”

After exchanging some information involving locations of the Extractors, it was revealed that Daniel base was the closest. So, that's where we went. We set Abreu down on a table that Daniel had set up, and stationed Kimiko and Ren to keep an eye on him. I brought the Tree sample over to Daniel's Extractor, with Elie and Jane on either side of me.

“You guy's know how to work this thing, right?” I asked.

“Not sure,” Elie said hesitantly. “He modified it to work with a computer hooked up to it. This could take me some time to-”

Before he could finish, both he and Jane were swept off their feet, and shadowy tendrils rose from the ground, binding them in place. Bill Dawson then rose from the ground, sneering at me.

“Long time no see,” he said, snatching the thorn away from me and melting back into the ground.

He then reemerged next to Abreu, as more Tendrils held Ren and Kimiko in place.

“What are you doing!?” I demanded, as he placed the thorn in Abreu's hand.”

“You see, Kallaway,” he said. “There's more than one way to predict the future.”

Raoul made a move to remove his blindfold, but more tendrils rose up to hold his wrists before he could.

“Not yet, my friend,” Dawson said, smirking. “Anyway, I happen to know that what I'm about to do will be...”

A syringe melted out of the palm of his hand, and he gripped it tightly.

“...Favorable to my cause,” he finished.

He then jammed the syringe into Abreu's heart, and a moment later, the maniac jolted awake.

“Have fun,” Dawson said, grinning, as he melted into the ground, and the tendril's holding everyone back receeded.

Tyler drew his sword and made a move to try and strike Abreu down, but Abreu unleashed a pulse of dark energy that threw him and almost all of us off balance. Only me and Ren were able to hold our ground, but Ren's sword was knocked from his hand.

Abreu turned his attention to the thorn in his hand, and grinned broadly. He turned to Ren, holding the thorn in a reverse grip, raising it above his head. Ren raised his right arm to try and guard against the attack. Abreu brought the thorn down in an angle that would embed it right into Ren's arm.

But that didn't happen. Tyler, who had recovered somewhat, kicked Ren's feet out from underneath him, causing him to fall to the ground, safe from the attack. He then jumped to his feet and tried to engage Abreu. He got a couple punches in, throwing Abreu off balance, and then made a move to hit him with a palm strike. But before the hit landed, Abreu raised his hand holding the thorn up, directly in the way of the blow, causing the thorn to impale Tyler's hand.

Tyler retreated, crying out in pain, and both Ren and I acted immediately. I drew my sword, while Ren recovered his. I bisected Abreu at the waste, while Red decapitated him. His lifeless chunks dropped to the ground before us.

I turned my attention back to Tyler. He ripped the thorn out of his palm, and then, in a state of panic, he pulled his belt off and tightened it around his upper arm, just below the shoulder. I used my vision eyes to examine his arm, and saw what was happening. He had gotten the thorn out, but the damage was already done. The tree's blood had infected his bloodstream,along with all the Eldritch power that was in it.

I tried using my foresight. I tried to figure out what the best possible solution could be. But I couldn't see anything. The makeshift tourniquet was working for now, but we needed to figure something out fast.

“The Enhancer!” Elie shouted. “It's like the Extractor! It can pull Eldritch power out of things!”

I wasn't sure if that suggestion would work, but it was the best I could think to do. I escorted Tyler to the Enhancer, punched a hole in it with my gauntlet, and stuck Tyler's hand through the hole.

“Try and hold still,” I told him, looking at the dials on the side of the machine. “Which of these is which?”

Raoul quickly removed his blindfold, and looked around for a minute, before focusing on a specific direction.

“Daniel!” He shouted. “Get back to your base now! Your pipsqueak is in danger!”

Raoul then fell to his knees, seeming to have pushed his powers a bit too far.

“Stop calling me that!” Tyler said through gritted teeth.

Daniel suddenly appeared there, looked around the room, noticed the chunks of Abreu on the floor, then the fact that Tyler was in a lot of pain, with one arm in his Enhancer.

“Okay, a million questions, but first, WHAT is this!?” he demanded.

“His arm is infected with the Bleeding Tree's blood,” I said. “We're trying to remove the energy using the Enhancer. Lend a hand?”

He teleported up to the Enhancer, and turned one of the dial's up gradually. Red light, shifting between the shapes of branched, vines, leaves, and thorns, began filling the empty space inside the Enhancer.

“This could end badly,” Daniel said. “The Enhancer may not be able to hold all this power in, especially with the hole you put in it.”

I raised my gauntlet up.

“I can control energy with this thing,” I said. “At least to some extent. If this goes South, I'll do my best to hold it all back.”

“Okay,” Daniel said. “But the Enhancer wasn't built to contain anything like this...”

He placed his hand on Tyler's shoulder.

“Hey, stay strong,” he said. “I'm gonna make this work. Just give me a minute.”

He then held out a hand, and the Vambrace he mentioned in his last couple posts flew into his hand from underneath a desk, and several wires and a Cell came to him as well. He ripped a panel off the Enhancer, and started using the wires to connect the Vambrace to the inner wiring of the Enhancer.

“Okay,” I asked. “What are you doing, and how are you doing it?”

“Newborn's power,” he said. “It gives me enhanced understanding of both technology and anatomy, and a certain level of control over both. The Vambrace is designed to infuse energy from a Cell into my body, but I should be able to reverse that so that the energy in the Enhancer can be channeled into a Cell plugged into the Vambrace.”

He plugged a Cell into the Vambrace and place his hand on Tyler's shoulder again.

“Don't worry,” he said. “We're gonna get this energy out of you.”

“What if he doesn't want it out?” came the voice of Bill Dawson, seeming to come at us from all angles..

“Dawson!” Daniel growled.

Tyler's eyes snapped open, and a fierce red light poured out of his irises.

“Look at all that power,” Dawson said. “Right there within your grasp.”

Tyler's glowing eyes focused on the power flowing in front of him. His expression looked hungry.

“All you have to do,” Dawson continued, “Is reach out. And grab it!”

“Don't listen to him!” I told him.

“This is dangerous power,” Daniel said. “You could die, or worse, if we don't-”

“You know how to ork this machine,” Dawson whispered. “Just a knob that needs turning...”

“Tyler!” Daniel snapped, trying to get Tyler's attention. Tyler turned his gae to lock eyes with Daniel.

“I read the post with Kallaway,” he said, almost vacantly. “How you used this machine to awaken his powers. How all it took to survive the process was to be strong enough to handle the power.”

“Tyler, this is Eldritch energy we're dealing with here,” I said. “Your body can't-”

“Can't it?” Dawson chuckled, cutting me off.. “Aren't you the one who said he had potential?”

“Yes, you did,” Tyler said. “And that I should live up to it. Were you lying the whole time!”

“No, I wasn't,” I said. “But this isn't what I was-”

I was cut off again when he swept one of my legs out from under me with his foot, and then struck me with his free hand knocking me down. Daniel made a move to try and restrain him, but Tyler simply chopped him in the throat, and then kicked him in his bad knee, bringing him down as well. It was at that point that I realized I might have trained him too well...

“That's it,” Dawson's voice whispered. “You're almost there. The power is almost yours.”

Tyler reached his free hand up to the other dial. The one that was meant to amplify energy. He cranked it up, and the power inside the machine became brighter and more chaotic.

“No!” Daniel snapped. “Don't! You can't handle this kind of power!”

“Are you going to let yourself believe that?” Dawson asked. “How little faith your boss seems to have in you...”

“Shut up!” Daniel snapped.

“Does he really even give a shit about you?” Dawson asked.

That seemed to get a reaction out of Tyler.

“After all... aren't you just...,” Dawson hissed.

Slowly, Dawson's form rose from the ground behind Tyler, placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning in to whisper in Tyler's ear.

“...His second favorite intern?” he finished.

“That's enough out of you!” Daniel growled.

Still on the ground, Daniel raised his index finger to attack Dawson, but Dawson was faster, turning quickly to grab Daniel's finger and snap it. Daniel cried out in pain and fell back down to the ground. Dawson let out another chuckle and melted back into the floor. Daniel remained down for a few seconds before pulling himself to his knees.

“Please,” he begged. “Don't do this.”

Tyler focused all of his attention on the energy before him, clenching fist and gritting his teeth.

“I can handle this!” he hissed. “I just have to be...”

His knees buckled briefly, but he caught himself, and rose back to his feet.

“...Have to be... strong... enough...” he said through his gritted teeth.

Slowly, the energy was absorbed into his right arm, as he struggled to stay standing. Daniel rose to his feet, leaning on his cane to remain upright.

“Stop this!” he said desperately. “You don't know what you're-”

What happened next happened so fast I didn't quite catch it. Daniel was suddenly pinned against the opposite wall, pinned by what had just a second ago been Tyler's arm, but was now a giant, arm-shaped tree branch, while the door of the Enhancer was completely shattered into countless shards on the floor, with the tattered belt lying among them.

Tyler remained still for a minute, just as shocked by this as everyone else. Slowly, his wooden arm shrunk, dropping Daniel to the ground as it returned to its normal size. He took a few seconds examining his new wooden arm through his glowing red eyes, before turning back to Daniel and smirking.

“Well, look at that,” he said. “The strongest man in the room. Slumped down on the floor.”

Ren made to ready his sword, but I raised a hand to stop him.

“Okay, that's enough,” I said. “You have powers now. You're stronger. Now just calm down, and let's talk.”

He glared at me through those crimson eyes of his.

“No,” he said. “I don't feel much like talking.”

As he spoke, a large thorn grew in the palm of his hand, taking the shape of a sword.

“Just relax,” I said. “This doesn't need to get any worse.”

“Worse?” he asked, chuckling. “I feel better than ever!”

It seemed like Ren wasn't going to stay still any longer. He charged at Tyler, clashing with him for a few blows. Tyler's arm seemed to move almost on its own, blocking all of Ren's attacks. As their weapons met for the 5^th time, vines suddenly sprouted from Tyler's thorn sword, entangling Ren's blade. With a swift motion, Tyler disarmed Ren and then stabbed him in the chest with his own blade.

Kimiko cried out and made a move toward Tyler, only for him to throw his thorn sword at her, hitting her in the shoulder, and causing her to fall to her knees in agony.

“ENOUGH!” I yelled, stepping in front of him. “You need to calm the fuck down.”

“Try and make me,” Tyler snarked.

I made a move to attack him, but he dodged me with a spinning motion, and after turning his head to fully target me, he expanded the size of his wooden forearm to a massive size, and backhanded me with it. At least he made sure to fully turn his head...

I now regret teaching him that...

I was knocked back against the wall. At the same time, Raoul seemed to have recovered enough of his strength to stand and face Tyler.

“I knew bringing you along was a bad idea!” Raoul snapped, catching Tyler's attention.

Tyler expanded the size of his arm, and thrust it toward Raoul, who did his negative color restraint move he's done to hold back Abreu earlier. Tyler was stopped, but he was still visibly resisting the hold for a few seconds before utterly shattering it and knocking Raoul to the floor.

I guess Raoul was right. Strong enough being's could break out of that hold easily. Especially when he's already weakened.

Tyler turned his attention to Daniel's Extractor. He expanded his hand, and grabbed the Extractor and the computer it was attached to, and crushed them in his grasp. He then threw them into the Enhancer, and expanded his arm ever further, growing numerous branches and vines that encases all of the machinery, before crushing it all into a useless metal heap. He then returned his arm to its normal size, and looked down upon the damage he had done.

Daniel finally got back to his feet, but something was seriously off about him. His eyes were closed tight, and he was standing up straight, in spite of his bad leg, and he casually reset his broken finger like it was nothing.

“Back up, I see?” Tyler said. “Finally! Someone who can actually put these new powers to the test!”

Daniel retrieved his cane and drew a long cloth from his pocket. He tied it around his eyes berfore drawing the concealed sword from his cane.

“A blindfold?” Tyler said. “Seriously? How do you expect to fight me if you can't even see?”

“I don't need to see you,” Daniel said. His voice sounded off, and I realized it wasn't really him who was talking. “That's a hell of an aura you're putting off. Makes it pretty easy to feel where you are.”

“Getting cocky, are you?” Tyler smirked. “Whatever. Let's go, Doctor!”

Daniel next words confirmed my suspicion that he was no longer the one in the driver's seat.

“The Doctor's unconscious at the moment,” the shard said. “You're up against me now.”

Tyler stretched his arm out to attack them, but they simply set their sword on fire, and slashed at the incoming hand, causing it to retreat as Tyler winced in pain. They then teleported right up to Tyler, and slashed a him. Tyler barely blocked the flaming sword with his hand, and winced again as the flames made contact.

Tyler seemed to notice his current disadvantage, and punched a hole in the ceiling and pulled himself through it with his expanding hand. He turned for a moment to glare angrily at the shard possessing Daniel's body. The shard shot a bolt of fire from the tip of the sword, which Tyler managed to evade just in time, as he made his escape.

With that, the shard sat down, and allowed the body it was inhabiting to fall unconscious again.

Jane and I were able to bandage everyone up and get them to stable condition. Daniel and Raoul are still unconscious, but alive.

As for Tyler... I don't know what to think.

I can only hope that...

He can still be saved...

Modifications

After reading Kai's last post and learning about this so called "Fear of vermin", I became curious, and sought out the scene of that incident. Had to search the banks of the Neosho river for a while before discovering a patch of bloody brown fur emitting an unfamiliar eldritch aura. Perfect.

I bottled it up and teleported to my current base, where My Extractor was waiting for me. As the title of this post may imply, I've been doing a bit of work on it. The Extraction I performed in my own mind inspired me to try implementing some actual coding into the machine. It had taken me a while, but I was finally confident enough in the modifications to test it out.

I placed the sample of Vermin-Fear into the machine. You know what? I'm just gonna call it Timothy. I put my Timothy sample into the Extractor, and opened up a laptop I had hooked up to it via a USB cable. I opened up a file on the desktop labeled Extraction, which opened up a text system that had taken me a whole week to program.

I started inputting several codes into the system, and the Extractor started up. A few more codes later, and the energy was being Extracted from the sample and amplified. For a few moments, the lights inside the Extractor flickered, which had me worried, but I managed to solve that issue without anything blowing up. Still some kinks I need to work out...

I placed a Cell into the Extractor and put some more codes in. The energy was compressed into the Cell with no problems other that a bit more flickering lights.

So what do you think you'll be able to do with this power? the Shard asked me.

"Dunno," I said. "Let's find out."

I retrieved my Vambrace and inserted the Cell, absorbing some of the power into my body. I focused on activating that power, and I felt a very strange sensation in my tailbone.

"I have a tail now, don't I?" I asked.

Yep.

"Well, that's neat, I guess?" I said. "Prehensile?"

Maybe?

I turned around to see the long rat tail that was now protruding from my backside. As an experiment, I tried wrapping the end of the tail around the door handle of my mini fridge. It actually worked perfect, and the tail had enough strength to pull the door open.

How strong do you think this thing is?

"Give me a second."

I quickly whipped the tail against a folding chair I had set up nearby. It was completely split in half upon impact.

"Damn!" I said. "That's actually pretty impressive."

Dude...

"Fuck you, I'll use whatever language I want," I said. "Now hold on. There's something I wanna try."

I used the tail to grab a 16 oz beer can from the still open fridge and bring it to my hand. I then stabbed the tip of the tail into the can, causing beer to spray out from it. I quickly shotgunned the entire can before it could make a huge mess.

Good, you have the super power to get drunk easier.

"Up yours," I said.

So, now that we know your new tech works, are you finally gonna Extract from that Brute sample?

"Are you kidding?" I said. "I just shotgunned a pint. I need to sober up before I do any more coding. Especially with something as volatile as the Brute's power.

Fair enough.

So with that, I went and took a quick power nap, in which I had another of those dreams.

I was back in that room with the little girl, and my eyes felt very uncomfortable, and my vision was kind of... how do I describe it? It's like I had no peripheral vision at all, and everything straight ahead of me was obnoxiously well focused.

"Wow!" The girl said. "That really is scary!"

"Yeah," I said. "But it's also impractical and unpleasant."

The feeling n my eyes went away, and my vision returned to normal.

"Can you change other things about yourself?" the girl asked.

"To some extent, yes," I replied. "It takes effort though, and the changes don't make much of a difference or serve any kind of practical purpose."

I then heard a woman's voice calling out the name Emily from upstairs, and the girl bolted up.

"Oh!" she said. "That's mommy! I'd better go now..."

"Whatever," I said. "Just keep quiet about me. I don't need anyone knowing I'm down here."

"Okay!" The girl said, offering me her pinky. "Pinky swear!"

"Yeah, I'm not doing that."

The girl gave me a pout, and I begrudgingly offered her my own pinky. Then her mom called out to her again. She quickly shook my pinky before scooping up her picture.

"Let me sign this before I go," she said.

She hurriedly scrawled her name in all capital letters at the bottom of the picture.

"Did your mum not teach you any lowercase?" I asked.

"She did," I girl said, handing me the picture. "I just like the big letters better."

She then left me alone. I sighed with relief, finally having some peace and quiet. I glanced down at the picture. it still looked awful, but the girl did have a point. The uppercase letters were much more noticeable and impactful than any normal signature.

Then I woke up.

"Hey shard?" I  asked.

what?

"I there anything you wanna talk about?"

The shard remained quiet for a few moments before giving me a simple no.

I shrugged, and got up to Extract the energy from the Brute's scale. I was a lot more stressful, as the flickering lights continued, and the energy was significantly more erratic and actually cracked the glass of the Cell slightly. But I managed to pull it off and gain that power as well.

"Good," I said, storing the Vambrace away. "The SMSC can have what's left. Speaking of, do you know what our next assignment is?"

No clue, the Shard said. We'll have to wait for them to contact us.

"Terrific," I said. "I guess I'll get some training done in the meantime. I've got two new powers, after all."

Raoul

We pulled up outside the Black Garden in Elie's car. I sat shotgun with Tyler and Ren in the back seat.

"This is it," Elie said. "We going in?"

"Give me a minute," I said.

I scanned the building with my magic eyes.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked.

"Checking the place out," I replied. "He's not here."

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked.

"Yep," I said, looking around the rest of the neighborhood a bit.

"So we'll wait," Ren said.

"No point," I said. "There's a court house a couple blocks from here. Let's swing by there."

Elie gave me confused look, before shrugging and putting the car into gear. We arrived at the court house shortly after and I stepped out of the car.

"You guys wait here," I said. "This shouldn't take long."

I walked into the court house. A few seconds later, Elie came in after me.

"Couldn't stay put?" I asked.

"You're hiding something," Elie said.

"Whatever," I said. "Do what you want."

I Approached one of the court rooms and entered. No one bothered to stop me. Elie and I stood in the back of the room as a case unfolded before us. A young man was bein tried for a murder that had occurred the previous Friday. I heard Elie gasp when he noticed the man's defense attorney.

"Is that-?"

"Yep," I confirmed.

The man acting as the Defendant's attorney was dressed in a fine black suit, with neatly combed black hair with red highlights. He wore a pair of solid black glasses, and tapped the ground in front of him with a cane as he paced in front of the witness stand, questioning someone who had been near the scene of the crime.

"He's a fucking defense attorney?" Elie hissed under his breathe.

"Watch the tongue," I said. "We're in a court room."

The witness was dismissed from the stand, and Raoul turned to face the judge.

"As you can see, your honor, there is plenty of evidence to suggest my client's innocence," he said.

"We haven't seen anything concrete yet," the prosecutor interjected. "Mr. Krane could still very well be guilty."

Raoul smirked and adjusted his glasses slightly.

"You're a very hard man to convince, Mr. Harrison," he said. "Your honor, if it's all right, I have one more witness to call to the stand."

"Very well," the judge said. "Call your witness forward."

"Mr. Kallaway," Raoul said. "Would you please take the stand?"

Well, shit. Not what I was expecting to happen. And I certainly wasn't a "witness". But I sucked it up and walked over to the witness stand. Raoul stood before me, and smirked yet again. He then adjusted his glasses, and things suddenly shifted.

I was now seeing the would in photo-negative. Everything except for myself and Raoul was frozen solid.

"It's been quite a while, Mr. Kallaway," Raoul said. "How have you been?"

"What did you do to them?" I asked, scanning the room.

"Don't worry, they're fine," he said. "And no, they can't hear us."

"I read about Daniel's encounter with you," I said. "If you can apparently freeze time, why didn't you then?"

"This particular magic trick suffers a few too many drawbacks," he said. "It's good for private chats like this, but impractical for battle."

He adjusted his glasses again, and suddenly the scene changed. We were outside my favorite diner in LA, late at night. Time still seemed to be frozen, and the world around us was still in negative. A couple blocks away, I could see three figures frozen solid.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The scene of the crime," Raoul said. "From a distance, of course. I'm sure you must have a few questions for me..."

"That would be an understatement," I pointed out.

"I know," he said. "But we can deal with that later. For now, I need you to observe."

With another tweak of his glasses, time started back up, and I witnessed the event take place. A brawl broke out, one of the figures was shot and killed, while the killer fled. The third figure hesitated for a while, looking in horror at the fallen figure, before fleeing as well. Some passerby witnessed him as he ran away from the scene.

Everything froze again as Raoul spoke.

"That last man was Mr. Krane," he said. "My client. Last seen running from a corpse. Naturally, some assumptions were made."

"How do I know any of what I just saw was true?" I asked. "After all, you never told me the truth about who you really are."

"I'm a good secret keeper, but also a terrible liar," Raoul said. "I may have hidden my true nature from you, but I have never directly lied to you. I assure you, everything you just witnessed was accurate."

"Yeah, sure," I said distastefully.

"Now that you've technically witnessed the murder, are you willing to testify?" Raoul asked.

"Fine," I said. "Just cut out the magic tricks, all right?"

He adjusted his glasses one more time, and everything returned to normal. We were back in the court room. Raoul questioned me on what I had seen, and I answered truthfully. OR at least, truthfully enough that I didn't look like a lunatic who had just been shown crazy negative visions from a magic attorney. Once it was over, the judge called for a recess. Raoul and I walked out into the hallway, where Elie was waiting.

"What the hell was all that?" Elie asked.

"Ah, Mr. Graves," Raoul said. "How have you been since... our last encounter?"

"Just fine," Elie replied. "Kallaway, how did you know about-"

"Long story," I said. "Let's just do what we came here for, okay?"

"Of course," Raoul said. "You lot need access to the Path of Black Leaves, correct?"

"How did you-?" Elie started to ask, before being cut off.

"Oh please, you think people like myself don't monitor the Doctor's blog?" Raoul said. "I'll assist if it means putting a dent in the machinations of that troublesome growth of foliage. But it will have to wait a bit. Meet me back at the Garden later. For now, I have a case to win."

He turned around and walked back into the court room, leaving us alone.

"So... how exactly do you know this guy?" Elie asked.

"Well, um...," I said, a little bit embarrassed. "You know how he's a defense attorney?"

"Yeah?" Elie said.

"He sort of... got me out of trouble a while back," I said.

"What'd you do?" Elie asked.

"I killed the woman running the orphanage I spent a bit of time in," I said.

"You what!?" Elie gasped.

"Look, forget it," I said. "I don't wanna talk about it. Let's just get back to the car."



We'll be meeting with Raoul tonight. Hopefully this plan of ours works out. Jane and Kimiko are on their way down to assist us. Wish us luck, Daniel.

The Grove of Fetters

My first mission took me to a forest somewhere in Europe. The moment I stepped foot into it, I felt an intense Fear presence. A presence that seemed to be pulsating with seething anger.

"The Brute," I said.

Yep, the shard said. That's our mission.

"Geez," I said. "I know they want me getting Fear samples for them, but they picked a hell of a lace for me to start."

Well, the Brute seemed easiest to encounter, the shard explained. Most Fears avoid you wherever possible, but not only is the Brute bound in one place, but why would it care about you or any other Devil Killer?

"Fair enough," I said. "But there's still the problem of it driving anything that gets to close to it into a berserk fury causing them to spiral into insanity."

Well, your Devil Killer powers should act as a buffer against that, the shard said. And I'm here, right? If I feel the anger taking over, I'll help shake you out of it.

"Yeah, sure you will," I said. "Well, we'd better get moving if we want results."

We got moving in the direction of the Brute's presence. As we got closer, I felt bitter feeling boiling up inside of me. As I limped through the woods, struggling against my bad leg, I found myself cursing Malkator for the wound he had inflicted.

Memories of my conflicts with Kraken came up. How Dawson had managed to restrict my access to the God's Way. How that Prowler had disrespected my title just to spite me. How this whole forest was their fault in the first place.

But it wasn't just them. The AMU had lost track of their bloody knife, and that person from... what was it? ARC? They had killed the Newborn with it, causing that damn forest to spawn.

I managed to hear the shard's voice through the anger building up in the back of my head.

Het man! Breath!

I did so, and was able to push some of that anger down. None of what I was thinking was fully true, nor did it matter.

"This anger is more personal than I was expecting," I said. "I thought it'd be more of a blind rage."

I know. This isn't normal. The Brute is affecting you differently somehow.

I kept moving. More angry thoughts kept popping up, but I did my best to ignore them. Thoughts of how someone had tattooed those symbols onto Rocky against his will. Thoughts of how the SMSC had threatened my interns. Thoughts of how the AMU had expelled me for awakening my powers.

I pushed each thought to the back of my mind and trudged on. As I got further into the woods, I noticed chains weaving through the trees, coiling around them.

We're getting close, the shard said. I have an idea. Try focusing on a happy memory. It may help.

I tried to think of something. Anything. My friendship with Tony came to mind. I thought back to some of the memories I shared with him. Of us just hanging out, doing stupid shit. I thought of how excited he was to start up his own detective agency. And how proud he was of me getting into the AMU.

He abandoned you in the outskirts of that city! came a voice from the back of my head. After you saved him and the others at the risk of your own life!

Daniel, that isn't true! the shard piped up. He knew Trias was on there way, and that they would help you!

Trias held you captive!

They nursed you back to health!

"Both of you shut the fuck up!" I snapped, rubbing my temples to try and calm myself down. "Okay, different memory. Different memory..."

I remembered Sera. I thought of my time with her. Some of the dates we went on. All those movie nights we'd spent together. The sound of her laugh.

She left you!

"That's not true," I thought out loud. "It was mutual."

Was it? You know she feared you. Your lust for power. Your ambition. Your recklessness. You're dangerous. And she wanted no part of that.

"Shut up!" I snapped.

And you still miss her.

I fell to my knees, trying desperately to ignore the rage welling up inside of me.

And she. doesn't. CARE!!

"SHUT UP!!!" I cried out, feeling tears beginning to form.

Come on, man, you can do this, the shard insisted.  You just need a different memory. One that really makes you happy.

I slammed a fist into the ground.

"No!" I said. "It's pretty fucking clear that happiness isn't enough! I need something different. Something happy... and sad. Something... bittersweet."

I suddenly found myself in a hospital room, standing in a corner, watching a scene unfold. My grandfather, Alexander Ferris, was lying in the hospital bed. Myself, as well as my whole family, My dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, my grandmother, and my siblings, were all gathered around him.

This is...

"The night my grandfather died," I muttered.

He left you too! The legendary Devil Killer! Taken from this world, not by the creatures he fought back against, but by-

"Pneumonia," I said, cutting the voice of my own anger off.

The anger wasn't as strong anymore. My sadness was stronger.

I looked on as my sister encouraged me to say something to him, since I might not get another chance. I've never been good with handling grief. It took me a while before I spoke my last words to him. Telling him one last time that I loved him.

He passed on not long after that.

Did he even hear you?

I ignored the thought. Even if he was unable to hear what I had said, I know he knew how I felt.

The scene skipped ahead. I was at my desk at the AMU, too absorbed in my sadness to get any work done. Tony and Sera both came to visit me. We talked for a while, exchanged barbs, and I began feeling a little bit better.

They both hurt you!

After a bit of time passed, Tony presented some files to me. I was already aware of the rumors painting my grandfather as some kind of hero who protected innocent people for eldritch beings. And Tony had gotten me proof. Without me even knowing, he had gotten interviews with a number of runners, young and old, who had had personal encounters with him. Even had some pictures.

I looked over the notes Tony had given me. The proof was there. My grandfather was the last of the Devil Killers. A power my father and I had failed to inherit. I turned my attention to the blueprints on my desk, that Elie had asked me to review for him.

His Extractor.

The gears began turning in my head. It would take some time, but it was entirely possible to build such a thing on a human sized scale. I felt a sudden purpose. As much as I missed my grandfather, he had left me with something to aim for. And if I could become half of what he was... if I could be a thorn in their side the way he was...

My mind was racing. I had a new meaning. I had something to strive for.

I got back up and continued my walk through the grove. The inner voice of anger within me kept shouting at me. Even resorting to completely irrational things to be angry about, like Paris knocking over a broom one time, or Justin being late returning some money I lent him, and even Kallaway spraying a bit of soda on me the first time we met and he used a spiked sode to throw those Timberwolves off.

I kept moving, unfazed by any of it.

I had something stronger than Anger.

Pain.

And the will to live through it.

I'm Daniel Ferris.

And I'm a stubborn fucking bastard.

I came to the Brute. A savage, bound monstrosity, writhing in a constant state of uncontrollable rage. It seemed especially mad that it couldn't make me mad. As for it's appearance, it's hard to describe. It was like a patchwork mix of different creatures, that was constantly shifting between multiple grotesque forms. But no matter what it turned into, the chains still bound it to one spot. As I stepped closer to it, it seemed to settle on something more consistent. A large, mostly dragon-like creature towered above me. While it still had patchwork elements, that continued shifting a bit, the dragon qualities remained dominant over every thing else.

It roared at me, gnashing its teeth, but the chains kept it just far enough away that it couldn't chomp down on me. It saddened me to look at such a creature. Bound not only in chains, but in its own emotions.

"You poor thing," I muttered somberly, before drawing my sword cane and slashing off one of its scales.

I caught the scale as it fluttered down, and as I did, the beast reeled back, before shooting a stream of fire and smoke out of its mouth. I teleported away just in time, but it did singe one of my sleeve and caused some second degree burns to my arm. I'm gonna give that some time to heal before I go deal with the SMSC again.

One more thing I wanna add before closing out this post. It's this dream I have. Not sure why I wanna talk about it, but when the Compulsion hits, you kinda just have to roll with it. Maybe there's something significant about this dream.

I was slumped in the corner of a dingy laundry room in an old apartment. All the machines looked out of order, but the lights were still on, so the place probably wasn't completely abandoned, just poorly maintained.

I was in a lot of pain, especially in one of my legs. Which is kind of normal for me...

A young girl was there, smiling broadly as she colored a picture.

"I mean it," I told her. "You shouldn't be here."

"I don't like being around daddy when he drinks his soda," the girl said.

"Right," I said. "You know that's not actually soda he's drinking, don't you?"

The girl shrugged.

"Whatever it is, it makes him tired," she said. "Can I just play here until he fall asleep?"

"I don't care what you do," I said.

The girl finished her drawing of what I can only assume was a dinosaur.

"I made this for you," she said.

"It looks like shit," I replied.

The girl seemed offended by this.

"Mommy says those words are bad!" she said.

"Your mum sounds like a bitch," I replied.

"That's not very nice!" the girl said, crossing her arms.

"Of course I'm not nice," I said. "Like I said; I'm a monster."

"But you don't look like a monster," the girl pointed out.

I felt like I was being challenged all of a sudden.

"Alright," I said. "So what do think a monster looks like?"

And then I woke up. I dunno. Maybe there's something to look into there... But for now, more worried about my burn wounds.

Update from my end

This is Kallaway. Figured I'd make a post since the SMSC apparently has you running errands.

I was talking with Elie about options for how we could get a tree sample, and I think we've settled on something.

"We really don't know many people with access to the domain the tree exists on," Elie said. "The only guy I can think of off the top of my head is Raoul, and I doubt he'd willing to help."

"Then I'll talk to him," I said.

"I'm sorry, but what?" Elie asked.

"You get me to him, and I'll convince him to help," I said.

"You make it sound easy," he said.

"Trust me, I can handle this," I said. "But first, we should get some volunteers. If we're going to another domain to get a sample of a dangerous tree, we'll need some capable hands on deck."

"I agree," Elie said. "What about Ren? Skilled swordsman could make a good addition to the group."

"I'll swing by the training grounds and see if he's there," I said. "If so, I'll ask if he's game."

We parted ways and headed to the training ground, thinking about how I should really just get Ren's number so I wouldn't have to go looking for him whenever I needed to talk. I didn't find him at the training grounds, but I did find Tyler there, practicing with a wooden sword against a training dummy. He was breathing pretty heavily, and working up a sweat.

"How long have you been at this, kid?" I asked.

"I dunno," he said. "An hour-ish?"

I sat down on a bench and patted the spot next to me.

"Take a break, okay?" I said.

"I'm not gonna get any stronger if I slack off," he said.

"Yeah, well if all you do is train, all you're gonna accomplish is exhausting yourself and succumbing to fatigue," I said. "Have a seat."

He reluctantly set his sword down and sat beside me.

"So why are you so determined to get stronger?" I asked. "You must have something driving you."

He stayed quiet for a little bit before speaking.

"You've been around the boss a lot, right?" he asked.

"Daniel? Yeah, I guess I've had to deal with him quite a bit," I said. "Why?"

"Whenever he's around, it always feels like he's the most powerful person in the room," he said. "Even before I learned about all this eldritch stuff, and just what he was really capable of, he always has this air of confidence that makes him seem so much bigger than everyone else."

Well, I can't exactly say that's inaccurate. It's true that Daniel's presence feels just as dangerous as his reputation would imply. That's not even getting into how powerful he actually is.

"I want to feel that kind of strength," Tyler said. "I kind of... envy him."

"I see," I said.

"But I have a long way to go," he sighed. "My form is still terrible. That's why I'm out here training."

"Have you ever had any training before?" I asked.

"Not really," Tyler said. "Ren's the first real combat trainer I've ever had."

I see. That was the problem...

"Tell you what," I said. "You feel rested?"

"Yeah, I think so," he said.

"Good," I said. "Let's spar."

He stood up and went to retrieve his wooden sword.

"Hey, can I see that for a sec?" he asked.

"Sure," he said.

I took it from him and tossed it aside.

"Hey!" he exclaimed.

I stood in front of him and took a stance.

"The reason you're having trouble fighting with a weapon is because you never learned to fight without one," I said. "Trust me, swordplay will come a lot more naturally to you if you practice some regular martial arts first."

He hesitantly took a stance across from me.

"We're gonna do some semi-kumite," I said. "We're gonna train with each other at a fraction of our normal speed, so that we can observe each other easier and adapt to the other's moves."

He nodded, and we began sparring. I threw a punch, which he dodged with a small spin, and he attempted a spinning back-fist while doing so, without bothering to look where his attack was going. I caught his hand easily.

"Quick note," I said. "Any time you do any kind of spinning attack like that, you should make sure your head is full turned before delivering the blow, otherwise you won't be able to aim it properly."

We continued sparring for a while, with me occasionally having to correct him on something, but he seemed to absorb my advice pretty quickly, and was doing a little better by the time Elie and Ren showed u there.

"Hey!" Elie called out to us. "I ran into Ren after you left. He said he'd be willing to come along. Kimiko and Jane said they'd help as well."

"Help with what?" Tyler asked.

"We're planning an expedition to the Path of Black Leaves," Elie said. "We're going to try and get another sample from the Bleeding Tree."

"We need some extra help in case there's trouble," I said.

"I could help!" Tyler said enthusiastically.

"It could be dangerous," I pointed out.

"I wanna be a part of things," Tyler said.

"Well, you've got some potential," I told him. "Let's have a few more training sessions and see how much progress you make. Then we'll see about taking you on this mission."

"Okay!" Tyler said, getting back into a fighting stance, determination lighting up on his face.

"Tomorrow," I said, causing him a bit of disappointment. "Like I said. We can't just train constantly. And it's getting kind of late. Let's just relax the rest of the day, and we can pick this up in the morning."

"I guess you have a point," Tyler said. "All right. First thing in the morning. Let's meet here."

"Okay," I said. "See you then."