The fire alarm causes a few people to stir, but most were too exhausted or unconscious to care. Captain Shikamaru smirks as Taika runs up with her home-made bomb components. He reaches into his shirt and pulls out a cigar, igniting the cancer inducing instrument of vice. With a couple puffs, he glances to the direction of the gunshots with a small chuckle.

"Troublemaker." he says as he lingers for a moment.

Meanwhile, the Cultist found himself rapidly the focus of attack. Peter was able to latch his legs around it's neck, the incantation having been interrupted. This remarkable agility was far, far from expected. How was a human capable of such a feat? The squeezing chokes off the spell that was being cast, and frankly the overwhelming force of the legs managed to cause a momentarily satisfying snap. The body goes limp for several moments, while bullets pierce flesh, lodging themselves in it's body.

After those initial seconds of silence pass, a surge of frost energy would surge straight into Peter's body, freezing the fluids in his body and causing instant frostbite, numbness, tissue damage, and nerve issues. The man dissolves into frost again and reappears on the ground, his body being covered by ice. His eyes aglow blue now, his anger swells.

The youma knew if he didn't take this seriously, he would die at this rate. The red head was surprising and one soldier usually leads to more. A gale begins to swell as cutting shards of ice begin to fill the area of the alley presenting a clear danger to everyone: the winds accelerated the ice shards to arrow speeds and would rapidly cut down anyone who got too close.

A column of these blades launches out from the primary storm, focusing in on Peter intending on shredding him to ribbons as hundreds of icy blades swirl and launch at him.

Too much adrenaline. It was making her jittery as she put together the explosive concoction. She takes a few deep breaths before even starting the lighter. Damn, she was just going to drink a little this evening and then go home. So much for that plan. She takes a look out the window to see what the mess outside looks like. She can’t really comprehend how all this is happening. Magic. That’s not something she wants to admit. If only she could harness that kind of energy though, humanity wouldn’t be so damn useless in this fight. In fact, humanity would be so much more than what they are right now. She turns back to her moltov. Well, magic be damned; she had explosives. She takes the lighter, sets the rag on fire, and lobs it at the Covenant member.

“Sum Sanguis Draconis.” The freezing was one of those things he needed to watch out for apparently.. He had mastered the physical, so of course it would fighting him using metaphysical arts. “I hate magic.” His blood was cold. Ice formed on his left leg, and he glared as it teleported away. The gunshots were good. That human, was good... There was something about him. A feeling Peter did not recognize. Could not pin. Why did he feel protective of that one. And what was that roaring in his ears... It was not his ears. It was his spine. A flash of insight, remembering sensations. Feelings.

Chaos had forsaken him, and yet he still loved her. Was there anything wrong with killing those you loved, when they were too far gone? It was not Chaos, truly, that he loved. Crimson hair, and yellowed steel eyes. He had only seen her in his dreams, but he loved her all the same. Was it that which drove him. This unceasing need to prove himself to her, and to the Dark?

Or was it because he remembered what they had done to him. “Mine is not to question why.” He backed up. He was going to die, but then he would be at peace. “Mine is but to do and die.” Are you watching, Blues? Rau? Char? I prove I am unstoppable. Or I will die trying. Two steps back. Hurl yourself forwards. It hurt, but that was the thing about the cold. It's pain overwhelmed all others. The adrenaline was ruined. He would make this bastard pay. But his own adrenaline was beginning to surge, his own anger beginning to heat his blood.

Sideflip, one hand on the rail as he snapped all his buttons with the other hand. Nothing that could not be recovered in the coat. Rolling through the air, twist, throw the coat at the youma, as he kicked off the other wall. He was hurting, could feel muscle tearing in certain places, feel soreness in others before the adrenaline, the anger, covered the pain. Wall kick, hurtling for the icicle he had imbedded in the wall, grab. He had a weapon now. His coat was shredded, but had done it's job. Peter had fought with a staff once. It was the weapon most comfortable in his hands. And that was what was beginning to spin, this unwieldy thing, moving in his hands like a staff, moving with fluid grace, with the practiced movements of a warrior. He had only been a warrior once, but that Dragon had been good at what it did. He had been changed, in those brief minutes, irrevocably. This darkness came with a boon.

The icicle was formed of the same ice as the attack, or so Peter hoped, and that was his answer, using it to deflect them in a constant, windmilling motion as he fell, having fulled it free of the wall, cycling his legs as he moved through the air. Once the impact with the ground came, he would need to move backwards, in a roll, and pray he was not shredded before he could begin the same windmilling motion on the ground, and that his legs were not broken. Or else he had these two to answer to. And Peter answered to NO ONE.

Kurio observed as the bullets struck and lodged within. When the creature teleported, it didn't dissolve and reform, but merely it changed positions within a very small area. This meant it was able to be tracked and predicted. With luck a trap could be set. He looks to a nearby fire escape and aims his gun at the cultist, feigning firing and missing, but having the bullet land in the brick wall near the fire escape. He now had two explosive shells inside the creature and a potential trapping.

Then the storm started.

Kurio ducked around the corner when he recognized an area effect attack starting. He was but a man after all without any field armor on. A number of the frost blades still cut him causing some flesh cuts. He turned to fire again at the cultist, but the incredibly ill-timed click of an empty chamber was all that awaited him. He had fired two shots at a range earlier to test something and that was the extent of his explosive shells.

He grunts in annoyance as he dumps the chamber to discard the used shells and reaches into his pocket. He hadn't had time to create more detonator equipped shells, so he only had a standard clip and...

...the shard shells. That crystal that Ashley had enlightened him about, that he recovered during the Scorpio battle. Kurio had created some bullets with several shards of the white crystal as a shrapnel along with grinding it to dust to mix with the gunpowder. It was something he hadn't yet tested: the material was too limited to waste on firing at targets and he hadn't encountered another monster until now.

Kurio begins to load the shell and waits for an opportunity. He only had two shots of these things. The red haired man did more insane maneuvers and attempted to engage it in melee range once more.

The thrown jacket would be shredded to pieces, but delay the focused stream for a few seconds while he was making his way into range. While Peter was able to defend himself with his improvised weapon to an extent, he would have to endure numerous painful cuts and slashes along his body as he descended to the ground. He would avoid any bone breaking injury but the focused storm would take the chance to slice him until he gets his defensive stance once more.

Taika's molotov would land on the cultist at this point, creating a burst of flame in the area around. The heat would dull the blades of ice gradually making them less dangerous.

The cultist, annoyed with Peter's persistence and having regenerated from the damage it had suffered up to this point looks at him and the ice he had in hand. With a wicked grin, the cultist mutters an incomprehensible language as the weapon that Peter was holding explodes into shards of bladed ice and unnatural frost energy that would freeze and wound him at point blank range, knocking him down with substantial bleeding and driving him to unconsciousness: even a superhuman was still human.

Peter's consciousness would drift to a void. The pitch black offers nothing. No sound, no sight, no smell, complete denial of the senses. The silence would seem to take an eternity in length before a faint silver light fills the area. The visage of a beautiful woman with long white hair would manifest, wearing a gown of the style that Peter might associate with the Lunar Kingdom.

"You have been through much. Much more than most could begin to understand. I believe that you wish to be redeemed in the deepest part of your heart...a good soul exists deep down, as worthy of healing as any other...for that, I offer you a choice to embark on a path that will grant you that peace if you so desire it.." the woman says softly. Her voice was ghostly, calming, serene. Her visage was of loveliness, but a weariness would rest in her eyes that might rival Peter's own.

A tangible mass of silver energy would manifest in the gap between Peter and the ethereal woman. Upon contact, the energy would take the shape of a relic that suits him. The energy of the Moon would course through his being granting him not the corrupt strength of the past, but that of one whom was free to choose their own way.

"Please grant the new generation your wisdom and knowledge, to create a better future than they may know..." she whispers once, as her visage would fade. Peter's senses would gradually return until he awoke once more.

At which point, the cultist would be approaching Peter rapidly with a spear made of ice, intent on killing off his fallen pray. Feral power would rest in his red eyes...the kill was at hand.

The relic floated there, as Peter's eyes looked at her. Between horror, and fear, but also a deep sense of regret. “I can not give you a redeemed soul. But I can give you a relentless hunger, and a rancor for this new darkness. Cosmos... I am so sorry that I took that path, two decades ago. But I will bear this Auracite with resolve. Righteous Might comes for the dark... And dear Cosmos. I will do all in my power to see to it the mistakes of my own generation do not come back to haunt this one. Rest now, Star-Maiden. An Inquisitor has returned to do the will of your heavens.” His eyes looked into hers, and he nodded to her, taking this stone in hand. The Holy Stone. The 13th stone. It hummed in his hand. He knew what this creation was. Malachite like his own eyes, and golden and silver serpents enveloping it all.

“...Holy stone, I am ready” There was a spiritual song in the air. He felt it, despite it's silence. As his senses returned, there was a brilliant Malachite light around the Inquisitor, and he rose slowly to his feet. And then the spirits came for him, merging with him, six in number, an etherial moan as they joined with him, past lives, past experiences filling his mind.

Peter stood as the creature approached him, or... What was once Peter. The crimson draconic mask, the silver and white robes, and then the sword which formed in his hand. He exploded forwards, glowing Malachite eyes bearing for this creature, before he brought Clarent, the traitors sword, down towards the spear, and laughing darkly. “You have brought this on yourself, Harvester. I wanted answers... But now...” His eyes glowed more intensely. “On your knees... I want you to beg for forgiveness.” Malachite stared into red, the movements like the darkness fleeing light.

Taika watches as the cultist goes up in flames for a few moments. It would have been somewhat satisfying if he didn’t just regenerate so quickly. She is somewhat disturbed when Peter gets severely injured as the battle had been in his favor so far. That and he was currently the only one of them that was superhuman. She doubted Kurio could hold his own down there. She rubs her temples, trying to figure out what now. Running back down stairs, she swipes some pepper spray off a sleepy MP and goes outside. She really only had one chance at this. Darting toward the cultist, she turns on the lighter and sprays the pepper spray, sending forward a plume of fire that would also irritate his eyes and lungs. She keeps it going for as long as she can manage until the pepper spray in the air begins to hurt her own eyes and lungs. She’s forced to stop in a fit of violent coughing.

Kurio is taken aback by the flash of light and the sudden change that the man on the ground made, turning into what looked like yet another one of those vigilantes. It was the one thing that actually made sense here, considering his physical prowess. The firebomb was met with a weird look from Kurio, looking up to see Ashley's friend having been the culprit.

The transformed cultist, having gone from edge of victory to defensive grits his teeth as he finds a newly awakened guardian before him. He growls as he clenches his teeth, finding himself just as rapidly under a stream of flame from Taika's make-shift flamethrower. The flames were painful but otherwise mundane, and the result is some mild burns, being covered by ice as rapidly as they were caused. It was clear that the wounds were slower to heal when caused by obvious fire such as that, and the skin and eyes of the cultist, which while partially transformed were still somewhat human, were aggravated.

The creature leaps back to break away from the vicious Moon Knight's sword, but Kurio presses the remote detonator on his revolver, causing the first shell to explode. Ice shards would fly out along with blood, and the cultist teleports to a ledge nearby, where he begins to charge a spell. Violent sparks of purple energy would splinter brick and ice, along with causing flesh damage to anyone who gets hit by them.

At this point, Kurio fires his revolver. A streak of light fires for the shortest visible moment before the shell lands squarely in the chest of the Cultist. The cultist's expression changes to one of shock and horror as white cracks appear in it's body around where the shell hit. The dark lightning sparks abruptly stop as well, and paralysis starts to take hold. At this point Kurio detonates the other two shells, causing the cultist to take more damage and plummet to the ground as his perch is exploded by the trap shell that Kurio had set earlier.

On the ground, the Cultist was critically injured, and knowing that between the guardian knight, the soldier, and the scientist they would overpower him now. He gets up, bleeding grievously, and turns to attempt to run down the alley, his feet turning to blades of ice, allowing him to pick up a heightened speed as if he were skating.

Clarent was sheathed on the man's back. The Inquisitor out paced the creature, moving like a streak of silvered lightning, before he twisted, grabbing the creature by the throat. And then he simply held him there for a few second. “I told you to beg. I am as far above you, as you are above them. I told you to answer. To capitulate. Are you not only a fool, but stupid as well...?” He shook his head, before his fingers slowly moved toward the Youma's chest. Pointed gauntlets were none the less blunt. And the Inquisitor had no expression, no reaction, as his fingers met some resistance, and the Youma would feel superhuman strength bearing down on it's chest, slicing into flesh, cracking bone. The Inquisitor would not stop until this beast's heart was in his fist, and his elbow was in it's chest. “I will not tell you again. You are nothing but a dog to me. Tell Beryl that I love her, and that I will be seeing her soon.” And then he pushed with all his strength at once.

Taika’s throat feels like burning, and she kind of wishes that she had a mask to have shielded her from what she just did. Vision starts to return after tearing up for a bit. While she is surprised to see Peter back in action, perhaps more surprising is whatever device Kurio seemed to rig up to his revolver and its effect on the cultist. Tilting her head slightly, she asks, “Did Ash set you up with that or has he just been talking to other people?  By the way, I would use it sparingly.  Haven't found a good way to manufacture that substance yet.” Her eyes turn back to the dead cultist, and she says with some disappointment, “I suppose you have some kind of protocol for dealing with that…” The MP probably wouldn’t let her cart of with a dead body. She’s not exactly sure how she would hide the thing in the freezer of the lab anyways.  

Just as quickly, the red haired supernaturally endowed man had chased down the escaping cultist, grasped him, and quite literally ripped the heart out of his chest. As the dying cultist gasps for air, he grasps Peter's attire and glares at him in the eye.

"Virgo will see...and you will pay..." he murmurs at his last breath, before his form turns lifeless, sliding off Peter's arm to the ground. The heart in his hand dissolves to dust, with the rest of the flesh intact.

Kurio holds a distance and keeps his gun trained on Peter. He doesn't immediately address Taika, but since she was in the know apparently on the crystal substance he had turned over to Ashley, he would talk to her later. At this point he might even consider allowing Taika access to that body if it meant something could be gained from it.

But now, the highly dangerous killer was still in front of him. He knew that in a straight up fight, Kurio would probably be killed unless his remaining round had an impact on him. Plus Taika is here and he certainly wouldn't allow her to die meaninglessly.

"...Military Police. Put your arms over your head and turn around slowly.." Kurio says keeping the revolver aimed at Peter's chest. At this point, he was filled with an expected amount of apprehension. After a moment's more thought, he sighs a little.

"I'm not naive enough to think that you will just surrender to the law and I doubt I can force you. I don't understand what your group of heroes plan to accomplish, but leave." he says. If Peter turned to try to attack, he would be promptly shot by the soldier, for whatever effect it will have. Should he leave peaceably, then he will evade further confrontation.

“I paid my debt in full, little hound. I allow no man to command me... No force on Earth to be higher than I. I am Eternal, and I will live on forever.” He callously tore his arm free, locking the creatures shoulder in a grip from his left hand, and wrenching his arm out, purposely tearing through the creatures chest, the heart becoming ash in his hand. “And if Virgo pushes me, I will see to it that she becomes a Bloody Angel, her wings torn clean off!” He shouted to the Youma possibly listening. If they were smart, they traveled in pairs, or trios. “Run back to your masters, and tell them The Dragon has awoken! I am he who is the Eclipsing Moon!”

He turned, staring at Kurio with glowing green eyes. “Who says I am affiliated with those children? However, I would like to finish my drink, so if you would follow me, we also have ci... Non-combatants and Casualties. to check on.” He held his hands at his sides, revealing no hostile intent. “I will not surrender. But I want to help. You did an amazing thing. You fought side by side with -me-. You fought, a human. I am a Dragon, I fear neither death nor injury, no ravage of time.” He felt honestly impressed. “I saved your life. And the woman's. Let me keep helping you.” Those hands were slowly moving to rest, curled inwards, on his stomach, fingers pointed down, to set them at ease. “I have paramedic training.” Higher, but it was a convincing lie.

Taika watches the stand-off between Kurio and Peter. She sighs. “We do kind of owe him since he did take down the cultist,” Taika admits, “And god knows I hate owing people.” She coughs a little more, “Also, I could use some water.” Peter’s speech patterns had become a bit more psychotic, but she already knew he needed mental help. When has superhuman abilities, it really wasn’t a surprise one’s sanity would slip away. Face-palming, she says, “Please don’t call me ‘the woman’. It’s insulting.” At the announcement of his paramedic training, she shrugs, “Medical attention probably won’t be necessary. Survivors of these kinds of attacks tend to bounce back just fine. They’ll be a little drowsy, but no worse for the wear. They tend to need a psychiatrist more than anything else.”


Walking over to the cultist, she takes a few seconds to examine him. “I think the more important issue is that we have a dead body in the middle of a public area.” He wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary just by looking at him. Bending over, she looks through his coat for a wallet, any type of identification. “Let’s find out who this guy is exactly, shall we?”

Kurio had a bead of sweat go down the side of his head when Peter made his declarations. Pushing the issue wasn't worth risking his life and he was off-duty anyway. The damage was going to have to be covered up somehow: in retrospect maybe using the remote detonator shots weren't the best idea. The effectiveness of the shard shells was interesting though, something he would have to discuss at length later.

"Okay, you I get even less than the kids then." Kurio admits as he sheathes his weapon. The remark by Taika about the civilians and others inside he had to agree with: that seemed to be the case with an attack if you kill the offending youma or cultist fast enough. "Mister Monster here was probably trying to drain people of their biological energy...but the incidents are occurring more and more often lately. " he says with a glare at the corpse.

When Taika rifles through the belongings, she would pull out an ID. The picture would look like the man as he was in better help, perhaps before his conversion into a monster along with an address: 411 Raijin Street, Shibuya. A cell phone begins to buzz nearby with a faint, feminine voice singing. Some perky popstar that Kurio didn't recognize.

The MP walks over to the direction of the sound and kneels down, reaching into the snow and debris to pull out a cheap, disposable phone. An untagged number was calling and Kurio picks it up, emulating the cultist's voice as best he can. The fake would be imperfect but decent enough to attribute variance to reception.

"Hello?"

You're late! Do you have your juice or is Aquarius going to be pissed again? I can't wait to be rid of you scum...get your shit together and get back to the base.


Kurio's expression turns to a distinct, newly found coldness as he realizes what this meant. The phone cuts off, well before any law enforcement would be able to trace it as he clenches his free hand.

"...A nest..." he grumbles.

“Then I am of no use to them. I lack the qualifications to actually prescribe drugs. Psychology, I could offer.” He poked a little fun at Taika's use of the term psychiatrist over psychologist. He shook his head as she went to rifle through the Youma's pockets. “You should be wearing gloves if not a hazmat suit. Or be doing that remotely. They could be carrying all sorts of surprises. I used to run into ones...” He specifically ordered them too do so, so of course he would run into them... “That would carry shock sensors linked to explosives, or biological weapons. One big jolt, and time delay begins.” He backed away from the corpse. “Usually they time it for about sixty seconds...” He always liked a minute. He gave it that much time since he killed the creature, before continuing. “Sloppy. Sloppy and stupid. I am not pleased at all with these Zodiac.”

He listened in on the conversation, before chuckling as it was cut off. “Taika. 1375, Imperial Drive. Catch.” He tossed her a set of car keys. “Tesla Model S, matte black. There will be ample room for the corpse in the trunk. There's a freezer in the building itself, empty. Feel free to store it there. The car keys have the keys to the doors. I have not armed any of the intrusion deterrents yet.” With that, he turned to Kurio. “Get your team together. Once I get my wallet from the bar, we can go kick in this nest.”