The Story That Went On... (Formerly Death Cut. Completed.)

[GamingLord]

Harold will have to replant the earth, unless he passes away.

Harold: "Well, isn't that wonderful news! We just need to find a good, suitable place for you, probably one that isn't already inhabited or can be shared, and voila! You'll have a new place, Abigail!"

Abigail: "...Yeah. That's... that's wonderful."

Abigail seemed to reach into nothingness, and pulled out what looked like some sort of fancy sci-fi capsule. Inside was a fairly decent size chunk of dirt, with grass and small blue flowers growing out of it.

Harold: "Abigail, what's the matter? Don't you like that idea?"

Abigail: "I sort of do, but... I just have some mixed feelings about it. Things I have to think through before I actually make that decision..."

- - - - -

GL: "What!? Nonono! No! Not at all! Sorta... Well, not on purpose! Say, how about that movie now?" Dammit dad, you had to leave that video in the player that one time! Traumatize a son for life, why don't you?

- - - -

Jacob: "That's true... I won't forget his first display of speed to me when he took my dagger that one time. I don't think I even blinked, and I still didn't see him do it.

"Well, let's get you some breakfast, then we can get the others and go get some food."

With that said, he slipped off his armor, and removed his shirt, leaving him topless so in case a stray drop of blood dripped away, it wouldn't stain his clothing... though he doubted his vampire lover would let a single drop get away from her. He couldn't help but smile... he still thought about how he wasn't as shy as he used to be in front of them anymore. He'd just slipped out of his shirt like it was nothing, leaving his entire upper body bare. And he had to admit, since removing the open wounds of his spell, he had been feeling more confident.  

[GamingLord]

Abigail: "No no, it's okay... it's just that... I'm confused as to what I want right now. Although there has been danger, being able to see other places and using ghostly abilities has been very interesting. It... seems like I have three choices, don't I? Stay as I am, move on to my after life, or start life anew on another planet. Rather, I think I only have two choices... I'm not sure I want to move onto my afterlife just yet. And with Harold as my 'master', I'm free to do whatever I want really, go wherever I want and to get lost exploring, without worrying about someone else having to make me their slave."
- - - - -

GL: "Phew" Okay, well.... action/adventure sounds interesting, but that's probably the guy in me talking. There's also a mystery movie I heard that was pretty good that's out that has a few interesting twists. We could see that also."

The two decided to walk to where the theater was instead of just instant-portaling there, enjoying each other's company as they held hands and leaned against each other.

"You know, I haven't been to this part of the city in a long time. I hope it hasn't chaaannnnggg-Oh God..."

Only a few buildings away and across the street from the rather majestic looking MI theather was a much smaller cinema building as well. Except there were three familar letters on it's sign: "X X X", with the words "Erotic Adult Entertainment" beneath it in smaller letters. Outside it's doors on it's walls were surprisingly tasteful and artistic yet stimulating posters of topless people, barely censoring themselves with their hands or arms, or small props.

Also in big letters where the words "Magically Immersive Technology" and "Couple's Booths avaliable"

Amazingly, aside from the "XXX", the place looked like a clean and respectable business. GL however, had a very red face and his hood shut over his head.

- - - -

Jacob gave a happy sigh as his skin was broken, and his blood ran free. He hugged Rosemary tightly to him, his hands roaming her body.

Jacob: "Drink from me, feed from me..."

The feeding seemed to last forever, and yet not long enough, Jacob ending the process with some caresses and kisses of his own before he put his shirt and armor back on. He held Rosemary close while he still could, before they opened the door.

Jacob: "Well, let's go get the others..."  

[GamingLord]

GL: "Uhm... two tickets for 'The Unknown Dimension' please."

Galantros had turned his back to the pornographic theater, though his face was still red. The eldery ticket person hadn't failed to notice this.

Ticketer: "Yeah... that place moved in a few days ago. There was a petition against it, but it failed. At least it isn't a slum like most places. I guess folk just like their triple X-rated porn a bit more. The posters are not as... well... explicit looking as most either, but they're still causing some drivers to be distracted. I'm willing to bet they'll be asked to take them down in a few days."

GL: "N-no offense sir, but I'd rather not discuss this... Especially in front of my date."

Ticketer: "Eh? Oh, I'm sorry little lady, I didn't see you there. Aren't you an adorable little kitsu.. My goodness, you must be able to hear that God awful music too! I've had to hear it all day... I'd much prefer some smooth jazz or... Sorry I'm rambling. Here's your tickets, enjoy the movie you two."

Once inside the building, and and the other theater was out of sight, Galantros heaved a sigh of relief.

GL: "I'm really sorry about all that, Black..."

- - - - -

Abigail: "A few times. It felt weird, passing through other people."

Once everyone was ready, they got their breakfast to go, along with an two bags of kibble for both the spider summon and Sephiroth. Finally, they were on the road again and away from civilization.

Jacob: Please don't let us run into those soldiers again any time soon...

Meanwhile, several soldiers had just entered the city in disguise, in search of the group. A pity they had just missed them.  

[Rosemary Mori]

After they were dropped off out of the city by a truck ride they hitched and Sephiroth was sure that no one was around, he stood as a man, and brushed his hands together to remove the dust from them after using them to walk as a dog. He even removed the gloves and began to swat them on hard surfaces as they walked by. "We're practically half the world away from the place we started at. Fortunately it is a tiny world."

Everyone else had ate their breakfast during the ride including the bug who was hand fed by Rosemary. She had at some points placed the food between its mandibles and then would stroke it with her free hand. Once Sephiroth was out of dog form, she handed him her bag.

When he got food he pocketed his gloves and slowly ate as they walked, thoroughly chewing his food instead of going at it almost military style like he would sometimes. Luckily he was never very picky on what he munched on. It took him about a half hour to eat, he was in no hurry to get to their destination. After he had finished and crumpled the bag, throwing it into the inventory, he spoke, "she said to travel back to the fountain after you have partaken of the liquid. She had also said to give up a couple of those calming charms."

He slowly slid of one ring and then the other, giving one to Jacob and the other to Harold. He had the necklace left and the other in his wrist equipment.  

[GamingLord]

Jacob: "Well, we're almost at our goal. Hopefully what comes next won't..."

"I see you, b***h" Only Rosemary heard that sentence, from a voice unknown. It was so faint and distant, and nearly covered up by Jacob's speaking that she thought at first that she hadn't heard it at all.

Jacob: "...have any complications"

*BLAM!*

All Rosemary felt after the intial, extreme sharp pain was a very fast and heavy force that made the bones in her neck pop, and literally slammed her face first into the ground. There was the sound of a ricochet a split second before she fell, a great puff of dirt going up in front of her. Blood, skull fragments, and brain matter splattered violently from the vicious bullet that had zipped through the air from some unseen area.

Jacob: "ROSEMARY!"

- - - - -

The sniper grinned as he observed the group through his high tech rifle scope, watching silently as they walked onwards They had been spotted leaving the city in a truck, and fortunately were leaving in the direction one of their hidden checkpoints were positioned.

After last night's spectacular failure, all checkpoint snipers were given one specific order to be followed immediately when the target was seen on sight: Terminate the mind bender.

The sniper slowly and carefully positioned his rifle over the back of Rosemary's head. Oh, so perfect... they had stopped to talk. The moment didn't quite feel right without him saying something, at least as a little act of extra vengence for one of his buddies... whatever that mind bender did to him left him a jittery, mumbling, fearful mess.

Sniper: "I see you, b***h."

A second later, the trigger was pulled. He grinned with satisfaction as he watched the spray of blood fly into the air as her body slammed into the dirt like a sack of potatos. He snickered as one of the man rushed over.

Sniper: "Mind bender is down, rush in! Repeat, mind bender is down!"

Soldiers, wearing special hover attachments on their boots literally zoomed in, firing their guns to try to disable Jacob and Harold from using their magic. Though they couldn't portal, they could at least travel somewhat quickly still with that equipment some of them had.  

[Rosemary Mori]

Rosemary had begun to look around for the source of the voice with a gun appearing in her hand, but she couldn't find the voice in time before she heard a shot, followed immediately with pain, and a falling forward sensation as her neck bones fell our of place. It was like a switch was turned off and she was gone with barely time to frantically think the name "Jacob!" Luckily she was made of stronger stuff than humans were so the entry and exit of the bullet wasn't as bad as it would have been on a human.

Even though she was not dead, she appeared dead as Jacob got to see when he turned her over. She wasn't breathing, there was no pulse or even any apparent brain activity and she was completely limp. Her body would even fiend rigor mortis in a couple of hours if it felt it had to play dead long enough, which was a decent defense against people trying to kill her that didn't know what she was. If she was going to die from the injury she would have died within moments of receiving it, however she couldn't be expected to easily take another hit in the head like that and live. Fortunately the soldiers thought she was terminated and if Jacob ever gave them the chance to examine her at all she would appear to be truly dead.

Sephiroth was more worried about the soldiers than Rosemary at the moment as he tried to deflect several of their shots with his sword because he knew that Jacob would have that covered. In fact when Jacob recovered from the shock of the vampire from being struck down so quickly, he was sure he would be glad that he wasn't those soldiers. Heavenly bodies of rock about the size of baseballs moving like rockets ailed the soldiers coming to them with their special boots.  

[GamingLord]

Harold collapse to the ground, twitching in pain as he was hit by one of those deactivator orbs, the spell at his finger tips unfinished and turning into an uncontrolled burst of flame.

One of the soldiers was smacked hard in the face by a baseball sized rock, the damage cracking open his skull and sending him tumbling harshly into the ground... he wouldn't be getting back up again. This prompted the others to activate something on their armor that brought up some sort of force field, deflecting the small meteors. This also seemed to work against the spider summon's acid.


Jacob had gently laid down Rosemary, his hands and teeth clenched. A bullet pierced his arm, and he stumbled back, grunting in pain, ignoring the splatter of his own blood and the rather decent sized wound it left.

Jacob: "Bastards... BASTARDS!"

Suddenly moving into action, he plunged his fingers deep into his new injury, forcing out a fair amount of blood. His red soaked hand waved through the air, sending the vital fluid out in large droplets that slowed to a halt. The necromancer only seemed to mouth something as a blackish green glow overtook his body, and the amount of blood in the air seemed to move and increase of it's own accord. Acting then from gestures by Jacob, it rushed at one of the soldiers, and formed many sharp daggers and spears, piercing at the shield repeatedly and without mercy until it finally fizzled out. The man screamed as he fired his gun uselessly at the strange blood creature that had been born to attack him. A skull emerged from the red mass, and striked, biting deep into the man's stomach, while it's spears and spikes impaled him from several points, sticking him to the ground. In a matter of seconds, the soldier was a bloody, shredded corpse while the blood summon moved onto another victim, Jacob trying to avoid gunfire and breathing heavily all the while.

- - - - -

Sniper: "s**t..."

Things suddenly took a turn for the worst once he had taken out that woman. The youngest man of the group seemed to have some sort of attachment to her, and now he was using some powerful blood magic. He tried to aim his scope on the necromancer, but found he was moving about too wildly, seemingly screamimg like a maniac as he literally jumped from place to pla... was he using the blood of his squadmates to catapult himself?! Sweating, he found a less speedy target who was too busy deflecting bullets at the moment. He adjusted his aim, and prepared to fire again.

Sniper: "Silver hair, you're going down..."

As he pulled the trigger, the ground rushed up underneath his gun, causing it to fire loudly but harmlessly into the air. The sniper scrambled back, wondering what the hell happened when a hand formed out of the raised dirt and crushed the weapon. Remembering being told of a golem like spirit target from last night, he drew his side arm, only to dive out of the way of a small boulder thrown out of his direction. Abigail stood before the would be killer in her stony body, and the expression on her golem form's face was non-too pleased.  

[GamingLord]

*BLAM! BLAM BLAM! BLAM!*

Chunks of dirt and rock flew off Abigail's form as shots were fired at her. She was growing annoyed as she tried to strike the sniper, who was proving to be rather fast and agile. The soldier crammed a small orb in the barrel of his gun and fired... Abigail's instinct reaction was to create a shield of stone. The steel orb embedded itself in her shield, and exploded with bright blue energy, destroy the upper half of Abigail's upper body, and causing her ghost to fall to the floor in a glob of ectoplasm. Catching his breath, the sniper took out what looked to be some sort of strange glass capsule, and advanced on Abigail's ghostly gel-like form.

He failed to hear the portal open behind him.

Suddenly, shards of bone stabbed through his wrists and ankles, dragging him through the air, and nailing him against the floor. Jacob suddenly pounced on him with a roar, and began punching the hell out of the man, knocking his helmet off and sending it flying off the cliff.

Jacob: "YOU! SHOT! HER!"

Sniper: "Stop! Please! Please, stop!"

Jacob: "Begging!? AFTER WHAT YOU DID!?"

The sound of a knife sliding out against it's sheath could be heard, and Jacob's deadly looking dagger was held up. Narrowing his eyes, he thrust the dagger deep into the man's stomach with a heavy, sickening wet thump, shoved it up towards his chest, and twisted.

- - - - -

Once given direction, Jacob had easily opened a portal and vanished in a flash. The last two remaining soldiers could be heard calling for backup, before one of them were smashed to a bloody mess by Sephiroth. Mutteriing a swear, the last soldier threw a grenade at Sephiroth, and zipped off, trying to avoid as many falling rocks as possible to keep his weakening shield up.

- - - - -

GL: "Ah... well, actually, they do sell food stuffs. Sure it's realistic, but you're still able to enjoy popcorn or a soda if you want. They place them on special hover plates so they stay around you when you want them, and go into a personal dimension when you're preoccupied with the movie. Did you want to get some snacks?"

Noticing after a little while that Black was blushing and acting shy herself, much like him, he decided to try and remove some of the uneasiness in a gesture. He reached out for her hand, and grasped it in his own, his wing also drifting down to wrap around her shoulders like a living, comfortable cloak. When she looked at him, he gave her a shy look.  

[GamingLord]

*THWACK* *tink clink thunk....*

Soldier: "Oh shi-"

*BOOOM!*

Fortunately, Sephiroth had smacked the grenade back far enough that the resulting explosion only affected the fleeing soldier. The blast sent his body flying into the distance, scorched and on fire.

For a moment, Sephiroth could only hear Jacob's ragged breathing, along with some minor swearing.

Jacob: "Damned anti-magic energy stuff... Back up? Alright I'll be there with Abigail as soon as I can. She came up here to attack the sniper and got 'disabled' for her efforts."

The necromancer came out through his portal again, using blood to carry Abigail's weakened ectoplasmic form without actually touching her. He wasn't sure if he could touch an afflicted person or not without being affected himself, so he wasn't about to take any chances.

Jacob: "Do we have any extra of that water? It seemed to work well enough in removing the efforts quickly enough the first time..."

Putting Abigail down next to the disabled Harold, Jacob quickly made his way back over to Rosemary and lifted her into his lap. He had to swallow hard and remind himself that she wasn't actually dead, though if she took another shot or two, she might have been. Ever so carefully, Jacob applied a healing potion to her wound, and tried to help her body regenerate what parts of the brain and other flesh that he could using his own abilities... He hoped that soon she would awake and quickly heal herself back to normal after her body hit a certain point.