D. Gray-man Fan Fiction ❯ Twilight Generation ❯ Beginning II ( Chapter 5 )

Vincent, Jerry, and Kelly walked silently down the sidewalk. The three friends haven't spoken to each other for over half an hour since they saw that horrible incident at the art museum. Kelly and Jerry both looked at Vincent uneasily; the brown-haired teen appeared to be lost in thought yet at the same time had a small hint of anxiety on his face.

“Um… Vince?” Kelly said gently. Vincent jerked slightly and turned to her as if he just snapped out of a trance. “You worried about your dad?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Vince answered tiredly as he scratched his head. “But I'm a lot more worried about what my mom's gonna do after I tell her what's happened. I mean, it's one thing when she worries about me but when it comes to my dad well…” he trailed off as he tried to find the words.

“It's all right man, we get it.” Jerry said consolingly. “You know what, we'll even go with you.” he then added reassuringly. “Yeah it'll be easier if your mom knows that you weren't the only one your dad brought with him.” Kelly added eagerly.

Vincent smiled a bit at his two friends. “Thanks guys.” he said softly before going back to thinking seriously once more. Dad… where did you go? he thought worriedly.

“Hmm…” Kelly then said as she looked at the streets and the shops around them, “where do we go from here…?” she said ponderingly. “You know if you want, I know a shortcut.” Jerry suggested. Vincent nodded agreeably, “You're right. Besides, you know your way around the city better than any of us anyway.”

With that, they let Jerry lead the way. After walking a good deal along the crowded public streets, they soon found their way into the looming city's labyrinthine alleyways.

Since they were very young, Vincent and his two friends have long used the secrets of the city's many pathways and have found routes that were not just short but also possessed a bit of thrill and excitement in every one of them. Whether it was walking right through a five-star hotel in the midst of its high-class clientele or traveling through an old Industrial underground railway that none have yet discovered. Despite the seeming danger and awkwardness found in these places, the trio has never let it stop them from experiencing the very thing they have grown to live for… the joy of mystery and adventure.

Little did Vincent know… that the greatest adventure they would ever have was now right around the corner.

After going through an abandoned sewer line, the three of them found a door that led them to an empty basement of an old woebegone building. From there they walked up and found themselves within the ruins of an old school. They took a quick look at the room they were in (an empty classroom with several broken chairs and tables still lying around and badly covered with dust at the same time) before heading off to an open doorway that led them outside onto a desolated basketball court. Although, judging from the decrepit condition of the opposing basketball hoops and the deteriorated conditions of the graffiti on the wall around them, it seemed that they were the only visitors' that place ever received.

They were casually walking across the court when Jerry suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“What's wrong man?” Vincent asked as he and Kelly stopped as well.

“Dude.” he said, looking completely stunned as he pointed to something on the other side of the tall wired fence that lined the left side of the court. When Vincent looked over to see what it was he too was immediately surprised.

“Hey that looks like the…” he said suspiciously as he went over closer to it. Sure enough, an old blue Ford stood parked right next to the building in front of them.

“This is the car.” he said, his eyes furrowing seriously.

Kelly adjusted her glasses and studied the vehicle carefully. “I don't know guys… there could a hundred more cars like this in the city. We can't just jump to conclusions.” she said skeptically.

“Sorry Kelly but I really get the feeling that this car was the one that nearly rammed us.” Jerry said insistently. “That's not good enough Jerry, we need to find something else to make sure that this car was the one that those robbers used when they hit the museum.” the pig-tailed girl argued.

As she said this, a small crash was heard from the second floor of the building in front of them. Kelly's eyes suddenly widened as she looked at her two friends who were staring at her reproachfully.

“Proof enough for ya?” Vincent said mockingly as he reached for something in his right pocket. Kelly however quickly grabbed for his wrist before he could pull out whatever he had in there.

“What?” he said irritably but she simply gave him a stern look.

“Listen,” she said, “did you not hear what the cop said about their gear? You could get yourself blown up or something!” Vincent grunted stubbornly as he gave a strong pull and swatted her hand away. He then reached back into his pocket and pulled out a pair of black, fingerless, leather gloves. “Relax Kelly. I've taken on guys with guns before. It won't take long.” he said confidently as slipped the gloves on in an intimidating manner.

“No offense man but I think I'm gonna have to go with her on this one.” Jerry then said in a firm tone. “I mean you saw what they did back at the museum. These guys are probably loaded with some of them high-tech weaponry stuff. Maybe we oughta just call somebody.”

“We better do it quickly too. They're probably too busy with whatever they're doing up there, but I'm not gonna wait around in case one of them decides to stick their head out of the window.” Kelly said warily. It seems that while they were discussing, she had been looking up carefully up at the windows should one of the robbers decide to have a check outside. Lucky for them though, they haven't heard or seen any more signs of activity other than the crash from before.

Vincent stared at his two friends sourly but then gave a sigh of defeat and said, “All right.”

The three of them carefully went over to the broken wired fence and were about to climb over it when suddenly…

BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!!

The sounds of gunshot fire rang in their ears and they instinctively looked to the empty building. Then, to their immense shock, a bright and powerful explosion ruptured through the central part of the building's second floor. The force of the blast was so strong it shook the three of them off the fence and painfully back on the ground.

“What the hell-” Vincent cried as he gazed with horrified eyes at the thick smoke that was coming out of the hole in the building and pouring all around them. Shattered bricks and broken glass scattered all over the ground at their feet. However, the real surprise came when the smoke and dust finally cleared.

Vincent and his friends found themselves petrified in terror as a monstrous creature rose out from the haze. It looked like a disgustingly obese pig but stood on its two fat hind legs. It wore a dirty white chef's uniform and a tall, goofy chef's hat to match. Its arms were muscularly thick and instead of hooves it had large hands the size of small boulders. On its right hand it held a large butcher knife while on its left it held a long two-pronged fork with an eerie burning ball of fire stuck on its tip. The large round pot-belly the creature possessed had the grill of an old-fashioned stove on it where billowing clouds of black smoke rose out. It also had two curvy, industrial pipes sticking out of its back. Like its stomach, they too were giving off an intoxicating amount of smoke. Its eyes were a bloodshot red and its mouth possessed a greasy pair of short but sharp tusks. Finally, on its chest was (and this was the most disturbing sight of all) a shriveled human face with black eyeliners that were shaped to make the eyes look like they crying several lines of thick black tears.

Despite the already grotesque creature that was just standing a few feet away from them, the trio also noticed that it wasn't alone. Around it were smaller though equally bizarre creatures. They looked like hunched, gray mannequins with thick forearms and lower legs. They had nothing on their face at all but had a large number 1 symbol instead. Like the bigger monster though, they too had shriveled gray human faces on their chests.

The three of them just lay there, gaping at the terrifying monsters that had now appeared before them. To scared to run, to scared to even scream. Vince however suddenly realized something.

The monsters weren't even facing them.

The huge pig-like beast was hatefully staring at something that apparently was still standing right on the edge of the hole the blast made. Carefully, Vincent stood up and slowly looked there as well.

What he saw totally caught him off guard.

A young woman stood calmly at crumbling edge of the gap. She looked hardly older than he was and had short beautiful crimson hair along with deep indigo eyes. Above her right eye was a red tattoo of an upside pentacle that had a line running from beneath it, down to her check where it formed into a cross with a zig-zag tail.

Although despite her somewhat human appearance, the clothes she wore were hardly anything Vincent would call normal. She was wearing something that looked like a jacket with a skirt attached to it. It was a dark shade of navy blue and had gray lines running in complex patterns all over it. From where Vincent stood, he saw a silver-colored symbol of a cross surrounded by a circle stitched to the side of one of her upper arms. On the left side of her chest was a smaller symbol though he couldn't make out what it was because he was still pretty far away. Around her waist was a belt with a buckle that bore the same cross symbol as the one on her arm. She wore dark blue socks and a pair of matching navy blue rubber shoes with gray outsoles. Attached on either side of her belt were two gun holsters. However, judging from the size and strange, quarter-oval shape of the holsters' pockets, whatever guns she was carrying in them had high chances of being anything but ordinary.

What the girl did next proved just how right he was.

The girl swiftly reached into the holsters and drew out a pair of two very high-tech looking pistols. For the most part, they resembled semi-automatic handguns but these were unlike any gun Vincent has ever seen. They had dark blue blades curving from the tip of their barrels all the way towards underneath the bottom of their handles.

“Hand over the Innocence demon!” the girl demanded as she quickly pointed both guns directly in the monster's fat face.

“No way bitch,” the demon snorted defiantly as it used its large knife to shield something that was inside the grill on its belly, “not after the hassle I went through to nab this thing! This baby here's my ticket to earning the Nobles' favor! Once I hand it over to them to be destroyed, they'll reward me by taking my power to the next level!!”

Vincent continued to stand there, totally dumbfounded at the conversation he was hearing (and in plain sight nonetheless). Man, this is totally unreal. Innocence? Demon? Nobles? he thought perplexedly. What the hell's going on here!?

“Destroy her!!” the demon commanded as he pointed his giant fork towards the girl. Three of the monster's gray minions instantly charged and jumped. As they rose into the air, two stumps started growing eerily from their backs and from each of them sprouted a charcoal-black rocket booster. The boosters immediately ignited and gave off an unusual purple fire as the three lackeys flew speedily towards their target. Two of the minions were charging at her in front while a third was in the rear.

Before they could even reach her though, the girl quickly stretched her arms wide with the bladed edge of her strange pistols facing down. After that, something strange then started happening to her right eye. An ephemeral monocle suddenly appeared in front of it, floating without any support. It kept rotating in various directions and reminded Vince of a camera's scope.

“Innocence, Activate!” she cried. The blades of her guns gave off a flash of blue light as they enlarged and extended downwards, making the guns look like a pair of half-crescent blades that were half as long as her arms. She then rapidly pointed her guns at the two demons that were coming at her and fired. The demons that were charging at her instantly recoiled as an explosive burst of blue energy struck them in their faces. The bullets flew so fast that Vincent had only managed to glimpse of the spark that they made as they left the barrels. The two monsters instantly fell towards the ground dead but there was still the third one left and it didn't hesitate to stretch out its right hand menacingly at her. Instead of looking to grab her though, the creature balled its fist and it was quickly sucked into its wrist, leaving a hole. The hole then grew and its massive forearm began to transform into a deadly arm cannon with a dangerous purple glow emanating from the barrel. The creature maliciously unleashed a powerful blast of insidious purple energy which exploded upon impact.

The creature stopped and floated as it waited for the dust to reveal his enemy's sprawled corpse.

Unfortunately for the creature, it wasn't there.

It suddenly sensed something from above but it had only managed to look up as the girl had descended down upon it, her right hand rearing back the strange weapon it was holding. With a fast swing, she smoothly decapitated it and landed softly on the ground. The three bodies of her victims plopped down to the ground in a sickening manner before suddenly igniting into a powerful explosion behind her.

All of this happened within the time frame of less than half a minute and Vincent was beginning to feel his fear transform into excitement. “Cool…” he suddenly heard Kelly say and was slightly jerked when he realized that they were still there. She and Jerry had now also stood up and were looking at the fight with the same mix of anticipation and apprehension that Vincent had.

The girl swiftly dashed towards the demon's remaining minions with her arms stretched readily on each side. The monsters began frantically activating their arm cannons and unleashing a storm of purple blasts at her. She skillfully dodged them by sidestepping to right then to the left before back flipping beautifully. Using the accumulated force of landing from her back flip, she then dashed with increased speed towards two demons in front of her. When she was in range, she quickly crossed her arms and felt the blades of her weapon slash through their abdomens. She didn't even wait for them to explode as she rushed towards more of the demon's minions.

Seeing that she had already infiltrated their defenses, some of the gray-skinned creatures now began clenching their left fists. As with their right hands, they too were sucked into holes at their wrists. Instead of turning into arm cannons however, large blades grew out of them. They were shaped like a trench knives but they were twice as long as the blades on the girl's weapon. They all then began closing in on her, hoping to surround her.

The girl though, was unfazed by this new change in their tactics and made a beeline for the closest of them. Upon reaching one she rapidly spun around counterclockwise and drove the tip of her left blade into the gray monster's gut. She then pulled it out and spun in the opposite direction before dealing a back kick into a second monster across the first one. As the creature fell back feeling stunned by the blow, the girl pointed her right-hand weapon and emptied a few shots into it. Another monster then came charging at her from the right with its blade raised high but she simply beheaded it by swinging the blade on her left hand through its neck. After this move, she positioned her right arm over her left one and at the moment the headless monster fell on its knees she let loose an intense series of rapid shots at the other minions that were standing behind it.

There was still plenty more of them though and the huge pig-faced demon grinned evilly as they had now began to crowd around her, making it more difficult for her to execute her movements.

The girl looked cautiously as the monsters began forming a tight circle around her, their blades swinging dangerously close. Suddenly, she crouched low and closed her eyes. The demon, who was standing a few steps away, stared confusedly at what she was doing. Then to his shock, a bright light shone from beneath girl's feet as a glowing circle appeared beneath her. The circle resembled the circle of a radar screen with a line turning constantly in a counterclockwise direction. As the line swept beneath the minions feet, intricate crosshair marks suddenly appeared on various parts of their bodies.

“Oh shit… PULL BACK!” the demon hollered upon realizing what was about to happen. Unfortunately, it was too late as the girl opened her eyes coldly.

“Critical Rhythm!!” she cried after which her arms instantly began moving in a graceful, if not, dance-like manner. The blades on her guns were now tracing numerous arcs all over and around her until it shaped out a crude dome that shielded her. At the same time, she was now firing her weapons haphazardly, sending countless shots in all directions and hitting all the crosshair marks on the enemies around her. The speed and strength of her attacks were so intense that all monsters around her were obliterated in one huge wave, leaving only the demon itself staring furiously at her.

The girl ended her mysterious technique with a flourish as she stretched her arms to her sides once more in a stance.

The two adversaries locked eyes. The demon stared into his opponent's eyes with utmost rage while the girl stared back calmly with concentration. The two enemies then lunged with the demon charging with earthshaking steps and the girl sprinting boldly towards it. The pig-like creature roared savagely as it raised the giant butcher knife and brought it down with tremendous force. The girl however simply vanished in a blur and the knife made a huge impact on the spot on where she had stood. The demon though, was not as dimwitted as its gray minions had been and quickly sensed the girl's presence behind him. It hastily pulled its weapon out of the large crack it had made on the ground and swung it clockwise in the hopes of surprising her with its quick reaction.

To its dismay, it seemed that its reaction still wasn't quick enough for its blade only met empty air. Suddenly, it felt a tremendous pain cutting somewhere deep in the joints between its shoulders and its wide, stubby neck. After a few seconds though, the monster had managed to register what just happened. The girl had somehow jumped somewhere above it and had plunged the pointed ends of her weapons right into either side of the base of its neck as she landed on its back.

She quickly jumped off the creature's wide back and pulled her blades out, much to its agony. As she landed on the ground, the demon turned to face her in a staggering manner. It was heavily wounded and the pain cluttered its movements but nevertheless it was still alive. The girl, taking advantage of its decreased mobility, dashed forward again and swung her right blade across the grill on its belly followed a consecutive swipe with her left blade. The slashes heavily tore through the metal that protected whatever it was that the demon had taken inside. She then spun and dealt a forceful back kick to the mutilated grill and the metal got even more distorted. However, since the creature was way too heavy for her to kick away, she instead used its body as a hold and thrust herself forward away from it. As she sailed, she quickly pointed her guns at the heavily damaged grill and fired another flurry of shots. The shots pierced the broken grill and caused a chain reaction inside the creature's belly, causing a large explosion to erupt from it. From the bursting flames, a medium sized, box-shaped object flew out of the creature's stomach. The object landed somewhat conveniently right at the girl's feet.

Vincent squinted his eyes and tried to get a closer look at the box. It was entirely copper colored except for the teal-colored portion of an emblem on top. The emblem resembled some sort of crystal and it was encircled by a gear-shaped ring. Suddenly, Vincent recalled something that he heard the policeman say back at the museum.

…what they took, I ain't sure. I think it was some sort of box. They said it had a weird symbol on it …

“Hey you!” The girl called to Vincent causing him to shift his gaze from the box to her. The girl gave the box a pretty strong kick and it skidded noisily towards the three of them. “Take that box, and get out of here!”

“But we wanna help!” Kelly said concernedly.

“You can help by getting yourselves and that box out of here! she repeated angrily as the demon gave off a frighteningly louder roar. It seemed that despite the extreme damage its body has now taken, it had only become more berserk and dangerous. Flames shot out the gaping hole in its belly and blood drooled from the gashes in the base of its neck as well as from its mouth. The smoke from the two pipes from its back had become thicker and spewed out in larger quantities.

“Uh, I think we oughta do as she says guys.” Jerry said nervously as he looked at the crazed demon. “Besides, personally I've seen enough to say that `help' is that last thing she needs.”

Vincent picked up the box hesitantly but looked at the girl, not with the usual stubborn glare that he'd usually give when someone tells him to back out, but with a look of concern. “A-are you sure you'll be all right.”

“I've got this under control.” the girl said nonchalantly as she readied herself in a stance again, “This show's almost over, now go.”

Vincent looked at her one last time and said, “Thanks.” He turned around and the three of them hurriedly climbed over the wired fence.

The demon however, wasn't about to let anyone take his prize so easily.

“I-I don't…THINK SO!!!” it bellowed as it began making frenzied strides towards the three as they fled.

“Vince hurry!!!” Jerry shouted as the three of them started running frantically from the fight. The brown-haired youth looked back worriedly but then to his horror, he saw the demon tear savagely through the fence and was now heading straight for them.

“Shit… run faster people!!” Jerry shouted as he too saw what was coming after them. When Kelly looked back she screamed almost like a mad woman as she instantly increased her pace. Vincent was also trying to speed himself up more all the while looking back as he now saw the strange girl keeping the monster from chasing them.

“Your fight is with me demon!” she said fiercely as she fired two more shots both which the demon parried with a wild swing of its knife.

“No…” the demon said, now sounding more like a mindless ghoul as it attempted to continue its pursuit. “…must… recover… accursed Innocence.”

“I won't let you!” the girl said boldly as she now pointed her guns readily. Her eyes were quickly scanning for the best possible point to strike so as to finally destroy this unholy monster.

Suddenly, she heard a small yelp and she turned her head to see that the one they called Vince had somehow tripped. She then heard the demon in front of her roar excitedly and she quickly looked just in time to see it position the fireball on its fork over its mouth.

This is bad!! she thought frantically as she realized what the demon was about to do. Immediately, she shortened the length of her weapons' blades and quickly stowed them back in their holsters before dashing towards the sprawled teen.

The demon blew hard into the fireball on its fork and a large sphere of raging fire flew menacingly from it towards Vince.

There was a powerful explosion and the young man felt something lift him up from behind before finding himself flying over the street. Fortunately, he wasn't tossed very high and had only landed on his back a few steps away. He felt a throbbing pain in his head and his vision was blurry as he heard his friends calling to him, terrified. He quickly shook his head and then realized he was holding something on his right. He turned his head a bit and saw that it was the box. Quickly, he stood up and meant to make a dash to his friends knowing that the strange girl from before was still buying them time.

That is until he turned around.

The girl was laying face down just a few inches from him. Her clothes looked like they've been severely burned and the only remains of her outfit that was still intact was the front of it. There was also a good deal of blood now pouring from her head and her breathing was heavy.

“Oh no!” Vincent cried as he rushed over to her just as she was started struggling to get up. It seemed that when he tripped the creature decided to take advantage and aimed for him. Because of that, the girl must have rushed over and tried to help him get back up. Unfortunately, it looked like she was a few milliseconds too late and she had only managed to barely avoid the explosion.

“Don't bother with me!” the girl suddenly snapped, stopping him in his tracks. “Just take the box and go!”

“Forget it! I'm not letting you die here!” he retorted as he angrily stared at the creature which was now lumbering mindlessly towards them.

“Don't be an idiot! I told you! I can finish him off! Now go!” she said heatedly as she tried to stand up. Before he could answer back though, he felt someone trying drag him by the arm. “Hey what the-!?” he said irritably as he turned around, only to find Jerry holding his arm with a stern look on his face.

“You heard her! Let's get outta here!” he said angrily as he (with a bit of help from Kelly) forced back a furious Vincent away from the injured girl. However, due to his fall, Vincent hasn't mustered enough strength to resist so all he could do was protest.

“Jerry, are you nuts!? She's hurt!” he shouted as they finally managed to get a safe distance from the fight. “We have to go back and help her!”

“Hello?! Do we look like superheroes?” Jerry argued heatedly. “There's nothing we can do man! Game over!”

Vincent glared at his friend but didn't say anything. Instead he threw down the copper box he was holding out of pure irritation at their situation. Suddenly, he heard a small click and all three friends looked down at the box. Vincent bent down to pick it up and was surprised to find that it had finally opened.

“Whoa you didn't…?” Kelly said anxiously. “I don't think so, nothing looks broken.” Vincent answered as he slowly lifted the lid. When he saw what was inside though, Vincent's face mysteriously lit up excitedly.

The girl barely dodged the demon's large knife as he threw it violently towards her. The knife crashed unceremoniously into a building behind her, the force catching her weakened frame off balance. The demon however, saw this and used its large, free hand to heartlessly pin the girl to the wall. She gasped painfully and small amount of blood splattered out her mouth as the flabby faced monster pressed its palm against her waist. She could barely lift her arms now as they dangled over the demon's fat fingers.

“You got… in my way…. for the last time… Exorcist.” it growled as it raised the burning sphere in front of her, the heat causing her to squirm in agony. “How does it… feel?” it said maliciously as it stared down at her with its bloodshot eyes. “My Furnace Roast…isn't just an ordinary ball of flame lady... It's a mass of heat… so concentrated that just standing close to it is enough… to burn away your clothes.”

True enough, the top of the girl's uniform was beginning to singe and small holes have started burning through, revealing more of her smooth flesh. The girl gritted her teeth painfully as she tried to turn her eyes away from the blinding sphere of fire. But before the demon could take a breath a young voice called out to him.

“HEEEY!! BACON BREATH!!! THIS WHAT YOU WANT!?!?”

The demon turned its head and saw Vincent waving the box in the air. The girl too turned and was staring at him incredulously. “You idiot, what are you thinking?” she muttered.

“Innocence…” the demon groaned hungrily as it let her go and was now stomping towards Vincent. The boy then stuck his tongue childishly before turning around and running towards one of the alleys. “Catch me if you can Porky!” he cat-called.

As the girl watched the demon pursue the young man, she heard the sound of rushing footsteps approaching and turned to see Vincent's two friends running over to her. “What are you doing!?” she said reproachfully.

“Duh! It's called `saving your life'!?” Kelly retorted, feeling a bit offended. “I told you, I can handle it. How can you let him do this? And I thought you guys had more sense than him.” the girl replied disappointingly. The two looked at the crimson haired stranger confusedly but simply shrugged and helped her get to her feet.

“It's okay, I'm fine.” the girl said insistently but failed to impress them when she nearly fell over again. “Uh-huh.” Jerry said sarcastically but found himself silenced by a cold gaze from the girl. She then tried to stand up but this time managed to hold up on her own.

“We have to find your friend fast. He has no idea what kind of danger he just put himself into.” the girl then said in a somewhat authoritative manner. But then suddenly, a voice jeered from behind her. “I don't know, I kinda like danger.”

She turned around and to her surprise she saw Vincent standing right in front of her, his arms were crossed and he was grinning at her triumphantly. However, she noticed that something was missing. “Wait… where's the box? Don't you tell me you really-” she started accusingly but Vincent cut her off and said. “Relax… I've got what you want right here.” He raised his hands with the palms facing backwards. When Kirai saw it, her eyes widened.

He wasn't wearing the old black fingerless gloves that she saw on his hands earlier. Instead, it was a pair of dark brown gloves with the teal symbol of a strange crystal encircled by a gear-shaped ring.

Vincent then started turning his hands around curiously. “You know, it's weird. Outta all the things you think a bunch of crazy monsters would go after, a pair of old gloves is pretty much of a let-down.” The girl however simply continued to stare at him curiously as if she saw something that she didn't see there before, How can he be wearing them? she wondered seriously. Could he be the…

Unfortunately, her thoughts were disrupted as she sensed a malicious presence from beneath their feet. She had only a matter of seconds to push Vincent away before a giant hand burst through the ground beneath them. Vincent was knocked away from the three of them as the demon crawled out of the pit it had made. It's eyes were now a bright burning red as it stared at the boy with the indescribable rage.

“You little… rodent!” it roared as it threw something that narrowly missed Vincent's head. When he heard the clang it made against the pavement though, he knew that it was the box. The box he threw with his own gloves in it instead of the strange ones he was now wearing.

“You had me…” it began as it approached the Vincent dangerously, “huffing and puffing… all around the shitty neighborhood… just so you could make me… LOOK STUPID!?!?” it savagely bellowed as it launched a powerful punch straight at him.

“VINCE!!!” Kelly cried as she saw him scream and raised his hands in a feeble attempt to block the blow. Suddenly, there was a flash of bright teal green and the demon suddenly found an incredibly powerful force opposing its fist. Vincent opened his eyes (which he closed when he thought his life was about to end) and found himself staring at the most unbelievable phenomena.

His own forearms had transformed. No longer did they resemble the arms of a normal teenage human. Instead they looked like a pair of steam punk robot arms. What was the strangest of all though was that, despite the dramatic change, Vincent could still feel like his arms were still there. At the same time he could feel a strange and incredible power surging through them. A power that was overflowing with strength, potential, but most of all it seemed to speak to his heart.

Naturally, Vincent's mind was overwhelmed with questions but upon seeing that these arms had just protected him from suffering such a devastating blow, he immediately cast them aside and his mind now somehow realized what to do.

The demon, still stunned from these turn of events now found his arm being held painfully tight as Vincent had wrapped his own newly empowered arms over the one that just tried to pulverize him. The demon then felt itself being lifted off its feet as the boy began spinning it around at a dizzying pace. With a bold cry, Vincent released the creature's arm and the monster sailed all the way down the street.

Realizing that it was now facing a possibly more powerful opponent, the demon was now frantically taking the deepest breath it could as it prepared to unleash its hottest blast of flame. Suddenly, Vincent felt an immense surge of energy coursing through the robotic part of his arms and then, as if being spoken to by some voiceless force, he raised both his arms high above his head in parallel with each other. A luminous ring then appeared in front of him, lined with a strange unknown language. It was then that the demon had finally unleashed its breath and a monstrous fireball as large as double-decker bus raged towards him. Vincent, guided by his new mysterious power, clenched his fists and brought his arms down forcefully before thrusting them towards the center of the ring in front of him.

From the space in which his knuckles were facing, a powerful beam of light blasted from it and disintegrated the incoming fireball before overwhelming the demon behind it and literally purifying the area of its existence.

It was a few minutes before everyone registered what had just occurred. And even after they all did, the stunned looks on their faces were impossible to remove.

“What. Just. Happened?” Kelly asked slowly. Her eyes still not able to believe what she has just witnessed. Even though the demon was now destroyed, Vincent remained in his pose until there was another flash of teal light and his arms had reverted back to normal. Upon slowly looking at the back of his hands, the symbols on each of them suddenly shined simultaneously. Jerry just stood there, his mouth hanging open even as the two of them walked over to him.

Vincent however, suddenly smiled ecstatically and was about to turn to the mysterious girl when he stopped.

“Hey… where'd she go?”