forum •Apotheosis of Abnormality• [one/one]

Started July 27, 2022 by @Dayzed forum

tune

(<3)

Niveus blinked at that. Being able to use magic without having been born with it? Wasn't that…unnatural, even more so than those born with it? Niveus looked down at his right arm and seemed to falter a little. He swallowed, hiding part of his arm inside his cloak-like jacket. Truth was, Niveus struggled a lot with having his right arm- not that he could even call it his, it was foreign. There were times where it felt so alien to him that it was impossible to do anything. For some reason, it shamed him to have it. He was already so different from the others even without the arm, and with it, it just….it made….he felt…
Niveus forced a smile at Tove, giving a single nod.
"Yes, it sounds…great." He said hesitantly, wondering if Tove had meant that strictly in the sense of using weapons with magic on them, not just, humans using magic on their own without a conductor. The last one seemed pretty impossible to achieve, but then again, A.C.E. was always inventing new things. There had been a rumor going around that Nexus had started to experiment with magic way before A.C.E. approved it, but quickly got shut down when it became known- with good reason.

"That would definitely help a lot. So far we've only used poisons and other concoctions to help mitigate the number of times they'll come at us, but recently with them having more numbers, it hasn't been quite as effective" He said, watching Tove work.

Ezekiel watched as one of the officers came inside in a hurry to tell something to Otmar. When Otmar stood a little straighter, that seemed to panic Ezekiel. If Otmar was suddenly acting like he would in front of the higher-ups, he didn't want to know what he had been told.
At the cursing, Ezekiel's eyes were slightly wide, not that Otmar didn't curse often, he just seemed troubled now and it was rare to see that kind of expression on him. It was rare to see him stress over something, so it must be something major.
The words that came out of him next paralyzed Ezekiel, just imagine someone having shattered into a million pieces, like a mirror dropped. He felt sick. Not for himself, even though he felt like he was still going to get in trouble for not being here.
"I don't think there's a way to calmly spread the news.." He said, smiling nervously. "But.." He nibbled at his bottom lip, trying not to mess with the weapon in his hands. "I'll go tell the group around Aaron," He said, not waiting for Otmar to say anything else before starting towards them.

Aaron nodded at Floren's reaction, then his explanation. Aaron didn't need to be told twice, he was absolutely not moving till something was done about it. Every time he moved it, it hurt, not that he wasn't in pain right now, but it was worse if he tried doing anything else.

"I will," Vince said, talking Jen away. Vince was very protective over Apotheosis, but more so with Jen than the others. He wouldn't say that though, parents weren't supposed to have favorites, but Vince did and he wasn't exactly apologetic over that fact.

Aaron took one look at the label and made a noise of disagreement, thinking for a second of taking his chances with nothing being done to his wound. Maybe it would go away on its own? It was a very naive way of thinking and Aaron knew that.
There was a moment of hesitation for Aaron when Floren extended his arm for Aaron to move closer. In the end, he let Floren take over, but it took a beat longer than it should have.

When the towel was taken off, Aaron looked away, not wanting to see anything. He was afraid he might actually start panicking and flip out. Aaron was doing very well in this situation, but internally he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs and smash something, anything to get the anger out along with the pain he was feeling. The area around his eyes was slightly red from having cried in the bathroom with Casimir. Casimir being the only person who had seen Aaron lose his composure in that way. He had placed the towel on Aaron after he had tried wrestling him away from the wound.
Casimir watched everything happen and frowned, very concerned as he noticed it had gotten worse since the last time he had seen it.
With the towel off, the pain seemed to increase tenfold and Aaron nearly tried to grab his arm and wipe away whatever was hurting him, but Casimir grabbed his arm before he could touch it.
"Fuck!! Let go!!" He hissed, now struggling against Cas.
Aaron barely heard any of the explanation, feeling the cold hitting his arm.
"Calm down! Think about your reputation!" Cas nearly yelled, to which Aaron still struggled against Casimir, but now he was actively trying to keep himself still even though everything in his body was screaming at him to deck Casimir and then Floren. Jen had done it before, not on them specifically, but on others who tried to help him, and he was their leader.

Aaron's breathing was heavy as Casimir put all his weight on keeping Aaron down on the couch. Aaron's arm trembled, not being able to keep it from shaking from the aching feeling, feeling like a sharp pain at first, then dulling out.
"Oh shut up," Aaron said to Floren, reeling from the pain, though there was no malice in his tone, bordering on being playful, just overall relieved that it was mostly over. The healing process would be a bitch, but he wasn't feeling anything compared to before which was good enough for now.

Ezekiel had also been watching. Seeing Aaron lose his shit was something to see and he was sure that had Jake been here, he would have made the situation a thousand times worse. He took a few steps toward them with a frozen smile on his face. He sat beside Aaron and waited patiently for him to get everything wrapped.
Aaron eyed Ezekiel.
"What's up with you? Why do you look like you've been traumatized? You weren't even here" He muttered, the tears having pooled in his eyes. Ezekiel laughed faintly at that.
"I just have some information is all," He said, dragging it out like he didn't want to say it.
"So?" Aaron replied, Casimir getting off of Aaron and standing now, his curiosity piqued.
"Well remember how we've been dealing with this gang for a while now?"
"Yes?"
"There were certain people who wanted to see them I think"
"Okay, what's your point?"
"Officer Gallegos is on his way." Ezekiel just broke the news to them.
Aaron had a blank expression on his face. He didn't look too thrilled, but he also didn't exactly look scared either. He simply blinked, a small sound leaving him, like the start of someone laughing but not continuing, almost in disbelief. Casimir looked at the others, his eyes filled with fear, that rare occasion where you could read Casimir like a book. It was almost as bad as having a private audience with Merlin, Aaron's father. He was the head of the organization and partnered with someone else who rarely showed their face. Both of them were at the top, but Merlin served more as financial stability for the organization. He put a lot of money into A.C.E. and was a main contributor. He had both A.C.E. and Nexus on a leash basically. Investing in them as he knew good business when he saw it.

“It does indeed! It would make lots of my work much easier if I could just magic it all.” Tove hummed, a little too excited about the idea. It was indeed a very difficult task to wield magic without some kind of conduit. It was violate and without the proper requirements was enough to tear a person’s inner seams apart from the inside out. There was a reason humans not prone to magic frequencies were vulnerable around it.
Magic needed a conduit. Which was where Familars, rune circles, demon pacts, and the likes came into play. They were already beings prone to magic frequencies and thus could easily handle it which made them perfect conduits.
A.C.E. was attempting to create an inanimate conduit, an object that could do the same as these beings. It was a difficult task when the researchers and weirdest of said conduits were not prone to magical frequencies. Enchanted items were as close as they could get as those were a limited storage of magic frequencies. However, those could only be created by someone with magic, and were limited purely to their exact enchantment. It was too narrow to count.
“These would help with that, help give you more of a chancr against them. Poisons only do so much when they can just regroup and heal. These will cause more damage, and hopefully help us take care of threats quicker. We don’t want anyone getting hurt after all.” She explained.

Otmar moved as if he was going to grab Ezekiel as the kid walked off but stopped himself. There was no use in playing coy about this, the group needed to know and no amount of care was going to make the news any less hard.
“Don’t panic about it, kid, it’ll be fine.” He called after Ezekiel, sighing before he moved to go let the other members hanging around know.

Floren grit his teeth at Aaron’s panic, pausing for a moment to let the other calm down. He was sure it hurt like hell, and the ever-present threat of getting punched was very prominent to Floren, he didn’t want it to come while he was working, just so he didn’t do more harm.

“Hmm… I don’t think I will shut up. I like the sound of my voice too much for that.” Floren mused, catching onto the playfulness of it and rolling with it. He looked over the wound for a moment, gently dabbing up the excess liquid and searching for more of the blood that had been doing the damage. Once it seemed he had gotten all of it, Floren began to dress the wound, covering it with large sterile bandages.
“Clean it every now and then, keep it bandaged. If the skin doesn’t start to heal, we’ll have to do a graft. The solution I used to clean it had a bit of a healing component to it so that should help it along without having to do what we usually would.” Floren explained as he worked, finishing it all off with a proud grin.

Floren casually listened in on Ezekiel as he cleaned up his tools and items, humming a small tune as he did so.
He nearly choked on his own breath, however, when the other revealed what was happening. His head snapped up, eyes wide.
“I’m sorry, who is coming?!” He asked Ezekiel, already knowing the answer but needing confirmation nevertheless.

Niveus nodded faintly at her words again. He didn't say much after that, he didn't seem like much of a talker, but he was definitely a good listener and listened to Tove with a lot of interest which showed in his eyes. The way they would curiously look at Tove.

Otmar's words soothed him a little since they were coming from him, but that only lasted for a while, as he was left with his thoughts, making up scenarios of what was to come. How severe would it be? Would it be like last time? The man was always in a bad mood, and now that they had nothing to show him, that would surely infuriate him.

Aaron huffed at Floren. Those sounded like words Jake would say and it slightly irritated him, but the fact that this wasn't Jake in front of him, he just rolled his eyes. He watched as Floren finished cleaning him and moved on to covering him with bandages. He let out a shaky relieved sigh, glad that everything was finally over and there weren't any more fancy liquids to be poured on him that would cause him to accidentally think about hitting someone.
Aaron nodded at Floren, a small smile appearing on his face. If there was one thing everyone in Apotheosis shared in common, it was their mutual appreciation towards the people who treated them after a fight, especially since they put up with Apotheosis often getting violent when treating a wound. If anyone were to touch those people, Apotheosis would tear the person or people who had hurt them limb from limb. It was an unspoken thought that everyone shared and they would drop everything to rescue these people if ever taken. You just didn't fuck with the healers of the team, not even A.C.E. Apotheosis would turn on them if they tried to do anything to them. They were the one group that was protected by Apotheosis, spared of any rules that would apply to the others. If they liked someone enough and requested that person, there was no arguing.
There was a time when Apotheosis had put its foot down when A.C.E. decided to fire a lot of them for breaking just stupid rules. They hadn't worked for an entire month until A.C.E. gave in. Sure, A.C.E. had sent out troops to drag them to the main office building to punish them for being disobedient, but Apotheosis had taken them all on and won. There was just no winning for A.C.E. You made powerful weapons and trained them, then expected them to be taken out by a few military personnel? How stupid could you be?

Aaron looked over at Floren at his sudden reaction. Ezekiel did the same and gave a shaky weary smile.
"Gallegos. He's coming. They told us the news just now. We're spreading the information now, but everyone outside is on edge- they were the first ones told" Ezekiel muttered, getting back up.
"Anyways, I have to go tell others, there are some who still don't know despite the majority having been informed." He said, giving Aaron a comforting smile before he was off again.

Jake was still sitting in the back of the ambulance talking with Rae as Vincent approached, Jen in his arms. Jake immediately stood and wandered over to him.
"Is he okay? Not dead right?" Jake said, a little worried, knowing Jen wasn't dead but needing to hear it.
"He's not dead Jake. He's just asleep, the blood loss really took it out of him. I'm going to put him on the stretcher in the ambulance and let him sleep for a bit." Vince said as he moved past Jake and into the ambulance, laying Jen down gently and arranging him so he wasn't in an awkward position. He searched the vehicle for some blankets. They weren't the best, but they would do, he'd get Jen some more comfortable blankets later. Fluffy ones. He loved fluffy blankets.
Vince turned to Jake, hand on his hips as his shoulders relaxed.
"How are you?" He asked. Jake gave a wide smile.
"I'm in so much pain Vincent, I think I might pass out" He whined playfully. "Please carry me in your arms like you did with Jen" He hugged himself. Vincent rolled his eyes and turned to look at Rae.
"I heard you have a new kid with you?" He asked. Jake just snickered at getting ignored. Truth was he really wanted someone to hold him right now after the traumatic event of Aristide taking the bullet out. It had been a joke, but somewhere deep inside jealousy sparked and his heart sank a little at getting ignored. He wasn't jealous towards Jen or Aristide or even Vincent, but more so angry towards the universe. He felt like he never got a warm embrace from anyone, it was all bloody knuckles and cruel words.
Jake watched curiously as Rae explained who Kohen was.

Tove paused for a moment to look back at Niveus, almost as if to see if he was still interested. When he didn't seem to be hating her chattering, she continued on, her sentences becoming more and more like nonsense as she focused on writing down strands of data from a few of the machines, inserting her blood samples before taking them out again and muttering something about the findings.
After a long time of doing this, she came to a complete stop, her eyes lighting up for a moment.
"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" She turned on her heel and began to open drawers and cabinets, searching for something. She let out a small 'aha' before producing a long, crooked blade from the depths of a locked cabinet that looked as if it had been safety strapped to the inside of the van.
She turned back to Niveus and offered him the long dagger, grinning even wider (if that was even possible at this point. She looked like a Cheshire cat now).
The dagger looked a lot like the one Anais had used in the wall, with a long, crooked blade and strange, roughly sharpened edges. The handle was ornate, holding a large gray stone directly in the center of the hilt that buzzed with a strange, ominous energy.
"I was supposed to give this to one of your superiors to hand off to you a long time ago but I got caught up in my own experiments. We just received the corpse of a new species we've never seen before so of course that took top priority." She chattered away. "Anyways, see if you can find a use for it in your little group. Demon's blades are rather infamous for the effects they cause to the wound you deal. We're not sure what that one does, haven't had the time to test it. Probably some kind of decay or maybe it puts a stop to healing? It has the frequencies that equal those of the dead so do what you will with that information."

Floren seemed to understand Aaron's silent appreciation, offering the kid a goofy grin as he packed up. He really did want to be assigned here… it was everything he could do to be worthy of such a position.
The council had been pushing him very hard to not waste his potential on a group of kids they already had medics for but Floren was hellbent on this. He may be a very well-respected man in his field and had been at the top of his classes but what use was his extensive knowledge of Abnormal wounds if he wasn't going to ever use it? No. He had to be here, where his patients were children exposed to Abnormal harm

Floren sat back, a spew of curses all leaving his mouth at what seemed like the same time. He searched the group for Otmar, wondering if his husband had heard the news yet and if it was cause enough for a panic.
When he met the eyes of Ot, Floren relaxed a little. Otmar was calm about this, even if his knee bounced anxiously from time to time.
"Well, shit. Galagos is going to have a fit." He grumbled, glancing up at Aaron and Casimir for a moment before he continued putting his medical equipment away with the delicacy of an art collector packing up ceramics for a show.
"Are you both alright? Do you need anything else from me? I have some anxiety reducers if you need them."

The first indication that something big was happening were the heavy military trucks rolling into the parking lot. A large group of high-intel agents climbed out immediately, meeting the other soldiers and exchanging small informational bits before they covered the entrance and inside of the building, looking more than a little confused by the apparent lack of Abnormalities and gang members.

It was the last truck that arrived that delivered Galagos to the scene. He was a heavy-set man, not much taller than Aristide, sporting a mop of ill-managed brown hair and dressed head to toe in heavy military uniform and equipment. He peered out at the scene with beady, narrow eyes, huffing indignantly at what he perceived to be too much comfort in the face of Abnormalities.
"Where is Aristide? Otmar?" He barked out immediately, crossing his arms and glaring around the group.

Otmar watched from a window of the apartment, scowling at the sight of the man. He would have preferred Idris to Gallegos. Idris might have been the big man in charge of everything A.C.E. but he at least had some kind of compassion for the plights of those under him. Idris was stern and yet understanding while Gallegos was strict and uncaring as long as everything got done according to his will.

Niveus listened to Tove's chatter happily, watching her mess about with the things in the van. He watched Tove curiously when she addressed him again, trailing her figure to the cabinets where she stopped and pulled out something that looked like Anais had used.
He took the strange-looking dagger, displaying it in his hand as he looked it over carefully. It was very intriguing to be holding one of these after seeing what it could do, or similar to what it could do.
"Oh…thanks" He smiled a little at Tove's enthusiasm. "I'll see if I can put it to good use" He nodded, eyes still on the dagger, the gray stone in the hilt catching his attention the most.

Aaron looked at Cas who was trying to play everything off, looking down the hall where Wynn had stayed.
"Yeah, he'll take some of those" Aaron said, gesturing to Cas, to which Cas narrowed his eyes at Aaron. He didn't need to be babied, but right now was also not the time to argue. He would take those meds, even if it made him seem weak.
"Please, if you have any" Cas said quietly, looking at Floren now.

As Vincent talked with an animated Rae, who explained the situation, all of them saw the new cars roll in. Jake seemed a little confused by what was happening, and so did Rae and Vincent. They hadn't been told yet and maybe it was better this way for Jake's own sake.
Aristide had gone off to check up on some other things, but soon came back when he saw the commotion, though, instead of going to Gallegos he joined Vince, Rae, and Jake.
"He's here. Let's go" He said, mostly to Jake. Jake seemed to frown at that. Who was here? Why were new people arriving?
At the familiar voice that barked out orders, Jake seemed to freeze, his face going pale as he realized who had come down. Aristide ushered Jake to go with him, making their way to Gallegos. Rae and Vince looked at each other. Rae had a semi-terrified look on her face.
"I'll get the kids somewhere safe, then join you" She spoke to Vince, who only gave her a crooked smile. "Go, I'll cover for you," Vince said, patting Rae on the head as he moved to follow Jake and Aristide. Rae grabbed both kids and rushed off.

“Good! I have no use for it here.” She hummed, pulling one of the vials of blood off of the spinning machine so she could take a sample with a long cotton swab.
“The most I could do with it would be using it as a letter opener, but I feel that wouldn’t be quite right.” She hummed.
“We got it off of a demon captured two weeks ago who seemed very pressed about us having it. Of course that only managed to spark our interests. If you’ll be so kind as to help us run a few tests with its effects, we would greatly appreciate it. All you’d have to do is document what happens to those you use it on and hand it off to anyone with access to the A.C.E. Lab facilities.” She explained.
As she spoke the gray stone flickered, mimicking what seemed to be a heartbeat. The hilt of the blade seemed to warm unnaturally in Niveus’s hand, as if responding to his presence.

Floren gave the two a soft nod, humming lightly as he pulled the said medications from his bag. He dumped two of the small, round pills into a small plastic cup, studying them for a moment before he offered them to Cas.
“Oh! Wait, hold on,” he moved back to his bag, digging around in its depths before pulling a small unopened water bottle out and offering it alongside the medications.
“You can never go wrong with some anti-anxiety medications when it comes to situations like this. Don’t let Gallegos bully you guys, if he or any of the others try to make you do any sort of heavy physical activity you let me know and I’ll get you all cleared for medical rest.” Floren told them hurriedly, watching nervously as Otmar moved to leave the apartment.

Gallegos stood a little taller when he caught sight of Aristide making his way over. He lifted his head to look around once more, tapping his fingers against his arm with a soft scoff.
“Satori, you look awful. What happened here?” He barked out at Jake, narrowing his eyes. Before Jake could even think of answering, Ot called out.
“Gallegos, you’re not supposed to be here. Did you have so little self control you had to meet the children giving you so much grief? That’s not a good look on records and you know it.” Otmar rumbled in thinly-veiled hostility, scowling when Gallegos merely raised an eyebrow.
“Have more respect, Otmar. You forget you are still below me. Now, update me. I was under the assumption you had two very important higher-level Abnormalities in containment but I do not see any indication of Abnormalities.”

Niveus nodded at the instructions given to him, he wondered how devastating the effects would be of using this on someone else. He knew what one of these had done to Aaron- would be just as bad?
As the blade warmed in his hand, his immediate reaction was to drop it and throw it away, but he felt as if he couldn't, too entranced by how the blade worked. It made him curious but simultaneously slightly terrified him, though, he didn't say anything to Tove about it. He assumed she knew about this and did not need to state the obvious.

Casimir took the small cup and without a moment's hesitation, he threw them back into his mouth, reaching out to grab the water bottle, promptly opening it and swallowing the pills as he drank the water. Aaron nodded at Floren before standing up and motioning for Cas to go first. Casimir did so and Aaron followed suit. He looked back at Floren just as they were almost out the door. Maybe he should have taken some too, but he walked out, throwing the idea out of his mind.

At the harsh words directed at him, Jake stood a little straighter despite feeling the stitches pulling on his skin from the bullet wound. A small part of Jake held some defiance in his eyes, his eyes narrowing a little, seeming like a glare, but there was also fear there.
"Sir, they-" Jake started before he was interrupted by Otmar. Jake turned to look at the man. Otmar had become infamous among everyone who worked for A.C.E, even Nexus. Jake picked up on the slight hostility coming from Otmar and internally panicked at that. He wasn't sure if talking to Gallegos like that would do any good.
Jake stiffened at the mention of the two high-class Abnormalities they had let go. What exactly were they supposed to say?
Aristide hummed disapprovingly at Otmar but didn't say a word, letting the two duke it out with each other before he decided to say anything. It wasn't long before Vince caught up with the small group, watching as Otmar, once again was pushing his luck with the way he spoke to Gallegos.

Tove eyed him when she didn't get a verbal response, tilting her head a little as she assessed his reaction to the blade.
"Can you feel it too? The warmth?" She asked him suddenly, her eyes lighting up with an excitement that only researchers coming across a breakthrough get. "The other's never felt it, but I did. Floren did as well. It has to be something more than just who's aligned with magic frequencies, however, because many of the witches we have on the team did not feel it at all. I've been trying to research into the purpose of those blades. Many of them are the tools a demon uses to form a contract and even more are simply just weaponry used to protect or attack but I have a theory some of them are tethers of sorts." She rambled on about multi-dimensional theories under her breath as she opened up a fume hood and poured the remaining demons' blood into an air-tight flask.
"It's theorized that magic frequencies come from different planes of existence. The one's human's are naturally attuned to - such as fire magics like our little gang member - are more likely to have originated on our plane of existence. But, powers like necromancy and those of demonic or angelic origin, come from completely different planes. I think only a few demons are ever actually able to cross physically into our plane of existence, but not all of them can remain here without some kind of tether point. I think that's what you hold in your hand now, a tether point to keep something here. I'm curious to see if it's potentially what we'd call the 'soul' of a demon. And if it is, if that would be enough power for us to send demons back to their own plane of existence? If that is true, we may be able to find ways to completely remove other Abnormalities that aren't from this plane if they too have some kind of tether point. Unfortunately, before we start researching that, we need to first study what frequencies it resonates with and what it can do. Which is why I'm giving it to you." Tove seemed excited about the potential of her theory, nearly buzzing as she began to clean up her space.

Floren watched them go with a bitter taste in his mouth. He considered taking a few of them himself before reminding himself that he was on the clock. They wouldn't take kindly to him using up the resources meant for patients.
He sighed deeply before collecting his things and wandering out to see if anyone else required his assistance.

Otmar lifted his head higher, looking over the shorter man with what could only be masked disdain. These two were infamous for their ongoing feud. Every time they met they would eventually butt heads. Unfortunately for Otmar, however, Gallegos was of a higher status than him, so only Otmar was ever chastised for unprofessionalism.
Sure he started most of them but Gallegos was the real asshole here!

Ot held his hands up defensively, feigning submission with an expression far too nonchalant.
"I'm not going against you, sir, I fully recall your status." He replied, crossing his arms over his chest and looking over Gallegos with a slight huff. He wasn't going to let this man bully these kids. Not today. They were dealing with enough shit at the moment.
"With all due respect, sir, you really expected to keep two high risk Abnormalities, one of them with literal fire power, in a small apartment and think that won't go badly for you? Apotheosis is plenty capable of handling this situation - and they proved themselves by going up against the gang and capturing two Abnormalities on their own, mind you - but you did not give them the necessary tools to complete the job, such as a safe space to contain dangerous Abnormalities."
Gallegos's jaw clenched. As infuriating as it was to admit Otmar was speaking albiet very condescending words of truth, Gallegos couldn't dispute the facts. In hindsight, not providing some kind of Abnormality-proof room within the apartment was rather… shortsighted of them.
"Not another word out of you, Otmar. Speak out of turn again and I swear to fucking god I'll have you removed from this council." Gallegos hissed under his breath, taking care to be so quiet that only Otmar and potentially those directly next to him would hear.
Otmar only laughed at the threat, stepping back to allow for Vince to join the little circle.
"Now, explain the situation, I want to know what happened. Perhaps we should invest in rebuilding with a holding room for Abnormalities if you think it is needed." Gallegos huffed, flashing a warning glare in Otmar's direction when the man scoffed.

Niveus frowned a little as he looked up at Tove, a really concerned look on his face now.
"Yes, I feel the warmth, it's…strange" He said uncertainly.
As Tove explained Niveus' eyes seemed to grow even wider with every word she said. Then it all snapped when she mentioned completely removing abnormalities. Wasn't that the goal? God, imagine what they could do with all that time they didn't have to hunt them down. They'd get regular jobs, have wives, husbands, kids, houses, an actual life. All the information left Niveus reeling from the information. It wasn't confirmed of course, but what if they were onto something?!
Niveus took a step towards Tove and hugged her tightly. That's all Niveus had ever wanted, a normal life. He would give his whole being for something like that. He was tired of this.

The way Otmar talked to Gallegos lit up an amused look in Vince's eyes. He had never met Otmar, but the man was doing a good job of making Vince like him. Vince was younger than Otmar, but he had a lot of experience under his belt as well. He'd fight for Apotheosis till the very end and knowing that someone was on board with him on that made the weight of it all feel a little lighter on his back. Otmar felt like someone he could rely on, so when the argument had begun, Vince stood beside Otmar, as if silently picking a side. Gallegos and Arisitde versus Otmar and Vincent.
"I think the problem here was the training. Apotheosis needs more of it. They've been focusing more on school these past few months and while I am all for having them do their studies, it has been a distraction from the work they are supposed to carry out. Had they been in touch with their technics this would not have happened." Aristide said, looking down on Otmar more than Vince, uncertain where Vince stood in this, but knowing that he would probably take Otmar's side.
Vince glared at Aristide.
"They're fucking kids Aristide. What exactly do you want from them? Do you even know how old your son is? He's sixteen he shouldn't have to be in this line of work but you-" Vince bite his tongue when he saw the furious look on Arisitde's face. A calm bloodlust came from him, warning him to not cross the line. Vince swallowed and did not finish his line of thought, a slight glare on his face now.
"That should help," Aristide said dismissingly as if it wasn't exactly necessary. Aristide firmly believed in the skills of the kids and if pushed hard enough, they could work miracles. It was just a matter if they would push them to do better. Had Aristide been head of the council, he would have done just that, but unfortunately he was not, and that was a good thing for Apotheosis.

Jake shifted uncomfortably in front of Aristide, his hand on Jake's shoulder to keep him from going anywhere.
"I'll do better." Jake said firmly, his grey eyes looking up at Gallegos. Jake was the favorite of the Satori family. Aristide constantly praised him for pushing himself to the limits, but over the past few weeks Jake had become a little more difficult and was starting to turn into a disappointment in Aristide's eyes, so Jake was trying to mend their relationship the best he could.
"There's no excuse we should not have been able to contain them. We should have been more vigilant. I will do anything to make it up to everyone" Jake said desperately.
Vince frowned at Jake's words but said nothing. He did not like how much pressure was being put on them. This wasn't right.

"It is! Strange and something worth looking into." She replied eagerly. Tove was, above everything else, a researcher with an intense desire to figure out all the secrets Abnormalities had to offer. These types of things excited her beyond all reason, and having someone to dump all of her knowledge onto made her day already.
What she wasn't expecting, was for her audience to step forwards and hug her. She froze up, her words dying on her tongue. After the initial shock of it wore off, she smiled a little, wrapping an arm around Niveus.
"What is this for? I'm not opposed to it, but I'm just a little confused." She asked him curiously.

Gallegos seemed to seriously consider Aristide's words, his brow furrowing slightly. He opened his mouth to respond only to be interrupted by Vince. Gallegos glared at the other, his eyes narrowing slightly.
He huffed when Aristide shut Vince up, turning back to the other man and crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, we are not able to cut into their schooling. That is something we will have to take directly to Idris, as it is written into the very law surrounding Apotheosis and A.C.E. that they receive a minimum of a highschool education. It's a damn shame such a bleeding heart of a man has a say here. He hardly interacts with any of them. What good does schooling do for a group of soldiers?" Gallegos huffed.
Otmar snorted loudly, ignoring the active glare he received in return.
"You're obviously the biggest example of why we need to give these kids an education." Otmar grumbled, pushing forwards even as Gallegos tried to cut him off:
"Now list-"
"You obviously don't know the first thing about military if you believe soldiers should not be educated. You want soldiers capable of quick thinking? Give them an education. If you want these kids to be able to handle Abnormalities at all they need to be smart and creative. Both of you are dumbasses if you think differently." Otmar huffed. He had no fear when it came to threats against him and his position. He wasn't afraid of these men. They had no way to actually remove him, not as long as he had Idris as a contact.

Niveus looked at Tove like he had done something unspeakable. He looked away, a bit of red shading his face. He had gotten carried away in the heat of the moment. He had never done that before.
"J-Just for everything you do- are doing. If you're correct and we manage to get out of this, I will forever be in your and your team's debt. You do not know how much this means to me" He said, a sad look on his face now as he looked down at the ground and his boots. He felt slightly uncomfortable now that he had hugged someone without permission. He should have asked first, or not have done it at all.

Vince had a mixed look on his face, something like shame but also anger mixed on his face. He had no say here, his word was as good as Otmar's, but he wanted to do more.
His eyes grew when Otmar pushed on Gallegos. Holy fucking crap. He thought to himself.

"It seems that you do not understand the gravity of this situation." Aristide snapped at Otmar, letting go of Jake and pushing him to the side as he sized Otmar up. "Maybe Idris would back you up, but do not forget that he does not run the council alone." Aristide threatened a hidden meaning behind his words. Aristide was as equally as friends with Merlin as Otmar had Idris as a contact. Even though Merlin and Idris had most of the say in everything, Aristide's importance was almost that of a second in command. His opinion was heavily considered. He had put himself in this position when he had offered Jake. Jake was basically his ticket to power in a way.
Jake stood by the sidelines watching the adults argue. He felt like he was about to have a panic attack, but not here, not in front of his father-
He slowly backed away and when he was sure no one had noticed his disappearance he hide himself behind one of the buildings.
"Education is not needed if they are never going to use it. As Gallegos stated. These are soldiers, they should only be taught what they need to know. The rest time should be spent learning how to fight. This is the entire reason this organization was made. Abnormalities are a problem and training kids from a young age will turn them into the ultimate fighting tool against them. Are you so shortsighted that you cannot see the purpose? If you cannot see the full picture, what are you even doing in this council? Should we request your removal?"

"Aristide!" Vince warned. They could not be discussing this here. They needed a meeting. Urgently. Clearly, both parties need to be appeased.

Tove blinked at the explanation, something finally clicking in her brain. It hadn't ever really occurred to her what good her work could do. She obviously knew it helped, but to hear how it would affect someone straight from their mouth was so different of a feeling. It made her pause for a moment.
"Oh.. of course… I never really thought of it that way." She admitted, gently ruffling Niveus's hair. "Don't worry, we'll do all we can to help this. If we can make this place safer for all of us it will be much better all around."

Otmar scowled at Aristide, standing taller as the other threatened him. "I think I understand perfectly well, Aristide. I won't be intimidated by you. You may also have connections, but it's going to take more than that to get rid of me and you know that." He snarled in return. Otmar hated this man. He hated how little he had worked for this position, how much he had pushed his own kid into such an awful situation. He hated how this man had basically sold his son's happiness away just to have power.
If he ever got the chance to, Otmar wouldn't hesitate to beat the ever-loving shit out of Aristide.
"And so you are willing to sacrifice the next generation?" He snapped back, starting to lose his temper. "Willing to sell the lives of children?! Child soldiers are not the answer to this problem, Aristide. I do not see the benefits to your 'ultimate tool', they are null in the face of what is humane. Your purpose lacks the full picture, Aristide. You forget the human side to all of this. So, I'd like to see you try to remove me."

"Enough, both of you. This is not an issue for us to decide. We will bring it up to Merlin and Idris and they can discuss it further." Gallegos suddenly barked, his voice loud and commanding. It was enough to make some of the soldiers nearby suddenly tense and stand at attention. Ot grumbled under his breath, swearing every now and then as he tried to reel his emotions back in.

Niveus' face seemed to turn a deeper shade of red when Tove ruffled his hair. None of his friends did that- his parents weren't exactly the warmest people either, but the physical contact felt nice. He nodded at Tove's words, not saying anything else. He was out of words to say.

The feeling seemed to be mutual for Aristide towards Otmar. He ruined things. Perfect things. Everything would be more efficient if they didn't have these types of people hanging around the council. Their word basically meant nothing so why were they still allowed there? He knew it was to balance things out and take opinions from different departments, but Aristide thought no need for it.

At Otmar's words, Aristide's temper got the better of him. He took one step forward to Otmar like he was going to do something, but Vince immediately got in between both of them, pushing Aristide back slightly. If Aristide wanted he could easily take on Vincent. Aristide was also someone who had been in the military but gave his position up for a greater future.

Aristide hadn't always been like this. Before his wife cheated on him, they had Jake with the intention of giving him away to the government for their project, yes, but they had been promised Jake would have been taken care of, more than they could have at the time. Jake's future would have been secured and he wouldn't have had to worry about their life's stresses at the time.

In return, the Satori family would have gotten a sum of money that they had planned on putting towards Darius' college and future. Maybe move somewhere else and raise their family comfortably. But because Stella, Aristide's wife, cheated on him with someone who used to be his friend and had Aster, it ruined everything. Aristide was a strict man and had a few anger issues. He threatened to kill Stella. She was the love of his life and the betrayal hit him hard. The loving way he once looked at Darius and Jake was poisoned, only being able to see Stella's affair with someone else in them even though it was not their fault and they were not the product of the affair. But her similarities were there, inside them in the small way Jake would hold his cup of coffee and Darius' phrasing of words. You could physically see it on Jake, the freckles that decorated his pale face, and Darius' straight thick hair that took forever to fix in the morning. It angered him.
His friend at the time, Merlin, saw Aristide digging himself into a deeper hole- one he wasn't sure he could have came back out of, so he offered Artistide a place by his side, taking sympathy for the man. In a way, he gave him a purpose, but Aristide never returned to who he had been before. Just like Jake, he built walls around him and used his anger as a weapon. While Aristide may have been a soft man before for his family, that was simply not the case anymore. He focused on his work a lot, trading his family for the benefit of society- or at least, that's the way he saw it. The power was just a plus, something he had not been expecting.

When Gallegos snapped at them, Arisitde's eyes slowly yet dangerously glared at Gallegos. Aristide knew he was right, but he was not thinking rationally right now. He jerked his arm away from Vincent's grip roughly and walked away, finally noticing Jake was missing.
Vincent scowled at Aristide. That man was nothing but trouble and sooner or later things would turn ugly with him around.

Tove studied Niveus closely, humming lightly at her findings.
Dr. Tove Martin was well known in her fields of study to have questionable morals. She saw Abnormalities less like humans and more like animals, her experiments were conducted as such despite many questioning it. And yet there were very few regulations surrounding Abnormal experimentation, allowing her to continue her work into understanding how exactly Abnormalities worked.
Despite all of that, Dr. Tove Martin was not a bad person by nature. Rather, she was misled by beliefs that had yet to be challenged, things she was raised to think clouding her mind.
And still her chest ached to fix the tiredness she had seen in Niveus. She felt an odd sense of empathy, wondering just how much the soldiers A.C.E. employed had to work in order to keep Abnormalities at bay. She was sure it was a lot.
“Tell me, if you will, what things catch your group the most off guard? Which Abnormalities do you have trouble with and how can we better combat them?” She asked suddenly, grabbing a notebook and a pen. “I can see what I can come up with to help you with those.”

Otmar sneered at Aristide, uncrossing his arms when the man made a move towards him. He was just as ready to take on Aristide, for once he wished the man would take a swing at him so he could retaliate.
Otmar, though grateful for Vince’s backup, glared at him when he got in the way.
The look transferred to Gallegos when he spoke, a bitter taste rising in Otmar’s mouth. Fucking asshole…
“I can’t believe you fuckers buy into Aristide’s bullshit.” Otmar growled, pointing to Gallegos accusingly. “One of these days those kids are going to snap or die, and it’s going to be on your head.”
“We are in need of soldiers. The younger they are trained the more prepared they will be. If they die it will be reflected upon their own abilities.” Gallegos replied simply. He watched calmly as Otmar, still fuming, suddenly lurched forwards towards him.
“Ot. Stop.” Otmar froze at the harsh, loud voice, turning around slowly to face its owner. Floren stood there, glaring and angry. “Go sit down. Find a drink. Don’t be a dumbass.”

Niveus watched Tove grab a pen and notebook. He gave a small sound, sounding like he wasn't sure what to say. There were a lot.
"Well, the most recent- as you could tell- was the Lycanthrope. I'm sure that was really hard to deal with by the looks of it. Especially for Jen. We didn't have anything to block her attacks, so maybe like a shield of some sort? I'm not sure what would work best. I know that if I had been in Aaron's or Jen's position, I would have used my right arm because it wouldn't matter at that point. It can be replaced even if it would take some time" He said softly, trying to think about anything else.
"For the bigger Abnormailites, we use guns and the rest of the equipment given to us- those work well, but we need something to block and deflect attacks because most of the time all we can do is dodge and even that's not enough." He said watching Tove write it all down.
"We've been doing this for years, but every time we use any type of shield it gets completely destroyed, we would need one made to last"

Vince opened his mouth to say something to refute Otmar's claim. He wasn't sure if his words were also directed at him, but he assumed so. Though, in the end, he said nothing.
As Gallegos finished talking and Otmar lost his temper, Vince quickly got in front of Gallegos to prevent Otmar from hurting him if it came to that. It wasn't that Vince liked Gallegos even a tiny bit, but he did not want Otmar thrown off the council for something stupid. He was one of the good ones and nowadays they needed every person that had a mentality like Otmar. If Otmar hurt Vince, that was fine, but it would be a bit more tricky if he hurt Gallegos.
Though, it seemed like Vince didn't have to take a hit for Gallegos as Otmar's boyfriend called to him, making the man freeze immediately.
Vince let out a relieved sigh at Floren's backup, silently thankful for the man.
"Walk. Away." Vince warned Otmar at the glare he shot both of them and while it sounded very harsh and cold, he meant it in a sincere caring way. They couldn't lose more of the people that cared about Apotheosis. They just couldn't.

Ezekiel, Rae, Aaron, and Casimir had been watching from far away as the dispute had gone on. They didn't want to get too close to their argument, so they kept their distance until called. They were sure Gallegos would want to hear what happened from them personally at some point.

Tove listened with adamant excitement. She scribbled notes in and out of the margins, already sketching out potential ideas with a hum.
“Interesting. I knew they had given you all something to help combat the larger creatures before but I guess it would make sense that those didn’t last…” she muttered, pulling a folding chair from a corner and setting it up. She slid it over to Niveus before setting one up for herself, tapping the notebook with her pen.
“I bet I can figure out something stronger than a shield and more durable. I only wish we could have kept that witch from the gang… I wanted to know what combination rune’s he uses to create his wards. They’re strong… I’ll have to ask another witch on the force if they are able to help us with using those wards. What do you think of using more Abnormal technology? A shield that never dies?”

Otmar scowled at Vince’s warning, but something seemed to click in his head. He huffed, giving Gallegos one last cold stare before he turned on his heel and met Floren half way.
Floren glared at him, making the usually unbreakable Otmar wilt and pout.
“Go sit down, Ot, you need to cool off.” Floren told him again, softer this time and a little more caring. Otmar pouted but didn’t refute, standing up straight before he walked away towards the group of vehicles.
Gallegos watched him go, his head held high.
“He needs to learn how to hold his tongue. We wouldn’t want Aristide’s words to come true, now would we?” He looked Floren up and down disapprovingly before he turned to Vince, raising an eyebrow.
“At least you seem to have reason. Now, let’s go have a chat with the others. I want every detail, down to exactly what those Abnormalities said and did before and after. I want to know what the hell went wrong.”
“You can ask but keep it brief with those who are injured. They need rest. I’d recommend getting them relocated as soon as possible. There is a secondary apartment A.C.E. uses for those injured, perhaps we can keep them there?” Floren spoke up. He had seemed to grow more sober when Gallegos threatened Ot, bringing Aristide into it all. None of this sat right with him either, but the sooner they got through the standard protocol the sooner they could start repairing the damage done, and fixing what needed to be changed.
Gallegos paused for a moment, considering the request before he waved it away and started towards the building.
“Yes yes, go ahead and get all of that set up. Use that apartment, go, now.” He ordered. Floren nodded, sighing gently.

Niveus took the chair and sat down, hands in his lap as Tove wrote things down. He watched her silently as she spoke, trying to peek at what she was sketching.
"Yes, well, Jen tried to keep him, but then the rest of his gang showed up and things got complicated…" He said softly as if wishing they could have done more.
Niveus looked up at Tove from his hands.
"A shield that never dies? We use very little Abnormal technology, only until recently we've been leaning more into that since it seems we have to use things that are on their level and would hurt them. I'm not opposed to it, though I wish we could win using our own means. It's not about pride, though I guess a little of it is, but it feels like we're giving in to that. We're using the same things they are, it feels unnatural, though, I guess we don't really have a choice…" Niveus said, thinking the exact same way Marx thought. He had realized this too.

Vince turned to Gallegos when Otmar was gone, his expression neutral when Gallegos said something along the lines of having "reason".
Vince thought differently than Otmar. While Otmar went against them in the council and pitched his ideas, Vince sided with the enemy, trying to change things around from the inside. He knew sometimes it was futile, but if he was on the inside, and he got them to like him, then maybe, just maybe he could get somewhere- work with them. Then his opinion would mean something. In a way, Vince was playing the "climb the ranks" game.
Vince kept quiet as Floren spoke up, agreeing with him internally but saying and showing nothing that would indicate that.
After Floren was gone, Vince chatted with Gallegos a little bit more. He always did this, wanting to know how extreme their stance was on this and if it had changed at all, it gave him a little more to consider before he made any more moves.

The night went on and things seemed to calm down. Apotheosis, or at the least the ones that weren't injured, got interrogated about the events that went down, right down to the last detail. And when Andre's disappearance had been brought up, that seemed to spark anger in some of them, they would have a search party out in the morning and find him if it was the last thing they did.

Tove grinned, tilting the notebook slightly so he could see. The sketches were near incomprehensible with small notes that made little sense to anyone who didn't know the technical terms for Abnormality research. The sketches seemed to be of multiple devices, some that seemed to go on a wrist and some that looked handheld. It was hard to say. There were random selections of runes written to the sides as potential enchantments.
"Don't feel too bad about it. They are dangerous for a reason. It's impressive you were even able to hold them, especially for as long as you did." She praised, gently patting his shoulder once more before she went back to her notes and sketches.
"Pride needs to be set to the side if we're going to win this war." Tove hummed, tilting her head slightly. "To give us the same advantage is to win. Pride in the old ways is the reason we are still so far behind the Abnormalities." She fully believed that one of the only reasons humans were so far behind was because they were so unwilling to use magic and Abnormality techniques. It would be their downfall to continue to fear it.

Gallegos had indeed been pretty pissed to learn what happened. He cursed often, pacing around the damage to the apartment after the interrogations. Otmar and Floren both kept their distance, but Ot's eyes flashed dangerously at each word that fell from Gallegos's mouth.
Idris had been called at some point but his answer had been short and over speakerphone, the sounds of chatter carrying from whatever meeting he had just been in. He had told them to start the rebuilding, approving the idea of adding a room to contain Abnormalities. He had asked about casualties, wondering if those had been addressed.
Idris's answer had infuriated Gallegos more, who raved about "incompetent fools running the systems" before he wandered outside to cool off.

That month had gone by too fast. Many things were put in order and Apotheosis had been given orders to rest, though it was short-lived because after that it was getting thrown back into the game. Andre had been found and disciplined severely. He had been away that entire time and only returned when they were sent on jobs again, though, nothing major had happened.
After that night things had calmed down and the gang hadn't made an appearance since, which was very wise of them considering that A.C.E. was alert more than ever and ready to crack down on even the most minor of activity.
The events that had happened that night had also made it onto the news and on the papers, or at the least the aftermath of what was left. Funerals had been held for those who lost their lives fighting against the gang, and the Abnormalities who had lost theirs with the attack- were swept under the rug. It was how things always went. It had been a huge thing that had been talked about for days before it got old and died down. As always, Aaron represent Apotheosis and took the spotlight, answering questions any of the press had and when things got a little tricky, so did Aaron's words, skillfully evading certain questions with vague answers. Politics was Aaron's specialty, he had been taught about them from a very young age. His father had high expectations of him.

"I want a rematch" Jake hissed at Jen who rolled his eyes as they walked out of the huge building that held an indoor laser tag arena. "That was bullshit! That guy on our team was just sitting in the same corner the entire time!! Of course, he kept getting tagged, we basically had four people on our team, not five!" Jake complained.
"You say that, but it always came down to you versus me and how many times did you win?" Jen asked, not really caring who won, just to get Jake to shut up.
"So what I only won four of the ten games?! I'm still recovering from a bullet wound, my movement is limited!" Jake raged, even though he could move perfectly fine and the bullet wound had mostly healed thanks to Blake's aid.
"Right because I didn't get wounded also…" Jen said, tired of arguing with Jake. Every time Jake had lost he wanted to play another just so he could rack up wins, they had spent a total of two hours playing laser tag, the games ending fairly quickly when it came down to just one of them on the other team.
"Yes, but I was shot," Jake said quickly. Jen huffed.
"I'll give you a rematch another day when we have time. We have to meet Rae at her place, she got a call that someone saw a few people fighting and didn't want to get too close because and I quote, 'Oh my god! Oh my god! There's so much blood! No normal human can still be alive after losing that much blood!' so now we have to look into it because they think it's an Abnormality on Abnormality assault." Jen said walking to his van.
"You don't have to sound so dead inside, I bet the person was more hysterical than that," Jake said, getting inside on the passenger seat side.
"What? Do you actually want me to freak out like they did? Would more enthusiasm do it for you?" Jen said jamming the key into the ignition when he got in.
"Yes," Jake snickered, reaching for his pocket.
"You smoke in here and you're walking to Rae's. I'm not joking." Jen warned, shooting Jake a glare, who slowly took his hand back out of his pocket and lifted his hands up defensively.
"I don't even have any cigarettes" Jake scoffed, the outline of the cigarette carton very much visible in his pants pocket.
"I'll send you back to Floren if you keep that up" Jen snapped.
"I don't have any!"
"That's fucking it." Jen slammed the car in parking mode and opened his door to get out.
"Wait-" Jake frantically went to lock the door on his side.

(Got carried away with this one my bad XD I was excited about Xio)

It seemed the incident of last month had been enough to shock Marx into a less impulsive mindstate. The gang had laid low, low enough to avoid detection but they hadn’t stayed idle. Marx would rather die than stay idle, they all knew that much.
He had shifted their focus to something a little more urgent then getting back at Apotheosis; finding out where the hell Em had disappeared to. Marcus was only slightly hoping they never found the ghoul. Em, while erratic and dangerous, was still deserving of a better fate than the dark basement held. It would seem fate disliked Marcus, however, or perhaps Marx was far too determined to reclaim what he saw as his but the ghoul was discovered eventually.
It took three weeks for them to find him, following a trail of blood and carnage that made Marcus surprised A.C.E. hadn’t had a fit about. Directly after escaping Em had devoured as many of the bodies as he could from the carnage of the burning home before regaining just enough sense to run and hide.
From there he had managed on his own, living in a fugue state between monster and human, attacking those on the verge of death at night and slipping between the streets during the day.
It hadn’t taken long for Em to be noticed by someone - he had been attacking people in the dead of night after all - but it wasn’t an A.C.E. officer or anyone involved with law enforcement at all. It was a harpy that had gotten involved, one already well acquainted with the ghoul and the gang alike. Xiomara was her name, and she had done her fair share of time helping Marx. She was one of the very few beings to successfully escape from Marx’s hand, protected by none other than Hebe the Sphinx - the only other being Marx respected as above him.
Xio had recognized the ghoul immediately, and had hidden him away in her own home, bringing him scraps of the poor souls unlucky enough to get on Hebe’s bad side and into Xio’s lunch.
Marx had been more than pissed to find out about what he considered a conspiracy against him. His rage had weighed more than his respect for Hebe, and he decided it was well worth the punishment to go after the harpy himself.
Marcus had learned about it too late to stop it. The guilt of letting one of his only friends be hurt by Marx was eating away at his insides.
The moment Marx had returned, spitting feathers and blood out of his mouth and dragging a dazed Em alongside him, Marcus felt something was wrong. It didn’t take long to make the gang leader confess and when he did, Marcus had snapped. It had felt so good to tear into Marx… to scream and yell and curse him out before storming out of the house. Marcus didn’t regret it even if it was going to bite him in the ass when he returned.

“Hey dumbass! You really think you’re going to do any help without a first aid kit?!” Marcus flipped around at the voice, grumbling under his breath. Wynn was hurrying down the street, grinning from ear to ear and holding up a rough looking first aid kit. The thing looked as if it hadn’t been opened since the First World War.
“What are you doing, Wynn? If Marx finds out you’re with me he’ll beat your ass too.” He grumbled, stopping in his tracks anyways to let the siren catch up. Wynn merely grinned wider,
“He was too busy sulking to have noticed me leave. Besides, Hebe will have his head first.” Wynn rumbled happily, handing the first aid kit off to Marcus before they both continued walking.
“He will deserve it, too.”

As they grew close to the spot Marx had said he left the harpy, Marcus had to silently wonder if anyone had called the cops at the sounds alone. Despite the empty streets it still echoed loud and clear; a horrific mix of screeching, hissing, and screaming, not quite human but not quite animal. It made Marcus’s teeth ache and Wynn’s hidden spines raise a little.
The area was run down, mostly abandoned industrial buildings but the sounds made Marcus paranoid and he found himself checking the dark windows and doorways just to be sure no eyes were watching.

The trail of blood, singed ground, and feathers was all too easy to find and follow, leading the two Abnormalities to the source of the horrific sounds: a bundle of shivering feathers and heaving breaths had been left partially tied with wire Marcus could only assume had come off of the destroyed fence just a few meters away.
The harpy was screeching at the foreign binds, ripping at the ones around her wings with a ferocity that was very out of character and far too animalistic for the Xio Marcus knew.
Her head snapped to the two approaching when she finally noticed them, bearing her sharp, fanged teeth in response.
Xio was, as far as the word went, humanoid. She was mostly covered in dark, brown and red feathers speckled with black and white. Her face was mostly human, fair and pale with a spattering of feathers across her cheek bones. Her teeth were sharp and viscous looking, peeking out even when her pierced lips were closed. Her face was framed by curly, short brown hair - almost the same color of her feathers - that fell just to her shoulders. It was only slightly tousled from her fight. Long ears stuck out from her hair, not unlike those of elves though definitely more feathery. Many studs and rings hung off the edges of them, glittering even despite the blood staining the metal.
Her torso was mostly human, her arms merged with her wings and ending in strange, clawed hands too long to be fully human. The wings themselves were a sight to behold, larger than her entire body and running along the length of her arms. Even currently, tied behind her back and wrapped several times over in wire, they made up the majority of her being.
She wore a simple, flowy blouse top that looked as if she had stolen it from some chain clothing department and a matching long skirt split at the hips to accommodate the bird-like legs that started at her hips, feathery and thin. Her feet were large talons, currently attempting to clutching at the wire wrapped around her torso.

Marcus sighed deeply, pulling the pair of wire cutters he had slipped into his pocket on the way out from their place. Marx had mentioned wire, saying something about how it would hold until she was found.
Anger bubbled in his chest once more as he approached Xiomara carefully, holding out the cutters so she could see them.
“I’m just going to start cutting the wire, Xio, please don’t maul me.” He threw a glare back at Wynn when the other snorted, causing the harpy to pause for a moment before she laughed.
“Light!” She cried out, her voice a soft trill, hoarse from her past shrieking. Marcus had always found her voice more pleasing to the ears than the other harpy’s voices. “Your boyfriends an asshole!” She suddenly spat, releasing her grip on the wire when Marcus grew close enough to start cutting the thick bindings.
“Yeah, I know. He’s not my boyfriend either. Or at least that’s a work in progress.” He grumbled, wincing slightly as he looked over her closer. Her feathers were missing in large patches and covered in blood. Large gashes crisscrossed her abdomen and sides and Marcus was fairly certain he could see muscle peeking out from a particularly large gash in her left arm.
“Good! Asshole….” She screeched again, reaching out with her taloned foot to gently tug on his jacket. Her expression suddenly softened, the pain now apparent behind her eyes now that she wasn’t furiously clawing at her bindings.
“You’re pale, eat more.” She chirped at him, tilting her head curiously when he only chuckled. Xio acknowledged Wynn for the first time with a soft chirp, her soft, brown eyes a little apprehensive about his presence.
“You better be watching him Fish,” she hissed at him, grinning a little when Wynn threw his hands up defensively.
“I am, I am. Unfortunately Marcus is a force to be reckoned with and gets himself in trouble.” He replied with a soft grin in return, dropping down next to Marcus to try and bend the wire away from her wings.

(nono !! this is perfect i love it so much man !!! T^T I was excited to read about Xio too XDD besides, you know how much I adore long replies :>)

"Change the song again Jake. Just one more time." Jen hissed as he steered the wheel to park in an empty space that wasn't already filled with motorcycles. He had about had it with Jake and his antics.

"No thanks," Jake cooed happily as they parked, getting out when the ignition was turned off.
Rae was pointing to something as she shouted orders at people who looked a lot more intimidating than she did, their bodies decorated with tattoos, some with heavy body notifications. Others simply looked normal, but more than not, they had a rough look to them. The way they dressed gave them away as part of Rae's biker gang.
Corin came up from behind Jake, smacking him behind the head.
"Took you long enough loser" Corin teased as she made her way to Jen. Jake narrowed his eyes at her, rubbing the back of his head now.
"Do we have the location of the place yet?" Jen asked Corin. She simply smiled.
"You don't have to do this you know, today's your last day for a break. I know you haven't been able to completely rest, feeling like you have something to prove, but you don't exactly get these chances often" Corin spoke, her eyes now on Rae. "Pretty tough pipsqueak though, don't you think?" She mused.
Jen looked at Rae, a small proud smile on his face. "Yeah," Was all he said before Rae noticed them, her eyes lighting up from her initial glare at someone who was challenging her again. She ran over to them and wrapped Jen into a tight hug like she hadn't seen him in forever.
"How's the shoulder?" She said, now letting him go and examining him.
"I'm fine Rae" He rested a hand on her head. She had a huge smile on her face. She hadn't seen Jen in a while between being in the hospital to recover and her work. Rae hadn't gotten terribly injured so she had been expected to carry the slack of the missing members along with the others.

"Uhm, so you didn't send the location of where we're supposed to go, so we came here-" Jen was cut off.
"Oh shit! Yeah! The Abnormality assault! Sorry, I've been really busy here because of A.C.E. They've been cracking down on others a lot recently and everyone's on edge. We were going to have a meeting but I actually need to go now to get that other thing sorted out" Rae said, looking at Corin.
"Uhhhh…." She thought for a second before tossing her motorcycle keys to Corin. "You're in charge now, make sure no one kills each other" She pipped up before bouncing into Jen's van.
Corin's eyes widened.
"Wait- Rae, this is a terrible-" But Rae shut the door to the van before hearing the rest. Jake snickered at that.
"No arguing with her, you're in charge now. I bet they won't even listen to you" Jake laughed as he made his way into the van again. Corin shooting a death glare at Jake.
Jen gave Corin a warm smile. "You'll be fine, we'll bring Rae back shortly to sort anything out that might have happened while she was gone"
"Haha, you're so funny Glynn!" Corin called out as Jen also got into the car and closed the door.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the location, Jen parked the car a little ways away to not scare anyone off who might have still been there- if anyone was there at all.

"I don't know, something about feathers- a bird-looking humanoid" Rae explained to Jen who nodded.
They soon got out of the car after discussing a few things. The three gathered a few things they had brought with them in case anything happened, though this was a low-level non-urgent call, so they weren't expecting much. Still, Jen liked to be prepared.
Jen scanned the area, Jake having a tired look on his face- nothing really changed with him as the days went by. Rae was also alert, eyes wide as she looked around before she spotted some blood on the ground that trailed into a building.
"Jen!" Rae whisper-hissed at him, pointing before making her way over before the other two could react. She unholstered her gun, pointing it down in front of her as she pressed her back against the wall of the building outside, peering inside to see three figures talking. Jen and Jake jogged after her, following suit.
"There's three people" Rae spoke softly. "Maybe they're the ones who hurt the other one? The one with the feathers has a lot of blood on them" Rae said, there being a surprised expression on her face.
Jake held his gun lazily, not really taking this seriously.
"Well? What are we waiting for then?" Jake said suddenly before he showed himself to the three inside who were talking. Jen cursed under his breath as Jake, once again, did things without following orders. The recklessness would get him killed one day and Jen would strangle him when that happened.
"Alright fuckers, knock it out-" Jake said, his voice loud and harsh, commanding. There was a menacing look on his face as he walked towards the three to break up whatever was happening. His tough act didn't last long though as his eyes landed on the redhead.
Rae and Jen came running in after him, gun held up to the three before they realized who the two were, though, not really recognizing Xio.

(Good! Cuz I’m excited for it all XD XD I also like longer relies, they’re fun!!)

Marcus and Wynn had begun arguing loudly about which way to twist a particularly difficult wire too close to important feathers to cut when the other three had entered the building. Xio seemed more amused than annoyed by their bickering, one winged arm partially free.
It was her who noticed something had changed, her pupils dilating like a cats and her feathers fluffing up on end when she caught sight of Jake.
Wynn was immediately on edge, the first to twist around and face Jake. His human appearance dropped suddenly as if he had just flipped a switch, his spines lifting and rattling in a threatening display. He held a pair of his own sharpened spines, set into small handles.
“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Wynn hissed.
Marcus was slower to react as he what been in the middle of cutting wire. He turned to look at the owner of the voice and froze.
“Ah fuck…” He grumbled, setting the cutters down and standing slowly, hands over his head when the other two came out. He eyed the guns for a moment, looking over the group before his hands suddenly erupted into a flurry of movement, tracing over still healing runes quicker than even Wynn could process. In a moment, a large and fiery ward had appeared between them.
“Fuck off, you’re not taking her.” Marcus snarled, his anger over the whole situation suddenly snapping once more. The fires around his ward flared in response to his rampant emotions, the runes he had traced glowing a faint orange.
From behind them, Xio struggled to use the abandoned cutters with her large talons, chittering angrily when her wounds stung with the movement.
“Wait for like three damn minutes!” Marcus growled over his shoulder at her, an exasperated expression crossing his face. Xio immediately gave up, but she glared daggers into Marcus, wrestling with her own limbs to try and stand. The wire wrapped around her legs had been mostly cut away, revealing a crisscrossing of cuts and bruises caused by her bindings.

“I can’t… god! I can’t deal with this today!” Marcus snarled, the heat of his flames growing more intense with his increasing frustration. Wynn side eyed the witch, shifting uncomfortably under the heat.
“Marcus…” he warned, but the witch was no longer listening.
“Why don’t you three just go fuck off and find some stupid little Abnormality losing their sanity and humanity to apprehend?! Since when did you assholes start responding to noise complaints!?” It would be all too easy to just incinerate everything here. He was so fucking close to just giving into that thought.
It took Xiomara physically grabbing his arm and yanking it away to shock Marcus out of his head. The moment his hands left the space the ward flickered away, much to Marcus’s dismay. He flipped around to look at her, opening his mouth to chastise her for getting up until he caught sight of her expression.
The harpy looked like she was ready to murder something, flickering her gaze between Jen, Jake, and Rae. She opened her mouth to bare her teeth at them.
This time the screech that came from her chest was heavy and intimidating.
“Who are you?” She demanded firmly, lifting her head up higher.

Jake ran a hand over his face as Wynn turned around and spoke. Jake threw his hands up in the air and immediately turned on his heels to leave, but Jen grabbed him and dragged him closer to the group as they made their way to see what the problem was.
Jen's eyes were cold, glaring at the three as if he did not know these people in front of him. Rae on the other hand was bouncing on her feet as she saw Wynn's familiar face. She immediately tore away from Jen to go greet him, but Jen grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
"Pull yourselves together" Jen hissed, a sort of anger bubbling up in his throat, turning into a small growl.

At the firey ward being pulled up by Marcus, Jake, and Rae were harshly reminded of who these people were. They were not their friends. Rae's excitement fell and Jake huffed, facing them again.
The words that came out of Marcus' mouth made Jake freeze.
"Wait- we're not taking anybody-" Jen held his hand up to shut Jake up. "You're not talking. I'll be doing the talking" He shot Jake a glare who threw his hands up defensively and took a small step back.
"Well fuck." Jake said annoyed.
As the flames grew into something dangerous, Jen's eyes widened with a sort of anger. He would take these in. Right now. They were too dangerous. Jen didn't understand what Marcus' words meant- they weren't here to take anybody in- yet, but with the display of aggression Jen was tempted to call A.C.E. for backup. Take them in, right here, right now.
Rae watched as the harpy stood up and grabbed Marcus, effectively making whatever he was doing stop. Rae had a shaky smile on her face as Xiomara spoke. Again. Rae wasn't used to dealing with Abnormalities, and sometimes it shocked her, but there was something more there- like she was impressed at how intimidating this one person could be.

When the harpy screeched, Jen was so close to squeezing the trigger to just shut everybody up.
"Wait." Rae said firmly, her eyes trained on Xiomara's figure. "Don't shoot, she's already really hurt" Rae glanced at Jen who looked absolutely livid. He was sick and tired of dealing with the gang. He wanted them gone, even if it meant killing them at this point. Jake gave Jen a wary look, something had changed in the time Jen had been out. Jake wasn't sure what they had told Jen, but he seemed even more set in A.C.E.'s ideologies than ever and it frightened Jake a little.
Jake stepped forward, slowly reaching out to touch the top of Jen's gun and gently push it down to get him to stop pointing it at them.
"Jen…." Jake said quietly, trying to soothe the other who looked like he was on edge. Jen had an intense look of hatred on his face as he allowed Jake to calm him down. It seemed so out of character for Jen who was always caring and cheerful. Jake hadn't seen this side of Jen in a while- he looked exactly the same way he had been when they had first met in that room full of kids.

"Okay, uhm. Let's all relax" Rae said trying to diffuse the situation. "Let me explain." She said holding her gun up to show the group in front of them. She took a step forward, gently crouched down, setting the gun down in front of them, and took a step back. Jake sighed at Rae and pocketed his own gun. Jen unfortunately would not let go of his. Any attempt to do so would result in someone getting hurt.

"We received a call from someone, clearly human, that they had seen someone who had feathers and was bleeding to the point of alarm. Now, we all know you guys aren't supposed to be showing yourselves off to them, it's the law. Especially fighting amongst each other, so we came to see what was going on" Rae explained, gesturing with her hands. Rae was calm, but she also seemed very on edge. Not just because it was Marcus in front of her, but because Jen had become a loose cannon on his time away. Usually, it was Jake that took that role, but they would have to have a talk with Jen later about his behavior. This was too over the top.

Wynn stared expectantly at Jen, silently challenging him to do something. He could recognize a man on the edge of doing something impulsive, he had dealt with his fair share of loose canons in his lifetime.
Marcus, however, seemed more willing to listen to Rae’s reasonings despite the frustration and anger building in his chest. He pocketed his lighter when Jake put his gun away, shaking out his arms afterwards. The runes there slowly lost their color, as if he had just put out a match.
Wynn stood up a little straighter, but he didn’t lower his own weapons, keeping his eyes on Jen the entire time.
Xiomara watched Rae curiously, her eyes following the reflection of the gun. The moment the weapon was on the ground she relaxed, slowly sinking back down onto the ground with a soft huff.
She was starting to grow dizzy, and her wounds burned and oozed from her movement. Marcus had been right to try and chastise her, moving had aggravated the large gashes and the wire was starting to cut off circulation, making her fingers and wingtips numb.

Marcus scoffed at Rae’s words, bending down to pick up the cutters so he could continue to work at the wire around Xio’s wings.
“Do you really think she wanted to be attacked? Gods you’re all more stupid than I thought if you honestly believe this was ‘just a fight among Abnormalities’” Marcus spat in return, yanking a large portion of wire off and apologizing quietly to the harpy when she hissed in discomfort.
“And we didn’t do this. Not me and Wynn, at least. Open your damn eyes, does it look like we were just fighting?” He gestured to the first aid kit, then to the wire cutters in his hand.
“It was Marx, that fucker, thinks he’s entitled to everything: keeping Em on a leash, treating me anyway he wants, hurting other’s who are just trying to help…” Marcus sighed deeply, finally pulling apart the wire he and Wynn had been working on.
Once it was gone Xio was able to pull her left arm free, stretching it out immediately with a delighted chirp only to wince and hiss in pain when she pulled on the large gash there.
It was worse than Marcus had thought. The muscle was indeed exposed, the skin around it tattered and ruined. He could partially heal it with magic but it would only do so much…
“Em. Did Marx take…?” Xio asked as she prodded at the edges of the wound. Harpies we’re notoriously absent minded, and Xio was often times no different, but there was a quiet sort of awareness she often displayed that made Marcus think Xio was hiding just how much she heard and noticed. He didn’t know why she hid, but he had the sinking suspicion it had something to do with Marx.
Marcus glanced wearily at the Apotheosis members, but nodded his head in response to Xio’s question. The harpy deflated, the feathers along her ears puffing up.
“What Light says is true. It was Marx who attacked me, I tried to fly away to keep out of sight but he caught me regardless,” she gestured at the gash on her arm, as if that enough was an explanation. “I honestly thought he’d kill me this time, I guess he still fears Hebe to an extent but I don’t know if what he had left me to was a better fate.” Xio sulked, flexing her fingers while she waited for Marcus to free her other arm.
“I assume that’s who you are then? The ones to come get me?” She asked Rae, trusting her more than the other two right off the bat. “Marx said someone would eventually come to collect me, said A.C.E. would be around.”

Jen did not like the look Wynn gave him, but Jen was not in the right headspace at the moment. During his recovery, he had refused to be pinned down to a bed the entire time. He worked small jobs in any way he could just so he simply wouldn't be out of the loop when he came back. But Jen was angry- so so angry. Neither Jake nor Rae could understand why the usually composed leader was acting this way.
"We don't think she wanted to be attacked!" Rae snapped suddenly, a sort of anger on her face now as she looked bitterly at the two. "We didn't know what was going on except the information that was given to us and that's what it sounded like!" Rae tried reasoning with Marcus. Rae was tired of being made out to be the villain. She was not, or at least, she didn't want to be. She deeply cared about others like Jen did but it felt that every time she tried to do something right or say something good, it was turned on her.
"No, it doesn't look like you were fighting, but-" Rae stopped. But what? You're dangerous and I wouldn't put it past you?
Rae pressed her lips into a straight line. The stress from the past month really started to weigh on her and the people who had turned out to be good were still her enemies even though they had shared a good moment- albeit in less-than-desirable conditions. But Rae should know better. But she was too much of a hopeful open-minded bleeding heart. Rae's mouth turned into a frown as tears pooled in her eyes, though she tried to fight it. She really wasn't cut out for this job. Jake had been right. What they saw in Rae, no one understood.
She stood there listening to Marcus and watching him free Xiomara.

At Xio's question, Rae simply gave a nod. She was biting her lower lip to keep herself from getting emotional. So many years of doing this and Rae had lasted this long. She had had small breakdowns here and there, but never on a job.
"Well, if nothing's going on here we should probably get going, right Jen?" Jake asked, noticing how Rae did not seem well. But Jen would not take his eyes off of Marcus, the gun firmly in his hand.
"I'm not a baby Jake!" Rae screeched suddenly, knowing what he was doing. Jake cringed at that. Oops. He had been discovered.
"Can I get close?" Rae asked before moving. "I'd like to help," She said, eyeing the first aid kit they had brought along.
"You guys are going to need more than that," Rae said. "One of you should go with Jake to buy more." Rae said, wiping at her eyes even though the tears had not fallen. She had pulled through this time. Jake moved to join Rae on the other side of Jen, giving Jen a warning glare before he moved in front of Rae. He leaned in to whisper something in her ear and Rae nodded.
"I'm fine Jake" She pushed him away playfully. Jake had a soft look on his face as he looked at Rae. He deeply cared for her and did not want to see her this way. Maybe if he asked his father for a favor he could get Apotheosis a small break from everything. They needed it, though the chances of that happening were slim. Jake would need to offer something good in exchange for that. Well. He'd figure something out.