savetheearth | boys and girls of every age

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boys and girls of every age

Who: Phillip (+ his dog), Luke, Toushirou, and some special guests...
When: 10/31 - HALLOWEEN!
Where: Around where trick-or-treating is happening!
What: Three numbers club boys go trick-or-treating... clearly nothing will go wrong at all!

It had been a pretty stressed week all around Locke City, and the numbers club people were feeling the pressure. Well. Most of them.

Phillip hadn't been allowed to learn anything from the news, and he knew a little from the network but he had to pretend he didn't so his mom wouldn't notice. Still, it was pretty hard to dampen his spirit about Halloween. Costumes, hanging out with friends, and free candy? How could he miss this?

He was completely thrilled to be decked out in his wizard's hat, robe, and a fake wand to go with it. Gloria was tagging along with a spider hat and Halloween bandanna (both of which she occasionally trying to scratch/bite off), happily padding alongside the boys. Phillip turns to Luke and Toushirou, grinning. "Where should we go next?"

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He wasn't even going to ask why the dog was in a costume. If Phillip wanted his dog to wear a costume, that was his business, no matter how ridiculous Toushirou found the whole thing.

For his own part, Toushirou had hastily thrown together some dark clothes and a hood that could qualify as a ninja costume. He hadn't intended to go out at all this year -- he was too mature to go begging for candy at people's doors, thank you -- but somebody had to look out for the other two if they were going to be wandering about while things were so tense. And while Phillip might be carrying a fake wand, the sword strapped over Toushirou's back was very real. It was one of the selling points of a ninja costume: he could carry his weapon without suspicion.

"Whatever you guys decide. This was all your idea anyway."

Luke, (fully decked out in a Peter Pan costume with a worryingly realistic sword also strapped to his back), had been digging about in his still woefully under-filled pillow case when Toushirou responds. He looks up then, knowing the question will fall to him. He looks around the street they're on in bewilderment for a brief moment before shrugging and pointing in the direction of a super gloomy looking house. He's really unfamiliar with the area, but that much orange and black has to be a good sign.

"They've got a lot of decorations up?"

How did you guys get real swords? Phillip wants one.

"Ok! Let's go!" Phillip leads the way over, Gloria trotting along behind (and sniffing the boy's bags to see if she can get any of that candy), stopping at the house and ringing the doorbell.

You don't get a sword, Phillip. You're the mage.

He'd almost have said it wasn't necessarily the best idea to go up to a house that had that kind of gloomy air to it, but seeing as this was Halloween, that would have sounded pretty stupid. Things were supposed to look gloomy. So he just kept himself alert as he headed up to the door with the others. No smile on his face. Never a smile on his face.

If anybody commented on that, he could just say it fit with the idea of his costume, okay? Since when did ninja smile?

Which mean's you'll probably get awesome spells!!!

In contrast, Luke is smiling as brightly as is humanly possible. Which is also pretty in character. He bounds up to the house after Phillip, and eagerly chimes in with Trick or Treat! when the door opens, but then he freezes.

The woman cooing over their costumes and handing out candy looks overwhelmingly familiar. The echo hits him hard and causes him to go slack jawed and dumbstruck for a moment. When he comes out of it a moment later with a shake of his head and some furious blinking, the woman is looking at him with mild concern, her fist, filled with candy, hovering awkwardly in front of her. Luke scrabbles to regain his composure, and holds his bag out, a blush quickly spreading over his face.

"Oh um, I. Nicecostumethankyoubye."

Upon receiving his treats he quickly turns on his heel and scuttles away from the house.

Phillip smiles up at the woman (and blushes a little because wow she's not wearing much, is she?), but it doesn't take long for him to notice Luke's reaction. He's... gonna guess that's not just due to the minimal clothing.

Phillip takes his candy and thanks the woman before hurrying after Luke, waiting until the woman's closed the door before asking, "Are you ok?"

Whereas Toushirou is trying (and failing) not to set his teeth on edge at the cooing. He hates being cooed at. He gets it enough from Granny's friends. But Luke's reaction to the whole thing is enough that he doesn't let it bother him for long. He has to wonder . . .

"C'mon, let's go." No talking about this right at somebody's door. You never know, right? He starts on his way, and when the others follow, he'll ask: "Did you just have one?"

[Luke takes a second to get his thoughts in order, but then nods, an excited smile creeping up onto his face.]

Yeah. She was a...[~~creepy~~ ~~traumatizing~~ ~~disturbingly polygonal~~] Great Fairy and...Oh wait!

[Luke's elbow deep in his candy bag again, awkwardly holding it open with one arm while trying to see inside it at the same time. After a few seconds of disjointed fishing around, he pulls out a small, dully glowing jewel. Now his hesitant smile expands rapidly into an eager grin, and he holds it up for them to see.]

She gave me something in the memory! And I got it! It-

[Unfortunately, not long after he displays the gem it evaporates into light and gets absorbed into Luke's chest video game power-up style. He gives a laugh in response and bounces on the balls of his feet.]

Yeah! It's a magic thing! I can do magic probably!

"Woooow." That was so cool! Why did he only get memories and being kind of sort of able to help faster? (He couldn't even use it on other people. Lame.) "Do you know what kind of magic?"

Edited 2013-11-02 02:53 (UTC)

Um, wow. He has to blink at that. Luke clearly isn't suffering any negative effect from that happening, but . . .

He glances about cautiously. That's a pretty conspicuous effect. What if somebody's seen it? But the streets are simply full of packs of children with their adults in various stages of wear from trying to keep up with them. Okay. It's fine. Just fine. Nobody's paying attention. That's good.

"Well, if you're gonna try, find some out-of-the-way place. We're lucky nobody even noticed what just happened. Can't risk drawing that kind of attention to ourselves."

At Phillips' question Luke beams and nods rapidly. He doesn't know exactly what will happen, but he is about 6000% sure it is going to be COOOOOOL.

...But given that the description of the power he'd gotten in the memory had literally included the words 'fireball that engulfs everything' he sees Toushirou's point. He casts about eagerly, looking for an empty lot or a secluded area of some kind. When he spots a gap between two houses going into an alley way, he perks up.

"Yeah, over there!"

He jogs over to the mouth of the alley, grabbing Toushirou's wrist and pulling him along as he goes. Luke is excited for this, and if the surly child's behavior the rest of the night was anything to go by he'd probably wind up walking in a dignified and much too slow manner to the upcoming magical fun.

Phillip grins and beckons Gloria to follow, the three boys plus dog heading towards a back alley. (Which is not suspicious at all.) When they get there, he'll make sure he's got a hold on Gloria's collar in case they need to move. "Should we stand back? Where are you aiming?"

"Hey! You don't --"

Geez, just because he hadn't intended on running up to the alley doesn't mean he would've been slow. Somebody had to be cautious around here. It's the only reason he'd even decided to come. (He maintains, even to himself, that candy has nothing to do with it. Just responsibly protecting the other Numbers kids. That's all this is.) But there's nothing to be done about the dragging and he just jerks his arm out of Luke's grasp once they reach the alley.

As is usual anymore, that presence is in his mind, only now he's warning that this is foolish. Well no kidding, Voice. What's he supposed to do about it?

"Just be careful about it, whatever it is."

Edited 2013-11-02 16:06 (UTC)

Luke looks around a bit and takes a healthy number of steps away from the other boys.

"Yeah, stand back. I don't think it's an...aiming thing."

He takes a few more steps just in case. Then he takes a deep breath and assumes a stance. He chambers a fist, then launches it at the ground, not managing to resist the urge to let off a triumphant Hyyaa! as he does. An expanding sphere of fire a few feet in diameter expands outwards, dissipating as it goes. Phillip and Toushirou probably feel a waft of hot air rush over them. More seroiusly part of someone's back yard fencing that Luke was just a bit too near is now singed and smoldering. What was that about being careful? Whoops.

....That was not what Phillip had been expecting.

He stares open-mouthed at the direction the fireball went, holding onto Gloria's collar still, who was whimpering and skating back a bit. But that doesn't deter his enthusiasm at all. "That was AWESOME!"

The blast of heat over his face is a bit unwelcome, but it surely beats being in the path of that. Holy smokes. He blinks.

"Well. That could be . . . useful." What, you expect him to show enthusiasm? It's an impressive move, yeah, but Toushirou doesn't do enthusiasm. What he does is spot problems.

Like the smouldering fence. Terrific. He examines the spot, then decides he should probably do something to mask that for the moment. Holding his palm just above the smouldering fence, he summons a bit of his own power and frosts over the damaged area to get it to stop. It's starting to get chilly out. Surely nobody will think anything of a bit of frost.

"Need to get better control of it, though."

Edited 2013-11-03 01:12 (UTC)

Immediately after the fire blast, Luke blinks around in wonder, shortly followed by an excited fist pump. He bounces back over to his friends, going in for a high five with the equally jubilant Phillip.

His attention soon shifts to Toushirou and at the boy's mild chastisement Luke tries to get his giddy energy under control. He doesn't do a very good job. He does have the decency to look apologetic about the fence when he notices the damage and he even manages to hold in his questions at Toushirou's (much smaller) demonstration of his own powers.

As for controlling his new power, he has this unfortunate sneaking suspicion that this doesn't work like that. But he keeps that to himself.

"Y-yeah. I'll work on it."

[It's the trio of excited voices from very... small sources, in all likelihood, that bring the dogs all the quicker to pinning a shared target.

They come running and bounding down, homing in on something not quite a scent down an alley. Three of them (from those very small sources) and a real scent, one of a dog - nothing of that extra trace coming with the smell of one of theirs.

They can probably be heard barely for a few seconds and clearly for an instant with low husky breathing and nails snapping against paving before they slow down, paw their way into the end of the alley and close it - bodies lengthwise.

A pair of big black dogs - police dogs, wolfish faces, pointed ears, strong builds, trailing leashes.

Their ears rotate aside and flattening, their heads lower - with their eyes, on those three little people and their dog, flashing very, very red and their breath slowing - out of panting, to the edge of something intent.]

[Gloria notices first- she might not have special powers, but she's an animal and she can tell when a predator is approaching. She starts growling and catches Phillip's attention, and it doesn't take long to see why.]

Ah---!! [ooooooooh this is bad.] Look out!

It's Phillip's warning in conjunction with the voice in his mind rumbling louder that gets his attention. Oh, crap.

He makes sure he's in front; Phillip can't defend himself and while Luke might have a sword and a power, he doesn't really know what he's doing. Any fighting needs to primarily fall on Toushirou. He's the elder statesman here. He's the veteran.

Instinctively, he tests his footing. "Just . . . careful. If you panic, they're probably gonna come at us even faster."

Luke had unsheathed his sword, and was about to move forward when Toushirou gets in front of him. He stops, and nods. He shifts from foot to foot, and edges to the side slightly, trying to assist Toushirou in providing a defensive line in front of Phillip. He keeps his eyes on the dogs, and lowers his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"O-okay. But if I get close to them I can use the fire thing."

The dogs are as unfazed by their dog's growling utterly. They regard her, all right, but deem her uninteresting; they're trained on them, their target scent is thrilling them to raised hackles and legs winding down to make their move, and their eyes and ears are spotting for where.

Three easy targets - but all the same, they'll make it as little of a fight as possible.

When the scrape of an unsheathing sword sounded, their ears swiveled.

Now they spot the flash of the sword of what little light there is in the alley.

Both their eyes fix.

And one of them, with growl rumbling to a burst, lunges.

Phillip stays quiet, but is a little... upset that the automatic reaction is to move in front of him, even though he knows it's justified. He can heal fast, sure, but he can't exactly do anything else.

When the dogs lunge, he automatically pulls back even a little further. Why does being attacked like this seem so familiar...?

He almost bolts into the dog's path to intercept before the Voice rumbles in disapproval. No. Bad idea. Risk of getting hit by Luke's weapon.

Instead, he does the next best thing he can think of and concentrates his power on the ground just in front of the three of them, coating it in a thin, slippery film of ice. At the same time, he draws his own blade.

He doubts it'll be long before the second one joins in.

The beast attacks, and Luke's hesitation (and planning) fly out the window. He's done this, he can do this, he remembers doing this! He charges forward with a shout, stopping short at the edge of the ice slick, and planting his feet and swinging out in a horizontal arc, hoping to meet the dog head on with his sword.

The dog runs right onto the sheet of ice. Its stride breaks - it doesn't slip. Its legs, however, suddenly quicken, automatically pawing around for another point of traction.

Off balance, it doesn't even quite think to notice the boy swinging.

Its muzzle is caught with a howl and it - automatically as well - swings its head to the side along with it and continues sliding. Just as the other dog does not miss the swing - rushes in. Not for the boy with the sword but, hurtling along the side of the alley and curving with jaws snapping open in, for the one responsible for the ice...

Phillip felt something happened when the dogs attacked- a Pulse, or Echo, or whatever they were. He knew something was different, and he could sort of tell what it was, but not what it would do. But if there was any time to risk trying a power, it was probably now.

Out of the ground swell up two creatures, bizarre shaped blobs with blue masks as faces. At first, they look towards the boys- but soon back away. Though weaker Shadows may not be very smart, they can recognize people they don't want to mess with.

Instead, trapped between what they sense as some moderately frightening dogs and two beatable boys with someone VERY scary feeling indeed, they choose to direct their attention to the dogs, swarming slowly forward with outstretched claws.

[ooc: ...Hopefully the dogs will beat the Shadows, since... lol those fuckers can get scary and Phillip can't control them.]

His blade is already out in anticipation of the other dog coming at him. But in between the cry of pain from the first dog and the sudden . . . things between him and the approaching one, he takes a startled step backward.

What the --

He risks a glance in Phillip's direction. "Did you do that?"

Because holy hell, man.

Luke is hit with a splatter of blood as he slashes at the dog, and the howl it makes is jarring and real in a way that none of his echoed memories of stabbing grotesque spider monsters were. He sets his jaw and prepares to lunge forward again, (ice be damned), when something sinister rises out of the ground in front of him. With a startled cry he hops to the side before catching himself.

He doesn't stop to consider, doesn't hesitate to think. He just adjusts his grip on his sword and focuses on this new enemy, jumping forward to slash at its back.

Two new targets appear - swelling from nothing out of the ground itself.

The second dog's hackles raise - it connects it not to the third boy, the one who is not in a fighting stance nor holding anything resembling a weapon. It doesn't break stride, however, and swings its head aside snarling to rip at what appears to be the face of one of the things.

The first dog has now, meanwhile, righted itself - snout searing and bleeding hot, chooses a new target, will not go straight for another blade.

It shakes its head out, and turns and takes a step toward the third of the boys, the one in the back, sizing him up - it, like the other, does not make any connection to those entities rising out of the ground, or to the third dog who's accompanying them.

The creatures might not be as strong as anyone in the fight, and are clearly a little distressed by it, but that doesn't mean they're not going to try. Both of them head towards the second dog, claws out to try and slash at it. The one the dog aims at is clearly unable to stop the blow, and with very little more effort it will disappear entirely. Luke, however, they're just ignoring.

Phillip on the other hand looks between his companions and the creatures, as bewildered as they are. "I... think that was me, yeah." He has no idea what they are, though. Just that they feel kind of weak.

That only holds his attention for so long, however, when Gloria starts growling and he sees the other dog eying him. "Um, guys...?"

Edited 2013-11-11 18:58 (UTC)

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boys and girls of every age

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1/2

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he'll be able to summon shadows next round. :')

Ooooh! :)

\o/

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So sorry for the rather hefty delay, you three! o>

S'alright!