It was a normal day in a region of the Great Plains within South Dakota. Nemo sat outside of a gas station admiring the view of the plains. He really was out in the middle of nowhere right now. And that's just how he wanted it. He got up and turned around to face the setting sun. It was just about to be dusk as the sky darkened. He still kept his gold vintage aviator sunglasses on, after all, the tint was just a light yellow. The radio to the country gas station was currently playing [i]"Joe Cocker - Marjorine"[/i] as he chewed on a candy bar and waited. He got a strange look from the old clerk at the register for his appearance. Probably the first time he saw a man in a suit jacket get off a motorcycle. But his money was still good. Soon enough the song switched to [i]"Billy Idol - Rebel Yell"[/i], Nemo was having good luck with the radio so far. 

As he listened to the song he began to hear another noise off in the distance that perked his interest: The sound of cars speeding down the road. And from his calculations it was quite the entourage. It seems his long wait was finally over. Nemo turned his gaze behind himself once more just in time to catch a group of cars speeding past the station. A toothy grin graced his face when he identified the vehicles. 

Three black sedans, a white van, and a large black suburban. 

Slowly but surely Nemo began to catch up to the party on his vintage blue and white Suzuki racing motorcycle. He sped up, closing in on one of the sedans in the back. He pulled to the drivers side of the car and accelerated a bit more. Reaching his right hand out and opening his palm. As he did so a ornate sawed off double barrel shotgun appeared from the X on his palm and into his hand. It seemed to be summoned out of some sort of miniature distortion of space. 

Sensing a spell being used, the driver of the sedan looked out of the window to his side. His eyes widened. All he was met with was the twin barrels of Nemo's shotgun being pointed at him. Before the driver could react Nemo pulled both triggers on the gun, firing off both shots simultaneously with a lightning like crack. The driver's window was peppered with pellets, shattering, but not falling apart due to the laminated glass. Blood splattered up against the window as well. Quickly the car began to lean off to the side of the road before spinning out of control, now lacking it's former driver. 

[i]"One down..."[/i]

The group of cars quickly took notice to the incident, frantically shifting their position on the road to accommodate. The Suburban pulled to the front. Judging by it's actions and level of security, Nemo had it under good authority his two targets were in that vehicle. With his current weapon spent, he quickly sucked it back up into his palm with what appeared to be a miniature vortex. 

The back of the white Van suddenly opened. A middle aged man stood at the opening, one hand grabbing onto a handle, the other clutching a small staff. He held it up towards Nemo and focused his mana. The crystal at the end of the staff glowed bright yellow before a similar colored energy blast emitted out of it and towards Nemo's cycle. He quickly swerved out the way, letting the attack connect with the pavement and leave a small crater in it's wake. Nemo started to weave his motorcycle in big left and right sweeps to evade the next few barrages. Eventually he pulled behind another one of the sedans for cover. Nemo reached into his suit and pulled out a black revolver then strafed out. He aimed the gun and fired, sending a bullet straight through the mage's chest. He jolted, staggered, then fell forward and out of the van. He connected with the pavement and then started to roll, causing Nemo to have to evade his body as he drove. 

Nemo fired a few shots into the side of one of the sedans for good measure as he got up close to the van. He pressed his palm into the middle of the handlebars on his motorcycle, leaving holographic like sigil behind in the process. He took his hand's off the bike and let it drive itself now. Using the sigil to remotely control it like a puppet. After getting as close to the van as he could, Nemo stood up on top of the seat and rode the bike like a surfboard for a few moments before leaping to the roof of the Van in a rather impressive feat of agility.

Nemo caused the bike to begin to trail behind safely as he turned his attention back to the situation. There was now the Suburban in front of him, and each of the sedans at his sides. A passenger within the car to his left began to volley Nemo with small green magic blasts. Nemo put up a shield in the form of a magic circle to absorb the attacks. He then repurposed the shield into another ring shaped spell. Nemo held up his palm at the ring and created a magic X out of pure black colored energy and aimed it all at the car. Once fired the head sized black X passed through the ring and massively increased in size and speed. Now the human sized X collided with the side of the sedan with extreme destructive force, mangling the side of the car and pushing it far off the road violently.  

As Nemo watched the beautiful carnage of his attack, another mage grasping a glowing smallsword climbed up onto the roof of the van from the open back doors. Nemo turned to him with a grin, holding his right hand behind his back and grasping the sheath of his knife. The mage rushed him and took a swing, something that was easily sidestepped by Nemo. He countered by drawing his Kris dagger and stabbing it into the man's chest. Before the mage could react, he pulled the blade out from his torso and slashed his throat. Nemo let him fall from the roof and turned his attention to the van now. He summoned two matching stainless vintage colt commander pistols with stainless suppressors and began to empty the magazines directly into the roof towards the driver and passenger seat. Once done, Nemo tossed the guns to the side and let them de-spawn like his shotgun did earlier. 

The vehicle began to feel like nobody was controlling it anymore, so Nemo made his way to the hood of the car and looked though the window. The entire compartment was now spattered with blood from his barrage of bullets. With little time to spare Nemo used his heel to smash the window in. He placed the same spell that he place on his cycle onto the steering wheel of the van before he turned and bounded to the back of the Suburban. He used a hand gesture to suddenly jerk the steering wheel to the right. Causing the van to lose it's balance and crash into the remaining sedan. Both the vehicles spun off the road and into violent tumbles. 

With only one car left, Nemo placed his right hand on the roof of the car, leaving a magic circle in it's wake. He forced his motorcycle to drive up to him then leapt back on it. 

With his finale in place, Nemo let the cycle fall back to a safe distance to watch the fruits of his labor. He deactivated the control sigil and then raised his right hand up with an open palm, then swiftly closed it. The gesture triggered something on the magic circle he left on top of the Suburban. A cringe inducing grinding gear whine was heard from the car before the entire back end erupted in a small explosion. Naturally it was pushed downwards, but then seemed to be sucked up. The car was swept up into the air in a front flip like motion now. Bits and pieces of glass and metal from the back were strewn about as the vehicle flew a good distance. But all good things must come to an end, the huge vehicle eventually reconnected with the ground. This time with the car nearly upside down. 

A better word to describe what the car did was that it "obliterated itself" into the ground. The Suburban still had quite a bit of forward energy in it. Causing it to slide across the road while emitting hundreds of sparks as metal ground up against hard pavement. Eventually the destroyed car came to a halt. Nemo himself passed the wreckage on his bike before coming to a stop a couple yards in front of it. 

Nemo used his boot to put down the kickstand to his motorcycle. He then swung his leg over it and left the bike to inspect the destruction. He started to walk over to the remains of the vehicle all while whistling a tune to himself. The audible thud of his cowboy boots and slight jingle of his spurs could be heard by any survivors as he made his approach. Before he could reach the car a remaining mage stepped out from the back of the car, and judging by the glow of his hands he was already half done with preparing an attack. Nemo was still quicker to the draw however. He pulled his other revolver out of it's holster from his side and hammer fired three shots off directly into the mage's torso with blinding speed. The magic faded from the man's hands as three gunshot wounds began to seep blood into his clothes and he collapsed. 

Nemo spun his gun around twice before reholstering it. Afterwards he noticed the final two unaccounted Magi try to make their escape out of the back, one helping the other who appeared to be freshly crippled from the accident. Nemo made a move to stop them but the uncrippled Magi quickly turned and fired off a powerful blast his way. Something that could of stopped Nemo literally dead in his tracks if he didn't absorb it in time. Nemo fired off a retaliatory blast which the Magi easily deflected. He dropped his comrade in order to fully combat his opponent. The notion put a sinister smile on Nemo's face. 

Nemo patiently gave the man the first move, and the Magi began the duel by raining down a volley of manablasts from the sky. Something that Nemo could use his reflexes to dodge. What he couldn't dodge however was the wall of fire the Magi spat out towards him next. Nemo cross his arms in X shape and braced himself. From the Magi's perspective the wall of fire passed the terrain evenly before stopping. It was blocked by a large magic shield. It covered the shield temporarily before the middle of the shield disappeared, turning it into a ring. 

The Magi was smart enough to know what came up next after the last ring he saw. He tried to evade, but a magic blast passed though the ring and accelerated to lightning speed with a bang, giving him only milliseconds to react. He thankfully was able to dodge the attack, but unfortunately not by much. The blast radius of the spell still caught him. The Magi was hurled a few feet away. He knew his attacker was going to go in for the kill. The Magi had no time to waste, he turned and used his Manalysis to find Nemo and fired off warning shots repel him away. 

Nemo however easily absorbed the Manablasts and closed in on him. The mage got to his feet and put all of his remaining mana into a enhanced punch. Nemo countered by cancelling out the Magi's attack with his absorption rune on his palm once more. He cocked his head to the side when the Magi attempted to retreat. Nemo already had a vice like grip on his hand. Nemo used his free hand to deliver a punch to the Magi's face to stun him. And then let go of his hand and grabbed onto his neck with his right hand. Ever since Nemo first laid a finger on him, the Magi could feel his mana leaving him. He knew what was coming. With his mana already mostly used it up, it wasn't long until Nemo's trademark mana siphoning ability drained him dry and killed the man. 

Nemo left his body out in the plains where they fought and returned to the one last loose end: The crippled Magi. He once again whistled a tune to himself as he walked up the the Magi, who had managed to get to his knees while Nemo was fighting. Nemo stopped a few feet from him and let the Magi catch his breath. During this time they could get a better look at eachother. The cripple was male, roughly 29, had short blonde hair and wore dress attire. The Magi looked to Nemo with scorn in his eyes. [color=7ea7d8]"Smiley... The Glutton... The Collector... Vile Consumer of Life..."[/color] The Magi spat out in between breaths.

His remarks caused Nemo to grin. "Oh you know I love the old names." He replied afterwards.

[color=7ea7d8]"Your time wanes here fiend, let it be known. By doing this you have only sealed your fate. By attacking us you attack the Church. You will regret your actions."[/color] 

"Your time wanes here fiend." Nemo repeated in a mocking childish voice, ending it with sickening giggle like noise. "Well I can't say I'm not flattered by your concern, but I think you have bigger problems than my time right now." Nemo replied. 

[color=7ea7d8]"I have no regrets."[/color] The Magi replied.

Nemo let out a puff of air from his nose at the Magi's response. "Is that so? Well then I propose a question. Tell me, if you knew the path you were taking was going to lead you here, would you have taken the same path?" He asked.

The Magi didn't give him any answer. Only a cold stare of resentment.

"I see." Nemo said with a slight smirk. He pulled his revolver from his holster, cocked back the hammer, and pulled the trigger. 

[hr]

It had been years since that incident for Nemo. And while his time wasn't exactly [i]waning[/i]. Things had surely degenerated since then in a few ways. Starting with being locked up in a pitch black maximum security cell with no food and nobody to talk to for years. But at least on the upside he's had a lot of time to think.