A.B.A. (comments and suggestions PLEASE)

prologue

the story is almost always the same, a damsel or some innocent in distress, a hero appearing from nowhere in the blink of an eye to save them, with no regard for his or her own life. magic of one kind or another, power of every kind, seeming to kill but at the last second, lo and behold, there the hero stands, totally unharmed. vowing never to take a life, they seem the penultimate perfect human.

what if, for a moment, we take the heroes out of their settings, give them new names and new worlds to live in, even go so far as to take away the very powers they were given before. do they still fight for justice?
or vengeance?
or something else entirely?

will they even fight at all?









The Will Of The One

a tale of what if?





chapter 1: you can't run away forever, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a good head start.


one day prior to the start of tenth grade, September winters (ember to those who knew her) glanced nervously up and down the incontinence and feminine needs aisle in the local cvs, praying no one would come up behind her. she glanced at her watch. "six o'clock... better hurry this up, maman will be pissed if she finds out where I’ve been."

ember was a petit, almost wiry individual, tall for her fourteen years and (most times) unusually mature too. her jet black hair was shoulder length, pulled into a ponytail, and silver tipped at the ends, a testament to the father she never knew. she wore a pink sweater and khaki dress pants that 'almost' matched, would have preferred black clothing, but had little say so in the matter thanks to mother dearest.

she peered at the different brands, sighing as she spied the prices. "damn, looks like I’m wearing generic brand this ti... boo-yeah!" a sale on depends at the end of the isle caught her notice. "seven dollars, cheap and name brand! someone up there loves me!" she grabbed a pack of small sized and ran up to the front of the store. there were only two customers at the register, an elderly couple, jolly looking but at present arguing with the clerk. ember pulled the package under her right arm and nonchalantly hummed a few bars of bon jovi's 'dead or alive'. the elderly couple left and the clerk play-acted slamming his head into the counter.

"rough day?" said ember.
he looked up, lank hair covering an acne scarred face and replied, "if you value your sanity... don't ever work in retail." he chuckled a bit and then rang her up.
"sooo, grandparent again?" he asked.
"y-yeah. granny didn't want to leave the house."
"eesh, got a few aunts just like that myself. lazy bastards."
they both burst into laughter. ember paid and left, pulling off her back pack and forcing her package inside, then she started the long trek home, beat boxing another bon jovi song.

a few minutes later she was weaving between buildings, as the apartment she shared with her mother and little sisters was in the middle of a very cramped mixture of businesses and housing and several other unsavory things.
from behind her came a jeering voice, "what have we here boys? a bit o' cunt for the night eh?" the voice came from a rather large man dressed in camo fatigues and sporting a blue paisley bandanna round his pointy head. milling around him was his 'ex-posse' a decrepit band of thugs and other unmentionables.

"l-l-leave me alone!" ember shouted and ran between the next set of buildings. she ducked behind a dumpster and tried to catch her breath and think of a way to escape. she could hear their footsteps closing in and she despaired of ever leaving alive. two heavy, booted footsteps sounded out of the gloom, followed by the 'kashiiiin' of a sword from it's sheath, and then... the sound of screaming.
a mere two minutes later the click of the sword returning to it's sheathe echoed round the alley. "pardon me, ma petite, but this is hardly the place for a beautiful maiden like yourself to spend the night..." ember looked up. the young man who faced her wore a solid red bandanna around his mouth and a backwards gray driving cap covering his hair, however it was his open shirt that caught her eyes, his chest and neck bore four distinct intersecting loops of barbed wire shaped scars.

"b-basilisk?" she stuttered. basilisk was something of an enigma. he was a vigilante of sorts, having killed enough people that the news anchors liked to do specials on him, but only targeting gangs and their members. his only discernable features were the scar and his gray eyes, the few gang members he left alive always remembered those facts and almost nothing else. oddly enough, the local police let him be, considering his work to be a 'clean up' of sorts.

supposedly, his eyes brought such terror to his victims that they became paralyzed with fear, as the basilisk of English legend had been said to be able to induce. ember gazed into them and saw no reason why that should be so.

"got it in one." he grinned beneath his mask and held out a knuckle-gloved hand to pulled her up. "thaaaat should be all of 'em but they multiply like cockroaches..."
ember looked down at the remains of the carnage that had ensued, every one of the group had been cleanly beheaded, but the man in camo had been cut to ribbons from the waist down before he had lost his head. 'whoa' she mouthed amazed at how little blood there actually was. she blushed for a moment then spoke, "thank you Mr. basilisk." she said and kissed him on the cheek, and began walking towards her apartment. basilisk blushed and called out, "h-hey ma'am, you might be needing this..." and he threw her his shirt. em glanced down at the spreading wet spot on her khakis, a testament to her terror moments ago, "oh no... and right after I-" she clamped her mouth shut before she revealed her secret. ember wrapped the shirt around her waist and stood to face him. "thanks again!"
"mi shirt es you skirt. twas nothing." he bowed and turned, walking away, a limp just barely discernable in his footsteps.

ember managed to get to her apartment without further complications, she locked the door and leaned against it, before glancing at her watch. "SHIT!", she had only fifteen minutes before her mother and sisters were due home from the stylist's. she stripped off her khakis and panties and pulled the package from her backpack. glancing around crazily, she let out a high pitched giggle and ripped open the package, pulling out a pale green diaper. she hurriedly taped it on and began to clean up, running to put her soaked clothing in the washing machine, and attempting to find a pair of sweatpants. she dug a crumpled pair out of her drawer and then remembered basilisk's shirt. without a second thought, she balled it up and tossed it under her bed.

ember had been buying diapers for nearly four years, ever since her mother decided she was mature enough to stay home alone. now, she was a very dutiful child, never in trouble, never disobeying, so as you can imagine, her mother must have been a rather strict woman... and she was, but only with ember, because she was her first child, and as you know, the first is usually the test case. she had managed to keep straight A's from third grade all the way into ninth, and by this point was so far ahead of all the other students that the teachers had a hard time keeping up with her, but they still managed to keep the tests incredibly challenging, and that, on top of being the only person cleaning their apartment, had begun to take it's toll on her. she had had nightmares every night since her tenth birthday, but not a single bedwetting, and constantly feared doing anything wrong around her mother. of course, mommy dearest had accepted all this without even a second thought to her daughter's own well-being, expecting the perfect child, regardless.

more recently however, whilst ember had been at school, her sisters had snuck into her room and went digging for 'treasure'. they had accidentally uncovered her stash and freaked out, calling in her mother. after much thought she decided to let it go as long as it stayed as quiet as it had been. she told the twins to stick the pack back where they found it and never mention a word to ember 'or else'.

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"heeey moooom how much longer?" roebyn winters moaned from the backseat of the sedan.
her twin raevyn, the more realistic of the two, sitting up front, rolled her eyes, "five minutes less than the last time you asked."

"girls." their mother, nikole winters, said in a warning tone.

raevyn, (rae rae to the family), grinned malevolently and winking, said "I wonder if emmie is dancing in her diapers again." rae conveniently forgot to mention that she had snuck a few from emmie's packs every now and then to try for herself whilst everyone else was asleep

"rae, she doesn't know that we know, and it's not killing anyone, so just leave it alone."

"but moooom" roebyn (robbie) mewled, "it's so weird, she's fourteen and still in diapers! you can't think that's normal?!"

the girls looked to be mirror images of each other, eight years old, one a pale blonde that was almost white, the other dark, both had their hair pulled back into half done ponytails, and stood at four feet tall. nikole, on the other hand was around six, flaming red hair just longer than shoulder length.

"I said leave it be, she's not hurting you, and you wouldn't even know she wore them if you two hadn't been sneaking around in her room. it's not as if she'd really be standing in the living room dancing dressed like that."


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"let me sleep on it! baby, baby, let me sleep on it! I’ll give you an answer in the moooornin!" ember stood in the middle of the living room wearing a loose red t-shirt and her diaper, obviously wet, holding a broomstick like a microphone, crooning in a husky, almost dead center impression of the singer meatloaf. there came a honk from outside, the galante's 'all locked up' sign.

she dropped the broom and scrambled for her room, pulling on her sweatpants and snagging a textbook from her dresser. after a moment's hesitation, she brought her cd-player over too and cranked it up, AC/DC blaring through the headphones.

not even a minute after that, there came the clicking of the lock and in burst the twins, still giggling malevolenty. emmie sat on her bed, appearing to study, but truthfully just enjoying ac/dc's fast paced music.
her heart beat wildly as they came in, but she managed to steel her nerves until her mother stuck her head through the doorway. "boo."

ember's heart skipped a beat, and she accidentally wet herself again. "h-hi momma, how was the stylists?"
"crowded, hot, smelled terrible.. the usual. anything good happen while we were gone?"

"no, just the usual here too."

"alright, good night emmie. don't study too late."

"kay. g'night momma."

em turned off the music and her bed lamp and pulled the covers up, waiting until she heard the creaking of bedsprings and the tv turning on.

"finally," she whispered, and pulled off her sweatpants. her depends were soaked through, the line on the front completely yellow. she pressed her palm into the middle of it and felt the resounding squish of urine around her crotch. feeling a little bit guilty, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and suckled, slowly rubbing the front of her diaper. and she fell quickly to slumber just like that...

chapter 2: lost boys and golden girls


the next morning, in the local homeless shelter and soup kitchen, terry awoke from another nightmare, soaked with sweat and gasping for air, upon his small pallet. he shook himself and stood up, fumbling for the door handle, and stepped out a room no bigger than a broom closet. blinking the troubled sleep from his eyes, he headed for the showers.

terry was fifteen and about five foot nine. his ashen gray hair was beyond waist length, and was the color you only got from experiencing a severe trauma. his eyes were the same pale grey, heavy lidded at the moment but quite stunning when he opened them. across his nose was a faint pink scar, almost unnoticed because his skin was so pale and only made the ones on his neck stand out. the scars around his neck, were shaped most peculiarly, like barbed wire. his left arm though, was a mangled mess, old scars crisscrossing it, and twists that looked like old gunshot wounds, or knife art done by a madman.

with his demure expression and heart shaped face, he was often mistaken for a young woman, and, given that he spoke in a shy tone more often than not, and was almost emaciatedly thin, he could play the part easily.

he showered quickly and donned a pair of black jeans and a black button up shirt, making sure to button it all the way up, and then wrapped his left arm back in gauze so as not to freak anyone out if they happened to see. his hair, he pulled into ponytail that left most of it loose, but pulled it up so that it looked shorter than it really was, with enough to cover his face. his boots, cracked brown leather with a metal plate on the toe of each, were the only shoes he had, and were actually holding up pretty well. he went back to his closet and pulled on a white sweater, and, grabbing his back pack afterwards, a red bandanna and gray driving cap hidden in the bottom, he headed for the door, limping just slightly.

terry had been sleeping at the local shelter for a little over three years. the death of his adopted mother beth had lost him the apartment they had shared, but left him with a small trust fund. the owner of the shelter had known him since he was a kid running the streets, (before he and beth had met) and had offered him a room of his own and a small paycheck in return for working three days a week at the shelter. terry had gratefully agreed, but even with the trust fund and his paycheck, he knew he couldn't have even afforded a motel room for more than a week. he had discussed his situation with the school principal, who agreed to let him out early when he needed to work. and so, things were almost going well, during the daytime at least. the night was another story...

terry had an unnatural ability called a healing factor, which he'd discovered by accident several years before, compared to the average person he healed about eight times faster. meaning an ordinary cut would grow back in a matter of minutes, and bigger stuff in a few hours. but there was a limit to how much his body could handle in one day, anything beyond that limit put intense stress on his overtaxed body, causing it to heal almost humanly slow.

he had forced himself to learn martial arts for defense when he was younger, and as basilisk, had expanded that ability to such a degree that he could temporarily ignore his threshold for pain, and move at blinding speeds. unfortunately, this also put intense stress on his body, often causing internal damage, which just the same, healed almost humanly slow. after a few months of being the basilisk he found he could read almost anyone's moves, to a degree, and react to almost every situation that came up. occasionally he screwed up, as his left arm attested. but that was cool with him, because his pain reminded him he was still human. the bout last night, and some others a few hours before had forced him to move faster than normal though, overstressing him, which had in turn left him coughing up blood for hours afterwards.

he felt better though, as this was the first day of a new school year, at a new school (beth had home schooled him while they lived together, but he had been out for three years now and realized he was lacking a bit.) so as he left the shelter, jogging towards school at a liesurely pace, he felt almost merry as the sunlight hit him.

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ember woke to the beeping of her alarm clock, also shaking herself out of a vivid nightmare. her diaper had grown cold during the night and she shivered, before remembering what day it was and dashing round to get ready. she showered, dressed in a long skirt and conservative green sweater, and hurriedly pulled her hair back. after some contemplation, she pulled off the skirt and diapered herself again, she looked at the skirt,wondered whether or not it would hide her depends, and sighing, pulled on another pair of loose khaki slacks.

she changed the cd in her cd player and tossed it in the book bag and left the apartment, waddling a little bit.

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many students wondered at the new arrival, the young, silver haired girl who walked among them. an enterprising young man attempted to ask her out, but she merely looked at him and rolled her eyes. several of the other girls looked and whispered, such comments as: "wow, she's cute!" and "whats up with the wierd clothing?"

first and second period went by quickly, and then third came up, english class of course. the class was set up in terrace-like steps, four different levels, and carpeted thickly. due to this there were no chairs, and the students simply sat on the floor. the teacher began roll call, got through half the class with little trouble, but coming to the m's had to double check his clipboard.

"makoto, terciel halcie.. halcoom...harfe..." he stammered, wondering for the life of him why anyone would name their child halcyon.

"it's pronounced hal-SEE-on, just call me terry though" the silver haired girl spoke just loud enough to hear, and the fool who'd tried to ask her out experienced a sudden jawdrop upon realizing SHE was a HE.

the teacher shook his head and went back to roll call, "winters, september artemis."

"ember if you don't mind." she giggled, quite out of character for those in the class who had known her for years. the reason for the giggle was unapparent to the rest, but for her it was simple, it was her first time wearing diapers to school, and she had just wet.

the teacher glanced at the note next to her name, explaining her advanced level and chuckled to himself. he handed out a few papers for their parents to sign, and told them to feel free to talk amongst themselves.
ember pulled out her cd player and cranked it up, meatloaf's 'i'd do anything for love' audible through the head phones. she put them just behind her ears so she could still hear the classroom. someways into the song, she unconcously began to sing along to it.

"i know the territory, i've been around," her voice echoed accross the classroom, and unexpectedly, the silver haired youth looked dead at her and the words he said gave her a shock.

"it'll all turn to dust and we'll all fall down," he sang in a carbon copy of meatloaf's emotional rasp.

ember raised an eyebrow, and sang back, "sooner or later, you'll be screwin' around."

"no, i won't do that," terry rang out, and he and ember sang the last line together, each looking oddly at the other, "i would do anything for love, but i just won't do that!" their performance earned them a few wierd looks and one call for an encore.

ember stood and walked over to him, her diaper crinkling just lightly enough that she was the only one hearing it. "thank god, i thought i was the only one."

terry giggled and brushed his hair out of his eyes, "yeah, i swear this town must not like rock 'n roll. sooo, who do i have the pleasure of addressing? i'm afraid i wasn't quite paying attention to mr. phil earlier."

"september, but just call me ember. you're terry, right?"

"got it in one." he grinned the exact same grin that he had the night before behind his mask, and ember was struck with de ja`vu for a moment. he grabbed her hand, brought it to his mouth, and kissed it, "brilliant performance back there, you sounded so much better than his partner for that song."

she blushed and plopped down beside him. he glanced over, and noticed the inch worth of green plastic showing over her belt, as her shirt rode up just a little. he raised a mental eyebrow, but then ignored it. they talked for the rest of the class, and then the bell rang. he watched as she stood up, discreetly glancing at her crotch. the bulge of her diaper was small, but it was there. "very cute," he mouthed and got up, walking over to mr. phil who was resting in a much used office chair. "sir, i have a small problem..."

"what's up?" mr. phil said
"my parents won't be able to sign this," he held the papers out, "they're ... dead."
mr. phil was taken aback, but only for a moment, "then get your legal guardian to sign it."
"well, i don't have one of those either... it's complicated..."
"allright, just fill 'em out yourself. it was just reference stuff anyway." he shrugged.
"thanks, oh, and try and sleep a little, it looks like you need it."
"thanks, now hurry up, before you're late." phil chuckled as his student left. "nice kid, reaaaal nice."
he leaned back into the chair and was asleep within minutes.

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fourth period was gym, which had a sign posted over the door saying: "class is canceled for today. go party."
the teacher who had posted it was nowhere to be found

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fifth was chemistry, the room set up much the same way as in english, and the teacher was a nice man in his thirties, a few strands of gray in his unruly blonde hair, named shinji izumi. (terry and ember were together in this class as well.)
halfway in, shinji asked terry to see him after class, which perked a few ears up, after all, he couldn't be in trouble his first day could he?

the truth was, shinji and terry knew each other because terry had saved his life and accidentally lost his mask doing so, about three months back.

so, introductions were bandied all around, and he told his students, "just call me shinji, 'cuz mister izumi makes me feel ooooold." he did the crypt keeper face when he said oooold, and everyone laughed. after that he got an almost villianous look and began setting out test tubes filled with various liquids on his desk. with an air of expectancy, the whole class watched as he mixed two of them...

there was an explosion, a cloud of pink gas, and the sound of raucous giggling from the front row. "laughing gas? i don't remember putting laughing gas in that!" he walked through the middle of the cloud, looking puzzled, wearing a big red clown nose, and the rest of the class got the joke, roaring with laughter.

he wriggled his eyebrows and pulled the nose off, pouring another tube over it. it turned blue and then exploded into confetti. he glanced around, surreptitiously and, in a confidential stage whisper told them, "i think it's safe to say, you will learn nothing whatsoever about chemistry in this class, and everything about stage magic." he mixed two more tubes and another cloud enveloped him, when it cleared there was no one there.

"tonight's homework, lemme think... figure out a bit of magic you've always wanted to learn and write it down. i'll pick the best one and teach it to the class." he stood by the door, looking as if he'd been there the entire period, and just about everyone jumped. "now geeeeet out!" he said right as the bell rang, and exploded into confetti.

ember and the rest of the class filed out, but terry waited at shinji's desk, wondering how he'd pulled off the last explosion. he jumped as there was a smaller one right next to him, which shinji calmly walked out of. "yo!"

"i... am never gonna get used to that...." terry said.
"that's the whole point. so, how'd the kotetsu work for you?" asked shinji, referring to the temporary katana he'd loaned him while he tinkered with basilisk's original sword.

"a bit lighter than i was expecting, i kept over-balancing... other than that, it's really sturdy...," he answered truthfully.

"well, the good news is yours is finished, i tricked it out as best as i could, but it's your skill that'll make the grade." he pulled out a long package wrapped in newspaper and grocery bags, from under his desk. "the blade has been coated in a solidified alkaline solution i mixed up, so it'll spark with just about anything. i also coated a part of the bottom in steel mesh, so when it hits the flint in the case neck... kaboom! now, the inside of the case has a one way liner, which lets the sword in but keeps the fluid from leaking out unless it's on the blade, speaking of which, the stuff inside is sort of ummm... weeeell, modified lighter fluid. it'll burn slower but still has a limit of about seven minutes per ignition. also, the liner should instantly cut off any flames still on the blade if you choose to sheathe it while it's burning. i'm not sure how well the handle will stand up to the heat though, so test it tonight and tell me what you think."

"shinji, you are a life-saver!" terry hugged him tightly.

"well, i am a biiiig fan of your work, so it's the least i can do. and now i'll know that it's my handiwork you're using out there." he ruffled terry's hair, laughing to himself. "which reminds me, when are you planning to begin tonight?"

terry let go and backed up, "i was hoping immediately after school, but i was kind of freaking out that somone would see me change..."

"i didn't take you for the fearing type..."

"it's not really fear of being found out, it's just... convenient. the fewer people that know, the better," he seemed a bit embarassed about this.

"go ahead and swap out in here, school's over for the day."

"alright," he said, and dug the hat and bandanna out of his bag. he realized his mistake a moment later. "my shirt! shit! i loaned it to that girl last night... i... oh screw it, i'll go shirtless, not like it makes any difference..."

he tucked most of his hair under the hat, letting the rest hang free (usually he'd tuck the rest down his shirt) and was just about to tie on the bandanna when a familiar female voice sounded from the doorway...

"hey terr... oh my god! i knew i'd heard that voice before!" ember had come back (after running to her locker) to talk to him, and had seen the red mask from the night before. when terry suddenly flickered out of view, when she blinked a moment later, he was leaning out into the hall, making sure no one had heard. his right arm was ram-rod straight, two fingers pointed dead center at her forehead, the tension alone in just those two fingers was akin to having a gun pointed there.

"i'm sorry ma petite, but i have to ask you not to breathe a word of this to anyone. my mission must be carried out fully before i reveal myself..."

"it...it's fine, i was actually going to ask if you could come over this friday, but..."

terry visibly relaxed, his customary half grin back in place, "sure, uh... sorry about that..."

"it's fine, and... thanks again for last night, those guys literally scared the piss out of me!" she blushed and clamped a hand over her mouth.

terry laughed and came to her rescue, "i can't blame you, i probably would have done the exact same thing in your place. speaking of which, can you bring my shirt tomorrow, it's getting cold outside."

"of course, i didn't know you were a student here or i would've brought it with me."

"okay you two, i have gotta go! my daughter is waitin' for me! oy, terry, if you want you can keep kotetsu, just in case" shinji said and ushered the two of them outside.

"thanks shinji!" they walked through the exit and terry said goodbye to ember, slinging his bookbag accross his back and dropping into a crouch. his outline flickered for a second and he took off at blinding run. the sidewalk where he had stood moments ago was cracked, with an imprint of his right boot set deeply into it...

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on the news that night, there was another group of corpses discovered, each neatly beheaded, and each belonging to a well known gang member.

the news anchor said that the angle and force of the cuts matched basilisk's usual handiwork but were distinctly different at the same time, as if the very blade that had done the killing had cauterized the wound at the exact instant it cut...

basilisk heard the news and grinned malevolently beneath his mask. those murderers would pay dearly now, because this time it wasn't a child and his mother they would face, it was an adept with a grudge...

chapter 3: no one said it has to be real, but it's gotta be something you can reach out and feel




ember and terry became fast friends during their classes, almost inseperable, he took to calling her ma petite, and she simply called him terry, but usually hugged him when she said it.

the days passed quickly and friday came sooner than anyone expected. ember entered english class and looked around. terry, with his ostentatious silver hair was notably absent.

so, she worried about terry but went to her school work with a will, finishing it quickly enough that she could listen to meat loaf again, and wonder where he'd gone.


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meanwhile, back at the shelter, terry danced around the kitchen, an apron reading "kiss the cook" tied around his waist, and his hair pulled back into a very long and unruly braid. he juggled a pair of onions and the soup ladle, waiting for the soup to come to a boil. somewhere around the area of the fridge a banged up stereo played a rendition of AC/DC's 'mistress for christmas', and the shelter's patrons milled around talking to each other, or in the case of two older women by the door, discussing the local goings on with terry.

"i hear Don Leon is looking for basilisk," said liza, the shorter of the two.
the other, marie, looked at her funny, "so are corsica, and darrius"

they were referring to the trismagia, as the three 'mafia' Don's collectively called themselves. they were the ones responsible for most of the recent gang movements against basilisk and the city. terry had yet to actually find their base though... a fact which seriously irked him.

"no, i mean he's really out looking for him, he already has his 'dog' outside the city trying to find a good enough merc. i hear he's trying to keep it quiet from the other two." liza said

terry frowned at this, knowing it would not end easily, but that the merc would have to be eliminated regardless. "has he found anyone yet?"

liza knitted her brows, "i don't think just yet... i don't remember hearing anything in the past day or two, but i'll let you know if i do." she turned and left for the bathroom.

marie snorted, "i doubt basilisk would have any trouble, no matter how tough the merc is."

terry pointedly looked away, "marie... basilisk is still human, even he has limits."

"how are you so sure of that, kid?"

"just... trust me on this," terry said enigmatically.


at that moment the soup began to boil, he turned it to simmer and tossed the onions straight up in the air, and spinning the ladle around his finger, made a simple flick at them. the onions shattered into little pieces directly over the pot. "lunch is complete," he said and banged the side of the pot several times, "COME'N GET IT!"

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(a few hours later)


there was knock at the door of the winters' aparment, nikole opened it and stared, "can i help you?"
the silver haired young woman standing there spoke, and the voice held just enough masculinity for her to realize that it was indeed, a guy, "yes, my name is terry..."

"oh, sorry, emmie never said you looked like that... it was kind of a shock," she apologized quickly.

"i get that a lot. maybe i ought to keep my hair pulled back?" he joked

"nah, wouldn't make much difference, umm you're earlier than we expected, ember isn't even home yet."

he sighed, "the school lets me out during certain days, because of my job, i never thought to check the clock, ember is probably right in the middle of gym right now."

nikole relaxed, she had thought maybe he was some kind of delinquent at first, "well, come in then, you can wait for her in comfort." she backed up to let him in. he went to the living room and sat on his haunches next to the coffee table, toes meeting in a 'v'. his flinched a bit as he put pressure on his left leg.

"can i get you something to drink?" she asked.

"do you have tea by any chance?" he asked.

"green or peach?"

"g-green if it's not too much trouble." he said and cast his eyes back down, trying to be as small as possible, when all of a sudden...

"hey momma!" said roebyn, running into the room, followed by raevyn, "there's some strange woman in our house!"

"why me? dear god, why am i cursed with the face of a hot woman!?" he whispered to himself, still trying to be small.

"girls, meet terry, he's one of ember's friends."

the girls looked confused, "there's no boy here." "just some cute girl." they said, finishing each other's sentences.

terry blushed bright red and and muttered uninteligibly to himself. nikole came to his rescue by bringing him the tea, still boiling hot, which he sipped gratefully. "i know he looks like a girl, but this is terry." she said and pointed at him.

"oh!" said the twins, shocked.

"terry, dear, please sit up on the couch, you look like you're trying to act like a servant." she chided, he apologized and moved to the couch. "so, what kind of job is this that the school makes such an allowance?"

"three days a week, sometimes four, at the shelter and soup kitchen, on main street."

nikole covered her mouth with a hand, aghast that somone of his age would be so charitable.

he continued, "they make the allowance, because that's also where i live until i turn eighteen, i could not stand to see another orphanage, so i work to keep a room there."

now nikole felt even worse, "you poor dear, are you all right? can i get you any food?"

"no, the french onion soup i made will keep till i get back, i d-don't want to trouble you with another charity story so just forget i said any of that..." he blushed an even deeper shade of red, his hand trembling as he lifted the teacup.

"in it's own way, that's absolutely brilliant, it means that at your young age, you are very mature, and already know what the world has in store for you when you grow up." said nikole, now feeling a little less guilty.

"th-thank you, mrs. winters."

the twins chimed in and started asking all kinds of questions after that, many of which had terry guffawing in seconds.

somewhere after that they began talking about ember, and terry admitted that he loved her singing, and then roebyn said something that made everyone stare, "you do know she wears diapers don't you?" causing nikole to glare at her.

terry coughed on his tea, nearly blowing half of it out his nose. "a-actually, yeeees i did."

now it was the winters' turn to balk, nikole stuttered, "h-h-h-how?"

he rolled his eyes, "not the way you think." he coughed again, "actually, it was on accident when we first met, the signs are there if you know what to look for, and the crinkle, if you've heard it before."

"b-b-b-but how? how can you tell?" nikole almost looked terrified.

"well... when i was younger i used to wear them too, i had terrible nightmares... still have a few every now and then in fact." he drained the cup, trying to be nonchalant.

"maybe thats why ... no, she doesn't wet the bed, then..."

"please calm down, you'll give yourself a headache," terry pleaded, "it's probably just for comfort, or school is driving her nuts. i know the other students nearly gave me an aneurism in the first three days..."

"thats what i thought too, maybe thats all it is... ah well, as long as it doesn't affect her grades or safety." she sighed, and leaned back on the sofa, y'know terry, i think i really like you, you're incredibly honest..." at this, terry blushed deeply.

around that time, the door handle jiggled and a round of muffled mumbling could barely be made out, then the jingle of keys and the door opened.

terry stood wearing his usual half grin as ember walked in. "t-terry!" as she threw herself into his arms, her shirt rode up and the waistband of her diapers stood in plain view. "where were you? i was worried!"

"i'm sorry ma petite, i had work today, the school let me off so i could attend to it." he kissed her forehead and she hugged him tighter.

nikole watched and thought to herself, 'they would make a great couple...'

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ember and terry talked for a long while that evening, but around five, terry had to excuse himself, ember knew it was for his nightly patrol as the basilisk, but still, she would miss him.

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terry perched upon a fire escape ladder, eyes closed, ears perked to catch even the slightest sound. eventually heard a scream from a few hundred yards to his right. he tensed and faded from sight, leaving a large dent in the ladder, he was visible upon the ground a few seconds later, but took off again with a strained grunt, leaving two furrows in the dirt, obvious marks of his heavy boots. a speed radar conveniently placed nearby clocked him at twenty mph, a speed the human body shouldn't have been able to reach on it's own.

(20 mph = roughly 30 feet per second...)


he located the source of the scream and with an inward scream of his own pushed himself to go even faster, running up the side of a building and jumping into the fray to get the element of suprise.

the fracas consisted of roughly nine gangmen, almost all of them don leon's, and an elderly couple huddled under a light pole, suprisingly it was the exact same elderly couple who had been at the cvs when ember went to buy her diapers. terry landed in between the couple and the gangmen, the case of his sword in his right hand, the left grasping it's handle.

"ordinarily this is the part where i tell you to pick on someone your own size, but here it's more of a 'your own age case'," he rasped at them, then grinned from ear to ear beneath his mask, "either way... you're screwed!" he tore the sword from it's sheathe so fast that three of them fell without even realizing what had hit them, their heads rolling across the pavement, smoking at the necks. his katana shed a bright light, roaring orange flames ran up and down it's length, giving off a scent remniscent of hell itself. "six to go, why don't one of you give me a fucking challenge already!"

two more heads rolled, and finally one of them pulled two hefty mauser handguns from his coat, sneering at basilisk, "this one's from marcus!" the name stopped terry cold, and the mausers roared across the night.
terry's body hit the street splattering it with blood, but from beneath his mask a fierce bout of obscenities issued, he stood up and tossed the katana aside, his eyes now completely emotionless. he calmly removed the slugs from his body, tossing them aside almost casually, and just as casually ripped the heads off the other three gang members. the one armed with the mausers stared, dumbstruck, how could anyone have survived that?! terry pulled down his mask so his mouth was visible and grabbed the wrists of the gunman, issuing a fierce proclamation, "tell marcus to go fuck himself and i'll see him in hell very soon." his words were calm, but as he said hell, the outline of his hands flickered and he tore the man's hands completely off, he turned, leaving him to suffer, and spoke to the elderly couple, "go home, forget you ever saw this."

at that, he picked up his katana, turned on his heel and vanished.

that night several witnesses claim to have heard a wordless howl of grief long, and loud, as terry finally realized just how far he would go to acheive his ends.

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the next time terry saw ember, was monday, in english class. terry looked very despondent, shivering a little as well. she went to him and was about to hug him, when he spoke, "ma petite, please just go, i don' trust myself right now..."

"terry?"

"i killed eight men friday night... and i ripped the very hands from the ninth one..." he whispered, "i don't think i should be doing this any more..." and with those words, he fainted.


"mr phil! get the nurse, terry's hurt!" ember shouted.

sometime later terry awoke, feeling almost worse than when he'd fainted, on a cot in the nurse's office. he realized that he was lucky the nurse hadn't found out his secret now and he inwardly cursed himself for being weak enough to faint, he got off the cot and immediately coughed, blood flecked out from between his lips. some of it landing at his feet. he trudged toward the exit, coughing harder now, into a closed fist. he accidentally stepped in some of the blood on the floor and left a few bloody footprints on his way out. fortunately, he wasn't followed, and when he got outside, he dropped into the familiar crouch, and took off, again leaving deep furrows in the ground where had been.

he wasn't at school for several days after that, and the news anchors argued about whether or not the basilisk had finally given up...

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"basilisk fights like a demon. you sure you're up for it?" asked marcus, don leon's so called 'dog'.

the tall raven haired man accross the table from him yawned and said, "well, they don't call me the 'demon guillotine' for nothing."

marcus chuckled, pleased at his cockiness.

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for another week terry did not show up at school, and the basilisk also appeared to have totally vanished.


the owner of the shelter, anthony, was concerned, because terry hadn't even left the building for days, hadn't slept, hadn't eaten, in fact, all he'd done was clean, up and down the halls, accross the tile and concrete, scrubbing as if he were trying to wash away a bad memory.

after the sixth day of this, anthony confronted him, "terry, i appreciate the hard work, but you need to rest, you'll end up killing yourself if you don't."

"it doesn't matter, my life isn't worth that much anyway. i'm just a waste of space..."

"terry, what are you talking about?"

"do you remember what i told you when you offered me the room here?"

"about your night job, yeah."

"i can live with the killing, i have to do it until i find the man who murdered her... that will be the same one that gave me the scars across my neck, the man named marcus... but, still, i never inteded to torture anyone like that... my god i'm no better than they are..." he sobbed uncontrollably.

"the man you did it to... he mentioned marcus, didn't he?"

"y-yeah he did."

"then it was his fault, if he knew to say that, then he knew what it would make you do. well, he still has his life, that's more than most of those you've faced could claim."

terry stood up, tears dryed across his face, "i'm taking a few days of leave. i need to decide whether or not i can handle this anymore..."

chapter 4: when the wind is howling through your window pane it's not the only pain of the night...


terry came back to school the next monday, but there was a distinct difference to him now, his eyes were lined, as if he still hadn't slept in days, his silver hair was disheveled and pulled into a tight but ornate ponytail, and the scar across his nose was more visible now.

his limp was very pronounced, because sometime during the slaughterfest in which he had killed the eight men, he had extended his body past the limit of his healing factor, spraining his already injured left leg, he was sore all over, and really not looking forward to much of anything.

however, his attitude changed when he saw ember, "ma petite?" he said with a shadow of his usual grin.

"i missed you terry, where have you been?"

"i'm really sorry, i just needed some time to think..."

"then allow me to help with that," she said, and kissed him. tears sprang anew from his eyes, and he embraced her tightly, returning the kiss with equal fervor.

she had been despondent as well but for several different reasons, one of which terry understood as soon as he embraced her... because she wasn't wearing her diapers.


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a day after terry's dissapearance, but before anyone noticed basilisk's had gone missing too, ember had snuck out of her apartment around eleven thirty. she had went to the cvs, bought her diapers and joked with the cashier, as usual, and came back. nothing out of the ordinary had happened on the trip, which in total, took little more than twenty five minutes.

she had opened the door as quietly as possible and locked it behind her. when she went to turn on the light, lo and behold, there stood nikole, legs akimbo, glaring at her.

"where the hell have you been? do you even know what time it is?"

"I-I-I went to the cvs."

"for?"

ember had started to talk several times, but failed to find the right words.
so nikole found them for her, "i have overlooked this habit of yours for long enough, i told myself i would as long as it didn't jeopardise your safety. and now this!"

"mom, nothing even happened, no one ever saw me. besides, i had someone protecting me."

"who? the basilisk? he doesn't care for anyone but himself, just like all the rest of those fucking vigilantes! now, throw those diapers in the garbage, you are forbidden from them permanently! go to bed and consider yourself lucky your not being beat. oh, and one more thing, that rock music of yours, it's gone too." she turned and slammed the door to her room, leaving emmie dumbstruck and hurt.



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"you poor thing," he whispered into her ear, "she took them didn't she?"

emmie stiffened, "took what?"

"you know what," came terry's reply.

"how the hell does everyone else know that!?"

"not everyone, just me, you, and her... and maybe your sisters...," she buried her face in his chest and sobbed.

"h-h-h-how did you know?"

"because, ma petite," he whispered back, "i used to wear them too. and maybe, just maybe, i can help you get them back."

And so, they progressed through the rest of the day. finding reason to hold tight to each other, even if it was just holding hands, eliciting a couple stares from the populace, but not caring at all. some time during the middle of chemistry, (during a stage demonstration between two students involving a rubber chicken, a bottle of grape soda, and a dart board...), shinji popped up next to them, and slid a package under terry's arm. he whispered to him, "compliments of the house, fireproof, be veeeeery careful." and walked back to his desk. "impressive! i wonder if the next act can top that!" he said, and moonwalked accross the stage, eliciting several giggles, then he did a sort of elvis twist and pointed into the crowd, "eeee-you! thank you very much!" and exploded.

the rest of the class went hilariously well, the last several acts bringing smiles to even ember and terry's somber faces. once the bell rang, terry nodded to shinji (who grinned mischeviously) and left with ember.

"need a payphone and then we can get to work," terry told ember, very confident now.

they found one, just outside of the school.
a few rings in and the phone was picked up, nikole's voice sounded as if she'd just woken up, "whazzat?"

"fraulein nikole, i wonder if i might borrow ember for a while?"

"terry? y-yeah, just have her back by seven, and be careful."

"thank you very much." he said and hung up.


"so, diapers first? my treat."

she stared at him, "you're serious?"

"of course ma petite. i rarely joke, you know that. speaking of which... you ever want to fly when you were a kid?"

"y-yeah... why?"

he grinned from ear to ear and picked her up, his out line flickering, he slammed his right foot into the ground and took off straight up, leaving another deep bootprint in the dirt. his outline still flickering, he ran up the wall and kicked off, continuing his crazy method of travel by using telephone poles and adjacent buildings, until they reached the cvs. he took off from another phone pole and hissed between his teeth, "airbrake!" and hit the ground on his right boot, pivoting into a spinning crouch to slow down the inertia.
ember stuttered for a moment, "t-t-t-t-t-t-that was fucking AWESOME! can we do it again?!"

"of course, but we're here, so it'll be a few minutes."

they went inside, terry browsed the hair dye aisle for a little while, gazed at his own and thought 'screw it.' then he followed ember to the incontinence aisle, he smiled and said, "any one you want, money is no problem."

so after some browsing, ember found a brand that looked almost babyish, with little designs on the tape landing strip, and just her size too.

they bought them, ember joked with the cashier for a few minutes, the cashier busted out laughing when he found out terry was a guy though.

once outside, terry picked up ember and said, "hold on tight, i'm goin high!" the asphalt fractured under the force of his kick, and he launched nearly thirty feet into the air, using the light poles as propulsion afterwards.

sometime later they were walking along the roof of another apartment chain, chatting, when ember asked terry how he could do what he did as basilisk.

"well, it's complicated, you see i have something called a healing factor, meaning if i get hurt then i heal almost immediately, problem is, i have to eat a lot to keep it up,(which i don't get to do often) and theres limits to how much i can handle at once. what i did earlier, is simply ignore the pain and extend the force of my body's movement, like a marathon runner puts on that extra kick at the end of the race, 'cept i can keep doing it, and yes, it does hurt quite a bit simply because of the strain, but that'll heal if i mess it up. and because of it i can move faster than most people can even see."

"so it takes a healing factor?"

"hell no, anyone could do it, but there are very few body types that can handle it for an extended time."

"can you..."

"teach you? sure, i thought you'd never ask."

she laughed at that.

and right as she did, terry looked up. sitting barely ten feet away, was a tall man with waist length black hair. in his hands was a playboy magazine. "hold up a minute, i wanna finish this page." he said, in a voice akin to silk. the katana beside him was incredibly long, and terry hoped for a minute that the aura this man put off even while resting wouldn't be directed at him. his hopes were dashed, when the man folded up the magazine, placing it in his blue kimono robe, "judging by your little conversation earlier, i'm guessing you're the basilisk. am i right?"

terry glared at him, and the raspy monotone of the basilisk clawed its way from his throat, "what of it."

"i was hired to kill you, now be a good little shit, and live up to your rumors!" the raven haired swordsman whipped his katana from it's sheathe, in a style which terry barely registered as iaido while he ducked.

he twisted into his own duck and stood up, landing a punch to his opponents sternum. the stranger laughed as if he hadn't even felt it, and stabbed at several points on terry's neck with his fingers. terry dropped like a rock. "tchah! not even worth my time" the stranger said and turned, studying ember.
"heeeello gorgeous!," he noticed the package of diapers in her hands and laughed, not maliciously but suprisedly, "just like me... where'd you find that brand?"

"ummm, cvs."

"funny, my town doesn't carry those.... must look into the problem..." while he had been speaking, terry had opened the package shinji had given him. inside was a long black leather glove, all of the fingers tipped with five inch long metal claws. as he slid it on his left hand and tightened the straps, he felt the metal plating in the palm and knuckles, and inwardly grinned. this thing was probably even bullet proof!

he stood up just as his opponent turned around, the self same opponent nearly had a heart attack when he saw him upright, "what the hell! those were paralysis hits, how're you standing!?"

"healing factor, learn to listen." terry moved at normal speed for once, parrying the strokes of the massive blade with his claws, often simply slapping it away if it got too close.

"so, who the hell are you?" he said, sidestepping the blade again.

"ocoa the demon guillotine!" replied the swordsman, dashing forward and landing a knee in terry's gut.

"oof, never heard of you."

ocoa's face twitched, "yeah, well fuck you!" he said and slashed hard at terry.

who caught the blow, "i'm so sorry, fuck what? i said, fuck WHAT? oh... wait a minute, fuck you up? glad to oblige!" and wrenched ocoa's sword sideways and out, loosening his grip, hefore slamming the hilt into his stomach. "i'm not gonna kill you ocoa, but i'm not averse to roughing you up a bit either. i'm only interested in the mafia. they deeply wronged me..."

"then you'll be happy to know it was them who sent me, all i wanted was a good fight, and that exactly what they promised."

"who in the gang sent you?"

"he called himself marcus." as he said it the vein's in terry's body stood out suddenly, the ones in his eyes bulging and turning his pupils blood red. a wordless howl of rage burst from his lips and he heaved ocoa (who was nearly twice his size) high into the air with his right hand, positioning the blades on his left into a spearish shape. ember suddenly realized what was going to happen, even though she hadn't been privy to it the last time.

"terry!" she screamed, "control it, don't kill him!"

"sorry, doll, terry's not here anymore!" the raspy tones of the basilisk were preeminent, but terry's usual undertone wasn't there at all. it chilled her to the bone, and she did the only thing she could. she dropped everything she was holding, ran to him and kissed him, hard.

he dropped ocoa, and then he too fell. when he opened his eyes, the blood had receded from them and he simply looked tired. he stood, removing and folding the glove, and ocoa spoke to him, "three days from now, meet me here, i'm dropping the contract against you, if you need an assassin to help with your quest then you have my blade and my word." ocoa then jumped off the side of the building, vanishing from sight.

terry shivered and shook, until ember embraced him. "em, i'm scared... i can't control the killer instinct anymore, i-i-i had an urge to just tear him apart...," he buried his face in her hair, and sobbed.

"then i'll just have to be there to bring you out of it. simple as that."

he smiled through his tears, "really?"

"for you? a thousand times."

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a few hours later, they descended from another apartments roof, and landed on the stairwell to ember's, as it was on the third floor.

"terry, mom told me about why you had to leave school last friday, and i know the shelter is your only home, but i want you to stay with us."

"m-ma petite..."

"i talked to her about this a few days ago, we have a room we only use for storage, i can get it cleaned out and find a bed for you."

"i......i can't take charity offerings," he said, sniffling, "it means a lot that you'd ask but..."

"it's a pride thing. let it go."

"i-i'll think on it."

they reached the door and terry told ember, "let me do the talking, i'm going to be a bit drastic here so bear with me.."

"will do," she kissed him on the cheek, eliciting a blush.

ember opened the door and the two walked in. nikole looked up from the stove, still in her sweats from the night before, and smiled, until she noticed the package under ember's arm, which made her furious.

"emmie! what the hell are you doing with diapers? you know i told you you weren't alowed to wear them ever again."

terry broke in, "s-sorry nikole, that was my fault, i bought them."

"and now, forcing your boyfriend to buy them, tch, disrespect!"

terry blushed at 'boyfriend' and stammered, "s-s-she looked really sad so i felt i had to do something to make her happy, and i'm afraid i never r-really gave her the chance to say no... whatever punishment you planned for her, please lay it on m-me instead...," he dropped to the floor and bowed so low that his forehead touched the ground.

nikole immediately felt guilty. "i...i....... you may have them back on one condition... if terry will wear them then you can."

terry's breath caught in his throat, "ember... think carefully about this... if i do this for you, my sword skills will be compromised, i'm not sure if i can afford that..."

nikole raised an eyebrow, "sword skills? what do you mean?"

terry stood, hanging his head in shame, "perhaps it's time for you to see what kind of garbage your daughter hangs out with..," and he slowly unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt, revealing four lines of crisscrossing barbed wire scars.

"basilisk?" nikole was awestruck.

"i told you he was watching out for me, didn't i?" em didn't look happy with his choice to tell her, but went with it, "he's not as heartless as you think, mom. and terry, i know you want your past back but since that's impossible, you can always take the next best thing, besides, you're so good at swords that a diaper really isnt gonna hold you back at all."

nikole sighed and made a decision she knew she'd remember for years to come, "welcome home terry."

"w-what?" he said, eyes wide.

"ember and i had a discussion after i took her diapers, we confided in each other a lot, trying to decide how best to help you. the fact that you're basilisk and she didn't tell me changes a lot, but my decision remains the same."

"i couldn't tell you, i'm sworn to silence over it." said ember.

"oh. then i'm sorry for doubting you."

terry's demure voice cut in, "you would accept a murderer here? i.... had planned to finish my work and then turn myself in to the judgement of the people, probably die in some rotten prison cell, or leave town entirely... so many things are changing....," he bowed from the waist, "madame nikole, i accept your offer, as of this moment i am entirely at your mercy. do with me what you will..."

"my terms are that as long as my daughter is diapered, so are you, that you follow our rules, and... loosen up a little, have fun." she turned to ember, "as long as you are living in this house, you are to remain diapered, use them for all their intended purposes, and continue to keep your grades up. oh, and by the way.... the music is yours again, go party."

tears coursed down terry's face and he murmered to himself, "dear god, i do want this, all of it, but the cost, it's always too great later on... what will i end up paying for this happiness?"

"you two stay here, i need to go pick up some diapers in terry's size, among other things." nikole said, sounding a little amused at the goings on, "terry honey, what's your pants size?"

terry blushed crimson, "women's size two....it's the only size small enough, and i usually add on to the legs so they'll fit."

"seriously?" ember said, lifting terry's shirt to check, "you're smaller than me!"

nikole let out a very girlish giggle, waaaay out of character for her, thinking about putting terry in girl's clothing just to see the effects, "alright you two, be good and watch the twins till i get back."

the door shut behind her and ember's eyes went wide, "oh god! the twins!"

robbie stood in the hallway giggling madly, and rae-rae looked like she just wanted to hit her.

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don leon glared at marcus, "i thought you said he was going to kill him..."

"it seems the demon guillotine wasn't as up to par as the records showed."

"do not fail me again marcus..."

"oh trust me, when i'm done with him, he will beg for your mercy, beg to serve you... it's just gonna take a little while to whittle him down" marcus smirked, unfazed by leon's implied threats.

"see to it then!"

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when nikole came back, it was nine o'clock, the twins were in their room, asleep. terry and ember were on the couch playing a game of chess, and ember was winning, much to terry's consternation.

nikole whistled and they both looked up. "both of you on the floor now, pants off."

ember complied immediately, revealing a cute pair of pale blue panties, but terry stayed on the couch, blushing almost russet in color.

"terry, down, you don't have anything i havn't seen before." this merely served to make him blush even more, but he dropped to the floor, and took off his boots before removing his pants, revealing thin, shapely legs, and clean, but threadbare, boxers.

nikole pulled off ember's panties, pulling a diaper from the pack terry had bought earlier and told her to lift up. she did and nikole unfolded and positioned the diaper under her. she then pulled a bottle of lotion and another of powder from the bag, making ember wriggle in silent joy. she put both on her, rubbing them in slowly, before taping it shut. as a last little suprise, she took a pacifier from the bag and popped it into ember's mouth, making ember grin behind it, looking like a mischevious toddler.

she gave the same treatment (but with blue hued, babyish print diapers) to terry, who had gone beyond blushing and started silently crying.

"cheer up, this should be a trip down memory lane for you." said nikole, taking terry's hair out of it's ponytail. fully undone of all the catches and rubber bands he normally used, it cascaded over his shoulders, and accross his face, and if he'd stood up, would have reached his ankles. when he looked up at her from beneath it, his eyes wide and fearful, she had a strong motherly urge and hugged him tightly, and he looked a little calmer.

"ember, can you find a t-shirt for terry to sleep in?" nikole asked, and ember gushed behind the pacifier, running off to find one. while she did that, nikole unbuttoned terry's shirt and pulled it off. aside from the barbed-wire scars, there were faded stitch marks going accross his lower abdomen, and a few older, smaller scars. his left arm was a wreck, scuffed up and covered in burns, slash marks and pockmarks from god knew what. but all the injuries there looked years old. on his left leg, encircling the shin, was an uneven tear scar that looked as if the very bones in that leg had exploded, it was the oldest looking by far.

ember came back into the room holding a longish pink t-shirt and swinging a pair of socks, "thank you emmie, that was very thoughtful of you." said nikole, and ember's grin grew even bigger. they both helped terry pull on the shirt, and let him cover the scar on his shin with the socks. everything changed out like that, and he also looked like a toddler, albeit a tall one. nikole inwardly gushed at this, having not realized before how cute the both of them would look in diapers.

"alright you two, time for bed. ember, do you mind sharing tonight?"

ember removed the pacifier for a moment, "not at all." she said, still grinning.

terry bowed his head to the floor, in silent thanks to nikole. "terry, please, stop acting like a servant, you're part of the family now." she helped him stand up, and he looked at her, nearly ready to cry again. this time it was ember and nikole both who hugged him.

eventually, nikole got both of them in ember's bed and tucked them in, kissing both of them good night, and turned out the light.

after nikole too had gone to bed, ember took the pacifier out of her mouth, and asked terry, "so, feel better?"
terry replied around his pacifier, "like a wittle terry."
ember giggled at that, "true 'dat."

she accidentally put a hand on terry's diaper as she went to turn over, and glanced up at him in the darkness, "you already wet?"

"when she finished diapering me... i was afraid that maybe something would happen, and well..."

"i understand. quit blushing by the way, an erection is nothing to get embarassed over." she said giggling, eventually terry joined in, partly because she knew him well enough to gauge his expressions in the dark and also, because in all honesty, it was true.

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for the first night in many, many long years, neither of them had a nightmare.

more to come soon

chapter 5: out of the frying pan, and into the fire



terry awoke first, at five o'clock, just as the sun was coming up. he crawled off the bed and yawned softly, stretching. rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he continued to crawl until he reached the living room, there was a large sliding glass door there, leading to the balcony, and he opened it.

nikole and emmie found him there an hour later, sitting sieza style, closed fists pressed together at the knuckles, face upturned to the morning sun, with his eyes closed. he looked so at peace, that they 'almost' didn't want to disturb him.

without opening his eyes, terry began to sing, "good mornin' beautiful, how was your niiight?"

ember giggled for a moment before answering, "mine was wonderful with you by my side!"

"when i open my eyes to see your sweet face..." terry started, his eyes still closed.

"it's a 'good morning beautiful' day." she finished, grinning.

finally he opened his eyes, and the grey irises were startling framed by that sweet face, "you chased my nightmares away, emmie." his voice was higher pitched, with a slight lisp, just like a toddler. this served to startle emmie even more.

"terry, are you okay?" she asked

"nevva betta!" he said, still childish, but flashing a huge devil-may-care grin.

nikole figured it out, "it's a coping mechanism, ember, he's a bit uncomfortable about wearing them but willing to do it for you, so i guess he made a different personality to deal with it."

ember gasped, "yesterday, with that ocoa guy, he kinda flipped and didn't even sound like himself anymore, maybe that was coping too?"

in truth, this new personality was a coping mechanism, but not for his diapers, but was instead, terry's unconcious effort to create a mental balance for the violent basilisk he had become the day before.

"got it in one." terry lisped said and hugged her.

"alright, remember you two still have school today." nikole said.

ember and terry looked at each other, ember mouthing 'oh shit' and terry just grinning even more widely.

nikole changed them, suprised that terry was nearly leaking, whereas ember had only gone a little bit. they dressed hurriedly, ember in the usual khakis and a dark blue sweater, and terry in solid black, leaving off his usual sweatshirt. as he wrapped a roll of gauze (he kept spares in his bag just in case) around his left arm, his demeanor changed, "ma petite, can i ask a favor of you?"

she jumped, not expecting his demure, almost whisper, "y-yes, what is it?"

"i don't think i can get my hair braided right..." she quickly braided it, while he finished the gauze, and had to do a double take. he still looked like a girl, but with the braid now pulling most of his hair back it made his appearance even more pronounced, not to mention the fact that the braid dangled around his ankles in a long rope of silver. around his middle the bulge of a diaper stood out, and the waist band stood a few inches above his pants, clearly visible even to untrained eyes, as if he didn't care who knew. and in truth, he didn't, it was a good thing from his past come back to life, he felt almost proud to be diapered. ember adjusted her pants to match terry's, thinking *'no fear!'*, and combed her hair straight out, for the first time in years.


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the change in the two shocked everyone who saw them, the brainy girl and the girly guy, it was as if terry just didnt care that he looked like alittle kid. and ember... half the people there were used to seeing her in a ponytail, nose buried in a textbook.

they walked in laughing, mainly over a joke terry had just told, and partially over ember's initial reaction to it. diapers bulges completely visible, everyone just stared, aghast.

they split up for first and second block, and terry, sitting in math-concepts-101 was instantly surrounded by a group of girls, who just had to know why he looked so different. he ignored it for the most part, until one of them grabbed his waistband and asked the question of the hour...

"why are you wearing a diaper?" she asked.
terry replied, in his usual almost whisper, "because i felt like it. it's convenient and comfortable. got a problem with it?"
another girl did, "your not a baby. take it off!"
terry turned very slowly, grey eyes glaring, and then grinned, spoiling the effect, "in here? i'm no stripper!" he said with mock seriousness.
his voice carried, and everyone, including the girl who had told him to take it off, ended up laughing.



ember was not so lucky (or maybe she was, depending on how you look at it). she was in calculus-2. and ended up needing her diaper badly, as she continued to flood it again and again in reaction to the test she was working on.

(authors note: not sure if thats a real class... humor me.)

someone got the balls to ask her what she thought she was doing wearing one, and she ignored it.

bad move.

"i'm talkin to you bitch, answer me!" he yelled

unfortunately for the poor fool, ember was so high strung over her current work and the last nights events that she turned and backhanded him hard enough to move him back a few feet. a vein throbbed at her temple, and as she stood up, her diaper's drenched size made it obvious that she was wearing one. she didn't care though, and glared down her nose at him, "call me that again and i'll crush your fucking balls next, dipshit!"
no one else in the class even looked up, she had shook them so badly. however, as they filed out after the bell, one of them turned around and with a grin of his own said, "i am so jealous right now." and left.


second block rolled around and then third, where terry and ember met up once more.

they shared a kiss as a hello, and sat next to each other. eventually each told the other what had happened during their previous classes, and ember laughed at terry's save line, while terry laughed at ember's outburst.

of course, a few people here too asked why, and ember told them, "it's a comfort thing."
this would cause several of them to buy a pack that night to try.

fourth was gym, and this time, the teacher had a little suprise for the class, (a suprise other than actually BEING THERE for once that is.) as kendo gear was layed out...

terry unconsciously grinned.

"everybody grab a set, and change into 'em," the gym teacher, tai, was a tall, husky, haggard man with a stubbled face and a long ponytail of incredibly pale blonde hair, funnily enough his bangs were red. his eyes were mismatched, the left being red and the right a rich blue, down the left eye though, was a shallow scar. he claimed it was from a street fight when he was a kid, and considering the area's troubles, it was believeable enough. he wore a dark blue hakama loosely over his staff regulation button-up.

terry left his shirt on when everyone else stripped to switch into their gear, afraid that his neck scar would be seen. he did remove his pants however, and aside from the diaper which earned a few catcalls, the ring of scar on his left leg was fully visible. he pulled on the split skirt but left off the chest armor and everything else. this had quite a few of the others giving him wierd glances, as leaving off the armor just seemed stupid to them.

in the girls locker room, ember stripped fully, and for the first time her class mates saw her body. thin yet muscular, and very shapely for her age. divested of the ponytail, her black and silver hair cascaded down to her shoulders. on top of all that, the diaper simply made her look years younger. several of the other girls simply stared openmouthed or whispered to the others, but one walked over and asked the question of the hour.

"why are you wearing that?"

"it's hard to explain really, i suppose it's because it makes me feel safe, and it's comfy." ember replied, with a slight blush.

"but it's wet."

she blushed again, "did i mention convenience? the bathrooms here are rather nasty." and in truth, they were!

the other girl left it at that, with a shrug that seemed to say 'suit yourself'.
ember pulled on the gear and tied on her headband, holding the helmet under her arm.

once they were back in the gym, the teacher began to divide them into pairs to practice. terry ended up the odd one out, and tai offered to spar with him.

"alright go at it!" he said and the others began to fly at eachother or circle warily.

"now then kid, where's the rest of your armor?"

"i won't be needing it." terry said, in the usual whisper, and spun the shinai he'd picked up, "hmmm, too light in general, off balanced due to a slightly forshortened handle, half speed i think, to get the feel..."

he looked back at tai, "ummm, sorry old habit. ready?"

tai had also neglected to put on armor, but he'd almost never done that anyway. he hefted his own shinai, and barked a single word, "GO!"

tai came at terry with a two handed blow, but terry, using only his right hand, slapped it sideways easily.

"OOORAH!" tai came at him again, but terry sidestepped and spun his shinai, knocking tai's blade from his hands at the same instant.

he came at him with a powerful thrust, and this time, terry reacted by ducking under the blow and slamming a flurry of thrusts back at tai, who bore them with a slight grunt.

"kid, that ain't kendo, 's too... damn i don't even know what to call that, i didn't even see you move... where the hell did you learn to fight?"

terry flipped his shinai to null position, handle toward tai, gripping it with his left on the blade, behind the hand guard. "my father, was sixth dan in kendo at one point, before he started drinking. until i was five i watched him and learned all i could, then everything went down the crapper, and everything since then is all my own. kendo is childs play now."

tai eaised an eyebrow, and motioned for another shinai, one of the other students brought it to him, "prove yourself. prove that those very obvious diapers aren't hindering you. prove to me that that girly face isn't your only vice. prove that you are better than me!"

terry flinched at those words, and suddenly the veins stood out on his face, eyes just barely turning red, his voice shifting into a very familiar raspy monotone, "lets party!"

tai's blades moved in two side-by-side swirling figure eights, (this is hard as hell to do, trust me) and he moved slowly toward terry. terry just grinned, "try another stance, your legs are open, and you have a two second lapse on your right blade." he said and stabbed tai's right flank to prove it, following up with a slash at his legs.

tai switched the right hand side downward in an obvious kutaba-ryu style stance. terry nodded and said, "much better. now MOVE!"

they both moved at full speed, bamboo meeting bamboo with a crack, and a muffled whump as terry slammed his hilt into tai's chest, knocking him back a few feet, he sneezed unexpectedly and then switched to his left hand, sword held downward. "hope you don't mind if i end this quick."

ember called from the throng of students who had stopped sparring to watch, "terry, don't kill him, rein it in!"

he nodded to her and dropped into a crouch, "rail!"

twisted a little to the left as if he were going to hit a baseball, "gun!"

and then shot forward so fast that he flickered out of view, braid flying, "signature burst!"


by the time anyone figured out what happened, tai was flat on his back, gripping two slightly smoking, bladeless shinai hilts.

terry was walking back, eyes hooded, a half grin on his face, "proof enough?" he said and held out a hand to pull up tai, which he gratefully accepted.

"i concede, but you have gotta gotta show me how you did that!" he looked a bit shaken when he said it, but really happy at the same time, "your sword aura, i didn't feel it until right before you did that..."

"just remaining calm, all it takes." he said, and demonstrated the movements for the R.G.S.B., he had to do it several times so the class could duplicate it too, and had a bit of trouble reproducing the footwork, as most of them couldn't match the sheer speed and angles.

eventually tai suitably caught his breath and wanted a rematch. to make a long story short, he ended up in the exact same position with a shinai pointed at his throat, with terry on the other end wearing his usual half smile.

terry's blade spun in a tight arc back to null position and he posed saying, "absolute... BAD-ASS!"
tai and ember both burst out laughing at that.

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fifth period was kind of odd compared to the rest of the day...

"terry? need i even ask?" said shinji

"i..." terry bit his lip, flushing red.
eh, forget about it, it's alright, see that girl over there?" shinji pointed at a gothy looking teenager with her sweater's hood pulled most of the way over her head, "that's my daughter sable. go speak with her, you may be suprised..."

and so they did. sable looked up from a complex formula in one of her notebooks, "oyo?" she blinked owlishly, "whazzup?"

"um, shinji sent us." terry said.

"well then, nice to meet you basilisk."

terry's jaw dropped, "eh wha?"

"he told me he'd send you, we need to speak anyway, daddy might be a genius with with the hammer and tongs, but i'm the master of the gimmicks."

ember looked confused, "what do you mean?"

sable flipped a page of the notebook, showing them a sketch of a wrist attachment that had several small balls attached to it. "this is how he does the explosions, my design. 'tis incredibly simple for effects so flashy."

"this is interesting, but i'm not quite following you." terry said, looking as confused as ember.

sable blushed and looked down, biting back a smile, "sorry, got ahead of myself there, i guess what i'm trying to say is, your sword and claws... are my design."

terry's jaw dropped again, "damn."

"and... oh god forgive me but i gotta let this out..." she burst out laughing, which died down to snickers a few minutes later, completely out of character for her, "oh man! you two are so obvious it's not even funny but it is, it's hilarious!"

"huh?" terry and ember looked at eachother, completely confused. finally, sable calmed down, and unbuttoned her pants enough to show them, beneath was a white, abena diaper. it was obviously wet, and had a strip of masking tape accross the front, holding on a strip of paper with cartoon characters on it, so it looked like a baby's diaper. she buttoned back up and told them, "the brand you two are in leaks a lot, they're mostly just for looks, they'll work for light wettings but after that... and you," she said, looking at ember, "need to change soon, yours is about to leak in a few minutes.

"i thought we were the only ones..." said ember, "why do you wear them?"

sable blushed and glanced to the side, "i'm actually a ...... teen baby." and ember noticed a pacifier on a silver chain peeking out from inside the sweater.

"but that is a story for another day, for the moment i need you to look these over, they are designs for a prototype sword." she said, and handed terry another notebook.

he scanned through, flipping pages back and forth to compare, "if you can make this work... my god, thats brilliant..."

"thanks," she said with a grin, which changed to a frown, "and... good luck, i hear tell that leon is baying for blood."

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the next two days flew by, and before they knew it, they were meeting with ocoa upon the roof once more.

"leon knows i split, so officially, he wants me dead too." ocoa looked downcast.

"do you know where to find him," asked terry, "because i think all we can do now is to attempt a frontal assault and try to kill him off now."

"...i don't know right off, but i know he's a metahuman and i can track him that way..."

"what?!"

"you're a meta too basilisk, your healing factor, what did you think that was? any way, my 'ability' is to track metahumans, kind of by smell and 'feeling', it's hard to explain."

terry spoke in his half whisper once more, "so i am a freak..."

ember smacked him accross the back of the head, "no you're not, you're terry and thats all there is to it."

ocoa waited until the two stopped laughing and began to speak, "i suppose i have a bit of explaining to do... there are two reasons for my being in this city, one was the job i accepted from leon, and the second was because this city has the highest concentration of mtahumans that i have ever come across."

"..." terry raised an eyebrow.

"and since you apparently have no idea what i'm talking about... a metahuman is a normal person who has been gifted with a jacked up ability in a certain skill set. for example, your friends the izumi's (yes i have met them) are both meta's, shinji is a forge, basically a person who can work control metal, his daughter is fabricator meaning that she understands mechanical things on a level so high that most of us can't even comprehend it. now, all metahumans have a healing factor, but every now and then one comes along who heals as fast as you do, thats called serei-class. no one is really sure what causes a meta to go serei."

"let me guess, silver hair is the indicator?" he glanced at the silver streaks in ember's hair as he said this.

"exactly! what i wonder though, is what your other ability is..."

"my speed, of course."

"wrong, when i met you i was using my tracking to it's fullest, and that monstrous strength and speed were entirely you, and not your meta ability."


-CLICK!- the sound of a gun being cocked, drew everyone's attention to the edge of the roof...


"well isn't this just sweet?" the speaker was a teenaged male, wearing a long green trenchcoat whose edges were frayed by what appeared to be bullet holes. long black hair framed a face half hidden by large sunglasses and bandages.

terry recognized him at once, "mARcUs!!!!!!!!!!!" his entire outline flickered, and he walked toward marcus, the veins standing out on every possible inch of his body, the basilisk's raspy monotone burst forth from his lips, "you son of a bitch!"

his outline continued to flicker, and he aimed a kick at marcus.

however marcus just grinned, and then threw back his head and laughed. he focused his gaze once again upon terry, and pointed the gun at his chest, the barrel glowed an ominous red and a heat haze surrounded the gun, "poor little serpent, where ARE your fangs?" he pulled the trigger just as he said fangs, and the bullet took terry through the lung, dropping him immediately to the ground, in a pool of his own blood.

terry coughed up blood, and managed to stand again, he glared at marcus and spat out several sentences in a harsh gutteral tone.

ocoa and ember looked at eachother, and ember asked, "was that german?"

ocoa nodded, "i doubt our attacker even speaks german."


marcus on the other hand scowled, "what the fuck are you saying?"

"just this." terry said and lunged forward, slamming a punch that would have floored a cow.

he spit out another mouthful of blood, and glanced at his chest, there was a twist of scar tissue, already looking weeks old where the bullet had hit him, and a little bit of blood, but nothing else, "wast ist?"

marcus stood back up and smiled from ear to ear. he aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, terry stiffened praying the bullet wouldn't hit any vitals, but he felt nothing. all of sudden it made sense, he turned around and saw ember, hand over her chest where the bullet had gone in.

"NO!" he ran to her, praying it wasn't as bad as it looked. it was. "ocoa?"

"on it!"

terry picked up ember and slammed his right boot into the tile below him, the impact shattering it into so much dust.

whereas ocoa charged marcus, performing a perfect battojutsu strike. marcus growled and spat at him, then turned and slammed his foot against the tile, in an imitation of terry, and vanished into the street below.

chapter six: on a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?


several days after the incident, ember awoke in a white room, feeling just a little sore. in a chair beside her sat terry, his usually pale skin now a striking alabaster. "t-terry?"

his lips barely moved, and she could tell he was exhausted, "yes, ma petite?"

"oh, nothing. love you."

"and i you."

she drifted back to sleep after that and would remain that way for several hours.


nikole popped in and out, as the hospital didn't allow children in the i.c.u. she was only able to visit when the twins were at school. she was worried sick, obviously, but there isn't much a middle aged work from home mom can do for a gunshot victim.

when ember awoke again, terry was dozing, still deathly pale.

"terry?"

after a moment he said, "mich liebchen, was ist?" and clapped a hand over his mouth, muttering a few choice words under his breath, "sorry, ma petite?"

"what happened?"

"swear you won't hate me?" he said, cowering slightly.

she chuckled, "of course i won't hate you."

"my blood. i made a gamble, the doctors said you weren't going to make it, i..... convinced one of them to do a transfusion, thought maybe my healing factor was transferrable. apparently it is."

ember's eyes went wide, and she pulled at the hospital gown, unconciously noting the fact that the staff had put her in a diaper, she tugged at the bandages on her chest, ripping them apart. there was no longer a hole, just a small spiral of pink scar tissue, looking several months old.

"terry i..."

"i'm sorry... i couldn't stand to see you hurt..."

she sighed and then burst into laughter, "now i can help you!"

terry's stomach growled and a thought struck ember, "you said your healing factor drew it's energy from food. when did you eat last?"

"ummm i give up?" he said with a grin.

"oh, thank god! i thought for a minute you were pulling a dracula on me! white skin does not suit you." they both burst into laughter again.

"sooooo, how bout a steak?" asked terry, when he had managed to pull himself together.

"screw the steak, bring the whole damn cow!" ember was dead serious...

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ember was released that night, leaving the doctors scratching their heads...

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shortly afterwards, ocoa dropped in on them again. as terry taught ember how to bypass her limits, ocoa tested her to see if she had any meta human abilities.


"any power you may have is accessed by a focus state," ocoa said acting mock professory, "for the moment we'll concentrate on just entering that state. afterwards, we will release it during combat."

"first, be seated and clear your mind."

ember did so, sitting peacefully. terry, concerned over the fact that his abilities were still untapped, did the same.

"second, picture a wave of energy about where your heart is." ocoa's voice was now calm and charismatic, much like your average guru, "reach in and release it."

within seconds ocoa was nearly blown off his roof perch by what can only be described as a sonic wall. ember covered her mouth, her eyes were wide, "w-w-was that me?"

ocoa, back upright once more, murmered, "just as i thought, a latent talent. i wonder..."

he and ember looked at terry, expecting something. all of a sudden terry fell over backward, legs still crossed, a pungent odor wafted towards the waiting teens, and terry coughed in embarrasment, "no jokes okay?"




"i guess... all i've got is a healing factor," terry addessed the other two feeling a little dowcast, as nikole changed him.

ocoa sighed, frustrated, "well how are we going to take down leon then?"

"that all depends, you said he's a metahuman, what's his power?" terry asked, nikole left his pants off and went back to work in her room.

ocoa's eyes closed, and his tracking went into effect, "...smells like charcoal... very stuffy... " his eyes snapped open, "pyrokinesis."

terry's head dropped, "sheisse..."

ember looked back and forth between the two, "pyro... latin, fire? he can control fire? that doesn't sound too bad."

terry bit his lip, "most people take months to recover from a third degree burn, if i get hit even once, i think... it may be too much for my healing factor... this also means that neither of you will be coming with me."

"WHAT!?" ember and ocoa cried in unison, "you can't do this to us!"

terry continued, his stressed voice back at an almost whisper again, "for the next two, fine, but i'm probably the only one who'll be able to live through this."

"terry," ember paused for effect, "i'm coming regardless. and ocoa has to come or you won't be able to even find leon."

terry inhaled sharply as if he were about to yell and then let it out, "you know, that point completely slipped my mind..."

nikole stood in the hall way, leaning against the wall, "dress warm, theres supposed to be a storm. and terry, if she gets hurt again, you will die. i'm overlooking this last time because you saved her and because technically you had no control over what happened."

terry's diaper turned yellow as if on cue, and he stammered, "i um, yes ma'am," he bowed to the ground again, once more making her feel guilty, and giving ember a clear view of his diapered rear, to which she let out a wolf whistle, making him blush.

"alright, tommorrow is a saturday, and the basilisk is officially making a comeback in the flashiest way possible. so everybody sleep well, we're gonna have our hands full." he said.

"hey momma? can ocoa stay here tonight?" asked ember, "we'll call it a slumber party."

"sure." she replied, and ocoa was immediately tackled and dragged away laughing by the twins...

ember walked over to her mother and whispered, "you're so accepting of all this, what brought all that about?"

nikole just smiled and said, "that's a story for another day, the short version is this, you really are your father's daughter. and he would be very proud of you."

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ember went into the bathroom and turned on the shower, digesting what nikole had said. she stripped slowly out of her khaki's and stared at herself in the mirror.

the silver streaks in her hair made the black look even darker, contrasting with her fair skin. skin just a shade darker than peach. her body was thin compared to most her age, yet muscular enough to be sexy in some ways. in fact, her breasts weren't large, and she almost didn't need the bra beneath her t-shirt, but chose to wear it out of pride.

she glanced down at her diaper, soaked through of course, and placed a palm on the front. she wet some more and squished it shivering as it pooled around her crotch. she giggled and dropped to the floor, laying down and spreading her legs. she rubbed slowly, savoring the squishy feeling, and wetting a little bit more. her hand moved up and down, the diaper crinkling softly. she felt a tingling sensation around her clit, trying to dispell it, she rubbed the area with both hands. suddenly her stomach and clit tightened at the same instant, and without warning she wet her diaper violently. she sat up an untaped it slowly, letting the front fall forward. the urine from before had soaked into the padding, yellowing it, but above that was an opaque, sticky white liquid. she froze for a moment then understood what had happened. after which, she pulled it back up and squished a few times, before taking it off and stepping into the shower.


ocoa went in a few minutes later, having finally gotten free from the twins, and sat down on the floor. he glanced around shiftily eyed, a pointless gesture, but still funny, and stripped off his pants. beneath was a large depends adult diaper. the crotch was yellowed, not much, but enough to feel squishy, and from within his his kimono top he pulled a rolled up playboy magazine, a lazy grin upon his face, he began to peruse...

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while the other two showered and so on, terry quietly pulled on his basilisk disguise, and grabbing his sword, opened the balcony door.

"terry?" said nikole.

"i'll be back shortly, they'll need armor, and theres only one man i trust when it comes to metal work."

"alright, godspeed terry," he was gone as the words left her mouth, leaving a tiny dent in the balcony railing.


terry kicked off of several lamp posts and buildings, gaining altitude. as the wind lashed his face, a wild, reckless cry left his lips, and he shot higher still.

finally, he dropped, his body spinning...


as he fell, he caught sight of a shadow following behind him, more clumsily, as if it's body didnt work quite right. terry let it follow him for a ways, not going directly toward his intended destination, but zigzagging to confuse his pursuer. after about ten minutes, his legs flickered rapidly mid-jump and he vanished from sight. the shadow's face showed in the lamplight, marcus, haggard and red eyed, his shaggy hair disheveled and his face bruised and bloodied...

a grin and a flash of silver flickered in the darkness and then were gone once more.

marcus glanced around, his eyes wild.

"mack the..." a cased sword appeared as if from thin air and pressed against the back of marcus's neck, "KNIFE!"
terry's thrust was powerful, and to a normal person would have caused a concussion, but it didnt seem to faze marcus. his arms raised, straight toward terry, the joints bending at an impossible angle, marcus's eyes opened wide behind his cracked sunglasses and he seemed to be trying to say something. within his hands were two colt .45 revolvers, each glowing an eerie red and dancing with livid, angry sparks.

he coughed and suddenly screamed, "goddamn it MAKO DODGE IT!"

the guns tore a red hole in the night but terry managed to duck away from the blast and turned to see a terrifying sight, marcus hovered a foot off the ground, bent over backwards also at an impossible angle, grasping futilely at his own neck.

terry made to help him when suddenly... he vanished in an explosion of red. no blood... but an eerie lightshow...


terry bit his lip and looked away, mouthing what could have been a prayer.

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a thud from the balcony alerted everyone of terry's return. he carried a large bundle on his back and collapsed into a sitting position as soon as it was off. ember made to ask a question, but he beat her to it, "armor, fire proof armor. it's from the izumi's."

he got back up and stepped out onto the balcony, closing the door behind him. the balcony was dark, but everyone could see him tensed, and though the glass door was thick his cursing was audible, if only just. he spoke in solid german, devoid of an accent, stomping a foot now and then or turning and yelling at the sky, then slumping over the guard rail, pounding a fist into it. much the same way a grieving person is wont to do over the casket of the deceased.

ember quietly slid the door open, and walked out. she wore a long blue t-shirt but her diaper still poked out beneath it. "terry?"

he did not immediately respond, but when he did it was still in solid german, harsh and gutteral. his eyes were red from tears uncried, and the pupils were completely red again. she grabbed him and kissed him, hard. he closed his eyes and cried silently. when he spoke again, he was quieter, and it was in english with a few german words whose meanings were quite clear, but he had a slight accent, as most who are multilingual tend to have while switching between languages.

"mich liebchen... i am afraid."

"what for" she asked

"marcus... is no longer my enemy. he didn't kill her..."

"kill who? terry what are you talking about?" her head cocked to the side, like an inquisitive dog.

"meiner mutti...and my savior. the gun may have been his, but no man can look that pained... leon's done something to him."

ember just stared, not quite getting it.

"we fought while i was gone... he's innocent. it wasn't him pulling the trigger."

"are you saying he's a puppet?"

"ja. close enough, a marionette."

"but he shot me..."

"and he shot me too, but i don't think it's him in there anymore, and if he is, then he's definitely not in control of his own body."

the air went dead silent and ember unintentionally unloaded in her diapers right there.

"i know... i was intense, i reacted so.... violently about him before... he became my anathema, i hated him more than anything. but now, i'm convinced, he had that same look when he pulled the trigger on her... pain and fear... as if he wanted to die rather than do as he did."

he looked over at her and bowed very low, his accent gone, "go ahead and get some sleep, i have some things to think about..."

"alright, good night terry. i hope it comes clear for you," she hugged him and went back in.

terry faced out over the balcony and mulled for a long time.

as the sun rose again, he stepped back in, his expression carefully neutral...

more next week.

chapter 7: in the land of the pigs, the butcher is king


ember and ocoa stumbled into the living room, still rubbing the sleep from their eyes, around eight thirty the next morning. terry stood in the kitchen, sipping a large mug of still boiling green tea. he was shirtless, so his scars were plainly visible, and since his hair was pulled into a pony tail, one that hadn't been visible on his back before was now blatantly obvious: hundreds of long striating diagonal marks, some light, some deep, all very old.
the red bandanna was tied around his neck, ready to be pulled up and the plastic lip of a diaper was visible over the waistband of his jeans. terry's eyes were closed and he hummed an old tune.

he turned then and opened his eyes, "are you ready?"

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the sky was a bleak gray over head, threatening rain, but as of yet, failing to deliver.

they traveled over the rooftops, ocoa pointing the way his tracking sense told him to go, and terry scouting ahead, just within sight range, prepared for the worst.

the other two wore suits of a gloss black material under their clothes; it moved easily, but smelled of some chemical neither could identify. ember carried kotetsu, the loner sword that shinji had given to terry 'just in case', and ocoa carried his long katana. terry still wore no shirt, and from his original uniform, only wore the mask. his long silver hair trailed behind him, looking like starlight in the prevailing headwind; his katana was stuffed through his belt, and gave off a slight scent of lighter fluid, making him giddy.

all too soon ocoa called a halt and pointed toward an old office building, "he's there but... there are a lot of other people there too."

"jaggers, soon to be 'toten jaggers'." terry blew out a mothful of air, grabbed the arms of the other two and kicked off. for a few moments, they seemed to be floating in mid air, the building drawing slowly closer, until terry tensed once more, making his leg flicker and placed a midair axe kick dead center into the window closest to them. it shattered to dust and ocoa raised an eyebrow (as if he, like a radar, had gotten 'pinged').


the three fell through the window into a seventeenth floor lobby. chairs halphazardly placed, and people, lots of people, every one of them armed. their guns had been at rest mere moments ago, but now were all aimed at the newcomers.

the warning click of a trigger was all it took, and terry dashed in front of the other two, his katana out, metal and flame swirling in a hard widdershins arc. nearly seventy guns roared a report and bullets zinged across the room, everyone that came near terry made a loud ping.

their ammo spent, the massive crowd were about to move when terry suddenly stopped, and whipped his blade toward the ground, a long line of bullets stood where his katana passed. he grinned beneath his mask, and whipped the sword back outward smacking into the line, and the bullets flew back toward their owners. he waited until the first began to fall and then pointed a clawed finger into the crowd intoning, "toten sie!"

within seconds ember joined the fray, doing her best at copying terry's intimidating front, she wounded certainly, but none of her strikes were fatal.
ocoa let out a snort of laughter, and jumping onto a table made a proclamation, "the demon guillotine is in the hizzouse!"

.
..
...

the room ran red and it was ember who held the other two back from killing the last one, "so what if he's got reinforcements, we can't just show up to fight the big boss unannounced."

"ja, that would be rude." terry chuckled behind his mask, hiding very well the sinister gut feeling he was getting.

"yeah, run along you little fucker," ocoa was in his element, blood splashed over his kimono top, he just wished they'd show some initiative and fight better!


they waited a few minutes and then made their way to the elevator, terry checked to make sure there weren't any traps and then laughed out loud, "he-ey, guess what!"

"what is it?" ember asked

"there's only one more floor, i should have just taken us in higher, this is kind of emberassing."

"what, three psychos taking the elevator?" said ocoa, snickering.

"speak for yourself, 'bloodbath'," ember thunked him with her scabbard.

"can't help being--"

'ding!' the elevator cut him off, and the doors opened, revealing an enormous room covered in red velvet.

"ah, visitors, finally!" came a voice from a chaise lounge, the only piece of furniture in the room, and sitting upon that chaise lounge was a lanky gorgeously tanned man in his twenties with thick, shaggy golden blonde hair, "don't mind if i smoke do you?" he asked and placed a ciggarette between his lips, but he did not light it.

instead, he stood up and raised his right hand and along his forearm was a thin clockwork device. with an honest to god smile he snapped his fingers, "when the outside temperature rises, and the meaning is, oh, so clear..." a handful of sparks shot from the device, "one thousand and one yellow daffodils start to dance in front of you. oh dear, are they trying to tell you something? you're missing that one final screw?"

the sparks expanded, forming into a handful of flames, and looking at ember he laughed, "you're simply not in the pink my dear, to be honest you haven't even got a clue."

but something else aflame diverted his attention away from ember, and as terry finally unsheathed his katana, biting back a laugh he phrased a reply, "i'm one card short of a full deck, i'm not quite the shilling. one wave short of a shipwreck, im not my usual toppity, im coming down with a fever, im really out to sea. this kettle is boiling over, i think i'm a bananna tree..."

and the man, leon, let out a laugh of his own, one of real joy, "it finally happened, i'm slightly mad! i'm knitting with only one needle, unraveling fast it's true, i'm driving only three wheels these days, my dear how about you?" he extended a hand toward terry, much like a circus impressario introducing the next act.

"it finally happened, i'm slightly mad, only very slightly, and there you have it."

"well played basilisk, i do believe i'm going to enjoy this. a fight the death to be sure, but a fan of mr. badguy, and a song almost forgotten by the world, color me impressed! this is going to be the most fun i've had in years, merely a tango away from the next life, and yet all for the sport."

terry blew out a breath and flexed his left hand, considering the best way to go for a kill, leon noticed and made a pouting face, "you want it over fast? awww, hmmmmm, i promise i won't touch the other two, and my promise is one thing i will not break. please can we have a little fun with this?"

"what. the. hell?" terry pulled off his mask and fixed leon with an openmouthed questioning stare, complete with twitching eyebrow.

who looked to the side, acting innocent, "i can't help it. fights aren't some proving ground for me, they're playtime, regardless of which side is winning. it's my thing, and i'm absolutely crazy about it!" the flames floating around him blazed at his excitement, spurring him on more, "and you, you're the basilisk, you have the highest kill rate of any singular person in history, you can't tell me you don't relish that. i'm so excited my blood is boiling! errr.... wow that came out wrong... " he grinned, "so, are you ready?"


"one question first, regarding marcus. are you the puppetmaster?" it was leon's turn to look dumbfounded. "no idea what you're talking about. i havn't seen him since last night around umm four i think, i assumed it was another mark on your kill record. and i..... demon guillotine?"

ocoa pointedly looked around, trying to act innocent. "yeeees?"

"i really wish you'd attempted to carry out that contract, i still have yet to see what basilisk is capable of... oh well, all the better for the suprise!"

"then in that case," said terry, tapping out a very familiar beat with the toe of his boot, the beat to a song that no one can forget, "buddy you're a boy make a big noise playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday, you got mud on your face, you big disgrace, kickin your can all over the place, singin... WE WILL, WE WILL, ROCK YOU!" on rock you, his right leg flickered and sent cracks spiderwebbing accross the floor. leon wore a grin from ear to ear, as if this were christmas for him.

there was a sputtering crackle as burning katana met barehanded tomfoolery. the sword simply ceased to flame, and leon stepped back, frowning at the hand that held it's stolen flickers. "lighter fluid?" he sniffed it, "really strong lighter fluid."

terry sheathed it and swung the case at him, leon wiggled his eyebrows, dodged it and then posed saying, "look i'm a bananna tree!" of course terry immediately suppressed a snort of laughter, and ducked out of the way of a fire ball.

ember and ocoa cheered from the doorway, somehow they'd dragged the chaiselounge over there and ocoa even had popcorn, though it was anyones guess how he'd gotten it.

leon clapped his hands and did a few steps of a flamenco dance, stepping out of the way of another slash, and then snapping his fingers, formed his flames into a reasonable semblance of a sword, a romanesque one but a sword nontheless. and so steel met flame, an over head strike blocked by a sideswipe that belched out gouts of flame, or a smoldering stab sidestepped and buried into the ground. finally, terry grasped leon's blade with his gauntlet, "i do believe this descending into farce, where's our tango with death?"

"took you long enough to ask," said leon with a lilt in his voice, and he released his sword, letting it dissolve into smoke. he raised his left arm to reveal a small silver bracelet, with two red circle on it, he tapped them and grimaced, because from within the seemingly solid bracelet, spikes were emerging and gouging into his wrist. his heart began to pound, faster and faster, he snapped his fingers and his usually small flames blossomed into an inferno. he charged at terry, whose outline flickered a moment before the attack landed, leon looked around, confused because terry was nowhere to be found.

"toten mannlein? ist gut!" terry's voice was suddenly cold, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. he flickered into view in front of leon, a half smile on his face, "that little trinket... you're a junkie, no better than the druggies under you."

leon shrugged under his inferno, grinning himself, "true that, andrenaline junkie! this metal makes the heart speed up, and the heart is where our power comes from. it just puts you an' me on even footing. after all, a serei is only one step away... from a god."

"you blaspheme. not a good idea." terry's right leg flickered and he aimed a roundhouse kick at leon.

leon just laughed and let the blow hit him, staggering a bit to regain his footing, "oh, really? like i give a shit, im an atheist."

terry flickered out of view, regretting what he was about to do. he flickered back into view and whipped his katana out, his stance distinctly different. he was hunched slightly, his katana back a bit, as if it were an overlong limb, and his hair now out of the ponytail, covered his face like an steel curtain, leaving only a single red pupiled eye visible.

"oh, getting testy are we," asked leon, still grinning. he charged, and terry, by now completely in his basilisk mindset slashed wildly, then sheathed his katana with a loud bang, throwing a wide circle of fire around him as the case extinguished it. the veins stood out all over his body and he sneered. "if serei is one step from god...." he paused for effect, "then what does that make you?"

leon threw back his head and laughed, long and loud, "alt schmeid! surely even you can appreciate that!" his flames expanded and took the shape of man from the waist up, as if a burning giant were stuck halfway on that floor. around where it's head should be, the flames were denser and blue, like a single smoldering eye.

"alt schmeid, the one eyed master o' fire, you're not the only man with an immortal avatar!"

terry's eyes began to redden over, the veins appearing to rupture, and he stormed into the monster, each footfall like a thunder clap. the velvet covering the room vanished into acrid smoke and terry began to burn as well, his skin blackening and his hair sizzling away. he continued to move forward, as if he felt no pain. he grabbed leon by the neck and spoke in a bone chilling whisper, "falschem gott, they mean nothing," and slammed him into the ground, stunning him. the fire dissipated immediately, as if leon had run out of gas.

terry paused for a moment, his skin slowly beginning to heal over, the pulse in his neck beating wildly, obviously even faster than leon's had been. his sword came out of it's scabbard in an instant, meeting with a long skein of metal: the barrel of colt .45 six shot revolver.

marcus's eyes were wild and he was bloodier than before, he shook involuntarily and it looked as if an invisible hand were holding his mouth shut. terry took all this in as their weapons met, and within the blink of an eye, he had sheathed the sword, kicked marcus's knee to make him drop to the ground, and flipped him onto his stomach, his claws pointed at the back of marcus's neck. three inches beneath a tattoo of a winged crescent moon inside of a pentagram, (his heart skipped a beat, because he had one at the base of his neck as well...) was a strip of metal, with a spike going from it into marcus's spine.

"this is going to hurt like hell, so bear with me," his left hand flickered and ripped the contraption out. marcus gasped, "mako? danke gott." and then passed out.

terry's eyes drained back to gentle grey and he whispered, "i'm here, baby brother."

ember shrieked from the doorway and terry whirled around. leon had a sadistic look on his face, and was only a few feet from ember, "so i lied, so sorry. but you were fun to fight. either way, hell is too good for you, i want to fight something stronger! so, if i kill the lady maybe you'll flip just enough..."

terry grasped his katana's handle and his left leg sunk into the cement floor, sending out a rippling fracture for ten feet around, and he pulled his katana harder than he'd ever pulled it before. both he and the metal screamed at the effort. the case shattered and a roaring sound, like a jet engine passing by, shot accross the room. leon's eyes opened wide, and blood dribbled from his mouth. with a wet splotch, his torso hit the ground, his lower half stumbled a few seconds as the nerves danced their last, and then fell atop the rest of him, "bravo", he mouthed, smirking as he died.

"that's called 'drive'." terry gasped and collapsed into a sitting position, his right arm bruised all the way up and down it's length. he breathed heavily, forcing his heart to continue at it's current speed, and heaved himself back upright. he walked toward ember, limping, just slightly. "i'm sorry about that, are you alright?" he asked, his voice back to it's customary almost-whisper, yet clearly audible.

"i-i'm fine, just a little shocked, what was that?"

"something i stole from my father..." he crouched down in front of leon's corpse, and removed the bangle and igniter from it's arms. noticing that his pants no longer had pockets, he sighed.

"here, i'll hold onto them." ember said and took them, he nodded his thanks, and then limped back to the prone figure of marcus.

he heaved marcus onto his shoulders as best as he could, "i'm taking him to the shelter, tony will understand."

"terry, just bring him home."

"i can't ask you all to bear another charity case. besides..."

she rolled her eyes, "you said he wasn't in control, i won't hold it against him."

the three walked out the door, and the sky opened up, a torrent of rain heralding their return home.

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"the total number of bodies so far is over eighty, including the body of don leon, whose exact cause of death is being with held at the moment. as far as we can discern, there were three killers, ages unknown. the basilisk is rumored to have been among them, but as of yet there is no certainty. the chief of police has refused to comment."

the news went over to a commercial for some local eatery and kin whistled, "well that certainly tells me absolutely nothing... could they at least try to pry something out of him?"

the red headed teen stretched out on his bed, a diaper encircleing his waist, and yawned.

"mmmmmm, time to get busy then." he rolled off his bed, and stood in front of his closed door. he inhaled sharply and then walked right through it, the wood rippling as he passed.

from the other side, there came a laugh, "hey, my clothes stayed on this time!"

chapter 8: like a sinner before the gates of heaven, i'll come crawling on back to you


terry slept deeply, his small body curled up beside marcus, where he'd finally passed out moments ago. the two were nearly identical, heart shaped faces framed by silken hair. terry's was about seven inches long, growing back swiftly thanks to a quirk of his healing factor.

marcus bore many scars, like his big brother, bruises, knife marks, and the long striating marks of a whip accross his back. he lay beneath a blanket, cleaned up and bandaged as well as nikole and terry could manage, nikole had also diapered him 'just in case' she said.

marcus mumbled and opened his eyes, a stunning shade of verdant green, with a sliver of crimson in the lower part of both. "m-mako? wo ist..."

"i'm here. don't worry, i won't leave you again."


"reeeh! you're both on, i mean... awake!" said ember, grinning at the the brothers.

"emmie!" terry was all smiles as he jumped up and hugged her. his grey eyes were wide open and innocent once more, as if the previous night's carnage were just a dream. the diaper around his waist was just wet enough to merit notice, but was slightly covered up by a way too large long sleeved pink tee, the sleeves of which hung several inches below his hands. with his silver hair sticking out at all angles, he appeared to be nothing more than a rather tall toddler.

marcus yawned, making his eyes water and sat up. the pastel green tee he wore just drew even more attention to his diaper, which was a solid yellow. he blinked a few times and then, cocking his head, queried the other two in german.

"marcus, emmie doesn't talk like us. auf english bitte?" terry pleaded.

"i said i'm reeeeeally hungry." ember jumped, she had been expecting a growl or rasp, but marcus's english was light and had a very slight country twang.

"let's get you some grub then." terry giggled and then hefted him off the floor, carrying him to the kitchen, marcus protesting all the while, "i can walk, put me down!"

he dropped marcus into a chair, and dashed back to the room to get something. nikole, who was in front of the stove, turned sharply, and pointed a steak knife an inch away from marcus's nose, the glare she fixed him with made him flood his diaper instantly.

"you shot my daughter." marcus bowed his head, as the impact of what his tormentor had made him do hit home.

"y-y-y-yes m-ma'am..." he stuttered.

"fraulein nikole, don't hold it against him, this is the cause of our troubles," terry interjected, dropping a thin strip of metal onto the table. it had a long spike coming out of it, with hundreds of tiny branching wires on the end, "this 'piece of garbage' completely overrides the mind, allowing whoever is on the other end to control his victim's body."

"and?" nikole's voice was dangerous, but it didn't faze terry.

"this particular one has been buried in my brothers neck for over four years." he stated calmly.

"oh my god..." she looked aghast, her demeanor doing a complete 360, "no control all that time?"

"nothing more than a screaming passenger in my own body. it took everything i had to speak to mako that one time... and 'he' punished me for it." marcus looked pained as he said it.

"'he', would be corsica i presume?" terry sighed, wondering if there'd ever be an end to his work.

"yeah, and i'm not the only one he used."

nikole let the matter go and fixed several plates, putting them at the table and calling everyone to eat.

"oyo, save mine for later, i have some business to attend to," said ocoa as he came out of the bathroom and bent over next to terry, the two whispered for a moment and then ocoa left.

from the twins room came a raucous giggle and a yell of 'shut up! do i pester you over your choice of underwear?!' within seconds raevyn stormed out, one of emmie's diapers taped around her waist as tight as she could get it. roebyn followed still giggling uncontrolably. nikole hid a smile, thinking along the lines of: 'a house full of toddlers!'. emmie and terry looked at one another and though they tried to hold it in, they both burst out laughing.


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somewhere downtown a cellphone was ringing, or more specifically playing a rendition of ac/dc's thunderstruck.

"aaaayo!" a man with a head of spiky white hair picked it up.

the voice on the other end was cold, heartless to the extreme, "mister freed, we have need of your services."

the man grinned, showing a set of designer fangs, "what's the sitch, boss?"

"basilisk will visit visit the dwelling of the late don leon, i want you to carry out the following instructions to the letter..."
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elsewhere, ocoa knocked on the door of a penthouse apartment.

the door opened and sable stood blinking owlishly, as if she'd been working with the lights off.

upon seeing ocoa, her face broke into a grin, and she pounced on him, forcing him to the floor and kissing him.

"it's been a while. where ya been?" she asked, and ocoa couldn't help himself, he returned her kisses with equal vigor.

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terry sat atop the roof of the apartment, watching the greying sky as it prepared to rain again, and thinking. he relaxed his body and breathed deeply, trying to meditate.

"y'know, that's never gonna work," a familiar silver haired form to his right rasped at him, the red bandanna over it's mouth rippling as it spoke, "you want us? all you gotta do is ask."

to his left, the same body with a pink shirt, and long unbound hair, "yeah, all ya gotsta to do is say 'where are you?'"

"erste...," he sighed, "the plain fact that i'm visualizing all three of us is a bad sign..."
"it's means," said basilisk
"that i'm losing my mind," kawaii terry finished.
"i'm missing something, some vital fact," he huffed, "i'm hoping one of you may remember something i don't"
"we are you, and you are making no sense," kawaii terry peered at him.
"hmph," basilisk snorted, "i'm not part of anyone, i am death personified."
"shut up!" terry and kawaii terry both yelled at him.


terry shook his head and looked back at the sky, wondering where the hell all that had come from.
he stood up, surveying the city around him, and let out a depressed sigh. "what link do we have to corsica?" he whispered, and the wind began to rise.

after some time, a thought struck him and he dropped down to the balcony, and opened the door.
he gathered his gear, holding up the charred remains of his bandanna with a bemused expression.

ember, marcus, and the kids were seated in the living room, talking and laughing. terry dropped down next to ember, "i'm going out for a little while, i think i may have a small lead..."

"you want me to come?"

"no, stay here and relax, i won't be long." he kissed her cheek and walked back out onto the balcony. he coughed into his fist and glanced down. there was blood. "damn... healing factor's still dealing with the burns..." he whispered, and the door opened behind him.

"mako, we're coming too." marcus stated. his eyes were half closed, giving him a lazy confident look. his green trench coat was pulled on, showing a few of it's ragged holes had been patched. ember nodded beside him.


"might i ask why?" terry said, supressing another cough.

"because we felt like it," ember giggled.

"good enough," terry replied and crouched down, ember understood and climbed on, locking her legs around his stomach. terry glanced over at marcus, "think you can keep up?"

marcus's grin spread, "i do believe it's you who'll be needing to keep up."

they both slammed a foot into the floor, marcus's shoes flashing a glaring red glow as they met cement, and both rocketed off the balcony.

terry's speed was noticably slower, as if he was in pain, and ember noted that he always landed on his right leg as if his left hurt him.

after some time he landed with a clattering thump in front of the office building that leon had used as a base. the entire building was cordoned off with caution tape, but there wasn't a soul around... terry crouched down to let ember off and then ducked under the caution tape, following the hair raising feeling on the back of his neck, marcus and ember following cautiously.

he opened the elevator, and glanced at the buttons, "sheisse..." and with a roar, he slammed his left hand into the floor. "marcus!"

"sup?"

"i need your bullets, as much of a charge as you can--" ember clapped her hands over terry's ears and inhaled sharply, releasing a yell that shook the building to it's foundations.

marcus slowly put his hands down, "some warning would have been great." terry peered into the elevator shaft, just above the wreckage "...heh, two extra floors, whaddaya know." he looked at ember, "good job." and held out a hand, she took it and he swept her up in his arms, jumping down to the next floor.

whatever had been there though, had been ransacked, the floor was littered with shrapnel, and there was nothing recognizable. from the next floor down marcus shouted, "i think you should take a look at this terry!"

it took him a minute to pick his way back to the shaft, but when he and ember dropped down...

upon the wall, written aparently in blood, was a message:


"dear basilisk, i hope this reaches you, and if it doesn't then your stupider than i thought.
you and i have met before, you won't remember it, but you do have the scars...
check your chest, three inches down from the heart, and of course, the back of your neck.
you cannot run from me,

now that i have your attention: kill don darrius or i'll disembowel your whore,
and use her as a hood ornament for my limo.

loves and kisses,
corsica"

below the signature was a bloody sketch of a winged crescent moon inside a pentagram.


terry slowly rolled up his shirt, lo and behold, three inches below his heart was a jagged scar, one that he'd never been able to recall exactly how he got it.

ember read the message, and her fist tightened, turning white at the knuckles, "just how much sound does it take to skin someone?" she whispered.

"well... darrius was next on my list anyway... either of you notice he hadn't hired anyone to take me out?"

"y-yeah, corsica used me..." marcus started.

"and leon hired ocoa..." ember finished.

"wierd." terry shrugged and started climbing back up the shaft.


the hair raising feeling hadn't dissipated though, on the contrary, it seemed to be growing!
and the closer they got to the exit, the worse it got, until finally they stepped outside.

leaning against the wall was the white haired man, dressed in blue jeans and a hawaiian button up, a slim pair of purple wraparound shades covered his eyes.
"basilisk, my name is freed, i have been asked to deliver a -- HOLY SHIT! I KNOW YOU!"

without his mask, basilisk was distinctly recognizable as terry, but the neck scars doubly cemented his vigilante identity.

the man, freed, slammed a fist into the wall, muttering, "fine, the money is half paid, may as well earn the rest of it!" he drew a circle in the air with two fingers, and the air began to reek of burnt ozone, the skin of his hands danced with cyan sparks.

"you've been... THUNDERSTRUCK!," he slammed a fist into terry's stomach, and terry could feel the imprint of the brass knuckes that freed wore. freed stepped back, wondering if it would be enough.

terry's eyes bled to red in a matter of seconds, and with his arms wide and inviting he rasped, "leck meine schweinstucker arshele!" and as he spoke his face split into a sadistic grin. (marcus blushed red as terry said this, and when ember asked him later what it meant, he refused to translate)

ember dashed around behind freed and made a downstroke with kotetsu. unfortunately, when the sword hit him he sent a tendril of sparks back through it, ember dropped her blade and shook her arm until it stopped tingling from the shock.

marcus grimaced and raised both of his pistols, forcing them to burn red. "HA!" he shouted and pulled the triggers as quickly as he could, twelve near instantaneous shots flew true. freed laughed, and twelve shots melted against him in a frenzy of lightning, "guns won't work boy, try something more direct."

"will this work?" terry slashed with as much strength as he could muster, as it hit freed, the electricity jumped from him to the sword, and then to terry. terry's muscles contracted and his eyes drained partially back to grey. his sword pressed deeper anyway, as if he felt nothing, and freed shouted as the blade dug into him, "what the hell are you?"

"driven," terry replied, panting.

"god forgive me," freed whispered, and ducked down, priming his hand until it glowed all over, then he flattened his fingers stood up and slammed them into, and then through terry's abdomen, lifting him off the ground. lightning coursed through terry entire body, and he screamed, blood gushing from the wound and between his lips. freed dropped him, and turned, beginning to walk away.

ember looked at marcus, who nodded, she began to shriek, and the windows for several yards around shattered into dust. at the same time, marcus pulled the triggers so fast that his fingers blurred, and the barrels of his guns melted into slag as the last bullets left their chambers. freed shook off the disorienting sonic assault, and his lightning crackled, around him like a shield deflecting marcus's bullets, he looked back, "i was told, 'injure, severely, and make it painful.' this isn't personal, it's business. take care of the kid, i don't think he's gonna die, corsica just wanted to make his request difficult to fulfill." he walked off, leaving terry bleeding in the street.

"ember, can you keep up with me?" marcus asked, carefully keeping his emotions in check. ember nodded, trying not to cry, she picked up terry's sword and waited.

"we can't take him to a hospital, they can't deal with something this bad... i think broth and stitches might work. something to hold him together until his healing factor kicks in."

"broth?"

"calories, meta power needs something to burn, like a car needs gas," marcus gently picked terry up, holding him so that his blood stayed mostly in him. his shoes began to glow red and both he and ember slammed a foot into the ground, imitating terry's old takeoff trick. they weren't as quick as him, and found that after about three minutes that it hurt like hell, making their muscles feel as if they were ripping apart. they slowed in front of ember's apartment building, both cringing. "h-h-how the hell does he keep that up?" ember whimpered.

they made their way up, and opened the door...

"oh my god!" nikole screamed, "what are-- he should be in a hospital!"

"no can do, they won't be able to help him. all we can do is wait for him to heal... do you have any thread?"

nikole went off to find some and marcus laid terry down, "mako, can you hear me? stay with me, stay alive."

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halfway across town, the man called freed stepped into his hotel room and with a shout, dispersed his lightning. he pulled off his sunglasses and then slid his fingers under his white hair, pulling off the wig to reveal thinning brown.

he lifted his cell from the dresser and dialed a string of numbers, "message delivered." he said

"good." came the voice from the other end, this time sounding smug.

freed phil, aka. mr. phil, snapped it shut and cried out of shame.

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terry opened his eyes, seeing a world of stark gray emptiness. the horizon was but a red smear and there was no sky.

"the deadzone, not pretty, but it doesn't need to be." he jumped as a stranger spoke, and spun around.

the man who spoke to him wasn't much older than he was, and wore a white business suit, with a leather glove over his left arm, his hair was long and silver as well, but his eyes were kind, behind the green lensed spectacles he wore. looking closer, you might have just noticed that his pupils were blood red...

"i'm dead then?" terry asked.

"clinically? most likely. i'd been wondering what it was on this world that had caused so many ripples, makes me wonder if it was because i already brought you back once..."

"who are you?"

"i have had many names," the stranger smiled, as if sharing a joke, "for now don't worry about it. when you die for real, i'll personally ferry your soul to the other side, and i'll tell you my name then. at the moment though, i'm giving you another chance, your world needs you."

terry's eyes opened wide, confused.

"no more questions, i have to send you back." the man removed his glove, and began to chant, "the left hand of god, is my name. bearing his cross, to atone for my shame. balance is all, and misplaced power. in the name of the one... this is your final hour!" a small circle on his palm began to glow, and he slowly let out a breath, "don't be afraid, and... good luck."

he pressed his palm to terry's forhead, and terry vanished, returning to his body.

the man murmered a few words in what could have been german, slipping his glove back on.

"i know that i may never be politically correct, and i don't give a damn about my lack of etiquette... if the thrill is gone then it's time to take it back, if it really is gone then it's time to take it back!" he began a song that had been long forgotten where he had come from, and moseyed across the dark expanse toward another world that needed HIM...

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terry drew a ragged breath, his first in about six minutes, and shouted in his hoarse voice, "HEAL!"
his eyes opened a fraction, they were blood red all the way through, and every vein on his body stood out in harsh red relief against his pale skin. his teeth gritted, and he shouted again, "HEAL!"

a flash of red danced across his body and the wound in his gut began to tighten up beneath the stitches that marcus had meticulously placed. after about five minutes it pulled completely together, and his eyes slowly drained back to grey.

(halfway accross the city, ocoa looked straight up with glazed eyes and his breath caught in his throat, as his own senses picked up the huge burst of energy coming from terry.)

"dear god..." nikole watched from the hall, keeping the twins in their room.

"what's going on!" they called from behind the door.
"d-don't come out... you don't need to see this!"

terry grimaced, and spoke in a whisper, "em...ber." he swallowed and grimaced again.

"i'm here." she gently wrapped her arms around him and he snuggled close to her.

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within three and a half hours, terry was upright and moving, waiting for ocoa to return so that the hunt for don darrius could begin. his breath was ragged and he shook every now and then, as if some phantom shock still flickered through him. nikole had managed to get him to down a bowl of broth, and his color returned a little bit, but he was still jittery and on edge.

"terry, you need to relax, or you'll open your wounds back up and bleed to death." nikole pleaded.

"death is the least of my worries," he whispered, and then flushed bright red, "was die sheisse?"

"language brother dear, there are children present." marcus chided from the couch, "what's the problem?"

terry's head drooped, "no more than a warning tingle... "

"what do you mean?" ember asked, her arms still wrapped around him.

"i just soaked myself, and had no idea... now i know what freed meant by difficult..." he had felt a slight tingle just before his diaper had swelled, but nothing more.

-KNOCK!-

ocoa let himself in, a small figure following behind him.

"hey terry!... whoa......... what happened while i was gone?"

"i got my rear handed to me."

ocoa snorted back a laugh, "that seems like an understatement."

the small figure behind him stepped into the light, revealing the face of sable izumi. she was toting a long package wrapped in plastic bags, and walked with a slight waddle. "we just finished this last night, i'm sorry it took so long."

"it's fine, limelight well exceeded my expectations." terry took it and the corners of his mouth rose in a small smile.

"limelight?" sable raised an eyebrow.

"a song by rush and the best fitting name i could think of," he began to unwrap the sword, ember helping so he didn't strain himself again. beneath the wrapping was an enmeshing of motorcycle, scythe, and claymore. long and wide like a broadsword, the tip curving back into a thinner blade remniscent of death's scythe, and at the handle, what appeared to be a brake lever... terry twisted the top half of the handle, and the hum of a motor made him smile like a child at christmas.

sable chuckled and began, "izumi-craft EX-seed prototype number one..." she paused, waiting for a name.

"killer queen!" terry finished, laughing.

chapter 9: if it ain't broke, break it.


ocoa gagged, "d-damn... two readings... one, involves wind. the other-" he gagged again, "tastes like blood and silver! yuch!"

terry looked over at him, "we want the wind one. i'll look into the other afterwards."

"right. this way then." ocoa tried to spit out the foul taste and led them deeper into the city. the group consisted of himself, kimono pristine blue once again, still on cloud nine after his rendezvous with sable; terry, toting his new sword with a fond look on his face, although his breath was still ragged, he had insisted on moving immediately.; ember, following terry just because she could; and marcus, his guns were melted but he couldn't have been happier, as they were from corsica and therefore a mark of servitude.

they traveled slower than usual, by road, as terry couldn't afford to waste his remaining energy 'flying' accross the rooftops. after nearly two hours, ocoa called a halt in the seediest section of the city, in front of a condemned warehouse. "wind man is in here, you ready?" he asked, terry nodded and dropped the tip of his sword into the asphalt, he revved the handle, and the sword hummed in reply. with a smirk, he hefted it up and twirled it over his head into a downward strike, just before it hit the door of the warehouse, he gripped the lever with two fingers and pulled it. the hum grew to a roar and several jets of compressed air shot from the back, forcing the blade downward twice as hard. the door crumpled in on itself, like so much wet paper, and he looked down at the sword in his hand, grinning from ear to ear, "this was well worth the wait!" he heaved it back onto his shoulder, and pressed forward, his limp now very pronounced.

the warehouse was completely open, two support columns being the only things in sight, save for a desk near the other end. lounging, feet up on the desk was a human figure, apparently sound asleep, a stetson over it's face.

"don darrius." terry stated, there was no question of identity, for who but a leader of the criminal underworld would chose such a hideout.

"don?" the voice beneath the stetson was weary, but indignant, "please, don't use that title. it's demeaning."

"you havn't sent a single agent against me. why?" terry asked.

a hand came up and tilted the hat up, beneath was the face of a forty something year old woman, "i knew you'd ask me that. truth is, i wanted to ask a boon of you."

"name it."

the woman tugged an object from her boot and tossed it to terry, "swear to plant this in corsica's eye and i'll die happy."

he held it up to the light, revealing a very dark gray knife with a wicked cutting edge.

"that's solid lead..." ocoa murmered, intrigued.

"what's to stop you from doing it?" terry fixed darrius with a stare.

"age, huge army... lots of stuff... the whole reason i joined the trismagia was to kill him... and i've waisted fifteen years trying. no doubt you wonder why a woman would have the name darrius. well, it was my husband's. corsica killed him for no other reason than being in his way."

terry sighed, "boon granted, one knife to the eye."

darrius smiled just so, and terry could almost see the woman that she must have been all those years ago. then she reached into her other boot, pulled out a derringer, and cocked the hammer. "good luck basilisk, you're gonna need all the luck you can get just to face him even once..." and with not another word, she placed the gun between her lips and pulled the trigger.

terry's eyes smoldered red and he pressed his right arm against his sword until it drew blood, and on the wall behind darrius' corpse he scrawled:
'the deed is done. YOU'RE NEXT!'

beneath it he drew rough sketch of a snake biting it's own tail, then turned on his heel, and left.

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ocoa gagged as he caught wind of the other meta signature, of blood and silver. he shivered like a dog shaking off water and then took off, calling back, "this way!"

about twenty minutes later the small group convened in front of a closed hotel and ocoa made a face, "well.... this is unexpect... hmmmm, down...?" he muttered for a minute, walking up and down the block, glancing here and there. "underground i believe, and it's quite strong too. this definitely bears investigating."

terry slogged forward, looking quite despondent, and suddenly snarled slamming a heavy booted foot into the door. "DAMNIT!" he shouted, kicking inward at point blank range and the door crumpled in on itself balling up, red sparks dancing around the impact mark.

marcus's eyes widened, "thats impossible..." he whispered. terry revved killer queen and stormed in. the supposedly 'closed' building was nearly devoid of dust or any sign of age, meaning that it was very recently occupied, but he took no notice, instead he revved the massive blade even more and with a roar heaved the sword over his head, and pulled the lever, the sword's own weight, combined with terry's ungodly strength slammed into and then through the floor. he landed with a loud bang, amidst a gaggle of about five middle aged men in lab coats. they stood shocked, staring at him and he rasped, "do you work for corsica?"

one of the men, stupidly, replied, "why yes we-"
he never got any further, as terry revved his sword and the scene erupted into an explosion of blood.

by the time the others managed to get down to that floor he was in another room completely. ocoa glanced about, letting out a low whistle, "whoa...looks like a slushie machine had an orgasm... hey... is that an arm?"
ember looked aghast, and quickly pressed forward, into a hallway that split off into three other rooms. in one, terry stood,blood soaked and hunched forward, his sword forgotten on the ground beside him, in his hands was a mask of polished stainless steel, in the shape of the bottom half of a skull. his eyes were unfocused and he muttered in rapid german, at some distant memory. then slowly he tapped the side of the mask and it split right up the middle. he pulled his hair to the side and slid it on, tapping the side to close it again. he turned around and ember, standing in the doorway, drew back in fear.

"terry?" she whispered, and he looked up, his eyes were sad but gray once more.
he tapped the side, making it slide back and reveal his face, "ja? ma petite, was ist?"
"what is that?"
"something long forgotten, but it is mine, i remember wearing it, but i can't remember where... or why."

"YO! MAAAAKO!" marcus's shout was muffled by distance but it's urgency was obvious.
terry grabbed his sword and rushed toward the sound, where marcus stood with a near dumbfounded look.

"i thought this was only done in those really bad scifi movies..." he said and then began laughing hysterically. the object of his humor was a cylandrical glass container, big enough to house several people, but currently holding just one, a figure of about thirteen years whose hair was short, spiky and... silver!
she slammed a fist into the glass, but it was useless, the stuff was obviously bulletproof (judging by it's thickness) finally ticked off even more she bit into her hand spraying blood over the glass, but instead of red, it too was silver! her blood wriggled acting almost of its own accord, and then formed words, 'get me out' quickly wriggling into, 'please'.

terry shouldered marcus aside, and blew on the glass, fogging it. he raked a fingertip over it, scrawling, 'stand back'. and then looked over at ember, she nodded and inhaled until her chest swelled and then opened her mouth releasing a sonic shockwave that shook a blur of sparks from marcus and made terry's eyes fill to red. the glass though, shattered into pieces which themselves shattered into shiny dust.

"bravo." terry rasped, and the figure stumbled forwards into his arms, "and who might you be?"

her blood flew into the air wriggling into words again 'je-' it started and quickly shifted suddenly to 'argent'.

"wise choice..." he whispered.

ocoa then toddled out of the last room bearing a steaming styrofoam cup of coffee, and gasped, "what did i miss this time?!"

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"hmmmm. thats how it is eh?" kin was atop the building accross the street peering down through a pair of binoculars." he wore a black suede shirt, with black tight jeans (not tight tight, but tight enough to make his diaper obvious) and black wingtip shoes. upon his wrist was a silver bracelet, with two small red circles on it... his unruly red hair whipped about in the light wind, and suddenly he whipped the binoculars to the left, "oh, shit!"


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the group, now numbering five left the hotel, and a loud scream sounded from above followed by a tall form in a black trench coat and pinstriped fedora. it's face was obscured by white, chalky paint done up to look like a skull. the body gyrated as if pulled by a mad puppeteer, and indeed... it was.

"allo bazzy, guess who!"

"go screw yourself, i'm not fighting another marionette."

"and why not, this one absolutely hates you, and thats without my help." with that, the figure grinned and stopped gyrating. "i hate it when he does that, god.... such a crick in the..." it pulled a sword form inside it's coat and the air roared like a thousand angry hornets.

ocoa shouted, "meta! some sort of...... for now let's say sword demigod, eh?" terry nodded and they both lept forward through the storm. terry managed to snag the other's blade and ocoa went for the kill, whipping his katana out hard. it hit, but the other laughed, and pushed them both back with a flick of it's sword.

"name's boogeyman, nice ta meetcha, fuckboy!" he targeted terry, who revved killer queen and swung it in a series of brutal arcs, each one met by boogeyman's sword. suddenly, from the wall of the building behind boogeyman a new figure sprang, grabbing boogeyman's arms and screaming, "NOW GIRL DO IT!" ember got the message and released another sonic wave. boogeyman fell to his knees, and the figure dashed to the side.
"nice shot." he grinned at her and she laughed, "you're that guy from school." he nodded, "yup, m'names kin."

boogeyman made to stand back up, but terry whipped killer queen in a harsh quarter arc, causing a loud roar, not unlike a jet engine passing by, to slam into him, driving him into the wall.

"that's a blunt drive, don't make me use the pointy end." he suddenly stooped over coughing uncontrollably, blood spilling from his lips. then, without warning boogeyman was pinned up against the wall again, six hefty throwing knives planted in his torso and arms. "bad dog, heel." the speaker was a glaring sixteen year old, ski goggles covering his eyes and greasy black hair dangling past his shoulders, his attire was mortuary black, from his gloves down to his boots. he whipped another set of knives from his belt and eyed boogeyman.

after a moment terry caught his breath gasping out, "who are you?"

the boy sheathed his knives and made to turn on his heel, "Deadman... will."

"you with corsica?" terry asked, stifling another cough.

"damn kingpin wannabe, think's he's a force of nature with those powers," he sneered, "...waitaminnit, you think I?... OOOOOHH DAMN YOU!" he swirled around and ran at terry grabbing him by the collar and heaving him up. "you damn metas, i just saved a hell of a lot of time by taking him out for you, you asshole! what the fuck makes you think i work for corsica!?"

terry's irises began to bleed over, turning the whites of his eyes red, as he rasped an answer, "well, you can't blame me for asking."

"correction, i can and do. i'm rather tired of you wannabes duking it out...," he sighed, "you have all the luck, you know?" he released terry, and began to walk away, "get your ass back to school tomorrow, the teachers are beginning to worry."

as he walked away he removed his goggles and his eyes were sad, and he whispered, "they really do have all the luck..."

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as terry and the rest of the group rested momentarily, will pressed on. and the wind picked up again, asserting that winter really was on it's way.

he was lost in thought, wondering what the hell had made him try to help basilisk, when the man so irritated him. in the end he would chalk it up to a 'fluke of nature'. at the moment though, he was so lost in thought that he didn't notice he had company until it was too late.

-click- the cocking of a hammer rang out, followed by, "money, now!" the speaker was a twitchy male of twenty something years, bearing the nervous tic of a druggie devoid of his fix. behind him were two others of similar constitutions, both bearing piercings in some rather 'odd' places. will cursed under his breath, sure that his bad luck had once again caught up to him. "i ssssaid money NOW!" the druggie poked will in the shoulder with the pistol's muzzle. there was a hint of a smirk as will said, "do it ya pansy, you'll be doing me a favor."

and so he did, pulling the trigger several times, and yet still will stood, and then he leered forward, a scowl on his face, "sorry bub, ya can't kill what's already DEAD!"

the other two took off at that, and the druggie stuttered, "m-m-met-ta?"

at which will backhanded him across the face and whipped out a knife, pointing it a fraction away from the man's eye, "who the fuck says i hafta be a meta? hmmm? you need to listen, you an' everybody else, i'm dead. D-E-A-D. but i'm still human, not some homo superior supremacist, just human. and a bit more durable than anyone else i know." right about that moment the man caught sight of where the bullets had entered will's body... and although the wounds were large, there was almost no blood!

he screamed, "don't drink mah blood man!"

"i did not say vampire... oh what the hell," he backhanded him again, "lay off the crack, JACKASS!"

he stalked off again muttering to himself, "how the hell am i supposed to fix this, that was my best sweater... damn thugs... awww to hell with, maybe basilisk will take care of 'em. saves me time either..."

after some time he came to a small housing development, and continued in, skirting around the two story section until he came to an off white bungalow. his demeanor instantly changed, as he dropped his goggles around his neck and pulled his hair back behind his ears. after some tugging he managed to cover the bullet holes in his sweater, after all, home life was already hell without them knowing what he was...


after much yelling and insults had been recieved, will slunk into his small room. spartan in the extreme, it contained only a bed, his clothes, a few knives, and about five books so yellowed with age that their covers were nearly indecipherable. he tossed off his sweater and shirt to get a better look at his wounds. five gaping holes ranged from his shoulder down to his ribs, the edges were ragged, and he knew from experience that it would be the next day before they would even begin to heal, and would take about a week and a half after that. with a quick gasp he rammed a finger into one of the holes and tugged out a small bullet, "i thought there'd be one left," he whispered, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, he tried to focus the pain elsewhere.

will really was dead and had been so since he was about thirteen. he'd never really known what had brought about the change but he had his suspicions. the reason his blood didn't seem to flow was because his heart did not beat and the prospect of this absolutely terrified him. so when he was called a meta, it touched a nerve, some deep seated envy, because they all had powers and oh so perfect lives, while HE was playing the part of a servant. as far as he was concerned, his only power was that he couldn't be killed by any conventional means, short of total decapitation.

he opened his eyes, dark forest green, and looked himself over. his body was a wreck, just barely in shape, his legs were muscular from much walking, and from waist up he was banged up, knife marks here and there, from the occasional streetfight (these had become a hobby recently.), these new gunshots weren't his first, and he was sure they wouldn't be his last. after that there were cigarette burns down his arms as home punishment for some imagined crime. he growled low in his throat as he thought of their treatment of him, why, the house wouldn't stand for more than a day without him, all the chores were his to do, while the four of them (two parents and two younger siblings) lazed about or spent the nights partying elsewhere. this left him with very little free time, which of course, was spent on the streets (this wasn't counting his part-time job). he turned off the light and fell into his bed gritting his teeth in answer to his pain, and soon passed out.

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-back to the present-

'so, who are all you people?' argent's blood squiggled in the air breaking the tension.

"kommen und herren, marcus vivaldi wyngarde, at your service," marcus bowed low, causing argent to blush and giggle. (at the name wyngarde, terry gave him a dirty look)

"ocoa, sworn swordhand of this and that. oh, and the demon guillotine." ocoa flashed a devil-may-care grin, chuckling.

"kin, sometimes called mephisto II." kin saluted, clicking his heels together.

"ember. i don't have a hero name yet tho. i'm bouncing the idea of siren or orpheus." she shrugged.

"boogeyman... i don't think i have a birthname," boogeyman muttered, still pinned to the wall like an obscene moth.

terry coughed into his fist and straigtened up, his voice was very hoarse, "terry makoto, basilisk, currently the heavy hitter of the small offensive force against corsica."

'basilisk? i've heard that name. you're the catalyst.'

"what? cata... huh?"

'you seriously don't remember? it's your blood lining those vials!'

terry fell on his rear with a squish, his eyes flickering seeing images from the past, blood filled vials lined up on a wall; a grinning, giggling, leering face ramming something hard wet and sticky into his bound, prone body again and again;"house of the rising sun"; a ragged hunting knife digging into his chest with all the finesse of a butcher.; "not even fit to make a gear, kill him!"; the noose, the barbed wire noose cutting into his throat, hanging him, killing him, his life ebbing away, vying with the burning agony in his left leg; and then, as all seemed lost, a voice telling him "devil of the red-grey eyes, others may die, but you can not, will not, not as long as that man, still, lives."

he flickered upright, his mask sliding shut and his entire body danced with livid red sparks, coursing down his body, twining through his hair. everyone immediately stepped back, and as they did, the asphalt for fifteen feet around him shattered, spiderwebbing cracks everywhere. he turned, fixing argent with an unholy blood red stare, and spoke in harsh, hoarse german (author's note: just about all german from this point on will be translated to english, my gutter deutsch only goes so far.)

<"my thanks, argent silverblood, now i have all the more reason to kill the bastard.">

marcus translated for everyone, and argent squiggled her blood into words again, 'what do you mean?'

<"rape. and thanks to you, now i remember that fucker's face.">

marcus balked as he translated, staring at terry, and everyone gasped as he finished.

"t-terry?" ember walked up to him. and the sparks dancing over his skin subsided automatically with no sign or gasp showing that he was conciosly controlling it, and his eyes very slowly drained back to grey.

"well, there's a mystery solved..." terry whispered

"what do you mean?" ember was confused

"you're the reason i keep coming back, time after time. it's you, you're the miracle i asked for all those years ago." he hugged her, a happy tear falling down his cheek, "i love you ember." she kissed him, "and I, you terry."


after some time, terry looked up and said, "we'll finish the job soon, but i need to heal first, otherwise it's a suicide mission. besides, i think ol' cory can stand to be nervous a while."


kin retrned home, saying he'd meet up with them at school the next day and ocoa, after thinking it over for a few minutes, drifted off towards sable's penthouse with a dreamy look on his face. argent had been somewhat confused by the recent events and since she had nowhere else, ember offered to take her home with them, to which argent gratefully agreed. boogeyman was left hanging on the wall.
there were several reports of jimmy buffet's 'cheeseburger in paradise' being sung loudly and a little bit off key, from that wall later that night...

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the group, now four once more, had slowly made their way back to the winter's apartment. once they were inside, terry collapsed, his diaper making a very obvious squish against his bottom. which made raevyn redden as she heard it. nikole quickly had him out of his pants, and was shocked at how wet he was, "terry, you may need to start wearing two or something. the seat of your pants is soaked."

"what?! that can't be i... oh yeah...," even caught by suprise, his voice was rough. nikole untaped it and dried him off, adding lotion and eliciting a deep scarlet blush as he became erect. nikole didn't push the issue but instead taped him up and gestured to ember to lay down and be changed too. she wasn't nearly as wet, but was a little messy from seeing the canage that terry had wrought in the basement of the hotel. there was also a little blood, which nikole had expected eventually.(she made a mental note that she could save money on 'feminine supplies' by doing exacly as ember was doing.) once she was done, nikole looked up at argent and asked, "you want one too?"

she shrugged, unsure. to which nikole gestured for her to sit, and remove her pants. argent had been dressed in sweats, frayed and patched around the joints, worn by several 'subjects' before her. she pulled these off and revealed that her captors hadn't even had the decency to provide her with underwear. nikole quickly taped one on her snugly and argent went wide eyed, standing up to get a look at herself. her face crinkled in a broad grin, and she hugged nikole. no words were necessary, and speaking just wasn't argent's thing.

nikole then looked up at marcus, who chuckled, "i'm fine, not wet enough to warrant a changing yet."

"okay, everybody wait here. i have something for you." she went to her room and came back with an armful of clothing. handing one to ember she said, "this is based on your father's, and ...he was the reason for my change of heart. you two are so alike." ember unfolded it to reveal a black leather jacket, of about thigh length. it bore straps just ander the armpits, at the wrists, and at the neck. across the chest was a symbol that, when the jacket was closed, formed a silver harp.

"meine gott. orpheus! du vati wast orpheus!" terry had unconciously said this in german, such was his amazement. the twins looked at eachother, then at ember and back at eachother again, not getting it.

ember was dumbstruck, she new the legends but... the man she could barely remember and he'd been... a legend, an unbelieveable fighter, a hopeless romantic, and unfortunately a tragic hero, he'd died trying to save the city, BUT he'd been her father.

"well, i guess i've found my name after all: i am orpheus the second!" she pulled it on, and reaching into the pocket pulled out a pair of thin black sunglasses. she put them on as well and nikole just stared, because ember bore more than just a passing resemblance to her father...

after a few minutes, she handed terry his, he unfolded it to reveal what he thought was a white longcoat and a low cut black tanktop, but pulling it on he discovered that instead of just splitting up the back it split up the sides too, to allow for movement. it cinched around the waist with a belt-buckle bearing the symbol of a snake biting it's own tail. the sleeves ended midway down his upper arm but started agin in black, going down to the wrist, the right side ended in a sewed in knuckle glove. the tanktop made sure that his barbed-wire scars were in plain view, and reaching back he felt a hood as well. he pulled it up, and then took his mask and claws from around the handle of killer queen where he'd had them sitting, and pulled them on as well. heaving the massive sword onto his shoulder, he cut an impressive figure and he laughed, hoarsely stating, "it's like, i'm the new reaper, ya jealous?"

then she handed marcus his, swirling it over his shoulders he found it to be a new lime green longcoat made, oddly enough, out of denim. the shoulders and chest bore yet a third symbol, a stylized M underneath a four pointed star. nikole had even added leather holsters in the back for any guns marcus might find.

marcus chuckled again and then, "all for one, and one for all."

"catch your pants before they fall." terry finished and pantsed him, exposing a diaper that was wetter and messier than he'd led them to believe.

the apartment was filled with laughter long into the night.

everything louder than everything else pt. 1

HISTORY LESSON

two hundred and fifty years ago, mankind was troubled and warring constantly. but the wars ceased with the development of a new technology that gave free energy to all, it was adequately dubbed as magic. magic gave the groups capable of using it (called metahumans, or SEEDS) the ability to wield the very elements themselves, and so, all old world technolgy was shut down and forgotten. within a few short years, science and magic were used to create a race of super soldiers, made from average metas, dubbed GEARS after the project that created them. gears were immune to the effects of time and possessed powers that far surpassed their mortal counterparts, they also bore a BRAND on their foreheads, identifying them as gears.
three scientists ran the project, their names: frederick, justice, and _____ (henceforth called that-man).
frederick and justice were lovers, and soon bore a child, but that-man (not out of jealousy, but out of something else.) subjected all three to horrendous tortures, and made them into gears, just to test a theory. justice was driven totally insane and took command of all the gears, vowing to crush humanity into oblivion. frederick was horrified by what he had become, and tried to find a cure. but what of their child? dead from the experiment. or so they thought...

the impending threat of justice threw the world into a tailspin and soon all countries were sending warriors and SEEDS to fight the gears. a 'holy order' soon rose up to take command of the masses. the incident became known as 'the crusades', and would last for a hundred years...

eventually, frederick sealed his other side, and began to develop a weapon that could destroy the gears. he called it the outrage, but it was not one but eight weapons, called jinki, embodying eight seperate elements. these were given to the holy order.

near the end of the crusades a wild haired bounty hunter named sol joined the holy order, and took possession of the flame jinki, fuuenken (fireseal). it was he who eventually struck down justice permanently. he then took his leave, taking fuuenken with him. at all times, the man wore a crimson headband...

eventually, sol came accross frederick and justice's daughter, in a tournament that was specifically designed to kill her. he won the honor of destroying the gear, but instead spared her life.

within the next few decades, all magic technology was hidden or destroyed, and the old ways brought back. the world returned to a semblance of normalcy.

but then, metahumans began to appear all over, specifically in cities where magic had once been prominent...

what remains now? only legends, and quite a lot of meta humans.

but what of the gears? justice's last words were rumored to be: "my body may die, but the gears will not, not as long as that man... still... lives."

and what of sol? rumor has it that even now a wild haired bounty hunter with an oddly shaped sword is currently in residence in japan. just ask ocoa.

chapter 10: come on, come on, there'll be no turning back, you were only killing time and it'll kill you right back

-the next day-

terry and ember got ready for school, both dressing totally out of character, in capris and t-shirts that ember had found in the back of her closet. terry's shirt had a low cut neck though, making his scars very obvious. terry had taken nikole's advice and was wearing two diapers, the inner one slit so that it would catch any overflow, making his pants quite bulgy around the middle. his hair was also pulled back into a ponytail, having grown out just past waist length, but a few stray strands on the left hung over his eyes. ember wore only one diaper, but had set it so that the lip stuck out several inches above her belt line, she had also put on the sunglasses making her look quite dashing. they looked at eachother and then burst out laughing.

marcus and argent had decided to sneak in with them and pose as students that day. why? only they knew.
marcus left off his coat and wore the blue jeans and black turtle-neck that he always wore underneath it, adding his sunglasses, and slicking his shaggy hair back, he was totally unrecognizable as himself. argent borrowed a pair of jeans and dressed in much the same manner as terry and ember. as all four were diapered, mischief was sure to be had that day...

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"whoa! who is that!" several times this was asked as they walked down the halls, marcus in the lead, posing like a movie star. eventually he was cornered by a group of girls who just had to know.

he eased on a light german accent, and said, "kugashira, bunji kugashira. now who doesn't have a date for this evening?" terry fell against the lockers and laughed so hard it brought tears to his eyes, "showoff.." he laughed.

argent, silent as usual, had walked into the breakdancer's clique. she tilted her head to the side, looked at one of them and wriggled an eyebrow, at which, a contest ensued. argent ended up winning, and did a victory moonwalk, making the observers applaud.

then the whole hallway got really quiet as people began to notice terry, and specifically what his shirt no longer hid. someone spoke up, "daaamn, bro! how long you had those?"

"mmmm, three.. four years, i lost count." he rasped.

someone else asked, "we're going to die aren't we?"

"hell no, corsica's the only one getting a beating."

there was a concerted sigh and people began to ask questions of him, like why the basilisk wore diapers.
"that ones easy, i like 'em. aaand one of the fights i got in while i was gone, the guy tore me up pretty good, i don't really have any control over it." as if in emphasis, there was an audible hiss from his pants. there were several offers for changes, which he graciously denied.

or why he fought with such odd weaponry, "a very close friend makes them, i suppose you could say it's advertisement. their name is izumi by the way." that turned a few heads.

or the best yet, why did he look like a girl, "eh heh, it's genetics i guess, the biology teacher can answer that better than i can."

and the final, 'bre, what happened to your voice?', "i think it's shock and a small cold, i could be wrong though." ember hugged him and asked if she could make it better, to which he replied with a grin, "you already have."


first and second block passed quickly and they found themselves in english class. mr. phil was somewhat subdued that day, given to mumbling and nervous twitching. every now and then his hand would throw off a cyan spark, making him even more jumpy. so when the class ended he quickly left the room, mumbling about going to the teacher's lounge.

as soon as terry entered the gym for fourth a shinai nearly took off his head. "'lo diaper-boy, you an' I got a match to finish!" tai's sword hovered around his throat, even so, it took a moment for him to notice the scars. to which he merely chuckled and said, "i thought so."
the class all sat and watched the proceedings, which were garuanteed to be spectacular.

terry picked up the shinai, and held it backward, slowly shaking his head, "are you ready?"

tai opened his mouth to make a witty remark when terry rasped out, "volcanic viper!", knocking tai into the air with an uppercut. he flickered upward, following and slashed outward, "sidewinder!"
tai hit the ground with a thud and just barely blocked terry who had somersaulted into an axe kick yelling, "bandit revolver!" a tiny crimson spark danced across terry's arm as he asked, "good enough yet or do you want some more?"

tai punched the air, laughing out loud, "boy you just made my whole damn week! bring it on!"

"JACK HOUND!" tai was knocked off his feet but terry flickered as soon as he hit him, and appeared behind him whipping his shinai into another strike, "JACK HOUND RETURN!" he slid to a stop, a wisp of smoke curling from his sword. he pointed his sword straight and dashed, flickering his legs, "storm VIPER!" tai caught the blow with the tip of his shinai, roaring with laughter, "MORE BOY, COME ON!"

"if you insist... bandit bringer!" he combined the axe kick with a downslash, which tai knocked aside. "riot stomp!" fifteen consecutive blinding kicks, each one landing with a thud. tai dropped to one knee, still grinning, "perfect. no less than i'd expect from the basilisk. but thanks for holding back.... oy, i think you bruised me ribs."

the audience broke into thunderous applause, some for terry and his over the top takedowns, and some for tai and his incredible resilience. marcus was nowhere to be found, but argent and ember clapped the loudest, totally enamored by terry.


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"now, you know better than that, on your stomach, grovel!" corsica was in his late thirties, but his dark brown hair was still ungrayed, his face still unmarred by the passage of time. if nothing else he looked twenty at the least, but his appearance was the exact opposite of his personality, devious, monstrous, and given to disgustingly perverse whims. at the moment he stood over a teenaged male, nude and bound at his hands and feet. "i said grovel, or i'll make you wish you your mother had never spawned you."

the other muttered something and spit at him, and corsica slammed a foot into him, beginning to giggle a horrendous maddening giggle. he unzipped his pants and within minutes the entire room was filled with the unfortunate man's screams.

once he'd had his way with him, corsica pulled a knife from his pocket and slit the man's throat, letting the body drop, and yet, he was still unsated, his member erect and throbbing. he walked over and pressed a button on the wall, "send in a whore will you?"

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as terry and ember entered fifth period shinji gave them a look, a puzzled one.
"i thought you were into anonymity?"

"i think it may be easier this way, besides, it's funny as hell!"
"yeah, who'd've thought that the basilisk would be a high-schooler in diapers. things that make you go brrrrrr..." he chuckled and boogied to the front of the room, calling role.

in the far back sat a surly young man, dressed in mortuary black, a pair of ski goggles around his neck. he looked radically different from the will they had seen before, he looked proud and distant, his hair pulled into a tight jet ponytail, and his glare ever present. a pair of slightly bent glasses rested on his nose, making him look older. he glanced over at terry, rolling his eyes.


after class terry walked into the bathroom, planning to use the mirror to check the condition of his diaper. will was already in front of the mirror, shirt off, grimacing at the still unhealing bullet holes in his shoulder. terry spoke up, "those won't heal unless their stitched up."

"can't afford a doctor."

"who said anything about a doctor? i've been carrying this around ever since that mess with freed," terry held up a surgical stitching kit, the same one marcus had put him back together with.

will raised an eyebrow, "i feel this is the point where i should make a 'being prepared' joke. nothing comes to mind though. so, you any good with one of those?"

in answer, terry rolled up his shirt, showing numerous faded stitch marks accross his abdomen, "all but one of these i had to do myself. and hey, it's free."

"f-fine, just do it quick."

"you may want to put one of these on, because getting pulled back together hurts more than being torn open." terry held out one of his diapers and will snorted, "you're kidding right?"

"i'm afraid not. it's either that or you piss yourself from the pain."

will took it and went into a stall. The sound of tapes being undone echoed for a moment and then a zipper, and he stepped back out. the bulge was almost unnoticeable, underneath all the black he wore. terry locked the door and began threading the needle.

will pressed himself against the wall and terry went to work. the first two weren't so bad, a small prick and then a tight feeling, and that was it. after that, he gritted his teeth and his fingers left shallow furrows in the wall. not a sound escaped his lips, but he did wet himself profusely. terry tied off the last one, "three minutes, that has to be a record." he undid his pants, checking himself in the mirror, seeing he was wet but okay for now, and pulling them back up, turned to will, "you may want to go into a stall and wait a few minutes or else there may be rumors later..."

"o-okay... ummm terry, right? c-can i have another one of those?" terry chuckled and handed him three more diapers, "will that do?"

"i was all set to hate you before... but y-you're too nice."

"i don't mind having a foil, it keeps things interesting, and we're both working toward a similar goal right?" terry smiled.

"right," will smiled, sadly but a smile nontheless, "thank you."

"anytime, gespenter will." (gespenter roughly means 'deathmarch' or 'deadman'.)he did a two finger salute and left the bathroom. then he turned around and said, "if you can, meet me in two days at leons old hideout, top floor. we need a battle plan."
"i'll do what i can." will replied, and ducked into a stall. terry opened the door and left, "what took so long?" ember asked. and terry replied, "just fixing a problem. we have another possible ally now." she nodded, and hugged him.

before they left, terry went to shinji and gave him the same message as will, because they could really use his input.

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nikole had taken the twins and gone out to run errands, leaving a note on the kitchen table.

by the time they got home, terry was soaked, his inner diaper bulging and his outer one a bright yellow. ember took him to her room, leaving the other two in the living room. (marcus was covered in several lipstick kisses and looked slightly punch drunk.)

she had him lay down and untaped his diapers, he was erect beneath, and ember asked, "is this a turn-on for you?"
he stuttered, trying to deny it, and ember smiled at him, "it is for me too."

she placed the front back over him, and made to rub, but he grabbed her wrist lightly, "please don't."

"hmm?"

"i don't want to see you as a sex object, i appreciate the thought but... "

"oh, terry," she grinned and kissed him, and he closed his eyes, savoring it.

she finished changing him, double diapering again, and helped him into the usual pink long-sleeved t-shirt. she popped a pacifier into his mouth and undid his ponytail, he blushed and ember paused, because for all intents and purposes, terry looked like a little girl. even the scar crossing his nose served to make him look childish, highlighting his pale grey eyes, still innocent after all that he'd done. ember realized that it really wasn't him doing the killing, not intentionally, as if the basilisk had been beaten into him, so that he became it when he was pushed to the breaking point. sure, he could be tough when he was himself, but that was only to protect her.

she hugged him, whispering, "i'm so sorry..."

and he clung to her, whispering around the pacifier, "emmie? what's wrong."

"nothing. i love you." he snuggled up to her, "wuvs you too."
and she laughed, "you make such a cute baby, terry." he didn't know what to say, so instead he just smiled.


they went to the kitchen and ember pulled a suprise from the cabinet, a bottle. and written on the side in blocks was terry's name. she pulled another one out, and this one had her name on it. terry's mouth made an 'o' behind his pacifier. "momma got them yesterday while we were out, there's enough for all of us too." she pulled down two more, one inscribed with the M and star, and the other had a teddy bear on it. she filled all four with milk and brought them into the living room, "you guys need changing?"

argent patted her front and then made an arm wriggle that meant, 'i'm good for now'. marcus on the other hand shook his hips and said, "give it another twenty minutes and i will." at that, ember handed them the bottles, stripped off her pants and sat down, turning the t.v. to cartoons. terry stiffened, uttering a few words in german.

"what's wrong terry?" ember asked.

"what is that?"

"tom and jerry, why?"

"nein, i mean that box."

"you've never seen a t.v. before?"

"ReeeeH? that's what that is?" he babbled for a moment then turned back to her, "beth never had one, we just had a radio. i'd seen them on the black market and always wondered..."

"whoa...," ember mouthed.

marcus interjected, his face flushing as he wet himself, "you have to remember, we raised ourselves, living off the streets, for god only knows how long, and terry's the only one who's ever been to school. i'm a bit behind the times myself, for crying out loud, i used smith and wesson's! i just recently found out that there are other guns out there."

they let it go and relaxed, spending the evening watching cartoons in their diapers, just like a bunch of toddlers.

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elsewhere, will awoke to a stinging sensation across his face. it was a belt, he knew by the rasp of the leather as it was swung, and he kept silent, as it whipped across his cheek again and again. he knew it would only be worse if he acknowledged it, but still, it was painful. and then.... 'jingle' as the hand holding the belt flicked it so that the metal part was on the swinging end. 'crack!' will grit his teeth, choking down a scream, and then he knew...

he'd left the diaper on when he got home, and had caught up on housework, as the others were out somewhere. he'd taken a nap, intending to get up in a few minutes. in doing so, he'd unbuttoned his pants, so they'd feel more comfortable. at the moment, the waistband was around his thighs, so his padded rear was in full view. he could smell the alcohol on the breath of his attacker, and knew it to be his father, by the way he paced as he swung.

all this flashed through his head within about four seconds of being hit.

he wet himself again, this time unintentionally, and tears streamed from his eyes. his father snorted in disgust, and whipped the belt across his face one last time. but this time, the metal tine caught in his cheek and ripped it open...

as the footsteps receded, will let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and thought, 'this is definitely (owch!) going to be a long week...' he looked back and breathed a sigh of relief, as his sweater completely covered his diaper.

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meanwhile, in the izumi penthouse...

ocoa sat, perusing an illustrated version of the kama sutra, laughing softly every now and then.
sable had spread out in front of her on the kotatsu table, a huge mass of papers, some covered in mathematical scrawl, and others showing diagrams or various parts to her current project. said project was, at the moment, all over the table. it had begun life as a pocket watch, but sable had added things to it, and was in the process of fine tuning the gears, filing here, adding there, or anoting one for shinji to resize later.
she wore a spaghetti strap black top, and her abenas, and nothing else.

shinji himself had stepped out for a while, picking up steel for a project of his own.

as sable worked, her free hand crept down to the front of her diaper and began stroking. after about a minute, she noticed she was wet, terribly so, and asked ocoa for a change.

he agreed and she laid down. he untaped her diaper and began to wipe her clean, when he was done, he went to tape on the new one and she sat up and wrestled him onto his back. giggling, she ripped his pants off and untaped his diaper, which was dry, as he hadn't had a chance to use it yet. she dropped her head toward his nether regions and licked, all the way up to his belly button. he raised an eyebrow, and said, "are you sure?" she nodded and moved herself around, so that she crouched, half naked over top of him. then she dropped, sliding his member into herself and rocking slowly back and forth, he answered in similar fashion. within mere moments, both let out a low moan. sable layed over top of him, feeling drained but happy.

ocoa suddenly froze, "oh... what's you're dad gonna say?"

a voice from the kitchen made both of them jump, because shinji shouldn't have been home yet, "absolutely nothing. from what i HEARD, it was consensual. i trust you both. just remember to name one of my grand-babies after me." he poured himself a cup of coffee, and went down to the floor below.

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around sundown, the door to the winters apartment opened with a bang, nikole loaded with bags, and with the twins in tow rushed in. "d-dang it got cold!" she stuttered, "radio says there's gonna be snow tomorrow too."

"really?" ember asked, "it hasn't snowed here since i was little."

"nice pun," chuckled marcus.

"everybody, pants off!" nikole said, and opened the bags, showing several packs of diapers and other baby paraphenalia.

terry was changed first, and even though he wore two diapers again, he was drenched, totally unable to control his own bladder, and even a little messy. nikole wiped him clean and then began to put lotion on, her hands cool and comforting where they passed. then she pulled a diaper from the new pack and taped it on. she had terry stand up and look at himself in the mirror.

oddly, this diaper only had four tapes. the padding was doubly thick, but that only showed in the rear, where it seemed to emphasize his natural curves, it also had cartoonish print along the tape landing strip. he turned this way and that, and finally lifted his shirt above his belly button, tying it into a small tail in the back to hold it up. he patted a few spots, checking them out and then, behind the bottle in his mouth, he grinned and flashed a thumbs up.

ember was next, and she giggled uncontrolably the whole time, blushing a cute shade of pink. when changing was done, she hugged terry, and he swung her around, smiling from ear to ear.

marcus and argent went much the same way, each having their own revelations, but argent was suprised enough that she actually spoke, just a 'whoa!' but that was enough to turn everyone's heads, she clapped a hand over her mouth. terry pulled the bottle from his, and replied, "i was beginning to think you were mute."

argent made several arm wriggles and gestures, roughly meaning: 'it wasn't me. julie did it! blame the monkey. nothing to see here.' terry laughed out loud, raspy but happy, "bu' you has a great voice, don't hide it."

'wriggle wriggle' "iza so?" he stepped forward and tickled her, marcus jumping in to help, within seconds she had wet herself so badly that the new diaper yellowed all over, and she squealed between laughs, "please, stop!"

"finally!" terry laughed. argent clamped her mouth shut and made several rapid gestures.
"'fwaid i can't unna stan that." terry giggled and began to suckle on his bottle again.

next raevyn got changed into one that was her size, she bit her lip and looked to the side the entire time, embarassed. roebyn, on the other hand, steadfastly refused to wear diapers period, often breaking into loud snickers or belly laughs at the sight of her older sister dressed like a child.

after all the changing was done, nikole showed them what else she'd found: footed sleepers in their sizes, cat eared toboggans, and other such sundries. she then pulled out a special suprise for argent, a long coat, slimmer than marcus's and done in gray with silver detailing. (the chosen mark being a stylized 'A' and a four pointed star.) she also gave her a bottle with the same symbol, and a pacifier of her own. argent immediately mouthed it, and began to suckle, hugging nikole.

after all this, nikole got up and began to fix dinner, ember followed, deciding she was going to help with the cooking.

terry, on the other hand, went out to the balcony, shutting the door behind him, "whewe ah you?" he whispered to the winds.

"close enough." came a voice from beside him, the lanky figure of the basilisk lounged against the wall, the new skull mask over his mouth. "it will do," he whipped back around, and sitting astride the railing was himself, in a black button up, with a wistful look on his face. terry began, "three days to come up with something, What'll it be?"

"bloody, i hope," basilisk chuckled mirthlessly.

"no more killing!" little terry said, the lisp temporarily gone.

"killing is what we do, brat. remember it well, cuz i love it and you'll never escape it." with that, the basilisk grinned, making the mask shift into a skeletal grimace and, flipping him the finger, vanished.

chapter eleven: bad for good


terry awoke first, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked over at ember. she was wearing a footed sleeper and was curled into a ball, pacifier in her mouth, smiling at her dreams, which were good for once. he yawned widely, ending it with a small squeak, and went to take a shower.

once in, he stripped and glanced over at the mirror. numerous stitchmarks covered his stomach, the most recent looking several months old. his left arm looked like it had been through a meat grinder, bruised and scarred all the way to his shoulder, and was stiff, as it always was in the morning. his hair had grown back since the battle with leon, and now reached his ankles once more, oddly enough though, it never grew beyond that length. he turned backwards, looking over his shoulder. the whip marks were more evident than ever, deeply ingrained into his back, and the tattoo accross his neck (winged crescent inside a pentagram) stood out in all it's purple-inked, blasphemous glory. he shook his head, and turned on the shower, then he untaped his diaper, letting it hit the floor with a wet plop.

the water was just short of scalding, hot but enlivening and he let it course over him, feeling content. then the door creaked open, and a thin arm wrapped around his chest, "mahn 'f I jonn ya?" (mind if i join you?) ember asked, still cotton mouthed from sleep. terry turned a bright red from head to toe, unable to speak, and ember began to shampoo his hair.

when all was said and done, they stepped out, wrapped in towels and went into ember's room. ember diapered terry first, and as she unwrapped the towel, she noticed wet spots on it from where terry hadn't been able to control himself. she added powder and lotion and taped one of the new diapers on him. he was still blushing...

"terry, are you thinking naughty?" he darkened even more and she giggled, "don't worry about it, if i wanna shower with my boy then i will. theres nothing to be emberassed about, it' not as if i've never seen you naked before. ummm, can you help me out here?" she held up a diaper for herself, and terry nodded.

he diapered her swiftly, powdering and then carefully rubbing the lotion in, and finally taping it snugly. then he pulled out something else nikole had found, plastic pants covered by cloth on the front, this one with a winking smiley face on it. he slipped it under ember and pulled it securely, patting down the velcro tabs. then he found one for himself, adorned with a silver butterfly and ember helped him into it.

(for those who don't know, gamma akutabi(zombie powder) has the same symbol on his coat.)

she pulled out pants, shirts and the sweaters for both of them, since it was getting cold out, and then held out a long, thick pink ribbon to terry, he took it and tilted his head, looking confused. she pulled his hair back loosely and tied the ribbon into a bow. he half closed his eyes, smiling, and kissed her.

he pulled on one boot, and looked around for the other, which was accross the room. ember went to grab it for him, and immediately fell over backwards, because it was incredibly heavy! "what have you got in these?" she asked, and terry replied, "the soles are made of solid steel, so..."

a few minutes later they went to wake up marcus and argent. marcus, dressed in a green sleeper with an obvious bulge around the crotch, had several sticky notes stuck to himself, that read 'do not disturb. or else!'. argent on the other hand, was on the couch upside-down, wearing a diaper and nothing else, grinning from ear to ear, totally alseep, and slightly drooling.

terry bit his lip, and silenty laughed. a moment later he mouthed, 'should we take pictures?'.

once they were outside, terry swept ember into his arms, and slammed a boot into the ground. and just like that, they were flying...



they landed some ways off from the school, so as not to draw attention to themselves, and walked the rest of the way. they were in for a suprise...


crowding around the school was a huge group of protestors. bearing picket signs and generally being moody. the police were out in full force, directing in students while keeping everyone else out. as terry and ember fought their way through, an officer drew them to the side, "makoto, right? we know who you are, but we're denying you're here period. chief wants to talk to you later, he also says don't answer any questions unless the person asking has a badge. good luck...SIR." he saluted and let them go.

suddenly the crowd was split in half, and the roar of a mammoth harley screeching to a stop made everything go quiet. the driver and passenger removed their helmets, revealing ocoa and sable. they talked for a moment, and then ocoa swept sable into a hug, and kissed her deeply, "love you, sexy lady."


terry and ember went their seperate ways for their first two classes, hugging eachother tightly. when terry was about halfway to his class, an officer reached out and grabbed his arm, "this way, SIR." and directed him into the teacher's lounge. on one of the couches was a totally nondescript man wearing the uniform of the chief of police. he stood as terry entered, saluting. "basilisk, it's good to finally meet you!"
"i'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, herr...?" terry said, his voice still very raspy.

"darcy clarke, head of the metropolitan E-branch." he held out a hand.

"E-branch?" terry asked, shaking it, but totally lost.

"erhmmm.... how best to put this.... hit me!"

"what?!" he was shocked, "why?"

"trust me." darcy replied, a slight smirk on his face.

"alright," terry drew back his left hand, and slammed forward with a punch that should have floored a cow. it headed directly for darcy's face, but at the last second, flew to the right, totally missing him. darcy bit back a laugh, and drew his gun, "think that was wierd? watch this."
he pointed the gun at his own temple and pulled the trigger. the bullet exploded blowing gun to pieces, leaving the handle intact, and not even marring darcy in the slightest.

terry's jaw dropped, he had no words.

"i have a metahuman ability called 'guardian angel', i'm told i could walk through a nuclear explosion and come out unscathed. funny thing though, i still turn off the power to change a light bulb..." darcy chuckled, he'd done this before, always getting the same reaction.

"b-b- whaaaa, wait there are metas in the police force?" terry stuttered.

"that's exactly what E-branch is, we specialize in meta crime-busting."

"oh, god..."

darcy patted him on the shoulder, "don't worry, you're not in trouble, if anything, i want to thank you."

"f-for what?" terry asked, and from around his waist came a hissing sound.

"being what you are, your unique abilities surpass everyones on my team. i've actually seen you fly... all my people specialize in finding, or mind reading, mind Espionage, hence the E. since you're a vigilante, you're not bound by the laws in the same way we are. and having all those gang members killed or reformed, that saves a lot of time and headache for us."

terry was silent, digesting the information. so darcy continued, "we havn't been able to pinpoint corsica's location, he seems to be able to reflect mind probes and such. so i've been having the boys running constant mindsweeps over the same areas, eventually we'll figure out exactly where the reflections are emanating... basically he'll give himself away."

there came a hissing sound from terry once more as he wet himself, still terrified somehow that he was in trouble.

"when we do, the information comes to you first, you're probably the only one capable of taking him down...," darcy noticed his terrified eyes, " calm down, i'm not going to arrest you, all i want is to see that bastard dead already, too many lives have been lost from his misdeeds."

"so... i've got a license to kill?"

"provided the 'victim'," he made quotation marks with his fingers, "has a criminal record, or is caught in the act, then yes. so far, every one of your kills has fallen under those guidelines."

terry let out a sigh of relief and darcy, getting a strange look on his face asked, "am i really that scary?"
an odd question since darcy was totally average in every way, brown hair, brown eyes, middling height and weight, and so on. in fact, his very face was easily forgotten, he attributed this to his guardian angel again.

terry blushed, "it's more of the circumstances..."

"theres one thing i want to ask though, the new mask... can i see it?"

terry dug through his bag and pulled out the gleaming steel contraption, handing it to darcy, who turned it around in his hands. after a few minutes he said, "the man who made this... he's either got the hands of a god, or the mind of a madman." he handed it back, and terry tucked it into his bag. in doing so, a few spare diapers fell to the floor. terry's breath caught in his throat.

"so it wasn't just me being scary... injuries perhaps?" darcy asked.

"y-yeah, and... i kinda like em, they're comfy." terry blushed again, smiling a little.

"good. as long as you have that innocence, the world is open to you." darcy bowed, and then excused himself. taking his officers with him. he paused by the door, "yesterday's events led to today's protest, remember that. they know you now. but OFFICIALLY... the basilisk was never here, and never will be. ciao!"

as terry left, he palmed the pacifier in his pocket, and began to suck on it, hiding it beneath his oversized sleeve, looking as f he were covering a sneeze.

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ember on the other hand, was once more in calculus-2. there was a test, and though she hadn't studied, math came easy to her. unfortunately, even common sense eludes some people. she found this out as the idiot from several weeks before spitballed her and began whispering, "hey puuuussy!" (and several other similar statments, which I personally refrain from typing) her nails left furrows in the desk and she inhaled sharply, as if she was about to release a sonic burst. suddenly someone to her right grabbed her arm. she looked up, startled, to meet the eyes of kin. he made a funny face, and then, taking a marker, made a funnier face on his hand, and held a finger to his lips and ducked down. tapping the red on his bracelet, he went totally intangible and invisible, and slid through his desk. suddenly there came a scream from behind ember and she whipped around to see a floating hand coming up through her tormentor's desk. the hand clenched and showed the face scrawled upon it. "ooga booga!" it said, and nearly everyone in the class took off for the door, including the teacher.

as he left the class, behind ember, kin jotted down a few notes into a small notebook. he looked up at ember and said, "thing from addams family, with a twist. next, is that scene from exorcist... you know the spinning, vomiting head?"

"classic absolutely... kin you uhm..." ember searched for the words.

"i phased out of my clothes again didn't I?" he asked and ember laughed.

"oyo?" he stood clothed in only a disposible diaper, luvs brand oddly enough. then he slid into the floor. a moment later, he walked back out, fully dressed.

"hey... terry's having a war concil in two days, at leon's old hideout. can you come?"

"absolutely." kin replied, grinning.

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terry met ember in english class, and they told each other how their day had gone. terry laughed so hard at kin's antics and his next 'big idea' that it brought tears to his eyes. and ember got really quiet as terry told her about darcy. "so the police WANT your help?"

"it seems that way."


then, mr. phil's voice cut above the class chatter, "we have three new students, all transfers! introduce yourselves!" this last part was aimed at the newbies.

"Leonhardt Teremer." the youth was dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt with a red sunburst pattern. his black hair hung past his shoulders and was secured with a red ribbon,in much the same way as terry's. inside his pocket, his hand nervously flipped a small, old fashioned flint lighter open and closed.

"O-hayo gaijin! Saitorie Hanazuru straight from nihon, in yo' faces! you can call me saito." the next transfer student was dressed in purple trips, and a back and purple t-shirt, but what made terry sit up straight and stare, was his hair. it was red striped... silver!

"hello you... this could be good..." terry whispered.

"edward serpiente. don't expect any theatrics." his eyes were a sort of feral yellow, and his black hair cropped short. there was a single stripe of silver running through the black expanse, that dead ended in a jagged birthmark above his right eye. on the side of his face was a smear of white face paint, as if he'd only rubbed the rest off a short while ago.

"well... it's boogeyman." terry whispered to ember again.
"how can you tell?" she asked.
"look at the way he walks. the exact same strut. on a side note..."
"hmm?"
"the other two... they're diapered. and the guy with red stripes... he's a vigilante, chiru, i believe he called himself. we've never met face to face, but i've heard he's good. probably better than me... leonhardt though... he's meta alright, and i can smell lighter fluid on him... but we've definitely never met before."

all three newbies ended up sitting close to terry and ember, as there were several spots open there.

"'allo boogey." terry said as edward passed him.
edward stiffened, he hadn't expected to be found out that qickly, "a-'allo bazzy."
"i know you're here as cory's spy. give him a message for me. january seventh is our day."
edward grimaced, and then said, "it's done. he says he's marked it on the calendar, and looks forward to it with baited breath... there's some other stuff too that... REALLY does not bear repeating."

"i know the feeling. he's quite... perverse."

"mmhmmm." edward discreetly rubbed his rear end, then snagged a sheet of paper, and without looking at it, scrawled, 'get me free before the seventh, please.' he avoided looking at the paper, because corsica had demonstrated that he could control almost all aspects of those with one of his chips implanted in their necks. and, if corsica didn't SEE it, he didn't know about it. edward's eyes were pleading, and terry nodded, discreetly. at that edward visibly relaxed.

terry then turned around, looking at the other two. "herr chiru, at last we meet."
"how do you know me?!"
terry pulled his sweater down far enough to expose his scars, half smiling.
"basilisk..."
"it suprising... i'd never expected to meet another diapered high school vigilante... let alone two..." terry giggled.
saito/chiru gasped, and leonhardt looked as if he were about to cry. saito looked over, "you act anymore babyish and i might think you're a newborn."

at this point, leo really did begin to cry. and ember pulled him into a hug, "saito be nice."

"heeeey.... that was meant to be a compliment." he stuck out his tongue.

terry couldn't stand waiting any longer, he took the pacifier from his pocket and began to suckle.

"awww, dat's so kawaii!" saito said. (but he was still a little shocked from finding out that the silver haired girl in front of him was actually the basilisk.)

after a moment, leo looked up at ember and said, "thank you... i'm still a bit new to wearing diapers... not q-quite comfortable w-with everybody knowing."

"we only noticed because we wear them too. otherwise, it's impossible to spot unless you make it obvious... like terry." she pointedly looked at the pacifier and chuckled.

terry asked from behind his pacifier, "can i request your assisstance in corsica's demise?"
saito smiled a roguish grin, "of course. i got nothin' better to do."
"and you?" terry asked, turning to leo.
"i-i don't think i'm that good..."
"don't beat up on yourself, if you're not up to par, then we'll help you get better.
"o-okay." leo smiled just a little.

"alright, in two days meet us at don leon's old hideout. it should be the only building cordoned off with police tape. top floor. i'm hoping we'll have enough for a full frontal wipeout."


from behind them came a few strains of 'margritaville' sung just slightly off key, as if edward were trying to keep corsica from hearing.

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chemistry was next, as usual, but here too, terry had a nice little 'suprise'. will stood near the back of the room, looking irate. his neck and face were covered in bruises, all of them oddly shaped and accross one cheek was a nasty gash, deep enough that the inside of his mouth could be seen through it...

"just how good are you at stitching?" he asked, through clenched teeth.

"n--" terry began to speak, but another voice cut accross his, "i'll handle this."

the voice belonged to shinji, who was studying the wound with concerned eyes. he walked back to his desk, and pulled out a small block of steel, wrapped in a seal that read "for surgical use only" he inhaled sharply and his eyes suddenly went black all over. one hand held the steel and the other moved in quick, arcane gestures. and without warning, the block exploded into spikes, then a ball, then a pole, and finally into a thin ribbon, which snaked into will's cheek, making him bite down a scream.

shinji let out a ragged breath, rewrapping the remainder of the steel. "t-that should do it. i don't know how you got that... but if it's how i think it is, i'd kill him for it..."

will gritted his teeth, tears pouring from his eyes, and managed a reply. "it's how you think it is. but it's home, shitty, but a roof over my head. i can live with the old man being a dick..." he paused then whispered, "if i can call it living..."
strangely, no blood flowed from his wounds, before or after shinji's repairs. just as none had flowed when he got them. there was an audible hiss from his pants, and ember looked down, wide eyed. (here's another oddity... dead-men can't blush. wanna guess why?)

the diaper around will's waist was almost undetectable, due to the coloring and nature of his clothes, and when he walked, it was without the characteristic waddle. after terry's impromptu 'surgeon general moment' he found that he rather enjoyed wearing them, even if his home life was a living hell it gave him a little bit of a pick-me-up.

ember spoke with will throughout the rest of class, firing off questions, especially about his diapers, and even one or two about being 'dead'. terry just listened in, mentally filing away the information.


and so, the class ended and they prepared to leave.

but, walking down the hall someone let out a yell, "hey you faggot!"
terry knew it was directed at him, but he ignored it and then the call came again, "faggot! you with the WHORE!"
before the offender (the same one from ember's calculus class.) could blink, terry had turned, his boots slammed into the ground, left!, right!, and he whipped his left arm forward slamming two fingers into the young man's chest. "DIIIIIIE!" terry roared. there was an explosion of red light, shot through by a veritable storm of sparks, and the young man shot backward accross the hall, he slid nearly thirty feet, smacking into a row of lockers. he coughed and gingerly sat up, cross-eyed.
terry on the other hand, stood rooted to the spot, in the exact position he'd attacked in. his face was a mask of feral rage, his eyes solid bloody red, and glowing with a hellish light. the tips of his fingers smoked, still throwing off sparks. every vein on his body stood in red relief against his skin, but unlike before, they too were glowing. he snarled, his voice raspy, but devoid of accent or compassion, "mock me, whatever. mock her, i'll rip your FUCKING HEAD OFF!" he straightened up, whipping his left hand straight out to the side. as if he'd done it a thousand times before, he snapped his fingers and every tenet of his hellish transformation vanished. his eyes, grey again, rolled back in his head and he hit the ground with a loud "kathunk".

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terry awoke several hours later, visions of hell still playing through his head from the dream he'd been living ever since he lost consciousness. he breathed heavily, and rolled out of bed. dressed in nothing but his diaper, he looked very childlike, and as he looked at himself the corner of his mouth rose in a silent snarl. he dressed quickly, pulling on his basilisk outfit, and then proceeded to the bathroom. yanking the leaden knife from his boot, he began to hack at his hair, grabbing handfuls and cutting, not caring what he looked like. by the time he was done it was only a few inches long, and combined with his expression, he appeared years older. the silver haired man in the mirror glared back at him, and he pulled on the skull mask...


in the living room where ember and the others had gathered to wait for terry to awake, everybody looked up as he stormed through, wrenching open the balcony door. he didn't utter a single word as he stepped out and went airborne.

after a moment ember gasped, "w-w- terry?" she ran after him, going airborne less than a minute later, and much more clumsily. marcus just sat, slackjawed, "well... that's new." he said a moment later.

-ten minutes later-

"COME OUT YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU GODDAMN COWARD!!!!!!" ember could hear terry as if he were right next to her, but she could just barely make out his sillhouette several hundred yards away.

"took you long enough." a burst of lightning shot by terry's head, followed by a line of fire, which he dodged easily. a sonic wave smacked into him, leaving him disoriented. "tch... boy, i swear, you have gotten sloppier. 'parently i need to set you straight."

terry roared again and fired a 'drive' straight back to where the attacks emanated from. "show your face, ass-hole!"

with an infuriating cackle, corsica slid up from inside the rooftop. "bend over boy, you're my bitch, and it's time for your medicine."

terry's face went completely primal. ember would later swear that she saw surrounding his form for just the space of an eyeblink: the transparent form of an enormous skeletal snake... the basilisk!

terry's left arm burst into an explosion of red lightning, and he slammed it forward straight at corsica. corsica merely laughed, and copied terry's move exactly, as their fists met, he hit him with another bolt of lightning. the resulting explosion knocked terry flat, expending the last of his energy as his healing factor tried to kick in. with a sick grin and demented cackle, corsica unzipped his pants...

try as she might, ember simply wasn't fast enough to save him, and terry's scream tore at her. even worse than when he'd fought freed...

the scream cut off suddenly, and corsica dropped him to the ground. terry's pants had a large hole ripped into the crotch, the padding from his diaper spilling out onto the ground, along with a string of milky, white fluid. his neck was cut as well, deeply enough that it bled profusely. corsica knelt over him, pressing a knee into terry's groin, eliciting a gasp of pain. then he took the penknife he had slit terry's throat with, and slashed accross the bridge of his nose, reopening the scar there, before carving several deep gashes accross his chest.

"a war council, really? my little boy-whore, you really need to learn better. you cannot beat me, you cannot placate me. i am a force of nature. i will say this in your defence though, you WERE the best fuck i've ever had, and you still are." he stood up, and began to urinate all over terry. once he had finished, he zipped his pants, and kicked terry in the face, smiling he said, "have a nice day." and slid downward, through the building.

terry passed out, the next time he opened his eyes was nearly a week later.

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-several hours later-

corsica stood in his office. two forms faced him, both with implants in their necks. one was edward serpiente, the boogeyman; the other was the same boy who had called terry a faggot, the same one who had given ember such a hard time.

"really, i must thank you for that. it was your your total assholery that made him flip, and get sloppy."

"no prob, boss. that faggot needed a wakeup call anyway."

"i agree, it's high time i got my little slave back. BUT! i want him broken this time, no hope, no feeling, no nothing. maybe he needs another dose of 'little cory'."

edward said nothing, but it was clear that he was uncomfortable. corsica looked over at him, "awww, whatsa matter, is my widdle eddie gay fow terry?" he laughed as edward gritted his teeth, trying not to scream at him. corsica made to turn away, and then spun around, backhanding him accross the face, "grow a pair you little shit!"

chapter twelve: fallen angel


"dead by blood loss, shock, and... aw shit!" the stranger in the white business suit sat across from him in the dead-zone, head in hands.

"i guess this time it's permanent?" terry asked, his voice wavering.

"no, there's still much chaos. i'm dealing with my own bit back home, very messy. so, you'll have to go back."

"... then before i go, i have a request."

"yes?"

"i challenge you, if i win, you tell me your name."

the man coughed, "crazy boy say what?"

terry breathed slowly, and said, "a contest of swords."

"good luck." the man spoke several words in what could have been Latin, and terry's blades appeared in his hands. oddly enough, limelight's case had been restored.

terry took them, sliding limelight through his belt. he revved killer queen, letting it vent his frustrations. the stranger's hand went to the long white boken on his back, he pulled it, revealing it to be a katana, devoid of a hand guard. terry's eyes fell on it's blade and he gasped, because the steel... was stark shining white!

he tapped the handle and the blade split up the middle, making two very thin, very long swords. he held one up, one down in a kutabaryu stance, "scream out your defiance to the heavens, akumaru so-kiba!" he said, and
both swords exploded into pale cyan flames. "i highly doubt your steel can handle hellfire."

terry's eyes turned red and he flicked killer queen into a short, sharp arc, firing off a drive. the man caught the air burst on the tip of his leading blade, and spun it, dissipating the lethal force as if it were nothing. planting queen, he performed the same move with limelight, to a similar effect. a wry smile split his face and he grabbed killer queen. spinning both blades, he drove limelight into the ground, causing a huge tail of flame to rise from it. he fired a drive from the massive sword still in his hands, straight through the fire, and spoke two words, "tyrant... RAVE!" the effect was a massive explosion of fire that took the man head on. his eyes widened and he said, "well, this is unexpected."

"i guess I’ll count that as a win, for now." he said, standing behind terry. his suit wasn't marred in the slightest...

"my name... is Terciel halcyon makoto. lord Godspeed of the divine knights who guard the shattered spirit of the basilisk."

terry gasped, unable to speak. so the other did for him, "see why i wanted to wait till you were dead? this will cause problems... so we don't get each other confused, just call me ko-yami, it's... a child hood nickname."

at that very moment, his figure erupted into sparks and smoke. when it cleared, his appearance was younger by far, an exact mirror image of terry, down to the scar across his nose, and his long silver hair. his clothing had changed too, to a set of black clothes overlaid by a white trench coat, "damn it! stupid unreliable spells!"

terry's eyes migrated down to his waist however and he began to chuckle. "what's the punch line?" ko-yami asked.

"is that how i look?" terry asked. "you're wet!"

ko snorted and then laughed too, "yeah, yeah i am."

"oy, i'm talking to myself!"

"I’ll do you one better" ko poked him, "stop hitting yourself!"



-several puns and twin jokes later-

they sat back to back, resting. ko began to talk, "i think... we probably are the same person, just, what could have occurred. y'see, for every event that happens, there is a second possibility. in essence, we are each what would have been for the other. but, at the same time, our appearances could be pure coincidence."

"if that's so, how did we meet like this?"

"the dead-zone exists in every reality at once. there is only one dead-zone. it's very confusing."

terry got really quiet then said, "if we are each other does that mean that we're wearing the same diaper at the same time?"

"little nuances like that... i don't really know. it's possible, but unlikely though."

he stood, undoing his glove, "we've been here nearly a week of your time. you need to go back."

terry nodded and stood up, waiting. ko chanted his spell, and placed his palm on terry's forehead.

there was a flash, and terry vanished. ko waited, seeing beyond the dead-zone. then he spoke more Latin and vanished as well.


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the first sign of life from terry's pale body was a cough, then a giggle that broke into deep belly laughter.
ember jerked in the chair she had been sleeping in and looked up. tears streaming down his cheeks, and laughing fit to burst, terry met her eyes and said between giggles, "good morning my angel."

ember froze, terry's voice no longer had a rasp, period. his hair had grown back at an incredible pace, once again to ankle length. even the scars and contusions Corsica had given him were faded, as if they'd happened years ago instead of a week. the strangest thing of all, even though he no longer had a rasp, his voice wasn't his own. it was lighter, girlish even. sure there was a touch of the old terry, but the old quiet was gone... it no longer hurt him to talk louder than a whisper!


"emmie? what's wrong?" he asked.

"t-terry? i-is that y-you in there?" she was visibly shaken, stuttering her words.

from the doorway came an answer, "his healing factor completely reset, from what i see, you just got a miracle." the man speaking was so bald that his head gleamed. his name-tag read, dr. baldhead, but that was crossed out and the name 'Faust' scribbled above it. "when he came in, i thought we had a corpse to deal with. but... as long as the heart beats, we do what ever we can. Mr. basilisk, for the love of god, kill that bastard, cause what he did... that's just NAAASTY!"

"you're the one who healed me?" terry asked.

"no, you did that, we just cleaned you and held the pieces together till they stuck."

"very eloquent. thank you Herr... Faust?" Faust did a two finger salute and left the room.

ember still huddled in her chair, wary. terry shook his head and clambered out of bed, mentally noting that the nurses had put a diaper on him. he stumbled for a second, and then crouched down to ember's level, she backed away from him.

"em..." he leaned forward, and kissed her. her eyes widened and then closed, a smile playing about her lips.

she leaned into the kiss, and to terry's surprise, made it a French kiss. when they finished, she pulled him into a tight hug, whispering, "i missed you."

"and i you, ma petite." she blushed as he used her pet name. then his strong arms enfolded her, and she knew she'd never lose him again.

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within a short while of being released from the hospital, terry had the message spread that the war council would commence at six that night, and while everyone else got prepared, he and ember went to the homeless shelter.

"terry, who are you hoping to find?" ember asked as they walked in the front.

"you'll see." he said enigmatically, and headed for Anthony’s office.

Anthony was at his desk, feet propped up, and a telephone to his ear, he listened for a moment, and then said, "sorry, we closed at two." he hung up, "damn, still no password..."

from the doorway terry grinned and said, "Dante Sparda, your enemies are demons. is that the right one?"

dante/tony flipped over backwards in his chair, hitting the ground with a crash, from behind the massive desk he asked, "yeah... but how the hell did you know that?"

"i'm more observant than you give me credit for, and since i just said the password, i believe that makes me a priority caller."

"alright... what's the job?" he asked, standing up and pulling off the brown wig he'd been wearing, revealing white hair shot through with streaks of bright silver.

"the end of don Corsica, his empire, his minions, and all the little shit bits in between. i have a whole team ready to ease the workload, but we'll be needing a real demon to help out. for now, we're having a war meeting, the real mess won't start till January the seventh."

"absolutely." Dante beamed, and slammed a fist into the wall. from within were several clicks and the whole thing slid sideways. inside the new room were several different coats, some red, some blue and even a Victorian purple. there was an entire wall filled with swords, everything from long swords, to wicked daggers, to a massive 'thing' with the word vendetta inscribed on it. on the other wall were guns, simple .45s, needle guns, even a rocket launcher and a huge pipe that looked like it had been torn from a tank, inscribed with the name, kalina ann. below that were a few pairs of gauntlets and greaves, one set glowing, one seeming to burn with infernal fire, and one that was enmeshed with gears. set next to that was a metal skull with two arms coming off of it, the arms ending in quivers that held three swords apiece. reserving a special shelf all their own was a set of four katanas, each sharing the same motif, but with distinct differences. in truth they were the same sword, yamato, but were formed from the fragments the blade had been split into when it's original owner was killed.

above them was a massive red sword, that had no equal, Sparda!

ember gasped, and terry's eyes widened, as even he hadn't expected this.


Dante grabbed one of the red coats, the simplest looking one, his favorite, and began to peruse his weapons. after a moment, he decided to stick with his two classic handguns, ebony and ivory. at the other side his hand strayed toward a sword with a skull hand guard, until he thought better of it and turned, whipping Sparda off the wall. he spun it around his hand, somehow managing not hitting the wall even once.

"jackpot," he whispered, chuckling.

"all right then, let's get a move on!" terry said, and headed for the door.


terry stooped down to let ember get onto his back, which she did, then she locked her legs around his waist and waited. "ready?" terry asked Dante, who nodded enthusiastically. he slammed a boot into the ground and they were airborne. below him, Dante began to run, then jumped, then jumped again off of a glowing platform that had appeared beneath his feet. they kept pace with one another, Dante creating platforms at a seemingly endless rate, and terry kicking off building for height and gliding down for distance. ember let out an exhilarated 'YAHOO!' and terry joined in, both reveling in the sheer joy of their flight.

as they were about to land, ember wrapped her arms tighter around him, and said, "i'm sorry."

"for what?" he asked, and then felt a warm sensation across his back as ember wet herself, "for that? that’s fine, it's quite cold out here." he said, which made ember giggle.

"don Leon’s old haunt right?" Dante yelled back, pausing on another platform. terry got a good look, noting that it was a red circle filled with arcane inscriptions. something stirred in terry and he spoke a string of German words. as they left his mouth, the air beneath him crackled, and solidified into a similar shape to Dante’s, albeit buzzing with red static, and terry gasped, unsure of what he'd done.

"y-yeah, the don's old place. h-how you doing back there?" he asked ember.
"having the time OF MY LIFE!" came the reply, "why didn't you tell me you were a magician?"

"i don't... didn't know i was." he felt a tingling sensation in the back of his head, as if the effort of holding up the platform were slowly draining him. he shook it off and slammed a boot down. he shot up twice as high as usual, the magic dissolving beneath him, and spoke the words again. this time, the circle appeared sideways, and he kicked off it, flying for real. spreading his arms, he let himself drop into a glide, speaking the words one last time. he used the sideways circle as a running board, going at an angle, matrix style, to shoot to the left. Leon’s building lay directly in their view, and he dropped toward it at a shallow glide, landing in the smashed-out window with a short, undignified skid.

terry dropped to one knee, panting, and let ember get off.
"are you alright?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.

"i am now," he kissed her, and stood back up.


they waited a moment for Dante, and then made their way to the top floor.

the huge room was devoid of any furniture other than the chaise lounge, and smelled faintly of wood smoke. by the door were several packs of diapers, abena, luvs, and the newer brand that terry and ember used.

will lounged against the far wall, loaded with knives, and carrying a pool stick, his pockets bulged with all manner of oddments. the wound on his cheek had healed somewhat to a large eye-catching scar. he was speaking with saito and kin, in a rather heated discussion about what exactly qualified as a 'weapon'.
saito himself wore his purple and black attire, as well as some thin metal armor of the same color scheme. in a sheathe across his back was a small staff, about two and a half feet long, it looked to be made of heavy grade steel. kin, on the other hand was dressed immaculately, and appeared unarmed.

Leo stood by the window at the far edge of the room, looking slightly pained. by his feet was a sickle with a chain attached to it. the weapon was obviously very old, but retained it's sheen, and the red of it's handle.
there was a small rectangular groove expertly cut just above the handle, a groove about the same shape as the lighter that Leo reflexively flicked in his hand. his black hair was held back by the same red ribbon, and made his face seem childish.

on another wall, marcus was talking with argent. (i use the word 'talking' subjectively here...) both wore their long coats, showing off the symbols. beside marcus were terry's swords and costume (meticulously repaired by nikole.) oddly enough, limelight's case had been restored, and queen bore a scorch mark midway up it's length. marcus spoke in a mishmash of German and twangy English, and argent put on a rhythmic series of arm wriggles and hand signs. no one could say for certain what exactly they were talking about...

pacing around the center of the room was shinji, toting an absolutely HUGE package in the shape of a sword. at the moment, he was talking on a cell phone, "well, how the hell did you get that huge-ass Harley up on the high dive?" he paused, listening for a moment, "okay, see you soon, love you sable." as he hung up, he broke into a case of uncontrollable laughter. when he looked up toward the door, he waved at terry then his eyes went wide as he saw Dante, "hey, you still owe me for a pizza!"

Leo heard the commotion, and turned. as soon as he saw terry, his face lit up and he came bounding across the room. he threw himself into terry's arms, wrapping his legs around the taller boy's waist. pressing close, he whispered, "i'm glad you're back." on impulse he leaned up and kissed terry, full on the lips.
both he and terry blushed at the same time, and terry mumbled in German <'that was... oddly nice...'>

Leo stammered, also in German, giving terry a jolt, <'y-y-you're not f-freaked out? thank god!'> he hugged terry tighter, blushing furiously. ember began to giggle, making them both look over, "that was cute! do it again!"

Leo shook his head, "nu uh!" there was a slight hissing sound from around his waist, and as he glanced down, his lip quivered and he started to cry, burying his face in terry's shirt.

"Leo, let's get you changed." terry whispered to him. from between the folds of his shirt came a muffled reply, "i don wanna! Leo’s a big kitty!"

"well, even big kitties have an accident now and then, i know i do." terry said, stroking Leo’s hair.

"really?" Leo loosened his grip and looked up at terry.

"yes, really. emmie, can you get a-- thank you." he said as ember gave him one she'd already had in hand.

Leo loosened his legs and laid down on the floor, looking up at terry, sniffling a little. terry unbuttoned Leo’s pants and pulled them off, eliciting a small blush as Leo’s diaper was a sodden yellow all the way across the front. as he went to untape it, something small, black and furry twined itself around his hand, <'hmmm, you have a tail?'>, on a whim, terry drew back Leo’s hair... his ears were pointed, and even covered with a dusting of black fur. as he looked Leo began to whimper.
"what's the matter? you're a real kitty. And you know, i think it's kind of cute." terry tickled his tummy, and Leo giggled, kicking his legs in the air. then the front of his diaper grew wetter and he started to sniffle again.
it's alright, this'll be over soon." terry pulled the front down and Leo blushed a bright scarlet as his most private parts were shown. terry asked him to lift up, and then pulled the wet diaper from under him, putting the fresh one underneath. "ummm, gimme a sec..." he pulled it back out from under Leo, and slipped the lead knife from his boot and holding it like a scalpel, he cut a small slit in the back, and then slid it back under Leo. "sit up please." Leo did, and terry threaded his tail through the diaper, then lightly pushed him back down.

"i don't believe we have any lotion, will you be okay without it for now?" Leo nodded, and terry pulled up the front, taping the four tapes snugly. a few strands of his silver hair fell forward, and Leo batted at them playfully, like a kitten. "all done mister kitty. and might i say, you look adorable."
Leo looked at the new diaper, one of the brand that terry used, and blushed, then smiled. "tank oos, tewwy." he leaned up, and kissed terry on the lips again, making the other blush deeply as he returned it.

<'you might make ember jealous doing that.'> terry bit back a smile.
Leo cringed <'r-really? i-i'm s-s-sorry...'>
<'heeey, calm down, i was joking. ..... i think she likes watching'> he grinned, not a half smile but a roguish devil-may-care grin.
<'i-i-in that c-case'> his tail whipped around behind him, and he leaned in closer. this time, the kiss lasted longer and wasn't exactly innocent... by the time it was over, Leo was blushing scarlet and trembling all over, and terry looked slightly woozy. ember was wide eyed, and verrry impressed.

"a-alright, lets get your pants back on." terry said, and slid them on. when he got them to Leo’s waist, Leo made to tuck his tail down the leg, but terry stopped him, "that's gotta be uncomfortable, let me fix it." he took the knife and made an incision in the jeans, pulling Leo’s tail through. "there. feel better."
Leo flicked his tail experimentally, "much," he said with a shy smile. Leo stood up and realized that these diapers were twice as thick as the one he'd had on before, meaning that the bulge was very obvious, and he had to waddle just to walk. what was odd though, was that even though terry wore the exact same brand, the only change in his step was a limp that you'd only notice if you looked reeealy hard.


without warning a gust of wind blew through the room, even though there wasn't a single open window. about a quarter way out into the floor a crackling figure eight hung suspended in space. a few seconds later a blue doorway took it's place, and coming through that doorway was the faint sound of a motorcycle, growing steadily louder!

ocoa's mammoth Harley shot through the doorway, (which collapsed as he passed through it) doing a wheelie at about seventy miles an hour. balanced upright on the handlebars was sable, holding something resembling a pocket watch, with a look of extreme concentration on her face. ocoa grabbed her waistband, and dropped the front wheel, turning sharply to the right. as it slowed to a stop he said, "one hell of a way to make an entrance, eh?"

"too true, lover boy." sable dropped into his arms, covered in sweat, her diaper in a similar condition.
"alright, relax, catch your breath, you did great!" he kissed her cheek, and she snuggled up closer to him, breathing deeply to calm herself.


terry waited another moment and then raised his voice, which got everyone’s attention since they weren't used to the more feminine accent. "alright, everybody center of the room, council to order!"

"as everybody here is aware, we're preparing to face don Corsica, the last member of the trismagia. as it is, a good portion of you... i still don't know what you're capable of, so..." he paused for effect, "if no one has any objections, i'm going to take a few minutes to 'spar' with each of you."

Leo raised his hand, and shyly asked, "d-do i have to fight you?"
"yes. i won't attack, just defend. i have to know exactly what our 'team' is able to do."

"a-alright t-then, I’ll be your first o-opponent."

"HOLD IT!" shinji broke in, "before that, i have some weapon commissions to deliver." he hefted the huge package he'd been toting and handed to ocoa. unwrapped, the massive creation resembled a cross between a chainsaw and terry's queen. ocoa revved the handle (itself measuring over a foot and a half) and air gusted out from the ports on the back. there was a small ring on the back, which he pulled with a mighty jerk, and the teeth on the blade began to move. after a few minutes testing, he stopped the sword and dropped to one knee, with no pretense he dropped the metro accent he'd been using since he'd met terry, "izumi-dono, i am in your debt." there was a stunned silence, and then saito chirped, "you're Japanese too!" to which ocoa simply nodded.

shinji then tossed two small packages with belt clips to will, which were about the shape of a deck of cards. will opened one, "... these aren't metal." he held up a knife from on of the packages, it was barely thicker than a sheet of paper, completely transparent, and weighed almost nothing.

"it's called air-foil. i stopped making those for a while, because a lot of thugs kept getting a hold of them. the edge on one of those is keen enough to carve a man in half, without his notice." will raised an eyebrow and then, to everyone's shock, drew the blade across his own wrist. no blood spilled forth, not even a drop. "point taken. i'm betting they're really durable too."

"that would be correct. and due to the size, each pack contains about a hundred and fifty knives."

"bringing my grand total to three hundred seventy five, and four pool cues." he didn't even crack a smile.

"and marcus, these are for you." shinji handed him a set of two smith and Wesson 500's. the best gun currently on the market, they were capable of long range accuracy, and the up close and personal style that marcus used. these had been altered to an extensive degree. there was no ammo port in the handle, or anywhere for that matter, although there was a shell ejection slot on the side. on the inside, just before the barrel began there was a chamber, apparently set up so that marcus' power could have more room to charge.

then shinji dropped a third gun into his hands. long barreled, and blanketed with a red sheen, it gave off an eerie feeling. it's handle was nearly as straight as the gun itself, as if the thing were meant to be used as a sword.

"they need names." shinji said, and marcus held up the handguns, "Sodom and Gomorrah. the big one's jackal." shinji's eyes went black and the names carved themselves into the muzzles of the guns in an elegant cursive script.

shinji's eyes cleared and he said, "alright, you're good to go."

"alright, Leo ya ready?" terry asked, pulling on his mask, and unsheathing limelight slowly so it didn't ignite.

"uh huh," they moved to the center of the room, and Leo slid his lighter into the sickle and began to spin it around his body. the chain slid through his hands, giving the lengthy weapon some slack and he slung it at terry.

terry jerked his head to the side, "good. killer first move, what’s next?"
Leo gave it more slack and then, using his other hand, whipped it backward. the blade caught terry in the back, dragging him toward Leo. "aaaiie, terry are you okay?", Leo squealed.

terry pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside, the back had a long bloody gash in it, but his back only had a hairline scar, "very good, more!"

he cast out the sickle once more intoning, "shiranami no homura!" and a huge black flame extended from the blade. terry whirled limelight in a hard widdershins swirl, redirecting whatever energy Leo had thrown at him. finally the blade flew aside and terry whipped limelight to a stop, and the entire length of it's blade was caked in ice.

terry's breath came out in a cloud of white, and he tapped his mask, splitting it up the middle, "passed. welcome to the team!"

at this point marcus walked up behind Leo and whispered in his ear, "is that a real tail?"
"y-yeah, why?"

marcus grabbed him in a bear hug, "i always wanted to have a kitty!"
Leo turned around in his arms to face him, "well now you've got one." a rumble started in his chest, and he hugged marcus back, the rumble growing into a full blown purr.
for some reason that neither could explain, each adored the other, and probably would for a long time.

terry just laughed, "i probably should've warned him that marcus loves cats..."

"i'm next." will's despondent voice echoed, and he stepped up, screwing together the two halves of his pool stick.

terry nodded for him to begin, and will responded by whipping a handful of knives at him. terry spun limelight and the blades all flew astray. "DOUBLE HEAD MORBID!" the pool stick spun in a brutal circle smacking into terry with a loud crack. will whipped out another handful of knives and threw them at him as he slid across the floor. about ten of them hit their mark and will let out a grim smile, he pulled a pool cue from his pocket and tossed it skyward smacking it with the stick and sending it across the room where it hit terry dead center in the chest. not losing any time, he ran forward and dipped his fingers in a small pool of terry's blood, drawing a circle in the air he barked, "NIGHTMARE ALTER!" the circle filled in blood red and some... thing shot out at terry. it had no discernable form or features, seemingly a mass of shadow. will whipped a hand skyward, "AMORPHOUS!" and the blob shifted into a mass of spikes and blades.

terry's eyes shifted to red the instant he was hit, and he kept backpedaling to redirect the worst of the hits. once he set his eyes on the nightmare heading for him, he drew limelight across the floor several times, causing it to spark and then to burst into flame. whipping it forward his hand suddenly danced with red sparks which shot the length of his blade, turning the flame a brilliant blue, without losing a beat he dashed forward skewering the thing, "hrgh... blue orchid!"
it dissolved in seconds, a jet of blue fire whipping out toward will, who tilted his head back and laughed. he began emptying his pockets, tossing everything he had at terry. with a look of intense concentration, terry batted away everything but a lone knife, which hit him directly in the left hand.

will let out a breath, then dropped his pool stick, "done, what do you think?"
terry pulled the knife from his hand slowly answering, "i think you're totally crazy..."

"death has that effect on you."
"will you quit it with this death bullshit, you're as alive as everyone else."
will scowled and stormed over, grabbing terry's hand and placing it on his chest, "what do you feel?"
terry shook his head, "nothi..." he moved his hand up to will's neck, then his arm, "you have no pulse..."
"told you." he rolled his eyes.
"w-well... welcome to the team." he extended a hand, but will walked around it and began collecting his arsenal.

"please tell me i'm not late!?" a new voice called from the door. the speaker was an incredibly tall, brown haired, blue eyed young man. slung across his back was a sword even more immense than queen, but oddly... it was completely translucent.

"hey, SKIP!" saito shouted from across the room, "what took you so long?"

"oh, the usual, i got lost on the road of life." skip's grin was wide, and made his brilliant blue eyes seem even darker shade of blue, "so basilisk, i hear you're puttin together a team, got room left for a water master?"

terry raised an eyebrow, "if that means what i think it does..."

"ter, sit this'n out, ah wanna have some fun." marcus said, his arms wrapped around Leo. his country accent was very thick, making terry look over.

"better idea, skip, you take the gunman, I’ll take the swordsman." saito said, glancing over at skip.

"done deal!" skip said and pulled a canteen from his back, where it had been hooked underneath the sword.
taking a long draught, he fixed marcus with a stare, sizing him up. the next second, he was three feet from marcus, swinging his immense sword. Leo rolled out of the way and marcus brought the jackal up in an arc, catching skip's broadsword right in the middle.

"well that's strange, I’d heard rumors of a man who wields guns this way, but it still comes off a bit odd. isn't that right, 'son of Astor'?"

marcus growled and swung jackal back then down in a two hand swing, driving skip backward. the red sliver in his eyes appeared to wriggle for a moment, and he gripped jackal in his teeth, pulling Sodom and Gomorrah out. his fingers blurred and a solid wall of kinetic shot flew toward skip.

"now this... this is more like it." skip laughed and stepped forward into what can only be described as a dance, his body ducking and twirling, the blade alongside him moving in tandem. not a single shot hit him, and he slowed to a stop, looking down at marcus. "eh, boya, turn around." marcus whipped his head around and nearly lost an eye, as the air behind him was thick with jagged spikes of ice.

"verdammt blode auslander sheisse Essen arschloch!" marcus threw the guns aside and charged, whipping jackal forward and charging it a fraction of a second. "toten sie." he said, and clicked the trigger. skip held up a hand, a ball of water swirling in it, and caught the shot, dissipating it without so much as batting an eye.

"impressive. i secede." skip sheathed his massive sword.

"take back that name, and i won't kill you." Marcus’s hair stood on edge, every follicle shot through with his power.

"done then, marcus right?" he held out a hand, still smiling.

marcus grimaced and the energy shot back into him, leaving no trace that it had ever been there at all. "i'm getting rather sick of that name, call me Bunji." he said, and shook skip's hand

-at the same time-

"I’ve been rather iffy about fighting you." saito said, shifting from one foot to the other. "there are so many rumors about you..."

"then let's... i believe the phrase is 'get down to the brass tacks'. and that makes no sense what so ever..." he slipped limelight back into it's case and tied his hair back again, strangely though, his eyes were still red. "well, come on, i'm waiting."

saito tapped a foot against the floor and appeared to skate across it, switching to the other foot, he kicked off again, picking up speed. terry watched, intrigued, and as such almost missed saito's swing. he'd pulled the staff from it's sheathe and nearly knocked terry in the head with it. but just before it hit, terry flickered and vanished.

"huh..." saito skated to a stop and flicked his staff, the end shot out, revealing that it was collapsible. "right about... here!" he lashed out with it and all of a sudden terry was there, the tip of the staff held tightly between his hands.

"threes a first..." he said and aimed a kick at saito, saito dropped the staff, catching the kick with his own leg and flipping terry before he'd even finished it.

"are you ready? Chiru KAZE!" saito dropped into a sweeping kick, knocking terry off his feet again, and then hit him with a straight legged kick, knocking him skyward.

"leaf rising storm!" saito flickered out sight and appeared below terry, performing what appeared to be several upside down stomp kicks.

"Chiru..." saito flickered out, appearing and disappearing, left, right, front, behind, smashing kicks into terry

"RENGE!" with barely any effort, he covered the other four points, completing a lotus pattern attack, every time delivering a brutal kick to terry.

"cherry blossom..." saito flickered above terry and his leg seemed to glow with a harsh white light, with a quick intake of breath, he smashed a devastating axe kick just between terry's chest and stomach, "EXPLOSION!" as he and terry hit the ground, the energy exploded outward, taking the shape of a thousand cherry blossoms that slowly dissipated.

terry coughed and gasped, "impressive, my turn!" and vanished.

"AZURE STORM VIPER!" he appeared several yards away, charging forward, limelight extended and burning a bright blue again. he stopped a hairsbreadth away from saito, close enough that he could feel the heat of the blade.

saito dropped backward with a padded 'whumph' and wet himself profusely. terry chuckled and sheathed limelight, "passed. welcome to the team." he then fell over backwards as well, "if i didn't heal so fast, i think that might've killed me."

"a-are you okay?" saito stuttered.

"i'm fine, it's you i’m worried about, you look like you just met the grim reaper."

"i thought i did. that mask and your speed just... wow..."

terry replied, "honestly, you're faster than i am, and your kicks... i thought I’d been hit by a truck every time you connected. that's your meta power isn't it?"

"yeah, but what's yours?"

terry was silent for a moment, "...i think it's that red light..."


at that moment, skip and marcus' fight ended as well. from over on the sidelines came a yell, "heeey, what about me?!" kin stood, legs akimbo, looking very left out.

terry stood up and motioned to him, and the other three moved to the side of the room. kin leaned his head forward and grasped something behind him and underneath his shirt. when he pulled it out it was revealed to be a long, thin knife, completely translucent and very lethal. "my rapture."

he dropped into an epee fencer's pose and began striking at terry. terry caught the blows on limelight's scabbard, and pressed forward. spotting an opening, he whipped limelight out of it's case. the blow caught kin directly in the chest, cutting straight through him, apparently without a mark... kin flashed a grin and in a blur of movement cut terry's sword hand several times.

"WHOA!" terry yelped, dropping limelight and shaking his left hand until the cuts healed up, "that was a freebie."

"HA!" he stabbed at kin with a ramrod straight arm, two fingers pointing straight out and kin dropped through the floor. a moment later he was behind terry, slashing wildly.

"alright, passed." kin laughed and made to return rapture to the sheathe on his back, his eyes widened as he noticed it wasn't there, and then his eyes went lower, and he shrieked as he realized he'd phased completely out of his clothes. with a terrified look, he dropped through the floor.

he appeared a few moments later, walking through the main door, red all over, but fully dressed, if a little rumpled.

Dante watched the proceedings with an amused look on his face, "well, Hephaestus, is this your doing as well?"

shinji shot him a glare that said a lot, and turned back to the center of the room. at that moment, will stormed past, shouldering kin out of his way. he aimed a savage kick at the main door, knocking it clean off it's hinges, and for the next several minutes the sounds of other doors being similarly dispatched echoed up the stairwell.

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will left the building in a huff, a scowl splitting his face, twisting the jagged scar across his cheek.

"what the fucking hell do you want!?" he screamed at the mousy man who fell in step beside him.

"my employer wishes to-"

"shut the fuck up, tell your boss to shove a mop up his ass. your people failed, i have no power, I'm not affiliated with the house, and i'm not about to serve the man i'm helping to kill!"

"wi-" the man got cut off by a fist smashing into his face.

"i said, 'shut the fuck up!' i owe your little charnel house nothing. so don't even think of pulling that card."

the man mumbled something that sounded like 'magic', his hands covering an obviously broken nose.

"ignorant little shit!" this time, will's punch was a total k.o. and he stomped off, leaving the prone body behind.

a few minutes later another man fell in step beside him. this one wearing a shock of very white hair and cheap purple sunglasses.

"this is certainly new, the living corpse himself bowing out to some second rate vigilante." freed laughed, seemingly oblivious to will's mood.

"coming from the holy order's number one traitor that means little."

"i'm no traitor, i'm UNDA COVAH BRUTHA, number one in the hood yo."

"what the hell are you trying to say, halfwit." a vein began to throb at will's temple.

"i received orders from the order to extend an invitation-" he didn't finish, as the blade of one of will's knives tickled the back of his throat.

will pressed it inward a little as he spoke, to get across the message, "i just turned down the house, why the HELL do you think i'm gonna take you up?"

freed gagged around the knife and replied, "the perks: a substantial payment, temporary membership within the order, and better life insurance."

will's face contorted and he breathed deeply, trying not to scream, "bad joke freed."

"i was also told that if you didn't comply, your family was to be used to persuade you. specifically, them joining the massed ranks of the dead." freed wore a pleasant smile as he said this, totally nonchalant.

"so fucking what.." will turned and began to walk off.

"what about that little filly that you seem so interested in, what was her name, something caswell..."

will whipped around and began pulling out knives, without even a seconds thought, he charged and began planting them in freed, one handful after another. freed just snickered and then with a shout, his lightning came to life, blowing away every knife.

"so whaddaya say boyo?"

"up your's, and your order's." the next thing freed knew, the butt end of a pool stick had clocked him right between the eyes.

will rifled through the unconscious man's pockets, and found his billfold. "seventy. what a high roller... consider this my version of being a nice guy." he took the cash, dropping freed's wallet in his lap and whacked him upside the head one more time for good measure.

"buhbye, asshole." he balanced the pool stick on one shoulder and walked off.


a few minutes later, freed opened his eyes, "sucker." his features began to wriggle, changing to a younger and more handsome face, following which, his hair began to fill in from white to brown.

Corsica chuckled as he waited for his healing factor to heal his bruises, "getting my jollies on with that shape shifter was well worth it... what's this?" he noticed his wallet sitting in his lap, "oh... that is insult to injury... now what the hell was the point of antagonizing him again? oh yersh." he made a rather odd face, "paranoia. after all, i can't run the slight risk of him joining the order. ano-no-otoko would not be pleased..." a fleeting look crossed his face, one with just a touch of fear.

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-back at Leon’s hideout-

terry sat on the floor, divested of his pants and mask he looked very much like a toddler. the rest of the group sat in a circle dressed similarly, except for Leo, he kept his pants on, blushing furiously and looking tiny on marcus' lap. shinji and Dante stayed clothed as well, since they didn't wear diapers. but skip and ocoa towered over the group, exceptionally tall, even for their ages.

skip had turned out to be incontinent as well, and his diaper was yellowed all the way across the front. saito sat beside him, a half smile on his face, waiting.

"from this point on i'm just gonna improvise, because I’ve never done this kind of thing before." terry blushed slightly as he spoke, "i think we should tell a little bit about ourselves, so we can get to know each other better. any volunteers?"

kin waved his hand in the air, "can i go first?"