Fallen Angel Chapter 15: Darkside's Past free porn video

Chapter 15: Darkside's Past A terrible silence had overcome Cal as he followed the vice-principal through the crowd to his office. He opened his door and walked inside, ushering him and Althea in as well. He took a seat behind his desk and looked at Cal and Althea as they sat in chairs opposite him. "So," he drawled, folding his fingers in a steeple, "do you have any idea who did this?" "What the hell's that supposed to mean, sir?!" Cal asked angrily, not caring the consequences of his actions. One of his lovers was gone. Miranda was dead, and this bastard son-of-a-bitch assistant principal was obviously not concerned, by his tone of voice. "I'm not pointing any fingers, Calvin," the assistant said in that same lifeless voice. "It's just that, with your last incident three weeks ago... You understand, don't you?" "Look, you worthless son of a rat-fucking whore!" Althea growled, leaping up out of her seat. The assistant principal was taken aback. "Cal didn't kill her! He was with me all last night and yesterday! HOW DARE YOU??!" "You forget yourself, Shira!" he began, blustering. "You are the guest here, and you treat your hospitable vice-principal with some degree of respect!" "Look, 'sir', our friend is dead! We want answers! Either you give us them now, or we walk and find them out directly!!!" Cal growled, standing up and laying a hand on Althea's shoulder gently. Just then, the door flew open. Jeri and Tawny rushed through. "What the hell happened?!!!" Jeri asked angrily, slamming a fist on the VP's desk. "I have ways of getting to the bottom of this!" Tawny threatened. With four angry, agitated teenagers gathered around his desk, the assistant principal had no choice but to bow down to their demands. "Fine. You win..." he drawled lazily. He then motioned for them to watch the monitor of his computer. There was a police report on it, listing details of the homicide. Miranda's picture was in the upper left corner of the screen. "As you can see, her estimated time of death was at approximately 8:36 PM November the third." "How did she die?!" Tawny growled, her eyes narrowed and her teeth bared. Her hands were clenched into fists, as though she was eager to slay Miranda's slaughterer. The assistant principal looked at her curiously. "It's interesting that you should be here, Tawny Jameson. As I understand it, you're new here, are you not?" Tawny nodded, her eyes almost glowing. "Well, as far as I can see, Tawny, you have no right to be here. You didn't know Miranda, did you?" "YES I DID!!!" she shouted, knocking over the VP's mug of coffee as she slammed her fist into his desk. "Look, you worthless, rabid mutt, you tell us what happened, or else!!" Cal growled. Jeri nodded. "Fine, my infantile children. The janitor found Miranda last night in the library. He said he heard screaming, so he went to go investigate. When he had at last located the building where the torrential screaming was coming from, he saw... a... being of some sort... attacking the poor girl... When he tried to intervene, the creature attacked him too. He is in the hospital as we speak." With that last sentence, Cal, Althea, Tawny, and Jeri rushed out of his office and ran down the hallway. "It's too bad about that poor freshman," a voice behind them scowled as they ran through the doors. Cal and Tawny stopped and looked around at the man dressed in all black. It was Evan. "What did you say?!" Tawny growled, taking a step closer. "It's too bad about that poor freshman," Evan repeated, sounding as though he was having the time of his life. "Such youthful exuberance and such beauty, rolled up all into one..." Before Cal could attack, Tawny had already dropped the hawk-nosed, buzzard-faced heretic. A shot to his solar plexus from her right fist and a strike to his testicles from one of her powerful thrust kicks had totally incapacitated Evan before he knew what happened. He lay in the fetal position on the floor, twitching and groaning in agony. Tawny knelt down and grabbed him by his hair, lifting him up to look into his eyes. "Do you want to say any more, my oh-so-pathetic and weak specter?!" she whispered, slamming his head against the brick wall. He shook his head, shaking violently. Tawny got up and kicked him in the side. "Good!" The two walked back to Althea and Jeri, who both had looks of astonishment on their faces from what Tawny did to the demon master meant to be the Unknown Assailant. "To the hospital, then!" Cal said as they continued running outside, avoiding the patches of ice from the blizzard they had the night before. Cal leapt over the roof of his jeep and landed on the other side, opening the door and unlocking the others for Tawny and Althea. Jeri piled into the back seat as well. "To the hospital, then!" he said as he hastily backed out, spinning a brody on the slick parking lot. The drive to the hospital was fast. Knowing that it might have very well been Evan who attacked Miranda, Cal pondered why he didn't draw his boot knife and stab it through his throat flesh and ended his life. I guess I need to be sure that it truly was Evan who did that. He used to be my friend, after all... Cal thought as he spun into the hospital parking lot and parked in the vacant handicapped parking space. He shut off the ignition and ripped the key out, then opened the door. All the others followed suit. "Which room is the victim janitor from the high school?" Tawny asked, getting to the reception desk first. "Room 452," the old receptionist said. "But, ma'am, he's... not well!" "Yes, we know that!" she growled, looking over her shoulder to see Cal catch up with her first. "Room 452, Cal!" With that said, the two took off running up the stairs. Five flights of stairs later, Cal and Tawny arrived at room 452, gasping for breath. The door was open, and a man wearing insectile, black sunglasses, a black jean jacket, and black wrangler jeans with brown hiking boots on was bent over a mangled form in a bed. I.V. tubes and many other hoses and wires were stuck into him. It was obvious that he was on life support. The man standing over him looked up and smirked. "So, look what the cat dragged in, huh?" he asked Cal. "Hello, Fen..." Cal growled, his fists clenching. "It was a demon attack. Ask the man yourself!" Fen said, walking over to them. "Hello, Tawny. How're you holding up?" he asked, strangely compassionate. He laid a hand on Tawny's dainty shoulder. "Get off of me, Fen!" Tawny growled, smacking his hand away. "I still haven't forgiven you or forgotten what you did!" "Still angry about Lydia and I?" he asked condescendingly. He hastily avoided a right hook. "I'll take that as a 'yes'..." Cal knelt by the ruined janitor's bedside. "Sir!" he began, shaking the sleeping janitor awake. "Sir, we need information! Could you please tell me what it was that you saw attack Miranda?" The janitor looked up at Cal with blank eyes. "It... was horrible... There I was... sweeping the floors, when I heard this ear-piercing cry come from outside..." The janitor shuddered, the image he was relating still haunting his vision with every waking and sleeping breath. "Upon hearing the second scream... one that cried 'Help me, dear God help me', I ran outside to see who was in trouble... The moonlight was full about that time, rising up over the mountains... I am superstitious about the moon. Bad things happen when the moon is full... And, this occasion was no different. "When I got outside... I saw that a frail, young woman was being chased by something large; something black and scaly and... evil. The shroud... the being, if you will... had glowing green eyes that looked sort of like a snake's... It had tremendous leathery wings, and was muscular. It had tremendously large, ribbed horns that curved all the way back to its knees, and the creature had hair on its head that made it look like its head was aflame... Its body was covered in this weird... scaly, crystalline substance, and it had large spikes on its shoulders and running down its spine, or at least that is what I think it was... To top it off, this... demon... had a long, thin tail with a... scorpion-like stinger on the end..." Cal listened with bated breath as the old, beaten janitor related his tale. It didn't sound like Evan. Evan didn't have the tail or the spike armor. "Well, at first I thought I was seeing things," the old custodian continued, grunting as he shifted his bandaged leg in the hospital bed. "I mean... how could such an abomination of God be real? It just didn't make sense... Nonetheless, the girl was running from something, and she dove into the library window, shattering the glass. I ran to help her... and that is when I saw the demon fly into the same broken window. When... when I arrived... I saw the creature had cornered the poor freshman... The lady was trembling, shiny tears streaming down her pale face as the moonlight made her skin almost ghostly... I ran as the abomination slowly and menacingly approached her, and he, it, looked back as I hit it as hard as I could with my broom. The broom broke over its spiked shoulder, and it looked back at me, its glowing, serpentine eyes narrowed in anger. That is when the creature lunged at me, grabbed me about the throat, and threw me into the wall. I crashed through it, stunned, as it cornered the freshman again. This time, when I did regain my senses because of an earth- shattering wail of agony, I saw that... the demon had held her around the waist, its fangs imbedded deeply into the flesh of her neck. Blood; crimson, thick, viscous blood flowed from the creatures jaws and teeth as it drained the poor woman. "She screamed and fought back, but the demon was just much too powerful... After she stopped kicking and screaming, the demon... tore off her clothes and raped her. Somehow, the poor woman was still alive, despite the grievous bite wound to her neck, for she weakly tried to fight back against the devil's onslaught. It was for naught, though... After, at least I think that after the demon had his way with her, he drank more of her blood." "Sir, can you describe the demon's equipment?" Tawny asked as Cal opened his mouth to speak. The janitor shuddered and wretched, straining his mind to provide answers. "Wh, who are you people?" he asked weakly as he adjusted his pillows from behind his neck. "We're demon slayers and holy warriors. We knew the freshman that was attacked, and we are going to track down the abomination and terminate it with extreme prejudice!!!" Fen grumbled, cracking his knuckles. Althea walked up to Cal and put her arm around his shoulders. She could sense that he was having a hard time dealing with the news of Miranda's death, though he hid it well. "How are you?" she whispered as Cal looked down at her with a sort of petrified anger in his eyes. "How are you holding up, Cal?" Cal managed a weak smile, though he didn't feel like it. "I... liked her..." He sighed. Althea could feel the internal groan of emotional agony as Cal looked away, wiping his eyes as though the dirty-blond Divine Soldier had a speck of dust in them. He shook ever so slightly, trying his damnedest to be the emotionless warrior he always has been. Althea could understand where Cal was coming from. Miranda was the first friend the two made together, and she was quite certain that she was his first friend since Evan's and Jeri's leaving him. "It's okay to let it out, you know..." Althea whispered gently in Cal's ear as she hugged him about his waist. Cal nodded, putting his right index finger to his lips. "In a second, love," he whispered, looking down at her gently. "The janitor isn't finished..." "Th, the demon... it didn't have any... parts..." the janitor rasped, trying to block the image out of his mind. Tawny looked back at Cal inquisitively. "No cock. Guess that rules out that it was a demoness..." she said to him. Fen blushed. "Tell us what happened after that, sir!" Fen said, trying to get the image out of his head. The janitor trembled and shuddered, his eyes bulging and very, very bloodshot. "Th, then... when the... girl quit kicking and screaming... the demon slammed her against the ground of the library... many times. The... the imprecation wouldn't let up! It laughed and laughed as the girl's blood stained the gray carpet from where she was being slammed into..." The janitor closed his eyes tightly, trembling and convulsing as though he was being electrocuted. "He... he then threw the girl out the... other window and... flew after her. Two... no, three seconds later, the girl came flying into the building through the brick wall on the other side of the building, crashing through the book cases and skidding to a halt beside me!!!" The janitor wasn't taking remembering all this very well. "The demon swooped down and grabbed the poor girl by her chest and... with his right hand... he slammed the claws into her chest and... RIPPED OUT HER HEART!!!! HE ATE IT!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Fen walked up to the mad janitor and backhanded him across the face. He blinked and looked up at him curiously, as though he had never seen anything like Fen before. "THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" Fen bellowed, slapping the janitor again. More calmly, he then asked, "Friend, tell me what this demon looked like, and I won't slap you again." The janitor put two and two together, and then said, "Th, the demon... had rather shaggy brown-black hair, he was rather muscular, though slightly stout... and he had a... rather weak chin... His eyes were sunken into his head too..." "How tall was he?" Tawny asked. "Perhaps... five feet six inches, maybe less..." Tawny looked back at Fen and nodded. "Jinenji..." the two said in unison. They walked out of the infirmary in silence. Jinenji? Cal asked curiously. The name... sounds familiar... Stepping out of the building, they were greeted by a chill autumnal blast of wind. The sky was a forbidding shade of dark gray, and the sun was blocked out entirely by its shroud. Cal sighed in depression as they walked over to where Fen's truck was parked. "So, is anyone going to tell us who Jinenji is?!" Althea asked as she slid her arm around Cal gently. Tawny looked at her, Jeri and Cal, and smiled. "You already know him. He used to be on the side of good, until he met up with someone of malcontent..." she began. "Who?" Jeri asked as she leaned against the side of Fen's truck. "His full name is Jinenji Matsukawa Shinji Nari Neh, and he was one of the Calahuwegan demons who fought alongside you and Cal when you took on Aukos. He is obviously possessed someone right here, hence the demon that attacked Yoko." "How, exactly, do you know Miranda?" Cal then asked bluntly, looking up from the ground. "Well, I'll tell you later. I don't want my bastard ex blurting it out," she said irritably, looking behind her at Fen, who shrugged. Smirking despite himself, Fen said, "Well, she walked in on me when I was fuckin' a girlfriend of hers, and she has been bitter towards me ever since. Talk about sour grapes, huh?" "Shut your mouth!" Tawny growled. Cal groaned and walked away, towards his jeep in silence and alone. "Cal? What's up?" Cal never answered, just kept walking. It always comes down to death, destruction, and the spilling of blood, doesn't it? Darkside asked him silently as he opened the door to his jeep. Thou canst only handle so much, thou knowest. This sort of thing has happened to thou before, and thou still remembers the pain so vividly... Why don't thou let it out for a change? No, Darkside... I refuse to do so, because that would be succumbing to the effect that this incident was supposed to inspire, and thus, I would be losing to the enemy. You know I can't do that... Cal thought back. He looked back at Tawny, Althea, and Jeri. "Are you coming?" Slowly, they walked back to the jeep. "Cal, tell me what's wrong," Jeri asked, seeing his expression. It was a grimace of what appeared to be physical pain. He looked back at her as she closed her door and buckled herself in. "What do you think is wrong, Jeri? My friend is dead... I'm just trying to deal with it..." he said in a lifeless voice. "Sorry to snap at you." They pulled out of the parking lot and Cal drove them to the high school. "You guys do what you will. I need to think..." Cal said after a long silence. Tawny and Althea nodded and followed Jeri to her red sportscar. Cal then pulled out of the parking lot and sighed, his hands clutching the steering wheel tightly. "Darkside," he began sadly, "why do I always have this curse?" Darkside shrugged from inside him. "I know not thy answer, my comrade. However, my shadow counterpart, remember this always, I am always with thee. Thy pain is my pain too, knowest thou..." "Yes, Darkside, I know you're with me forevermore..." Sighing, Cal turned to the turnoff for the highway out of town. "Whither goest thou?" Darkside asked. "I don't know. I'm... I'm just trying to get by..." And so, Cal drove away until he could drive no further. The day passed in silence while Althea, Tawny, and Jeri waited for Cal to return. Soon, it became night, and the three found themselves in Jeri's living room, sitting in front of a roaring fire conjured by Jeri in the fireplace. Unable to stand the silence any further, Jeri asked, "So Tawny, how did you know Miranda?" Tawny sighed. "Well, Jeri," she began, unsure whether or not to tell her anything, "I guess you could say that Miranda was the one who turned me into what I am..." "What do you mean, Tawny?" Althea asked curiously, sitting comfortably on her knees in front of the crackling, crimson-gold flames. "I'm two things that God despises, really. The first would be that I'm bisexual," she said straightforwardly, looking into Jeri's eyes intently. Jeri blushed fiercely when her eyes caught Tawny's lustful gaze. "The second would be that I'm a psychic vampire, or a psi-vamp, simply put... When I reach a certain level of rage, I transform into a pseudo-demon, with no demonic spike-armor or horns, but the leathery wings and eyes and fangs. Ask Cal about this when he returns. His dark side and I fought last night, and I won." Jeri smiled. "How'd you manage to survive? Darkside tends to be an unstoppable juggernaut when he manifests..." "Well, it was purely strategy that pulled me through the fight. I threw my halberd at him and pinned him to the ground, and then I drained him of his energy. He fell after that..." Tawny sighed. "Well, anyway, back to Miranda... She and I met shortly after I became a demon slayer. Mind you, I still retain my powers because the Demon Slayer Guild isn't directly connected with the Almighty. So, my lesbianism isn't that much of a hindrance to me. Anyway, on a blackened battlefield we met, where hundreds of thousands of corpses of dead soldiers lay, charred beyond recognition. She sat on a blackened, cratered boulder, crying, when I walked up to her. 'Are you okay?' I asked as I approached her." "Hold on," Jeri said. "You were involved in a battle? Where?" "This was up on the Astral Plane. I most certainly could not be anywhere near a real-life battlefield full of dead soldiers at the time because I was only fourteen years old then... I'm nineteen now... Well, anyway, her shimmering raven hair wreathed a sad, sad face... She was weeping for the soldiers that were killed in the battle. 'No...' she replied, looking down at me with blood-shot eyes. 'A terrible thing has occurred here today that was meaningless...' "'What?' I asked as I walked up to her. I had arrived late in the evening up there that night, and I had no idea what had happened. 'Tell me, please!' She sighed sadly and said, 'Well, a demon battle occurred here, between a powerful demon and a band of Divine Soldiers.' The demon's name was Jinenji..." "Who is Jinenji?" Althea asked curiously as she heaved herself up onto the plush, warm couch next to Jeri and Tawny. She hugged her knees for warmth and comfort, as it suddenly felt rather cold in the room, despite the blazing, sanguine fire and the warm presence of Jeri and Tawny. "I mean, you mentioned him in the hospital, when we were interrogating the janitor... What is he to Miranda?" Tawny smiled. "Jinenji Matsukawa Shinji Nari Neh had a love affair with Miranda, who in the demon world was known as Yoko-Moriyokani Ishtakuren Furaija Kiryashta. I know because I walked in on the two of them having sex in a most vulgar fashion. See, Miranda had pinned Jinenji to the wall with chains and she was fucking his ass from behind as he groaned and begged his 'mistress' to continue." "What?! Miranda had a penis?!" Jeri asked, alarmed. "Yes. All demonesses have them," Althea said. "Even I have one. Christ, Miranda and I fucked while you guys were training!" Jeri blushed a radiant, glowing shade of beet red from hearing this. "B, but, Cal said that you two had made love on your first meeting... He was lying?" she breathed, horrified and intrigued at the same time by the image. "No, we did make love then, and we still make love quite often..." Althea admitted. She wasn't the least bit abashed by admitting it, though Jeri had a rather hard time stomaching the image of the boy she had almost decided to go out with being treated in the same fashion that Miranda treated Jinenji. "Gee..." Jeri said sheepishly as she thought about it. "I really must have made him change... Homosexuals aren't allowed in the Divine Soldier Caste..." "He's not homosexual, Jeri," Tawny said sternly. "He's bisexual, like me. He likes women also. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't like men, just cock. Surely you don't judge him because of that. He found his soul- mate," she gestured towards Althea, "and his soul-mate had different equipment than you or I, so he adapted. Real quickly, now that I think about it. We all should be so lucky to have a friend like Cal around." Jeri looked down at the ground and sighed. "Yes... I guess I shouldn't be shocked about finding this out, but... before I got cold feet, I seriously thought about dating him and finding out more about the mysterious, reserved, loyal ninja... I guess we all have something we don't want others finding out about..." "Yeah... However, if we can master that fear, then we can become invincible. Right, Althea?" Tawny asked as she looked over at Althea lovingly. "I agree. I originally thought that my eternity wandering amongst you people would be very hard, but when Cal found me that morning, things just seemed to fit into place... I know now that I'm going to stay with him until we both eventually fade away into the mists of the future..." Althea said dreamily. "I admit, I love him so dearly that it hurts me when he's not around..." Tawny smiled. "I'm envious of you, Althea. I have been searching for an incredibly long time now, and I still haven't found my love yet. I'm quite certain, though, that I won't find my love to be a man. Fen really did a number on me... Anyway, Miranda found her way to me in the real world, just about the time I met Fen, and we hit it off. Soon, we made love, Fen and I, and then I came home from school one day to find Fen balls deep into my best girlfriend, Lydia, whom I desperately wished to make love to. Running out of the house in a suicidal haze of crying and depression, I ran to Miranda's apartment and she comforted me. We made love there that night, and Miranda told me why she knew about Fen. Fen had been hunting her for several years now, and she managed only to escape by transforming into different human girls. Back then, she had red hair and a slightly angular face, but, as usual, she had to run, leaving me alone for far too long. When I found out her location, here, I came to investigate with Fen, though we're still on quite hostile terms. However, when she fucked me that night we slept together, she transformed me into a psi-vamp as a gift to get back at Fen for betraying me like he did." A long silence held between the three women, when Tawny sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I... I think I was in love with her..." she then said sadly as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Feeling her pain, Jeri hugged her gently. "It's okay, Tawny... You can cry in front of us..." She felt Tawny shudder as she held back her tears, so she held her ever more tightly. They hugged for about ten minutes in silence, when an explosion from the front side of the house shattered the windows and threw the three to the ground in front of the fire. "What the fuck was that?!" Jeri yelled as she hopped up. Althea transformed into her demon form and Tawny had her halberd out and at the ready. "I thought I should knock first before breaking in, DEAREST!!!" Evan laughed from the shadows. Two glowing eyes illuminated the darkness from within the house and Evan stepped into the light from the fire. He was in his demon form. "Hello, new girl and tranny slut. How are you two doing?" Jeri lunged at Evan ferociously, punching him in the face and knocking him back. "BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU!!" she screamed as she pounded on him voraciously. Evan grabbed a handful of her long, silky, maple bronze hair and lifted her back away from him. "My, my... Quite a temper you have, Jeri... It may end up getting you hurt this night..." "LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Tawny bellowed, lunging at Evan as well, her halberd ready to pierce his chest. Countering her assault, Evan reversed his grip on her and held her in front of him, turning her into a human shield. "Feh!!! You should know better than to do that when I have a hostage, Tawny Jameson!" Evan growled, punching Jeri in the back and paralyzing her, stopping her from thrashing about. Tawny skidded to a halt in front of the demon master. "There we go. That was easy, wasn't it?" he asked humorously as he smirked evilly. "Now then," he turned his head slightly, "Jim, get your ass in here! You're missing the fun, man!" Jim flew through the broken wall and window, smashing it down with a blast of energy from his right hand. He landed next to Evan, smirking maniacally. His demon form was different, but Tawny knew it right away. "We finally meet..." Tawny growled, her knuckles ivory-white on her halberd from clenching her fists in wrath. "Yes, you and I have been playing quite a game of hide and seek, haven't we?" Jim asked curiously. His demon form was surprisingly more advanced than Evan's was, but then again, on the Plane, he was a demon, after all. He stood at about five and a half feet, had shaggy, ragged, dark-brown hair that was standing up in a slicked-back sort of way, and his fangs were longer. His ears were elongated, like those of an elf, and his skin was a mottled grayish brown. He also had on a crystalline spike armor that covered his torso and crotch with the sapphire material. A long, scaly, armored tail with a stinger on the end of it swished around his ankles. To top it off, his big, bat-like wings stretched about twenty feet in length, from wing tip to wing tip. His glowing, green, serpentine eyes were sunken into his face, giving him the effect of the undead and his long, ribbed horns curved back down the center of his back to about his butt. He was also rather muscular, though sort of stout, just like in his human form. "Well, shall we finish up then... Jinenji?" she growled as her eyes glowed a viridescent shade in the gloom. Jeri squirmed uneasily against Evan's tight embrace, his large talon on his index finger pressed against her jugular. "You were the one that killed Miranda?!" Althea hissed, a halo of energy illuminating her sexy demonic form. Jinenji laughed, a low, unearthly growl that shook the floorboards. "The end of the world is nigh, foolish demoness. It just so happened that I could no longer control my longing to taste Miranda's blood, so perhaps I got carried away. Oh well. Who will miss her, huh?" That was all Tawny could take, so she quickly transformed into her psi- vamp form and lunged at Jinenji with the sole purpose of destroying the demon very painfully and very slowly. Jinenji dodged a thrust from the spear tip of the halberd, his right hand glowing. "EAT THIS!!!" he bellowed as he threw an orb of energy at Tawny. It slammed into her with grim accuracy, blasting her back against the wall and disabling her wings. She moaned in agony as she got up, staggering and covered in the remains of the wall. "I'm stronger than you think, silly woman. Do you honestly think you can win against me with that pig-barbecuer?" "FUCK OFF! YOU KILLED ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS!!!" she screamed as she blindly rushed him, her glowing energy trailing behind her. She sidestepped a counterattack slash and uppercut Jinenji in the face with the axe-blade of the halberd, causing a large slash across his face. He flew back and landed on his feet after doing a back flip. When he looked back at the psi-vamp, he smirked and lunged, a large saber in his right hand. He chopped downward, intending to kill Tawny. However, she blocked it with her staff and pushed against his thrust. Meanwhile, Althea was glaring at Evan. "Whasamatter? Is poor li'l Evan fwightening you? Awww..." Evan said condescendingly, enjoying the feeling of power he got when he was holding Jeri hostage like he was. He smirked again. "I suppose you're wondering whatever happened to Cal, aren't you?" Althea felt her legs tense up and the worry that simple sentence inspired was unimaginable. "If you..." she growled as she took a menacing step forward. Evan nodded, a demonic smirk upon his shadowy, evil visage. "You guessed it. Right now, Calvin Lillehammer is lying in a pool of blood on the side of the highway about a hundred miles outside of town..." "YOU FUCKING LIAR!!!!" Althea screamed, her eyes aflame with an evil red pyre. She started to lunge at him, but he dug his index talon into Jeri's neck further, making her cry out in pain as the sharp claw broke the flesh. "Ah, ah, ah... I wouldn't want to nick something vital, now would I?" he asked sadistically as he dug his claw against her throat malevolently. "Y, you bastard..." Jeri growled as she tried to get free without accidentally getting the long talon deeper into her throat. "Now then... since I have your attention," Evan began, "let me make this perfectly clear: either you join us, or we kill her and make sure that Cal's life support is severed." "What?!" Althea growled, wanting nothing more than to blast this slime with a circle of black fire or a fork of lightning. "Help Him and save your piece of ass and pussy for another day. Simple as that!" Jinenji growled as he waved his hand and erected an energy barrier around himself and Evan as Tawny slashed out at him with her halberd. "Fuck you! FUCK ALL OF YOU!!!" Althea screamed as she let her emotions get in the way of her logical train of thought and charged at Evan. "If that's how you want it, fine!" Evan growled as he lifted his hand and came down upon Jeri's neck. Just as he was about to strike, an explosion detonated from the center of the room as imperceptibly radiant light pierced the darkness completely, blinding everyone in the room. When the light faded, someone swathed in black with a katana stood in the center, his eyes aglow. His black trench coat billowed as though caught in a high wind and he looked fearless, hell-bent even. "Thou shalt let her go, lest I slice thee a new orifice!" the silhouette growled demonically. "Cal?!" Evan growled angrily, looking at the man fearfully. "Nay, I am not Calvin Lillehammer of the Divine Soldiers. They called me when I was alive last, Darc Dragonwind. However, thou shalt know me by the identity of Darkside!!" Darc growled. "Darkside?!" Evan asked as he threw Jeri out of the way, no longer interested in her. Darc nodded, an evil smirk splitting his gaunt face. "Aye! And now, thou shalt taste the sinewy pain and salty blood inflicted by my razor edge!" "BRING IT ON, FAGGOT!!!" Evan shouted, drawing his flaming sword. And so, the fight began, Darc with his ninjato katana and Evan with his flaming broadsword. Lunging into the air at Evan, Darc's blade clashed with his, throwing out sparks. Countering the attack, Evan threw Darc's sword off of his and slashed inward from the right and then up in an L slash. Darc did a back flip to avoid the razor edge of the flaming sword, his trench coat making him look like one single black blur. He countered the L slash by slashing out at Evan's ankles, cutting him along the armored greaves that protected his shins. "YAAAAAAAAIIIIIIII!!!" Darc bellowed as the tip of his sword glowed with a radiant violet light. Slashing upward, the blade missed Evan by feet, but the wave of shadowy energy in the shape of a crescent slashed into his face, causing a large, angry-looking welt along his left cheek. That welt burst open, bleeding from the power of the energy's descent. "THE END OF YOUR WORLD IS NIGH! NEVER FORGET!!!" Evan screamed as he slammed his fist against the floor, making it explode from impact. When the light faded, all that could be seen was Tawny and Jinenji fighting furiously. "JIM, COME!!!" Evan's voice echoed from the smoke clouds. "It's been fun, LUV, but I must be leaving! Here, though, I'll leave you with something to remember me by!" With that shouted, Jinenji threw a final blast at Tawny's face. It crashed into the left side, making her cry out as she was thrown back over the sofa, unconscious and skidding to a halt in front of the fireplace. Jinenji laughed and disappeared in the same fashion as Evan. Breathing heavily, Althea sighed and sat down, exhausted. Jeri helped Tawny get away from the fire, her left eye swollen shut. She was still unconscious. An intense silence hung stagnantly in the air between the three warriors. "Where were you?" Althea asked as Cal sat down on the floor. "Milady, I am not Calvin. My name is Darkside, or Darc," Cal growled as he closed his eyes. "Fine, Darc," Althea said hopelessly. "You had us worried... I thought... from what Evan said... that you were dead..." "Thou shouldst knowest better than to believe thy enemy's words, milady..." Darc said in a detached tone of voice. "Who are you?" Althea then asked, laying a hand on Darc's muscular, toned shoulder. She ran her delicate fingers over his right collarbone, trying to see if he fancied her like Cal did. "Didst thou hear me? My name is Darc..." Darc said, sounding slightly irritable Jeri sat next to the incapacitated Tawny, looking into her eyes worriedly. "You'd probably have an easier time talking to a wall, Althea..." "And what wouldst thou know of this?" Darc asked sharply. "Oh, nothing, Darkside... Just that you're too thick-headed for your own good..." Jeri said. Darc scoffed derisively. "Last time I checked, milady, I was not a mirror image of thy visage..." He looked back at Althea, his dark eyes glowing a faint shade of crimson in the gloom of the now tranquil living room. His glare was somewhat softened. "Before my comrade-in- arms gave me sanctuary, I was just another wandering wraith. Seven hundred years ago, I was a knight up on the Plane of Spirits, to which thou knowest by the term 'Astral Plane'. I belonged to a grand kingdom, a kingdom made of freshly cut sapphires. It was the kingdom of Dagglarund, up on the Neo-Plane." He looked over at Jeri. "Thou knowest of the Neo-Plane, milady?" "Yes," Jeri said, nodding fervently. "Cal and I trained up there with Evan to fight off the demon Aukos. It was ideal training ground, because it is a place known to all for its intense spiritual activity. There, the undead walk freely." "That, milady, once was the kingdom of Dagglarund. It fell roughly about... the year fourteen hundred and seventy-three. Dagglarund was one of the strongest kingdoms of the Neo-Plane. There were five kingdoms total: Dagglarund, Ardere, Zephyr, Cryonodor, and Giwdulkunigar. The kingdoms of Zephyr and Cryonodor were both powerful nations of warriors, and Giwdulkunigar was a powerful nation of soothsayers. However, with each great civilization, there is always a black sheep of the gene pool. That was the country of Ardere. Though almost as powerful as Dagglarund, Ardere was proficient in a different way to combat other nations than the others were. They trained their knights, whom they called the Pandora, in the ways of shadow magic, along with the crafts of the sword and spear. So, the Arderean Pandora, led by a vicious patriarch named Golgomath Darshiva marched first upon the Topaz City of Zarudibatos, the capital of Zephyr, on the night of October the tenth, thirteen hundred and sixty-three. "The Zephyrian knights fought a vicious battle with the Pandora, but eventually the Pandora prevailed after Golgomath Darshiva waved his hand, yelling out a spell in Arderean language. That spell affected more than half of the Zephyrian troops, making them burst into flame. I still... remember what Giwdulkunigar's chieftain warned three months before the first invasion. He told us, 'Knights of Dagglarund, I must ask thee a favor: beware of thy fate. Thy king, Sereno, does not listen to my words. Heed me, I beg thee: in three months, before the moon of blood rises, the kingdom of the Hellfire will begin a vicious campaign against all of the free nations of Spiritial Plane.' The kingdom of the Hellfire was Ardere, for in their language, Ardere meant just that, Hellfire. "One by one, the other kingdoms fell. What began as a conflict over boundaries soon evolved into a campaign to conquer the entire Spiritian Realm! After Zarudibatos shattered and Zephyr fell from Ardere's invasion army, Cryonodor was next to be hit. The two legions met on the Kawanakajima plateau, in the icy realm of Kashua." Looking around, Darc saw the look of confusion on everyone's face. "Kashua is on the northeastern border to Cryonodor. It's a frozen wasteland, not fit for any form of life. The Cryons fought against the Pandora there, each army inflicting massive casualties on the other side. Eventually, though, the Pandora crushed the Cryon Resistance Force and made their way into the Crystalline City of Lienograd, in the mid-eastern glacial plain of Cryonodor. Lienograd held out for a long time, as the campaign against them happened in the winter. The Arderean army couldn't stand the intense cold, and many of their lower-class troops died off from the frigid temperatures, but their elite Pandora fought it with ease. In the end, though, on the morning of December twenty-fourth, thirteen hundred and sixty-three, Lienograd fell by a wave of fire that melted Kashua and sent the deluge into the city. "The last two free nations were Giwdulkunigar and Dagglarund. Receiving intelligence from the soothsayers of Giwdulkunigar, Dagglarund deployed the elite knights of the king, the Pandion Knights, to reinforce the barricades around the border on all sides, and the king also sent a number of Pandion Knights to Giwdulkunigar's capital of Flanzelle. I was one of the Pandions sent. No sooner than a fortnight after our arrival into the Amethyst Capital, the Arderean Pandora struck, fast and furious. "'Run, Sir Knights!!!' the Giwdulkunigar emperor screamed as I grabbed my longsword and attached it to my sword belt. 'The main walls are going to be breached any second now!!!' With that assessed, we, my squad and I, that is, ran through the halls and met on the castle's main defense wall. The horde of Pandora was unfathomable. It was like a torrent from Hell, there were so many of the corrupt knights! Throwing up ladders to climb over our parapets, we fought off thousands before they breached. Eventually, my men started to fall to their might. The first was a noble lancer by the name of Rowen. He fell after being blown up by a ball of shadow energy that tore his very soul out of his armor. More and more began falling and soon, I found myself alone. Knowing that I was about to die on the swords of my enemies, I quickly channeled all my energy and charged the waves of villainous warrior mages with everything I had, slashing left and right until I was in the center of the multitude. That is when I decided to detonate myself, taking out the better portion of sixty thousand Pandora. The Giwdulkunigarian knights fought the remaining five or six thousand off and the city was saved, thanks to my sacrifice." An intense silence hung stagnantly in the air, almost like a foul stench. Looking from Jeri's pale face to Althea's, Darc then began, "Now, let us move forward several centuries, and the young Divine Soldier Calvin Lillehammer has just tasted his first defeat by a demon. Lying on the ground of the Neo-Plane grasslands, he's bleeding to death from a grievous wound inflicted upon him by a demon named 'Takeiyama'. Feeling pity for the poor Divine Soldier, I heal him and that is when I sense his thoughts and energy output. He is just like me, I thought as I quickly teleport out of the region so he wouldn't know who saved him. However, I follow his energy layline back to the Earth realm and follow him. He was still recovering from the defeat, wondering who it was that pulled him from the brink of death, when during his PE hour, he and his comrade Evan have to run a couple miles for their PE teacher. About two miles into the run, Calvin's body starts shutting down on him and he collapses, crashing into one of the cement pillars of the gymnasium. He is about to have a total neural shutdown, so I step in and use my energy to rejuvenate him. Doing so, though, transferred my sentience into his subconscious, and now here I am. I'm not really a bad guy, but do not think that I do not like the taste of blood." The three talked for several more hours, and then Althea said, "Well, Jeri, I think we had better go... Are you going to be able to take care of Tawny while Darc and I leave?" Jeri smiled weakly, nodding. "Yeah... I'll look over her and make sure nothing bad happens to her. Take care, you two." She then looked at Darc. "Do you know how to drive?" Darc shrugged. "Not really, milady. However, I can draw the knowledge out of my ally Calvin, should I need to. Be on guard, lest the demons return to thy dwelling for a second helping of mischief." Darc bowed extravagantly to Jeri and then, turning on heel and marching down her sidewalk, he and Althea got in the jeep and left. Huh, Jeri thought as she saw Darc and Althea leave. I sure hope they make it through this, Darc and Cal. They're so much alike that it's almost uncanny... She looked back at Tawny, a peculiar feeling welling up in her stomach. It felt like she was running short of breath. So, my new friend here is a lesbian, huh? I wonder... what else might happen tonight...