"Mooooooosssst definitely going to die today." Jade cringed as Dark takes his seat, groaning a bit before she begins to eat again. Might as well eat everything since it's going to be a long day. "How've you been?" Jade looks up at Kyo, who's cheerful like always. "Are you gonna join us today?"

Raising an eyebrow at Dark as he sat down, Jacob looked at Cancer and shrugged. "Guy's been training us. And by that, I mean he basically makes us do back-breaking work as much as he can to properly mold us into perfect little Wanderers. It's....usually not very pleasant." Picking at his food again, he yawned, barely managing to cover his mouth in time.

"Well THAT sounds fun!", Cancer said enthusiastically. He looked towards Jade and Kyo. "Can I come too?!"

As soon as Cancer finished his sentence, Ashlynn dropped herself down next to Kyo, immediately putting her arms on the table and laying her head on them with a loud thunk. She groaned, but didn't say anything else.

"Damn." said Kyo quietly, watching the dazed and exhausted Ashlynn collapse onto the seat next to him before averting his eyes to Jade. "Thanks for the offer, but I gave up on Balthazar's classes. A little too intense for me. I simply can't handle it."

The smile that stretched his lips was a strange one, sarcastic and yet somehow sincere at the same time. He glanced at Aphrodite and Dark, feeling slightly bemused that Dark had not acknowledged his presence.

"I've been great," he started, remembering Jade's initial question. "I've enjoyed some..."

---

"Please stop, please!" shrieked the man on the floor, bleeding from multiple gashes and wracked with large, ugly contusions. "That was twenty years ago, I'm a different man now!"

"I can't let you go now. You've seen my face." said Kyo coldly, stomping on the man's ribs as hard as he could.

The man howled in anguish and thrashed helplessly under Kyo's foot, unable to move or to resist in any meaningful capacity.

"Just kill me!" he pleaded.

"You didn't kill her!" barked Kyo furiously, lifting the man up effortlessly by the scruff of his neck and pinning him against the wall. "I haven't even started with you."

"Oh god, oh Jesus, please..." whimpered the man.

"Oh, stop it." spat Kyo, slapping the man across the face. "That never works."

"Lord, my saviour, I will fear no evil for you are w-"

Kyo slammed his palm into the man's face and pushed him against the wall, grabbing the man's arm and stretching it out. Before the man could finish his prayer, an ice dagger materialised in Kyo's hand and he plunged it hard into the top of the man's arm, cackling as he screamed. He ripped the arm out with a brutal telekinetic pull and threw the man to the floor, tossing the severed arm aside.

"Here's a miracle for you," snarled Kyo, wrapping one hand around the man's throat and placing his other palm on the bloody stump. "Thank you, Balthazar!"
The man's screams were unending and awful as he watched the stump being cauterised with white magic.

"I've been working hard, you know, training for this moment. Killing someone for the first time really did a number on me, but as I took down more and more of your friends, I just became used to it. There's no mental suffering, it's just fun!" he said gleefully, raising the dagger high.

"Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" screamed the man as the dagger came plunging down once more.

"Praise Jesus!" he cackled, grinning wide as the crimson, metallic liquid spurted out and gleamed against his teeth.

---

"Some me time." he finished with a warm smile.

"Sounds like a killer idea." Dark says jokingly, as he sits up straight and continues to eat his meal.

"Speaking of leaving, I have one more technique to try out, but Balthazar said I'm free to go, on account I need some 'me' time as well."

Aphrodite eagerly looks at Dark. "You mean, you're going to go through with it?"

Dark nods his head with a grin. "Time to regain my rank."

Looking around at the people conversing, Jacob almost managed to get interested, but then they started talking about personal time and leaving details conveniently unspoken.. He figured it was best, and easiest, to not try and get involved. Finally finishing his food, he started poking at his tray with the fork, a disappointed look on his face. "Well, looks like I'm done. Guess I'll see you folks another time."

/Jacob has left Scenario 26

"You can join if you can keep up." Jade grinned as she told Cancer, then turned her attention to the others. "You think Balthazar would really care if I didn't go? I'm not exactly in the mood to put up with an ass whooping today."

"YES! I'm excited! Let's go!", Cancer said loudly.

Ashlynn groaned. "Can we not?"

"Is someone wearing their gwumpy pants this morning?"

"..."

Cancer, seeing a nearby moving object, then put his attention to that. It was Jacob getting up and making his departure. "See you lates, Cap'n!", he said as he waved.

"If you don't attend Jade it will get must worst for you in the future. I have learned that lesson."

Dark and Aphrodite finish their plate,and toss their dishes into a bin as they head towards the gym.

"I'll see you guys there."

Dark and Aphrodite left the scenario

Kyo watched Jacob leave with a discrete look over his shoulder before turning back to face the group; before he could say another word, Dark and Aphrodite were departing too.
"Guess everyone's busy with their own lives, huh? That's what I get for dropping off the radar." he said solemnly. "If you guys don't want to go to Balthazar's class, we can always hit downtown or something."

Ashlynn slowly stood up, still tired from being awakened prematurely by Balthazar. She was sleepy, yes, but she was more irritated mainly because she wasn't even involved.

She waved at Kyo slowly as she started to leave. "We'll catch up soon, I'm sure. Maybe you and me could even go a date!", Ashlynn teased.

Cancer, however, eagerly and quickly got up, almost rocketing off his seat as if it were a launch pad. Feeling the disorienting rush of standing up suddenly, he shook his head vigorously until the short-term symptoms were gone. He raised his arms in the air, and quickly made his way out of the cafeteria before any of the other remaining group members could.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY-"

/Cancer and Ashlynn has left Scenario 26/

"Worse?!" Jade groaned and watched as everyone began to leave. She narrowed her eyes at Cancer as he ran off and shook her head, "So much for training." She sighed and stood up, stretching before picking her plate up. "Rain check on that. I'm going to go train for a bit but I'm sure I'll see you later." She smiled at Kyo before turning and tossing her trash away, quickly making her way to the gym.

Jade has left the scenario.

Kyo swiveled in his chair and watched the rest of them leave, a wry look on his face. Ashlynn's playful flirting was probably more of a sympathetic gesture than anything meaningful.
"Et tu, Brutus?" he muttered to himself as Jade made her exit.
Feeling slightly abandoned, he got up to his feet with a sigh and left the hall, searching for a normal way to occupy himself.

-End of Scenario 26-

Scenario 27. Closure

After the excruciating training session Balthazar had in store for the late night munchers, that's what he called them at least. Dark spent most of the day to recover and prepare for the night. As he spent time with Aphrodite, he made his way to the Slums meeting up with Snake and the rest of the Guardians, there they stood outside the old movie theater waiting for his arrival. As he lands he is greeted with fist bumps and pats on the shoulders. He is giving a few sheets of paper, they include a layout of building, a man's picture, and a contract for the death of him and his family.

Dark spends a few minutes to memorize the layout, and incinerates the documents in his hand. He tells them that he needs to do this himself, and if he doesn't return in a couple of hours they can expect the worst and do what they wish afterwards. After expressing his gratitude for the info they manage to come up with he takes off deep into the Slums, flashbacks of the day he killed the men that murdered his mother and their bodies engulfed in flames from Dark's attack. He hadn't thought about it until Aphrodite peeked into his mind awhile back, and after he witnessed that cloaked person killing the man outside the shopping district. Since he believed that he closed the chapter in his book of his own killers, only to realize that they were just hired guns, and that the person responsible for the death of his mother and possibly the rest of his family is still out there, having other men kill for him, while he sits back and relax.

Kashiwa Daisuke - About Moonlight to go with the remainder of this scenario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEFVIFs_jeE

He the building comes to sight as he's amazed at the structure. The place looks like a fortress, odd but it's fine nothing he can't handle. The security seems pretty tight, but it's not like he's planning on sneaking around. With that in mind, he picks up the pace, flames emitting from both hands he darts toward the front gate, unleashes a fireball which explodes on contact taking down anything in it's past, sirens blaring, men swearing and shouting at one another trying to figure out what's going on. As they get in position, Dark already made his way through the main corridor of the building taking out anyone that gets in his way, as he advances into the next room he quickly ducks under a row of crates as bullets fly pass him. He creates a few small orbs of dark magic with flames inside, and lobs them overhead, in a few seconds they go off creating another explosion giving him cover time as he advances, pushing men with his telekinesis, and piercing others with his dark magic. He leaves one alive and asks for his boss, the man spits blood into his face, Dark is about to kill him, but stops as he hears another door slam open and a group of men armed to the teeth open fire. He uses the corpses as a shield as he slowly advances and lets out a stream of fire, incinerating the thugs, as he makes it to the door they came through, as he runs down a narrow hallway, he can hear more men running towards him, the area goes dark all of a sudden, and notices streams of red lights slowly approaching him. He cloaks himself in the dark magic and hovers towards the ceiling, the laser pointers scatter around and he can hear them ask each other where did he go, but only to find their voices drowned in their own blood as Dark stabs them in the neck, all at once with the use of his dark magic once more.

His heart pounding as he seems to be drawing near, he makes his way up a flight of stairs, ducking, covering and using men as a human shield to avoid the bullets coming at him. He fights his way to 4th floor, where he's greeted by the latest Anti-Wanderer technology, as the machines lock in on him, he runs back to the stairway and takes cover as he closes the door with his telekinesis and creates a barrier as the door gets torn down from the rounds coming from each machine. Dark waits out the barrage of bullets, before darting towards one, but to only get intercepted mid flight by a fighter model, as it pins him down to the floor. He tries to use his telekinesis but to no avail, tries his dark magic, it seems to be working but the machine is hardly budging. With the memories flashing in his head again, and the screams from his mother, his rage builds up, and flames surround his entire body, and turn black. He can hear the sound of the machine's gun beginning another round, but they're too slow as the flames intensify and the machine that was holding him down gets thrown off him, and melted remains of it come crashing down to the ground.

The bullets start up again but Dark soars by, his leg getting pegged, a mere flesh wound, but he extends both arms, and the head of each machine pops off, and the remainder slowly crashes to the ground. The fire still spreading around him, he blasts the doors open to find a man cowering in the corner, begging him to not kill him, offering him money, cars, jewelry. The begging gets to the point that's he sobbing, Dark extinguishes the flames and the man is even more terrified as he looks into his face, and can't believe he's still alive, as Dark slowly approaches him the man's sobbing begins to muffle knowing the end is near. Dark makes it quick, a stab in his heart, he lets him linger from the dark blade he formed, letting out a sigh. He looks around the office, the finest furniture, art, carpet, drapes that money can buy. It makes him sick to his stomach, he can hear footsteps approaches. He has the man hung in front of the windows as the group of men make it to the room, as they look at their former boss's hanging body, with his back facing towards them, it slowly starts to turn to reveal a glow coming inside his body, as they get closer they realize what it is and they are too late to escape as the room is engulfed in flames. Dark watches as the explosion can be heard, and the screams of agony coming from the men, eventually die out. Tears pour down his face, as he turns away from the building, relieved that it's finally over, as he flies into the night sky he's greeted by the rest of the Guardians and Snake, who looks at him with a smirk and says.

"Times up."

End of Scenario 27

Scenario 28

Jade smiled as she jogged through the city, taking a deep breath of the cold air as a gust blew her hoodie off. With music blasting in her ears, she easily blocked out the few people walking around and the cars driving past. She slowed to a stop to pull her hoodie over her head again and tie her shoe, still listening to her music and humming to it.
In a blink of an eye, she went flying into an alley, letting out a scream from being startled. It happened almost too fast, not giving her enough time to catch herself. "Jesus Chr...." As she looked up, she caught sight of a leg moving right towards her abdomen. She instantly caught it with dark magic, forming an orb around it. With a swing of her arm, the orb picked the person up by the leg and sent them flying towards a wall. She stumbled a bit but picked herself up as fast as she could, moving her hair out of her face. She narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her. Without saying a world she moved him away from the wall, only to slam him back into it, forcing his head to crash into the wall. "The hell am I supposed to do with you?" She asked quietly, putting her hair back in a pony tail as she stared at the man in front of her. As much as she wanted to pierce through him with a jet stream of water, she didn't want to let everyone else down.
After a minute, she shrugged and threw the man behind a dumpster only a few feet away, and with a twitch of her fingers, a wall of dark magic forming in front of the dumpster only to have it push it backwards and crush the man. Jade jogged back to the street where she had been taken from, fixing herself and readjusting her headphones.

As the snowfall begins to pick up, Kent decides to rise his stoop, wondering on what's taking Dark and Aphrodite so long to meet up with him. He checks the time on his wristwatch and shrugs, they're only a few minutes late, he can probably get something from the cafe and get back before they even show up. As he takes a step, his foot catches the leg of a jogging woman causing her to trip, instantly he teleports and catches her before she can hit the ground.

"I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, don't worry." Jade muttered as she looked up, recognizing Kent from the explosion not too long ago. "Oh, hey." She grinned and pulled her headphones off, trying to be polite. "Haven't seen you around. Are any of the others with you?"

"Well I don't go to the Academy that could be why." Kent says with a grin.

"As for the others, they're late, I heard you guys got whipped by Balthazar pretty bad this morning."

"Oh. That would explain why." Jade made a face when Kent mentioned the training with Balthazar and shook her head. "Never again. You know, I've gotten my butt handed to me quite a few times here, but never have I felt more beat in my life than today."

"I can only imagine what you went through, don't know if I can compare it to anything when I'm on my family's fishing boat. Anyway, don't you think it's a little late for a jog, someone could try to snatch you up."