Perfect Chaos: A Non-SPB Related Story

[drychris1337]

Background information

This story is based on characters that I used in the past. I made little adventures with them and drew them and all that kind of stuff. I had fun doing the adventures and imagined myself in them. I left the adventures and sketches in a scrapbook and soon forgot about them. When I moved to Canada, I found the scrapbook and decided to revive the series by making a story about them all for you. This story will have NO camoes from anyone in the site. It'd be very out-of-place to try to put you into the story as a cameo. I hope that in this story, I do a much better job that I have done before. Enjoy.

Perfect Chaos

Chapter 1-1: Moneylender’s Meeting

It was a regular day inside Perfect Chaos City. The sky was clear blue and the streets were busier as ever. Every metropolitan building was packed with fancy-suited accountants and lawyers. No one was noticing a dark, shady-looking humanoid fly down to the ground, entering the largest building around. The building was owned by a famous businessman by the name of Trevor Moneylender. Trevor wore 5 rings on his hand and always carried two shotguns behind his back. He always wore a dark blue tie and tuxedo pair no matter where he went. He was known to everyone as a very generous donator and always wanted to help people out. Trevor was waiting for someone so that he could commence a conference that he was supposed to start 30 minutes ago. The suspicious fellow fixed his ragged pants and dusted off his sleeveless T-shirt as he entered the elevator. He pushed the button to the floor he wished to go to and waited silently. Once he got to the floor, he opened the door that was in front of him and sat down.

“You’re late again, Vladimir,” Trevor said as he looked out to the city.

“My sincere apologies, friend, but I had to take care of some business,” Vlad replied nervously.

“At least you’re here. I’m getting pretty bored of doing nothing for half-an-hour,” a man with an electrical orb for a head retorted. The man magnetized a pencil to his hand. He wrote down something on a clipboard. “Well, we can start this meeting, now can’t we?”

“I guess so,” Trevor sighed while turning his chair to the mildly lit business room, “Sam, how have we been doing with our charities?”

“What, what, who? Who said that?” Sam asked as everyone else leered at him oddly, waiting for him to answer the question. Sam chuckled nervously and responded, “Oh right. The charities. Yes. We’ve been doing very well helping the unfortunate. We surpassed last month’s quota by $3500.” They all clapped as Mr. Moneylender smiled in glee.

“That’s excellent. Now, onto the second part of this meeting. How have we been doing in terms of city control, Magix?” Trevor pondered.

“It’s been pretty good,” the orb-headed man said as he pulled a chart from thin air and placed it on a stand. “As you see, this is the crime rate of our last quarter and the death tolls of last quarter. But if you see these bars over here, there has been a decrease in both crime and deaths. We’ve been cleaning the streets both figuratively and literally. If this continues, we could just rename the place Perfect City.” Magix chuckled as everyone later proceeded to do the same. Mr. Moneylender stroked his beard as he was enjoying the results he was hearing. As he stroked his beard, his eyes later targeted Vlad.

“Vlad, we haven’t heard from you. Tell us, how you have been dealing with…you-know-who…” Trevor said as he took out a cigar from a golden case and used one of his rings to light it. Vladimir made a nervous chuckle and twiddled his fingers. He bit his lip, trying to think of the proper way to display the information to his comrades. “Well…come on. It’s not like you’ve chewed off your own tongue with your fangs.”

“Erm…how can I put this to you, Trev?” Vlad replied with a very uneasy tone.

“Tell me, what, Vlad?” Trevor intriguingly inquired as he bit his Cuban cigar to take the fumes in.

“Well, they’ve found out about the operation and proceeded to kick me out of the organization.” Vlad shamefully said as Trevor inhaled the fumes in and started choking. Sam gave Trevor a glass of water and patted him on the back. Trevor recovered and took a sip of the water only to spit on Magix in total rage.

“Are you serious? You couldn’t last one, just one month in there?” Trevor scolded as he bit on the end of his cigar tightly.

“Didn’t I say that Vlad wouldn’t last in there, Trev?” Sam retorted.

“Oh, shut up Sam, you didn’t last 16 days, so don’t foul-mouth Vlad on the subject,” Mr. Orbico replied as he finished wiping off the water from his face with a towel.

“Look, I’m sorry, Trev…I didn’t think that they would have caught on and then one thing led to the other and-”

“You had vital, VITAL, information to our group. If we had known what those other powered beings had been doing, we could have just come up with a plan to stop them. Or we could have just used our own skills to wipe them out,” Mr. Moneylender harshly interrupted as he gritted his teeth, “We would have made this city a much better place to live in. We would have gotten so much publicity. Think of the money we could have used to help those poor orphans.”

“Trev, we understand that Vlad didn’t last long, but he gave it his best,” Sam said.

“I suppose I have been harsh on you, pal. It’s just…you had such powerful information from those…those ungrateful jerks. We could have shut them down for good,” Trevor deeply groaned as he spit the little bits of tobacco in his mouth in the garbage bin.

“Well, maybe it’s a bit obvious for them to figure out that we’re going to spy on them,” Vlad thought, “Think about it…there are 12 of us powerful beings that are referred to Poderians by normal citizens. And we’re divided into 3 sectors…”

“Where are you going with this, Vlad?” Sam said, disrupting Vlad’s plan.

“I was just going to get to that,” Vlad snarled as he pushed a button, revealing a holographic chart to the other three businessmen. “As, I was saying, we’re in this sector of the Poderians. They are on that sector. But there’s this ‘unknown’ sector of Poderians. If we can figure out some way to convince one of them to join us, maybe that way, we could stop the other Poderians!”

“That’s sounds like a phenomenal idea, Vladimir,” Trevor gleefully replied, “But, I’ve met up with one of those in the middle sector. He’s not exactly what you call…convincible.”

“Yeah, and pardon my French, but the other dude’s a bit of a douchebag,” Sam said as he refilled his glass of water, “And nobody knows about the other two Poderians in that sector. Even if we did, I don’t think they would take part in assisting us in this war.”

“I have to disagree, Sammy-boy,” Vlad smirked as he pulled out a folder from his sleeveless vest, “This is a man by the name of Illuis Niro. He’s a master illusionist that controls a power that his mirror emits. If we do the right things…we could encourage him to aid us.” Vladimir slides the folder to Trevor. He flips through it and grins. He closes the folder and looks at everyone in the room, knowing something new and perhaps, helpful to his cause.

“Then it is settled. We shall find a way to convince this Poderian to join our forces,” Trevor concluded, as he stood up from his chair and got his wallet from a night table, “Let’s hope that we can at least negotiate with this man.” They all agreed with him and exited the room, turning off the light.

SPOILER: Click to show

In Spanish, "poder" means "power". Since these guys all obtain some sort of power, they usually are referred/refer themselves as "Poderians"

[Gront]

The writing itself could use some editing, but the story so far has my attention. I'm interested to see where this goes.

[taylor]

ARGH PERFECT CHAOS MONSTER AAARRGH.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 1-2: A Regular Day In The Cocktail Inn

As the main core of Perfect Chaos City was bustling with rich citizens with little time on their hands, the west of the city was quietly raving with groups of friends talking about the latest technology. The west was filled with eateries, black markets and malls. It was a regular hot-spot for teenagers, young adults and bachelors. What had made the west so famous was a grill bar and inn entitled “The Cocktail Inn”. Around the inn, there was a Caucasian man wearing a grey top hat with a dark mirror on it and trench coat. The trench coat covered his mouth but his red eyes were still visible. He was walking towards the inn, waving his hand, greeting newcomers and old friends. He then entered the building and unbuttoned the first button of his trench coat, revealing his mouth. He then sat down on a bar stool and banged the table, trying to obtain the attention of the bartender.

“Hey, Dan, can I get a hello or what?” he cheerfully said.

“Oh, it’s you Illuis! What’s up man?” Dan replied as he shook Illuis’s hand in joy.

“Not much. I went to the deli and got some salami. What about you?” Illuis responded with a smile on his face.
“Working in the bar, getting a bunch of tips, looking at some babes, the usual,” Dan said as he flipped a bottle high in the air, caught it and proceeded to pour the drink into a shot glass. He then passed the drink to his customer. “So, will it be the usual?”

“Nah, I feel like having a scotch on the rocks,” Illuis responded.

“Alright, one scotch on the rocks coming up for ya, pally.” Dan said. He pulled part of a bandage in his arm off, and pressed a few buttons. A bottle of scotch appeared on the table and grabbed a glass from behind him. He then poured the scotch high up in the air, leaving no drop on the table. He then grabbed a bucket and quickly scooped the glass into it. He placed the drink on the table and said, “Here you are, Illuis. One scotch on the rocks.” Illuis grabbed the cup and noticed something odd in the glass. He then picked up one of the ice cubes and dropped it on the ground.

“Hey, you know I meant ice, ya goof!” Illuis chuckled as he tapped Dan on the head. The two laughed happily as Illuis proceeded to change the rocks into ice with his mirror lightly glowing. He then took a sip of his drink and quietly snickered at the prank that Dan pulled on him.

“Yo’, Cocktail Man. I’ve been asking for a goddamn martini for 30 minutes. If you want your fucking tip, I suggest that you start pouring my drink into the glass, pardner,” a brown-haired fellow snarled. The man has a ying yang scar on his cheek and was wearing a black T-shirt.

“Geez, Carl, I’ll get to ya. I’ll be right back.” Dan smirked as he dashed to the scarred man. While Dan served Carl his drink, Illuis noticed a poster on Dan’s wall. The poster showed a long-haired brunette. Her hair had a white rose on it. She was wearing a violet dress and was singing to a microphone. He tried to read the text on the poster when Carl had noticed him and said “Illuis? Is that you? Long time, no see, you shapeshifting bastard!”

“Heh, it’s nice to see you too, Zenzi,” Illuis chuckled in a very displeased manner. Carl moved closer to Illuis with his glass still empty. He slammed the table and said “C’mon, Cocktail Boy. I’m going to have you give you a $1 tip if you don’t get your ass here to serve me my drink. So how have ya been, Mr. Niro?”

“I’ve been doing good. How’s the casino running along?” Illuis asked.

“It’s been doing better than ever. Last night, Trevor bet $300 K on 19 in the roulette. It landed on 23. Let me tell you, that money that could have helped those hobos will now be buying me a brand new hot tub.” Carl snarled as he took a peanut from a tray

“You do know that money could have helped desperate people in need of food and shelter?” Illuis inquired.

“You’re just jealous that I have five hot tubs in my house and you don’t have any,” Carl smirked as he took another peanut from the tray. He then looked at the other side of the bar and saw Dan flirting with one of the customers. “Goddamn it. GET YOUR ASS HERE YOU COCK-TAILED BASTARD!” Dan looked at Carl and gave something to the customer as he rushed back to where Carl was.

“Take your martini, Carl. I really don’t need to hear you having your period,” Dan retorted as he tossed a container to Carl. Illuis started laughing and then high-fived Dan. Illuis then started mocking Carl about the comment while holding his gut of all the laughter he had. Infuriated, Carl took the container and flipped off the two as he exited the bar. The two calmed themselves down and wiped their tears of laughter off. As Dan was getting ready to serve a new customer, Illuis suddenly remembered the poster and tapped Dan on the shoulder.

“Say, pal, who’s that attractive little flower on that poster over there?” Illuis pondered as he pointed to the poster he was looking at.

“Oh. That’s Rosa. She’s a famous singer from East Perfect Chaos City. I paid her to do 3 shows for five weeks. This is her third week. If you want, you could catch her tonight,” Dan said as he wiped a glass with a towel.

“Meh, I’m not much of a fan of singers, but I don’t really have much to do tonight, so I’ll check it out. What time does it start?” Illuis responded.

“It starts at 9:00. I’ll see you later then.” Dan said as he placed the glass on the table. Illuis shook Dan’s hand and exited the building. When he got to the threshold of the door, he tossed a quarter to the glass that Dan put on the table and went on his way. Illuis walked up to his apartment building and put in a key to open the gate to the building. He then locked it up and went into the building, to relax in his apartment room.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 1-3: The Ruins of Defective Order City

In the north of Perfect Chaos, where the city nears the border, large ruins of the less successful and hackneyed named Defective Order City, are scattered on the lifeless ground. The sky is filled with dust and thin smoke. The sky was a dark red and the clouds seemed to be a combination of volcanic ash and cold mist. The place was quite and only one building was standing. Ironically, that same building was the one that took the worst toll. There was a huge ring of rubble around the place. The stairs seemed half-built. The only thing that allowed people to enter the building was the letters of a nearby sign. The roof seemed to have imploded on itself. All the tiles from it had fallen down to the floor. The rest looked like an accordion, as wires and concrete were protruding and engulfing the structure. No one was around the place except a man with traffic guard attire and another person that looked like a Swiss army soldier. They took an orb from inside the area and looked for a way to get back to wherever they originally were.

“Honestly, I’m not in a goddamn mood to do this kind of shit, Mark,” the traffic guard said as he tried to carry a green stop sign with him along with the orb, “There are so many things I could have been doing. I could have ruined the lives of so many people. And they would never expect it. NEVER, YA SWISS ARMY NARK!!”

“I swear to god, Travis, I will get a knife to pop out of my knee and stab your balls until you roll over in pain and scream constantly about how cheap that move was,” Mark responded as he then took out a cork screw from his finger tip, “And if that doesn’t fucking scare you, then I’ll just pop your eyes out, and then grab that sweet red fluid that gushes out your sockets to make my Bloody Mary. So stop acting like Repento…”

“Speaking of him…” Travis replied as he interrupted by a nearby sound. The two went closer to the source of the noise which was in the ruins of a destroyed temple. Then all of a sudden, a figure jumped out and scared the two, making Travis release the orb.

“It’s pretty pathetic that you intolerable twits were terrified by my actions. Hahaha!” the figure snarked. Traff picked up the orb before it would smash into little pieces on the ground. He then looked at the person and placed the orb in his pocket. He then walked up to the person and lit one hand on fire and covered his other hand in ice.

“Do you know what the fuck you just did, Repento? You almost ruined the soul purpose of why the fuck we are here, you jackass! He sent us here for this damn thing and you almost wrecked it! Do you WANT to know how it feels like to be a Two-Face with BOTH sides being ugly, punk?” Traff yelled as he pointed finger firmly to Repento.

“Well, you don’t have to get vulgar with me, you neurotic vagabond!” Repento snapped back as pointed his arm-blade high in the air, trying to threaten Travis.

“You’re not even using those words in the right context, fucktard!” Travis retorted as he made his stop sign engulf in flames, “Try me, bitch.”

“Both of you, stop it!” Mark shouted as he cut both of them with his cork screw. He then made the cork screw return back to his skin and then leered at the two in frustration, “You two are the sole reason that our type of Poderians are being destroyed by those no good fancy-dressing-cocktail-consuming-cigar-smoking-sons-a-bitches. God, I can’t understand why he hired a stupid teacher from hell and a complete jackass that carries a stop sign just because he needs a weapon he can make the ground split, shoot lasers out of his ass if he wanted to and make hurricanes whenever he wishes. At least I was in army and had some sort of training to fight. I’m fucking fused to multi-functional device that has an RPG and a knife. You two have your own great abilities but you never use them to your full potentials. I do.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it, you whiner?” Travis replied.

“You know what, I’m going to get someone from that middle section of Poderians and replace ALL OF YOU!” Mark yelled out to them.

“You have to calm down. I can understand that we are a nuisance, but we’ve done our part to help the organization. All you do, is hang around the boss like a brown-noser,” Repento smirked as he picked something out of his teeth.

“I’m a brown-noser? I’ve done nothing? Tell me, who commands the huge army of evil minions to cause utter destruction in the core of the city? And, if I’m such a brown-noser, why am here with you, shithead?” Mark inquired politely as he waited for Repento to say something. Hearing nothing from him, he laughed and pushed him over so that he would fall down on a rock. Repento screamed in pain as Mark and Travis laughed hysterically like two hyenas, “Alright, we still have to get back to him.”

“Good idea, Swiss Army Mark. Hey, I wonder…which person from the middle section of Poderians were you referring to?” Traff asked.

“Oh…that doesn’t concern you. But I guaranteed that once he joins our side…we’ll finally get to ruin those goody-goody bastards.” Mark answered as the two were heading to the east of the city.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 2-1: Encountering The Other Poderians

It was 7:30 pm inside the West Perfect Chaos City Apartment Facility. Illuis was getting ready for his night at the bar. He had already prepared himself in advance and watched some television to kill some time. At the same time Vlad and Magix were on an elevator to his apartment room. It didn’t take them much time until they had arrived at the door. They knocked on the door and waited for Illuis to open the door.

“Hello?” Illuis asked.

“Hello, Mr. Niro. You may not know me,” Vlad said as he walked into the apartment, “but I most certainly know you. I am Vladimir, and we work for Moneylender Incorporated. We have decided to meet with you about something.”

“Well make it quick, Mr. Vladimir, I have shit to do.” Illuis proceeded to turn off the TV and got himself a malt drink.

“Mr. Niro, we understand that you are a master illusionist that lives an average citizen’s life,” Magix said as he entered into the apartment as well, “We’re ready to offer you a deal.”

“A deal, eh? Well, don’t just stand there quietly like a mute, talk to me, Orby.”

“His name is Magix Orbico, Mr. Niro. Anyways, we’re ready to offer you $800,000 for every show you do. And spilt ticket sales 60-40, the 60% obviously going for you,” Vlad responded as Illuis sprayed him with malt and gasped for air.

“You’re saying that you’ll pay me 800,000 dollars for one silly show? This must be some kind of joke. Did Carl set you up for this? Because if he did, I’m going to throw you two off my balcony,” Illuis threatened as he grabbed his deck of cards and flipped through them as the cards started to make some sort of rope.

“It’s not a joke at all. Vlad and I wouldn’t be lying to you. We even have a contract for you to sign.”

“Hold the phone, fang-boy, what’s the catch?”

“Oh nothing…you just need to help us like the good Poderian you are,” responded Vlad. All of a sudden the room went quiet. Illuis leered at the two very closely. He paced around the room carrying his bottle of malt and took small sips. The two looked at each other confused.

“What do you mean by that, Vladdy?”

“Uh…how can I put this to you, Illuis?”

“We need you to help us stop the other Poderians in the city,” Magix remarked.

“No deal, fellas.”

“Why not, Mr. Niro? You’ll be rich and you’ll help others,” Vlad said.

“Look, I just want to live my life without having to worry about the lives of people that I don’t even know about. I like helping out the homeless by giving them change every time I have some spare for them, but I don’t want to be saving everyone from immediate doom because it’s my duty,” Illuis snarled as he threw the bottle in the garbage, “Do you know how big of a burden that is to make sure that everyone can live to see the next day? I’m not in the mood to care about others that I don’t know about to a certain extent. So no deal.”

“But…but...” Magix stuttered.

“I said no goddamn deal, Magix and Vlad. Now please get out. I don’t want to hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it.” The two left the apartment and didn’t say a word. They just sighed and nodded their heads in disappointment. It was now 8:30 and Illuis was ready to leave the house. He walked out to the sidewalk leading to the bar but then was later halted by Traff and Repento.

“Hello, Illuis! It’s me, Travis!” he said as Illuis punched him right on the nose.

“Meh, the bastard deserved it. Anyways, we’d like to make you a more powerful person,” Repento said.

“Not interested, just leave me alone.”

“Why not, Illuis, think of the ways you could use the power!”

“I don’t care about the power. I just care about having the ability to pay my rent and kick someone’s ass if needed. I don’t want to rise to a better position in life having to do something for someone to keep that position. I already had this talk with somebody else. Just leave me be,” Illuis snapped.

“And what if I don’t, you belligerent buffoon?” Repento smirked. Illuis grabbed Repento’s arm and started spinning him around like a top. Then he threw him high in the air and saw him fall to the ground. He then crushed his hand and spat on his face. He kept walking to the bar but then Traff came back to exact revenge on Illuis breaking his nose, but since Illuis was running late, he just kicked Traff in the nuts and rushed to the bar as fast as he could.

[Gront]

Oh shit, I missed more chapters of this than I realized. Minor grammatical errors still occur here and there, but I can get past them (unlike some other stories).
Much love, Zarth. You recognized your weakness and got a good editor, making you smarter than Stephenie Meyer, at least.

Anyways, keep it up and whatnot.

[drychris1337]

Here's the next two parts in a bundle.

Chapter 2-2: The Inn’s Show

It was 8:55 at the Cocktail Inn. The whole place seemed packed. People were all around the entrance, covering it up. Illuis stopped when he saw the neon sign above the inn and squeezed through the crowd hitting a wall. He silently side-stepped until he finally felt the doorway and continued into the bar. The bar filled up with the constant chatter of the customers waiting for the event. All over the place, you could have found cigarette butts, empty beer bottles and unconscious drunkards. Illuis noticed Dan as he was caught in a storm of intolerant clients. Dan saw Illuis and blazed through each of the orders, telling the person whom he had served to have a great night at his inn. When he finally served his last patron, he took a long calm breath before greeting his friend.

“Hey, Dan! I can see the bar’s pretty busy. I don’t get how you do it,” Illuis said as he shook Dan’s hand.

“Well, I guess I’m motivated by all the colorful people I meet here,” Dan remarked with a smile. He started wiping a wine glass and stared at Illuis. Illuis looked at what he was trying to look at. After looking both ways, Illuis tilted his head to the side and wondered what Dan wanted. “By the way, Illuis, where’s the rest of my tip?”

“The tip! Right….right. Sorry about that, man,” Illuis responded. He snapped his fingers twice and right out of nowhere, a ten dollar bill floated down gently into the jar.

“I see you’ve been practicing your magic tricks…”

“Well, I’m going to be doing a performance using money in all of my tricks next week. This is just a warm-up. I’m going to do the ‘dry dollar in the water glass’ trick. It’s going to be hard, since I really will put the bill in the water.”
“Good for you, Illuis! I’ll see if I can get a seat for your show. Speaking of shows, you better get closer to the stage. The spectacle is about to start,” Dan said as he pointed to the stage.

“Pfft. I’m here to watch something to kill time, not something that I really am intrigued to see. Then again, I shouldn’t be so judgmental of something I haven’t seen. Might as well sit somewhere in the middle,” Illuis thought. He sat closer to the stage. The lights went off as two bright spotlights pointed to the blue curtains.

“Alright you single cats out there. Feast your eyes on the gal from the east. The perfect flower of the hour. The heart-maker and breaker. Rosa!” exclaimed an announcer. All the men in the room applauded while the women narrowed their eyes in rage as the looked at their ‘loyal’ partners. A sweet voice came out of the curtains. They opened to reveal the brunette Illuis saw on the poster as well as some instrumentalists. She wore the violet dress and had the white rose on her hair. She also wore matching heels and lipstick. As her voice spread across the room, causing howls, whistling and fighting between couples, Illuis’s eyes widened as he turned his head to see the elegant singer gracefully move across the stage. He inched himself closer to the stage, avoiding the punches that came by him. Surprisingly, Rosa kept singing, even though countless glassware was thrown back and forth on the stage. She secretly signaled security to escort the troubled couples outside. As half of the bar was being evacuated, Illuis simply ogled at Rosa. Rosa noticed the dumbstruck Illuis and waltzed slowly to him.

As she serenaded him, she slowly sat down on the stage, glancing at him passionately. Illuis just stood there, quietly. His mind went completely blank. He just stood there as Rosa kept “flirting” with him. The rest of the bar stared at them in frustration. Illuis felt like the number was never going to end. He was sweating vigorously. He felt powerless to Rosa’s siren song and started to give in. As he gave in, the song slowly came to a close. So, Rosa got back on stage, pulling on Illuis’s trench coat. Once the two were standing up, Rosa elevated her voice reaching a crescendo and then stopped as she gave Illuis one last glare. She then finished her song and walked away as the curtains closed behind her. Illuis sat down, without saying a word. His eyes were still wide.

“Alright, sit tight fellas, she’ll be back to perform her next number,” the announcer said. Illuis decided to go to the bar, and get himself a drink so that he could try to release the spell that was cast upon him.

“Hey, man. So what did you think about her?” Dan asked. Illuis didn’t say a thing. “Dude? Are you ok?”

“What? Oh…can I just get the usual?”

“Sure, man,” Dan replied. He got a glass and pulled out three bottles. He quickly served the right amount of each bottle into the glass. Then he tossed ice into the glass and stirred the drink. He then gave it to Illuis. “What got into you?”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t even remember what happened.”

“Well, are you going to see the rest of the show, Illuis?”

“Yeah...I guess I should, Dan.”

“Well then, enjoy the rest!” he said. Illuis then walked back to the seat that he was on previously and waited for the next number. When the number started, Illuis immediately got hypnotized and felt the same things he had felt before. Song after song, he just sat there, looking at Rosa. Even when the last number ended, he just sat there. Dan tapped Illuis on the head.

“Dude, it’s closing time…I think you should get a room here or go back to your apartment,” Dan said, as Illuis shook his head in confusion.

“Oh…oh right…yeah…the show is over,” Illuis stuttered. He straightened his jacket to find a piece of paper fall down. He picked it up and read. As his eyes scanned through each word, he became more and more perplexed. He then saw Dan and placed the note in his trench coat as he walked away. “I guess I should go,” he said. He gave Dan a five dollar bill and then went back to his apartment, puzzled.

Chapter 2-3: The Note

When Illuis got to his apartment, he decided to take a shower after going to bed. While showering, he kept thinking about the note. He just kept thinking about word after word. It just didn’t make sense to him. But it didn’t matter. He was too tired to think. So he finished up and rested for the next day. Once the next day came up, he looked back at the note. It told him to go to East Perfect Chaos City. He had never been to East Perfect Chaos City in his whole life. He was born a West Perfect Chaos man and wasn’t a fan of the core city. He always suspected the East to be busier than the center. But he knew that he was expected to be there, so he dressed up and got his car keys from the counter. He took the elevator down to the parking zone and searched or his car. When he found the car, he opened the doors to the automobile and then rode to the address he found on the note. After 90 minutes of driving, he finally arrived at East Perfect Chaos. He saw that the place was vibrant and bright. It was filled with casinos, restaurants, clubs, film studios, brothels and fancy bars. Illuis looked for the address on the buildings until he found it. It was a huge house that had a gate in front of it. He parked his car and went up to the gate.

“Halt!” said a voice from the intercom, “Who goes there?”

“Illuis Niro,” he said, “Rosa sent me a note.”

“Rosa sent you a note, eh?” the voice said, “Well…you’re at the wrong house, ‘cause there is no Rosa here.”

“Oh…sorry to bother you then, sir…”

“Wait, Mr. Niro!” the voice remarked, “I never said that I don’t know her true address.”

“You mean you know her?”

“Of course I do, she’s one of the most famous people in East Perfect Chaos. It’s very often that people mix up the addresses of my house and her’s. All you need to do is go 4 blocks west from where this house is, make a turn and then continue on until you see 6035 on the door.”

“Thank you, sir”

“Hey, don’t mention it,” the voice said. The intercom then turned off. Illuis went back to his car only to notice a smiling traffic guard awaiting him at the car.

“Did you see Rosa?” the man smirked.

“No…I didn’t, Travis,” Illuis sourly replied. Travis laughed at him constantly questioning the possibility of the two being together. Illuis rolled his eyes and decided to end Traff’s fun by saying, “Thanks to your little prank, I’m going to meet the REAL Rosa, so stick that in your pipe and smoke it!” Travis stopped laughing.

“Bu-bu-but…that’s fucking impossible,” Traff snarled, “That address couldn’t have led you to her real location!”

“That’s where you are wrong, Travis. It turns out she’s famous around here. The guy who I talked to right now told me where she really lives.”

“Touché, douche,” Traff retorted, “But here’s the thing, Illuis…why would she want to meet you? I mean I saw you at the club…you were just another one of her audience members. It’s just her act…she doesn’t care for you.” Illuis shook his head.

“See, this is why you can’t get laid, Traff. You give up too easily. Sure, I may just be another customer, but why not try? She could dump me, she could get along with me…hell, she could like me. I just need to give it a shot. Now get out of my way, you lonely bastard, I have a dame to see,” Illuis slyly retorted as he pushed Traff aside. Traff became furious by Illuis’s slander and whacked him on the head with his stop sign.

“Don’t start with me, Traff,” Illuis growled. Traff didn’t care and proceeded to zap him with a lightning bolt. Illuis back-kicked Traff in the gut and grab a deck of cards from his jacket as he proceeded to turn them into a pipe.

“So, that’s the way you want to fight, you miserable fuck?” Travis replied. He grabbed his stop sign and swinged at Illuis. Illuis ducked and swung vigorously at Traff’s face with the card pipe. The force of the pipe caused Traff’s cheek bone to break. He fell onto the ground bleeding. Travis wasn’t done so he arose and threw a fireball to Illuis’s hat. As the flames consumed the hat, Illuis’s rage rose higher. Illuis clenched the fire-engulfed part of his hat fiercely as the mirror started glowing. As the glow became stronger and stronger, the flames slowly disappeared. Illuis looked down at the bleeding Travis. He grabbed the stop sign next to the floor and nailed Traff’s arm to the ground.

“Seriously, Traff…you don’t want to start with me,” Illuis furiously responded. He then straightened his clothes and got into his car so that he could meet up with Rosa. He quickly looked at Travis, all weakened, and then looked away as he drove off to the address.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 3-1: A Little Issue with Illuis

Five days passed after the night that Illuis met Rosa and the core was still buzzing with the likes of Wall Street wasps and business bees as they swarmed around the stock market buildings wildly. Unbeknownst to them that their time taken away from them to conduct tedious calculations for tremendous profit would be torn into tiny pieces and considered a waste. Trevor waited nervously for one of his friends to enter through the door of the office and inform him about the Poderian he had wanted. Whilst waiting, the other two looked at each other, twiddling their thumbs in boredom. All of a sudden, Starry Sam burst through the door in a frantic panic. He sat down in his chair, trying to breathe calmly.

“What’s going on, Sam?” Trevor pondered as he stared at him, wondering what happened to the poor man.

“Oh my, it’s terrible. I can’t believe it happened, but we’re all in a huge predicament.” Sam quivered nervously. His head was shaking all over the place and his eyes (when you could see them) were huge.

“What’s the problem?” Magix asked him. Starry just looked at everyone and didn’t say a thing. The three closed up on him, but not a word was uttered. Each of them got more and more impatient until Vlad finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Come on man, just yell it out already!” he shouted.

“Alright! If you really want to know…” ,Sam sighed disappointedly, “we’re going to have to give in to the “great” Poderian’s demands.” Everyone looked at each other and then sat right back down at their seats. They just let the disturbing news sink in. Trevor light one of his cigars and shook his head in frustration.

“H-h-how can that be, Sam? I thought we got Illuis on our side....explain yourself!” Trevor gritted.

“Uh…Trevor, pal?” Vladimir silently said, “We never did get Illuis on our side. He shunned us when we offered him the deal.”

“He WHAT?!” Trevor growled. He grabbed his hair and pulled it in fury. He paced around the room, clicking his five rings against each other. He sighed a deep sigh and looked back at the three men sitting at the table and continued on, “How could you two not convince him to join our side?”

“Well, we tried, sir. We constantly were giving him deals and offers and other things of the like,” Magix replied, “But he wanted no part in this.”

“Did you not even bother to tell him that we at freakin’ war with this charlatans? Did you?!” Trevor retorted as shook his fist in anger.

“Look, I know that a lot is going through your mind, but things will get better, Trev,” Vlad gleefully responded. Trevor sat down in his chair and tried to calm himself down. Vlad got up from his chair and patted Trevor on the back.

“Guys…you didn’t let me finish though,” Sam said as he made a more serious face than previously. He got out a letter and straightened it. He then cleared his throat and began to read it, “Dear, you lonesome fucks. It is I, the almighty Poderian out of you four stooges. Now keep on reading, because I won’t rewrite this letter. I am going to give you morons a chance to live. All you need to do is give it up. Your foolish plans of helping those retarded shits are done for. That’s all I ask. For you fucks to stop with all this helpful bullshit you cram into everyone’s throats. So what’s the penalty for not doing this? Simple, my ‘fellow’ Poderians. You all die the worst death that you can think of. But wait a minute…you’d then die for a good cause. You become martyrs. And why would I let you die with a sense of honor? Well. I think I’ve said too much. But I will tell you this. There will be lots of bloodshed. You have 72 hours to comply with my orders. If you don’t…there will be a price to pay. Sincerely, VVV.”

“Curses!” Trevor calmly snapped, “This isn’t good.”

“So what should we do, Trev?” Magix said.

“Do you think I know? I as bewildered as you are about this, Orbico.”

“Trevor, we have a decent amount of time to think of our options of retaliation. Let’s not try to waste the first amount of said time puzzling over this,” Vlad replied.

“Vlad, don’t get me wrong, I would love to relax right now. But for God’s sake, four of our kind, of our own type will come here and kill us. Or perhaps do something worse. And we need all the time we can get.”

“Well, there’s one thing for sure. We’re not going to give up, “ Starry Sam said.

“Sam’s right. We shouldn’t be afraid of them. They just want to intimidate us with petty threats. We have the right to do what we want to. For heaven’s sake, we’re the ones that are keeping this city in tip-top shape. I say we just tell those rotten Poderians to go suck a lemon!” Magix valiantly replied. The rest thought for a while and eventually agreed with Magix and Sam. They settled on their response to this fowl threat and left. All but Trevor, who sat in his office chair and looked at the letter. He just zipped past each word until he saw the signature on the bottom. It was three Vs written in a smooth cursive. Trevor just looked at the three letters for a while.

“The things that make people change,” Trevor sighed. He then left the note on his desk and walked away from his office to join his fellow Poderians.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 3-2: The Awaited Response

Trevor and his gang had finally thought of a response and sent a letter back to the other Poderians in South Perfect Chaos City. That part of the city was broken down. It was filled with mafia members and anarchists. All around the place, signs and bridges were broken and wrecked. There was constant graffiti covering the city. Everywhere you look, there was something illegal going on. As these things were getting out of hand, riot police were going around, fixing the place up, cleaning the graffiti and arresting countless of vandals and hoodlums for their crimes. The area had an old fashioned tower-like building in the middle. The building was about 9 to 12 stories high, covered with mythological figures and a huge dome on the top of the building. At the front of the building, Swiss Army Mark and Repento waited for Travis to come back with the mail. Travis returned, sliding across the pavement with his shoes that were covered in ice.

“About time, you pidgeon-livered cur,” Repento said.

“Ah, screw you, fancy-boy,” Travis replied.

“Did you get the mail?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Travis responded as he tossed the mail towards Mark. Mark caught the mail and the three proceeded to enter the building. They dashed up the stairs and finally got to the top floor, exhausted. There, Mark tossed the mail to the desk that was right in front of him. All of a sudden, a robotic claw quickly grabbed the mail, took out a blade from the tip of its finger and opened each letter up.

“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Mark said, closing in on the desk covered with folded papers of all colors. “Bill, angry letter, bill, credit card offer, request, ah here we are. We finally get to see what Trevor and the rest of those fucktards finally did with the offer.”

“Ah ah ah,” a voice slithered, “we shouldn’t read the letter without me being in here.”

“That’s exactly correct, sir,” Repento replied.

“Kiss-ass,” Travis whispered.

“Oh, don’t be such a shit-on-a-stick, Traff. It’s better for you to be kissing my ass, than rudely cracking jokes time after time,” the voice retorted. “Besides, he’s not really kissing my ass. He’s just properly greeting me into the room.” The voice revealed itself to be a general. The general sat on the chair near the desk and looked for the letter that Trevor had written. “Let’s see what he said. ‘Dear VVV, go suck a lemon’.” The general looked at the short letter for a while. Mark and Repento looked at each other and at him.

“Erm…sooo,” Mark hesitated, “what’s the plan?” Mark silently awaited a response from VVV. He just sat there silently, as the claw grabbed the letter away from him and proceeded to tear it up into little pieces.

“You know what we should do? We should send a retaliatory assail to those delusionals,” Repento said.

“What good would that do?” Mark replied. “Sure, we show them who’s in charge, but that won’t help our case at all. They’ll clearly know it’s us.”

“Both of you are idiots,” Travis retorted. “Repento, you’re too much of a bitch and your fancy-smancy words are flawed. You don’t know what to do half the time. And you Mark. You’re just not daring. Take a fucking chance once in a while you pathetic moron.”

“That’s coming from a guy who got his arm impaled with his own fucking traffic sign.” Mark smirked as Repento laughed at Travis, pointing his arm-blade at him.

“Oh, you think it’s funny, demon-boy?” Travis said as he grabbed the tip of the blade with his hand. “You won’t think it’s so funny, when I launch you out of this room with a super-sonic laser beam, now will you?”

“Pfft, you’re just being lethargic,” Repento snottily replied as he punched Traff in the cheek bone. Travis fell back and got back up quickly, to punch Repento in the gut. Repento grabbed his gut for a short while and swiped his arm-blade at Traff, cutting under his eye. Traff returned the attack with a fireball and then the two closed in on each other, to fight hand-to-hand. As this went on, VVV was getting more and more impatient. Finally, he got up, grabbed something from his desk and went in front of the two. He activated the device he had gotten from his desk and waited for it to deploy itself. It turned into a hunting knife that had the blade glowing with an orange aura. He then grabbed the handle tightly, making the aura glow stronger and then swung his arm fiercely to a side, causing an invisible force to sweep by Traff and Repento. Not only did this knock them down, but it also painfully shocked them for a split second.

“I don’t have the goddamn time for you fucks to be fighting in front of me. I’m trying to think of something so I can respond to that garbage they call a letter,” VVV yelled furiously. “So, please…let me think of something.”

“Yes, Mr. Vilderbrut, sir,” Repento and Travis mumbled in shame.

“Thank you.” Mr. Vilderbrut responded. He sat back down at his desk and thought for a little while. He then got an idea. “Well, I still remember what I wrote to them. I told them a little more information that I should’ve. But, after looking at this letter, it is clear that they don’t give a rat’s ass on what I’ve said. They’ve practically ignored it. Knowing that, the plan seems clear to me.”

“And what would that plan be?” Swiss Army Mark inquired

“Well, this plan isn’t complete, but I’m sure you three can kickstart it for me.”

“Yes, Vector, we’ll do that for you,” the three said.

“Good, good,” Vector smirked as he grabbed a pen from his desk and wrote something down on a piece of paper. “What I want you to do for me, is get into Moneylender Corporations and screw around.”

“I don’t follow, Mr. Vilderbrut…” Repento said puzzled.

“Well, I meant to say is go in there, pretending to be someone that works there, and cause a little disruption in there.”

“Oh ho ho. I understand now,” Repento replied.

“Fantastic,” VVV gleefully chuckled. “Do you two also catch my drift?”

“Yes sir,” Mark and Travis said. “We get it.”

“Wonderful! Once you cause a little trouble here and there, I can get to thinking of a few things to further continue this plan,” Vector simpered. He told the three to proceed with his orders and fended the two away. Travis was the first one to leave as he smashed through the window, and spun around like a top constantly until he glided through the air with ease. Mark was the second one to leave as he sprung a corkscrew out of his foot and cut threw the floor. Once a hole was made, he dashed down, headfirst, breaking through each floor. Repento was the last one to leave, bowing down at Vector and going down the stairs. Seeing all the random damage done to the building, Vector had a little laugh and sat back down at his desk. He then pressed a button on an intercom.

“I would like the floors and one of my office windows to be fixed as soon as possible,” Vector quickly said, turning off the button on the intercom. He sat down and thought. He then noticed a few old documents on his desk. He glanced at them one by one, scanning every word. He was laughing at them until he came across one document. It was a newspaper article. That article spoke about some things he didn’t really want to come back to. He sighed deeply and put all the documents to a side. Vector pushed his chair back and jumped down the hole Mark made, later exiting the building.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 3-3: Illuis’s Date

Illuis was kind of nervous for his first date with Rosa. He had never been with a woman of her caliber. Not to mention, that he still hadn’t met her mutually. The only way he was informed for the date was from Rosa’s messenger. But he gained some confidence and then left out for his date. He got into the elevator and pushed a button to the lowest floor. Once he got there, he saw Carl, flipping a coin. Carl then noticed him, but Illuis just turned away to find his car.

“Hey, kid, where you going in such a hurry?” Carl asked him. Illuis didn’t say a thing and kept looking for his car, but Carl followed him. “Come on, Illuis. I just want to have a little chat.”

“Sorry, man, I’m a bit busy. Can we do this at a later time?” Illuis responded disgruntled

“Aww, damn it Illuis! You know I just say that kind of stuff to mess around with ya...” Carl sighed, “I don’t really mean any true harm. I tell you what, you can come to my casino, have a few drinks and whatnot, and I’ll get you the Ace Dancers to give you a run for your money…if ya know what I mean.” He raised his eyebrow suggestively and nudged Illuis to give him more of a clue on what he was referring to.

“As thoughtful that offer is, Carl, I’m gonna have to pass on your deal.”

“So…you’re a queer? Well…I didn’t see that coming...”

“No, that’s not what I mean…”

“It’s ok with me if you’re a fruit. I won’t hold it against you.”

“Carl, I meant to say,” Illuis clarified, “that I have a date to get to. A female one.”

“Oh…I getcha now!”

“Jeez, Carl, why do you always have to assume that?” Illuis asked annoyed. Carl couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse, so he just shrugged his shoulders and continued to follow Illuis. Illuis had found his car and told Carl to leave. Carl refused to leave, and instead got into the car with him. Illuis was getting really annoyed with Carl and his antics. So Illuis grabbed a deck of cards out of his pocket, and turned them into a gun. Carl saw this coming, so he tried to calm Illuis down with some positive aura. Illuis felt much better and decided to let Carl come along, with the condition that he doesn’t keep pestering him while he’s driving. Carl accepted the deal, and Illuis drove off to an area in between the central city and East Perfect Chaos City. While driving there, Carl tapped Illuis on the shoulder. “What is it?”

“You never told me, Illuis. Who’s your late-night gal? Is she that bitch that ogles you in the coffee shop?”

“Nope”

“Is it one of the whores that does an act before your show?”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Then who?” Carl pondered to Illuis.

“A East Perfect Chaos City singer named Rosa,” Illuis responded as he drove to the next exit.

“Rosa? You mean THE Rosa?”

“Yep,” Illuis smirked, “the famous vocalist from the East. I saw her in one of her shows one night. As she sang her numbers, I stared at her, hypnotized…like some sort of horny hasbin. Later that night, I got a note from her, then I drove to her place, arranged a date with her through her messenger and now I’m driving to the restaurant she told me to go to.” Carl just looked at him, with his jaw dropped in awe. Illuis looked at him, confused.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t get over this,” Carl said, “You got into a date with a woman who has more money, more social status and more time occupied than you. It…it’s just so…so unlikely.”

“Pfft,” Illuis retorted, “this kind of shit happens a lot. It’s not that uncommon for someone in this world of ours to date someone who’s completely out of their league. But hey, I’m just happy I’m getting this chance.”

“Cherish every moment of it, you lucky bastard,” Carl responded as the two were closing in on the area. There was a big sign that said ‘Welcome to the Culinary Central East District’. All you could see were these expensive restaurants and these fancy fountains scattered around the zone. Lamp posts brightened the whole place, giving a clear view of the names. Then Illuis spotted the name of the restaurant. He found a parking space near the entrance of the restaurant and later exited his car. Carl exited as well and went off.

“And where are you going, Carl?”

“I have some unfinished business to attend here. Bye-bye now! Good luck with your date!”

“Alright then, Carl. Goodbye!” Illuis said as he closed his car door. He then looked at the restaurant’s sign that read ‘Il Novo Padrino’. He then entered into the building and looked inside the restaurant. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The whole place was elegant. Everywhere you looked, there was paintings of farm fields and wine bottles, among other things. The waiters were wearing their usual tuxedos, as well as a red rose near their collar. Illuis decided to quit looking at the ambience and look for his date. He spotted one of the waiters behind a desk and he went up to him.

“Excuse me,” he asked, “I’m looking for Miss Rosa. Do you know where her table is?”

“Yeah, her table is the on the second floor, in the balcony,” the waiter said, “There’s no one else there, so it’ll be easy to spot her.”

“Thank you sir,” Illuis replied. He went up the stairs and looked for the balcony. He finally spotted it and got in. As he paced through the balcony, trying to spot his date, he saw the view of the city. All the city lights seemed to have a special glow to them on that night. The city never seemed this calm to Illuis before.

“It’s a lovely view, isn’t it?” a voice said.

“Yes…yes it is,” Illuis responded, as he looked for the source of the voice. Finally he found it. It was obviously Rosa, sitting down in a chair, looking at the view. She wore a blue dress instead and still had that vibrant white rose in her hair. She just looked at Illuis, a little confused…but also a bit intrigued.

“I don’t believe we’ve met…” Rosa said.

“Well, we did, but you might have forgotten about it,” Illuis chuckled, “The name’s Illuis. Illuis Niro.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Niro,” Rosa responded, “Sorry about not recalling you. I’m just busy with shows, so I have barely enough time to breathe.”

“Heh, believe me, Miss Rosa, I know what you’re referring to,” Illuis replied as the menus came along. Rosa told the waiter to get the usual wine and then leave the two to choose their meal.

“So, Mr. Niro…what is it that you do?”

“I’m an illusionist.”

“An illusionist, you say?” Rosa said more intrigued than before. “I’m surprised I haven’t heard of you. I enjoy seeing mind-tricks.”

“Really now, Ms. Rosa?”

“Oh, absolutely, Mr. Niro,” Rosa cheerfully replied, “I was often impressed by people who could do those wonderful tricks.”

“Perhaps I could show you a trick once we get our orders over with.”

“Perhaps you could,” Rosa said. The waiter returned with a Chardonnay and asked them for their orders. Rosa ordered a grilled chicken breast on a lettuce leaf and Illuis ordered a steak with steamed rice. The waiter took the menus and walked away. Illuis grabbed the bottle and tossed it in the air. Rosa got nervous and tried to catch the bottle, but Illuis told her to calm down. As the bottle flipped down, Illuis held it from the tip, with his finger and spun the bottle around. As he did that, he placed his other hand on top of his glass. All of a sudden the glass started to fill up with wine while the wine in the bottle swirled down, and seemed to disappear. Then Illuis placed the bottle down and grabbed the glass. He took a sip from the wine and savored it to the last drop.

“Well, this wine was opened at the right night,” Illuis said as he uncorked the bottle, “Can I pour you a glass?”

“Sure, Mr. Niro,” Rosa said, amazed. She shook her head a little after the whole thing and took a sip from the glass. She then asked, “How did you do that, Mr. Niro?”

“Ah ah ah. An illusionist is like a magician, Ms. Rosa. He never reveals his secrets,” Illuis smiled.

“Please, Mr. Niro?” she tenderly asked, “I promise you I won’t say a word.”

“Maybe some other time, Ms. Rosa,” Illuis responded. The two talked for a little while longer, until the main course came along. The two started to eat and kept on conversing. Illuis learned that Rosa’s last name is Vianeyarde while Rosa learned that Illuis was friends with the owner of the Cocktail Inn. The two connected with each other by saying story after story. Even after their dessert and after-desert glass, they still sat down and talked. But then, they checked the time and decided to end this beautiful night.

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms.Rosa.” Illuis said as he kissed Rosa’s hand.

“Please Mr. Niro,” Rosa responded, “It’s Rosa.”

“And please, Rosa…it’s Illuis,” he slyly replied. The two went down the stairs and walked to their vehicles. Illuis got back to his car and Rosa took a limousine. The two didn’t forget the wonderful night they had and went back to their homes. They exited their cars and went up to their rooms. They took a quick hot shower and then dried themselves afterwards. They rested on their beds and just thought about the next date that they arranged. It took them a while to stop thinking about each other, but they eventually went to sleep. But little did they know, that something was going on.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 4-1: Carl’s Detour

As Illuis and Rosa were having their dinner, Carl was roaming the Central East District. He was looking at the restaurants and tried to find the one that he was specifically looking for. It would take him quite a while to search through each building. They were usually three-story buildings that were very wide. The letters of the neon signs were busted and some were incomprehensible. Regardless of this, Carl continued to search each place to find his target. After a while of searching he found a figure lifelessly resting in an eatery that was about to be closed. He had rushed into the place at the last second and approached the quiet being lying on the chair.

“Alright, Trevor. I tracked you down, you sneaky bastard. Now where’s my goddamn cash?” Carl asked. The person did not respond and Carl had become a bit annoyed. He poked the figure and it ceased to reply. “Come on, you douchebag!” Carl yelled, “Give me the fucking money!” All of a sudden, the figure whacked Carl upside the head and dragged him out of the restaurant, throwing him to an alley. The figure pulled out a syringe with a violet-blue fluid from his suit and stabbed the unconscious Carl in the chest. The person later on injected the fluid into Carl’s body and then exited the alley. The next day, Carl woke up to find that he was attacked the previous night and stumbled up. He decided to dash as fast as he could to the Cocktail Inn where Illuis and Dan were talking about what was going on to them. He finally arrived to the place and gave the taxi drive some money. There, he saw Illuis and Dan talking.

“So, you’re saying that if I relax more on my next date, she’ll be more prone to liking me?” Illuis asked.

“That’s exactly right, pal. You do that and you’re guaranteed more success on your next date,” Dan responded. He then noticed Carl and started to make a drink for him. “Alright Carl, I’ll make your drink so you can save me your bitching…”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Carl replied. He sat down next to Illuis and fed himself with some of the free nuts Dan had out. Then he said, “So how did your date go with Rosa?”

“It went ok. Nothing truly magical happened, yet I was as lovestruck as Romeo when he saw Juliet,” Illuis responded as he sipped his soft drink.

“Illuis, buddy,” Carl chuckled, “if you want to get this gal to fall for you, you can’t let your true, lovey-dovey emotions sink you down, yet. You need to first get her liking you, then loving you and then you show some of that mushy love back at her. Trust me, I’ve been in enough relationships to know.”

“What, what, whaaaat?!” Dan shockingly gasped as he slid the drink to Carl. “You’ve been in a relationship?”

“I was in more than you can think of, Danny boy,” Carl replied as he drank his cocktail. “You see, running the casino had opened me up to a lot of relationships with many women. Some of them were the women doing shows at my place, others were hotties that I had met when I was running some of the stations. Some of them even were with my staff. At first I dated out of lust, but then I found some ladies that really took my heart. Unfortunately for me, they had left me, so I couldn’t continue the relationship any further. But one stayed with me…but she then left me after a while of dating.”

“I…I never knew you dated,” Dan said.

“Well, of course you didn’t,” Carl replied, “I hadn’t dated in 10 years. I didn’t really feel that spark of true romance around these times. I just run my bar, play pattycake with some chick and forget what happened after a hangover.” As Carl drank the rest of his cocktail, Illuis noticed a mark on his chest.

“Hey, Carl…what happened to you over there?” Illuis pondered as he pointed at the mark.

“You know…I don’t have the slightest idea on how I got this,” Carl answered as he looked at his shirt. “I should probably see a doctor about this…” Carl exited the bar and searched for the nearest hospital. Then, he heard something snap. His mind had gone blank, and his eyes rolled back. His eyeballs then turned to a violet-blue and his skin pigment had turned from a very light tan to a much darker grayish tan. Carl quickly ran to the center of the city and halted to look for the Moneylender building. Carl grabbed a gun from his pocket and fired two shots at the building. One of them hit the building, another smashed through a window.

“What the hell?” Sam questioned as Carl sped inside the building to the elevator. As he passed floor to floor, Sam still investigated the random shot that broke the window. Carl then got to the floor where the good Poderians were staying in and crashed through the office, swinging the door from the hinges, hitting Sam and breaking another window, knocking Sam off the building. Luckily, Sam was a spirit, so he just elevated above the floors and entered back into the room.

“Who are you?” Moneylender growled at Carl.

“A more appropriate question would have to be, why did you inform me to go suck a lemon?” Carl responded in a lower, darker voice.

“V-V-V-Vector?” Magix pondered.

“That’s correct, you plasma-ball headed klutz. But this isn’t my real form,” Carl answered.

“I know that, Vector. All of us do. We’re just wondering why we’re listening your voice from the idiot that tried ripping us off in the casino,” Vlad replied.

“HEY!” Carl said in his normal voice. His voice then reverted back to that of Vector’s “I got this puppet to become my personal messenger by injecting him with a fluid that allows me to control him like a virtual simulation. I can control his movements and his words with my mind and voice.”

“Well…that’s confusing,” Sam responded.

“Whether it’s easy to comprehend or not, we still do not tolerate this kind of behavior, Vector!” Mr. Moneylender replied.

“Well, that’s too bad,” Carl maniacally snickered as he pulled out his gun and held it sideways, “I had told you that you must give me the city. I told you this. But nooooo, you motherfucking pacifist douchebags decided to be funny guys and send me a message to go suck a lemon. So you morons have left me no choice.” Carl clicked the gun and pointed the gun closer to the four. Then he retracted his gun and put it back in his pocket. “But I’m sure as hell not going to do it like this. I’ll make you pay in a different way. Good day to you all.” Carl’s voice then turned back to normal. Trevor used one of his rings to heal Carl’s wound. In a matter of seconds the cut disappeared and Carl’s skin pigment lightened. His eyes changed from that violet-blue to red-violet.

“There, Carl. You should be back to normal.” Trevor said.

“Thank you, Trevor,” Carl responded, “Now, when are you going to pay me?” Trevor pushed Carl out of the office and told him that he would give him a check sometime this week. Trevor then sat back down with the other 3 Poderians.

“We’re in so much trouble now! I just know it,” Sam nervously cried.

“Calm down, Sam. We just need to think of something,” Magix said.

“There’s nothing we can do now,” Trevor said, “All we can do is wait. Wait for what that madman’s going to do.”

[drychris1337]

Chapter 4-2: Initiation and Confrontation

The mid-afternoon wind had been blowing a little stronger than usual around the city. The street lights were slowly glowing stronger as the transition of day to night was nearing. Accountants and bankers fled their cosmopolitan cells to return back to their loved ones. Cars were eager to dash past walls and walls of large towers ripping the sky above them. As the rich and successful left their workplaces, the night guards marched into place and stood still. Most of them were covering a large vicinity. There, two disguised individuals paced slowly, with their vulture eyes glaring at the night guard in the front of the place. One glanced at the other one, while the other one nodded. As the two closed in, the wind blew away one of their cloaks, revealing a small, wooden-handled shotgun. The night guard quickly pulled a Colt .45 at one of the men while the other one pulled something from his sleeve and stabbed the night guard in the neck. One decided to open the door with a small paper clip. Then the other one busted the door quickly, slightly grabbing the attention of a faraway guard. The first one pulled the second one in quickly and sealed the door to avoid more trouble.

“Nice going, asshole,” one of them hastily said.

“Hey, I didn’t know it was going to be that strong,” the other one replied. All of a sudden, a ringing noise was being emitted by the man’s pants. “Hold on, I think it’s the boss calling. Yes? Mhm. Mhm. Definitely. Well, we got in a little bit of trouble getting in.Yes. Uh-huh. Ok. I know. Alright, my apologies. We’ll try not to be so careless.” The guy then hung up the phone and pulled out the shotgun from his holster and waved it. The two then scurried down to the lower level of the building. There, about thirty guards were moving back and forth, covering the vault doors to the main part of the area. The one holding the shotgun silently slid by some of the guards while the other man rolled his eyes and just paced normally through.

They finally had reach the vault doors, noticing an exhausted guard lying there. The one with the shotgun tapped the guard and told him to move to a new station. The guard walked away as the other man typed in the combination of the doors and waltzed in before the noise of the gears turning would amplify. The other one then smashed the keypad with the shotgun, stopping the doors from going any further. Three guards looked at him oddly. The guy then covered the keypad, shrugging to the others as he then dashed to the little opening of the doors and manually closed them.

“You’re as discreet as a freight train crashing through traffic,” the first one said, removing his mask.

“Quit your blabber and help me find what the boss wants,” the second one responded. The first one typed seemingly random keys while the other one tried to seal the doors up with a aerosol canister and a match. He then grabbed the match and lit it. The fire had started to melt a small part of the doors, which in turn caused for the man to extinguish the fire and blow on the melted part of the door to cool it off. “Alright it’s sealed, you almost done?”

“Almost? I’ve done it thirty minutes ago.” the first one chuckled. The second one rolled his eyes, but heard the guards knocking on the doors. He then told the other one to exit through the staircase atop the vault. It had led to an enclosed room with titanium walls and one door that had been sealed really tight. “Good thing that guard had the keys” he said. The first one then stuck a key into the keyhole. The door soon opened and the two leered around to find an exit to the top of the roof, as they overheard the guards trying to bust the vault doors. After a couple of minutes of searching, they found a door that said “Roof Exit” and entered into the room, finding a ladder reaching the top of the place. Once they climbed up to the roof, they found a shady figure up there, smirking.

“Well, well, well. Travis, I didn’t know you liked being in costume,” the figure said.

“Oh good god, not you again, you little prick. Can’t you just fly away, Vlad?” Travis angrily answered.

“I see you brought a friend here. Not really going to be of any use.” Vlad replied.

“Hey, you shut the hell up. I’ve got to get back to the boss, so I don’t have time to your petty talk,” Travis’s friend snarled, walking away from them. Vlad then lunged at him, grabbing him by the large cloak. Vlad then spun him around and charged up a black energy blast. He then fired at Travis’s friend’s gut, knocking him down.

“You’re not going anywhere with that kind of information,” Vlad said, not seeing Travis pulling the trigger on the shotgun behind him. The shotgun fired six small golden balls that blazed quickly to Vlad’s back, causing one of his wings to weaken. Soon, Vlad lost his balance, knocking him down.

“Leave Mark alone, you douchebag,” Travis growled, “this is between me, you and the Bone Cracker.” Travis pointed at his shotgun and then pointed it at Vlad’s face. Mark proceeded to run away, jumping to the next building near the place.

“Aww, you have to resort to such cowardly means? I thought you were better than that,” Vlad slyly remarked as he slowly got up. He then pushed the shotgun away from him and dusted himself off. “Why, you don’t have that little stop sign of yours.”

“Think again,” Travis said as he pointed to a gushing pothole, spitting out the stop sign down to the building, nearly hitting Vlad. Travis then placed his small shotgun back in its holster and pulled the sign from the concrete. “You want me to fight like this then? Fine, I will do it…just to making things fair for you.” Travis then swung the sign at Vlad, smacking him right in the face. Vlad retaliated with a swift kick, knocking Travis down. He then punched Travis multiple times, until Traff did an uppercut on his jaw. Traff then snapped his fingers, causing the clouds to join together, slowing creating a dark grey circle in the sky. Vlad furiously threw a right hook at Traff’s face, later pulling out a knife from his pocket, stabbing his hand to the ground. Travis used his other hand to pull the storm clouds in, to create strong rumbling above. Hearing the thunder that Travis brewed up, Vlad grabbed his knife and painfully drilled into Traff’s wrist, cutting the hand off. Traff yelled in constant pain and slowly turned his cries of agony into maniacal laughter.

“I thought you would do something stupid like that,” Travis gleefully grinned as he raised the arm with the removed hand to the storm. A blast of lightning zapped to his hand, slowly building a new hand for Travis, completely made of plasma. Travis then shrieked a loud chuckle at Vlad and blasted a laser at Vlad. He then grabbed the sign from the floor and swung it at Vlad’s hip, knocking him down. Vlad coughed up some blood and then lunged himself back up. He then tossed his knife at Traff, stabbing him in the chest. Traff pulled off with the plasma hand, burning it to ashes. Travis then punched Vlad with the plasma hand and used the stop sign to deliver the final blow to him. Vlad grabbed the stop sign before Travis would defeat him and kicked him in the chest, later blasting a dark energy beam at him. Travis then saw that his plasma hand was slowly turning into flesh and violently struck Vlad in the lower waist. Vlad bit his lip and then saw Traff smack him one last time with the sign, slamming his body down to the roof. A blood covered Travis left the defenseless Vlad on the roof, spitting on his unconscious body. Travis then jumped from building to building until he reached the southern part of city. There, he met up with Mark and Vector outside of the main building and the three went inside to talk about the information they had taken.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 4-3: National Relations

The night life in the core was a little more noisy than usual. It was unclear as to why this was, since everyone was usually at home around this time or going to some other part of the city to eat with their family or gaze at the new products in the malls to purchase later on. But if there’s one thing that didn’t change is that the largest building’s top floor. That floor was always lit on this particular day. Sometimes, the Poderians there were setting up a new plan as to how the scum and filth of the city would be cleaned up. Other times, they would converse about benefit events they could participate in, so they could donate even more money to the helpless. But this evening was more concerned about what had occurred yesterday afternoon.

Trevor paced around the room, thinking and thinking. Why did it happen? How did it happen? Who was involved? Those questions plagued him for hours and hours on end. Finally, his train of thought crashed from the sound of a knock at the door to his office. He straightened his suit and slowly walked up to the door. Once he turned the knob just the slightest bit, he was barraged by news reporters, journalists and photographers. They all splashed on to him like an angry wave on a helpless craft. After being swarmed with questions, he finally got the crowd to calm down. Only it wasn’t him that calmed them down. Rather the presence of a blue-suited, brown-haired woman passing by the door.

“Mrs. Alchemera! What are you doing here? What are they doing here?” Trevor said in shock.

“I’m surprised you don’t know, Mr. Moneylender,” Mrs. Alchemera responded as she fixed her glasses. She pointed to the door and commanded that the reporters would exit. They did exactly that, waiting outside the office, impatiently. She then closed the two doors and paced to Trevor, circling him. “Mr. Moneylender…you recall the little discussion we had some time ago about boundaries?”

“Yes…I recall that day,” Trevor sighed.

“And…we agreed that we would never invade our own territories, right? After all, I’m busy trying to make myself look credible. I’m busy trying to improve my land and your busy doing that here, am I right?”

“Yes, that would be so, Mrs. Alchemera.”

“Then tell me, Mr. Moneylender…why was THIS,” she yelled as she brought up a CD out of her pocket and threw in on his desk, “found plastered in every single monitor of my village?!”

“What? Huh? Who? Where? What?” Trevor stuttered as he tried to figure out what she was babbling on about.

“You know damn well what the fuck I am talking about, Mr. Moneylender!” Mrs. Alchemera snarled. She looked at the befuddled Trevor with venomous eyes, waiting to bite again. “Perhaps, you’d like to see what’s on this disk, you sick bastard.”

“Well…I might as well,” Trevor said, still wondering what had made Mrs. Alchemera so furious. She grabbed the disk and inserted into the computer on the desk. As the CD was buffering, Trevor slowly began to sweat as he had never seen her in such fury. Once the CD had finally been loaded on to the computer, a video started up. The video has Mrs. Alchemera and another stranger. She looked away from the screen, but Trevor kept looking as he wanted to understand what was going on. After a few 5 minutes, Trevor quickly ejected the CD and gave it back to Mrs. Alchemera.

“You must be feeling real proud of yourself, Mr. Moneylender,” Mrs. Alchemera scoffed.

“First of all, I’m not the one cheating on Mr. Alchemera. Second of all, I’m in no way, shape or form involved with this…dirty film,” Trevor retorted.

“Well, to clarify with that video, I had found someone else and was planning on divorcing him after he came from his trip. But now…” she gritted, “everyone’s going to think I’m a tramp. This scandal will torment me for years when all I wanted to do was find someone that actually loved me. Now that stubborn buffoon will try to run me out. He’ll try to ruin me and all the work that I’ve done to keep Darkstone Village stable.”

“As sad as that is, Mrs. Alchemera, I still don’t comprehend why you would think that I…”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Moneylender! Do I have to spoon feed you the situation? Is your head so dense that you can not realize what’s going on? You’re the one that agreed to place security cameras around the village. Therefore you’re the one in charge of all the footage, correct?”

“Yes…oh god…you don’t think that…”

“I don’t have time for this…YES! I think that YOU paid some twisted security camera facilitator to find dirt on me! And you thought that you…”

“But Mrs. Alchemera…” Trevor interrupted, “I’m a man of my word. I would never do something so malicious as that. I try my best to keep my corporation as clean as possible. I don’t go around gossiping about others behind their back. The only time footage is given to me and distributed to the public is if the person that is shown is a threat to my city.”

“Well, Mr. Moneylender…” Mrs. Alchemera responded calmly, “I guess you might be right. But I just want you know the difference between a businessman and a leader. A leader is someone that must set a good example if they want their followers to do what is right. A businessman can do whatever they want, even with followers behind them. For their followers can change their leader at any time they want. They don’t depend on you, Mr. Moneylender. You depend on them. I’m going to keep my eye on you, Mr. Moneylender.” She walked to the doors, opened them and let the anxious reporters in. Trevor tried to swat them away, but had no luck whatsoever. Trevor tried to yell for Mrs. Alchemera to help him, but alas, she had gone away. All Trevor could do…was submit to the eager journalists.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 5-1: Another Date, Another Plan

Illuis awaited for Rosa for his second date with her. He recalled the last night with her and entertained himself with a little card trick. He had combed his hair and leaned on the apartment wall. All of a sudden, a dark blue car comes down, parking right in front of Illuis. The driver pops out of the car and opens the door, showing Rosa wearing a purple jacket, purple jeans and a white shirt. Rosa whispers something in the driver’s ear and then steps out of the car. Once she gets out, the driver goes back into the car and drives off.

“Hey, Rosa!” Illuis exclaimed happily, “How are you doing?”

“Oh…hi Illuis,” Rosa replied in confusion. “Where have we met again?”

“We met at the Cocktail Inn and I had dinner with you at Il Novo Padrino,” Illuis responded.

“Il Novo Padrino, eh?” Rosa said.

“Yeah,” Illuis answered, “We had some drinks and talked for a while. I thought you would remember that…”

“Oh, sorry. I usually drink a little too much there. I just love their wine.”

“But then why did you come?”

“Usually when I have a phone number and I don’t remember anything about being with that person, I ask a servant of mine to arrange a date with that person.”

“Ah, well that…explains things,” Illuis thought. “I never took you for the drinking type though,” he said.

“I’m not. I just drink a lot at Il Novo,” Rosa remarked. “Anyways, where are we gonna go?”

“I was just thinking we could stroll around the city,” Illuis replied, “This area is quite a beautiful place to stroll around in. Afterwards, we could get something at a café if you want.”

“Sure,” she replied. The two start to walk north. All of a sudden, something dashes past the two, blowing their clothes all over the place. Once the random person passes them by, Illuis picks up his hat from the ground and then crosses the street with Rosa. The two keep walking north and Rosa notices a poster of Illuis making a coin float above his hand. As the two approach the end of the block and waits for the light, Rosa faintly remembers about the trick that Illuis showed her on their date. “Now I remember! Saw one of your posters for a show you’re going to have.”

“Oh that? I’m doing a show at a casino around this area,” Illuis replied. “I’m not a huge fan of the owner, but a gig’s a gig.”

“I know the feeling. Some of the places I do shows in have some really unbearable owners. Sometimes I bite my lip and just do what I have to do. Other times, I just want to kick their teeth in,” Rosa gritted.

“Heh. I wouldn’t want to kick this guy’s teeth in though. He’s just a jerk. But he’s a nice guy despite being a bit of a douche,” Illuis said. They make a turn on the block and keep walking. “So, you have any hobbies?”

“I’m a gardener. I have a greenhouse and keep all of my plants ship-shape.”

“That’s a nice hobby. Does one of your servants take care of your plants when you’re away?”

“Correct. But they have to be careful with some of my plants.”

“Why is that?”

“I own some Venus Fly Traps. They’re pretty feisty and seem to attack anyone except me. I’ve considered using them for security, but guards are better than a few flesh-biting floras,” Rosa chuckled. The two had reached a café. Illuis asked Rosa if she would like to go in. Rosa gleefully decided to go into the café, and the two continued to converse. Rosa and Illuis learned that they were both fanatics of jazz and blues. They also learned that they enjoying eating grilled shrimp.

But as they were noticing similarities amongst themselves, the Poderians in South Perfect Chaos City huddled around the center building, waiting for their leader. Cops were passing by them and they decided to fight them to entertain themselves in the meantime. As they fight, a blazing force knocks everyone down and pins one of the cops down, beaten him senseless. The other cops request for backup, but the other Poderians fight them off and command them to leave the premises before further damage is done to them. The brutally mauled cop tries to limp away, but the force finishes the person off with a swift slice on the leg.

“Whoa, Vector! What got into you?” one of the Poderians asked.

“That’s none of your concern, Repento. Why aren’t all of you in my office?” Vector snapped.

“The door is locked, and I didn’t want to bust the door down…so I was waiting for you to open it,” Repento replied. Vector rolled his eyes and dashed up the stairs. As he did that, Repento looked at Mark and asked “What in Fitzgerald’s ghost is up with Vector?”

“You don’t know?” Mark said as Repento shrugged, “Well, usually when Vector does a lot of ‘extreme’ activity like fighting, running, working out or mountain climbing, not only does Vector’s adrenaline level skyrocket, but they also make him ten times stronger than usual and three times as faster. It’s only a temporary effect and it usually takes a while for him to do the effect again.” Vector then walked down from the central building and commanded the three other Poderians to come up with him as he had opened the office door. Once the three got there, they see something different in the office. There’s a weapon case in the room. Travis walked towards it and tried to open it, but Vector whacked his hand with his robotic claw.

“What’s up with the new weapon, Vector?” Travis inquired.

“This is my explosive capsule launcher from back in the days. Got it from the boys back in the Army,” Vector answered as he opened the case and showed off the device. He grabbed the gun and placed a capsule inside of it. He then looked out at his still broken window and fired the capsule high into the sky. After a few seconds, the capsule went off, and an explosion was seen. He then places the gun back in the case and sits down in his office. “Now gentlemen, we’re off to a good start. We have the codes of all the cameras. The career-tampering evidence of Mrs. Alchemera was a nice touch, Mark.”

“Thank you sir,” Mark remarked.

“Anyways, I don’t want to use them now. I’d like to take my time. But for now, I want to take advantage of our secrecy. Or at least I hope we have secrecy,” Vector responded while leering at Travis.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Travis questioned.

“The regular citizens aren’t sure that the Poderians in the core are the only ones. We are also Poderians and we don’t make a huge deal about our powers. We usually downplay them in the city. So, maybe you guys could go there and make a little trouble?”

“I’m not sure how this will work though,” Travis pointed out.

“We’re not going to explain this word for word, you belligerent fool,” Repento scoffed. Travis angrily stared at him but Vector told them to not make any trouble here. Vector finally commanded the three to go off and do what they had to do, but Mark decided to stay. He wanted to talk to Vector in private.

“Say, Vector…I have a question for you,” Mark said.

“What is it, Mark?”

“Do you remember when you took over this place?”

“Those were the days…”

“You remember that…incident that preceded it?”

“Oh…yeah. I don’t why I told someone to do such an act for me.”

“I’m sure you were thinking about your plans, sir. Anyways…you think that…someone’s going to get you for that?”

“Not many people know. Not many people care. I’m sure I’m going to be alright.”

“Oh alright then…it was just something on my mind. I’ll head off now,” Mark said as he walked out of the building. Vector pondered about it for a while. But he was more concerned about fixing his window. Knowing that the others had already left and they didn’t listen to his message on the intercom the last time he did it, he decided to fix his window himself just like he fixed the floors.

Briefly returning with Illuis and Rosa, they had continued to converse about mundane topics. They exited the café and Rosa’s driver was waiting for her. Rosa told Illuis that she would see if it was possible for her to see his act at the casino. Illuis reminded her that it was at 5:00 PM tomorrow. The two exchanged goodbyes and went their own ways.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 5-2: Problems At The Casino And At The Bar

It was 6:30 PM at Carl’s casino. By this time, Illuis was finishing up his act with the dry dollar in the water glass trick. It took him quite a while to get this trick right when he was practicing it, but it eventually came through. Once he pulled the dollar out, with his sleeve soaking wet and gave it to an audience member who was assisting him with the trick, the dollar was completely normal. Everyone started to clap and Illuis bowed as the curtain closed on him. He quickly dried out his sleeve as much as he could and exited from the theatre in the casino to meet up with Rosa, who was wearing the violet dress she wore the first time Illuis laid eyes on her.

“Did you like the show?” Illuis asked.

“It was interesting. I wasn’t expecting you to do so many various tricks all involving money.” Rosa responded.

“I just wanted to put their money to good use,” Illuis replied as Rosa let out a tiny smirk after the comment. The two decided to head off. But before they could waltz out of the room, they were stopped by Carl, who was wearing a nice suit.

“Well, well, well. Why are you leaving so quickly, fella?” Carl pondered. Illuis explained to him that he and Rosa had to depart. “Aww, come on…don’t you want to play a game of roulette or something before you go?”

“I’d like to play some more games here, but we already did enough here. Sorry,” Illuis replied. Carl rolled his eyes and allowed the two to get out of the casino. As they did so, Carl immediately went to his own bar and told the bartender to serve him a drink. He sat on the chair, waiting for something interesting to happen as if he was a lion waiting for the right time to strike at his pray. He slowly sipped his drink. He then got up from his chair and went out of the casino to view the outside. As he looked out at the rest of the core, seeing random hoodlums robbing old ladies and businessmen chatting on their phones, he saw a man wearing a hat come inside.

This particular man looked rather shady as the sleeves of his jacket were way too long for him. His brownish-red hair was covering his eyes more than the hat and he seemed to be in a very cheerful mood. The shady man approached the roulette table. Repento followed the shady man and kept a close eye on him. The shady man gave the casino employee in charge of the roulette table 10,000 dollars as he sat down on a chair. The casino employee gave him 500 ten-dollar chips, 30 100-dollar chips and 2 1000-dollar chips.

“I wager 2000 dollars on 0-10,” the shady man requested. He placed his two 1000-dollar chips on that slot. Carl carefully watched the shady man as the wheel spun around. The ball clicked and clacked against the edges of the slots of the wheel. The ball finally landed on red-11, which proved to be a loss for the shady man. “But…but…I had a 1 in 2 chance of winning.”

“It’s actually 1 in 3, sir,” the employee corrected.

“I’m pretty sure it’s 1 in 2, my good man.”

“It’s 1 in 3, sir. The numbers go up to 30 and you had two more other choices.”

“Well, I say otherwise,” the shady man replied as he threw his hat off to reveal a set of horns. He also took off half of his jacket with his right arm, revealing a bright red suit and blue tie. He eventually took the rest off, to show an arm-blade. The man stabbed the table with the blade on the slot that said 21-30. “Now it’s 1 in 2.”

“Not exactly, you idiot,” Carl responded as he looked at the individual whilst everyone slowly walked away from the casino. The individual looked back at him with an angry leer. “You’d have to alter the roulette wheel for it to change probabilities, Repento.”

“Carl, you always were a snarky commenter. It enfuriates me when you do that sort of thing,” Repento snapped back as he pulled the blade out of the table.

“Infuriates, Repento,” Carl corrected, which made Repento even more aggravated. “So, I see you don’t have your prosthetic arm this time. It’s nice to see what’s under it. It’s a shame you wear the same damn hat every time you come here”

“What?! I’ve never had this hat before when confronting the likes of you! You’re being delusional,” Repento scoffed at Carl.

“Sure, Repento. Sure,” Carl sarcastically confirmed.

“Enough out of you, Mr. Zenzi!” Repento shouted out as he pulled the blade right in front of Carl. “I’m going to eradicate you once and for all, you sleazy Poderian!” He sliced Carl in the chest and kicked him while he was down. Carl immediately made his hand be covered in a white aura. He punched Repento in the face once he got up, sending him flying across the casino. A bunch of people moved out of the way as they saw the casino table burst into tiny pieces one it was destroyed. People started to talk amongst themselves about this and some even decided to film the event. But before any of them could whip out their phones and commence filming, Repento shot out 6 spikes that were protruding from his left wrist that homed in on those people. Carl blocked 2 of them, but the rest hit the phones. Carl ran up to Repento, with his hand removed of the white aura and punched Repento three times in the face.

“You’re a pest, you know that?” Carl said. Repento nodded in agreement as he stabbed Carl in the mid-left part of the chest, throwing him to the row of slot machines, breaking half of them. Carl spat out a little bit of blood and brought up the white aura onto his ying-yang scar that managed to heal him a bit. Carl then got one of the handles of the broken machines and dashed to Repento, smacking him in the face with it. He did it once again to Repento, this time with the white aura on the handle and a black aura right down at his chest. This made Repento fly even farther, as the impact had left a bruise and a medium cut on his upper chest. Repento crashed into the bottles on the bar which almost made the crowd dissipate. What eventually did so is when Repento started to throw the bottles at everyone, especially to those that were filming the event. The regular folk evacuated, dropping their cameras and phones, letting the two make a mess of the casino.

As that fight was occurring, a different fight was about to emerge. Illuis had managed to head to the Cocktail Inn at about 7:00 for a drink. There, he met up with Dan, who kept on serving drinks and chatting with his customers. Illuis came up to Dan and conversed with him about the show and how Rosa and him were having fun playing Blackjack and Craps in Carl’s casino. Dan was happy to hear that his friend was having a good time. Dan noticed the time and realized he had to lock up early for this particular day. He quickly served the rest of the customers’ drinks and told them about the early closing time. Illuis asked if he could hang around the bar for a little while longer. Dan, being the good friend that he is, allowed him to do so as all the people were leaving. All except for one man with dark blue eyes and dark red hair wearing a white shirt and camouflage pants that was sitting at the other end of the bar with a bag.

“Hey buddy, it’s closing time,” Dan uttered as the man looked down, unresponsive. Dan served Illuis a quick drink and snapped his fingers at the man at the end of the bar. The man still didn’t respond. Dan tried a little more to get the man’s attention, but nothing seemed to do so. Dan shrugged and allowed for the man to stay for a little while longer as he locked the bar up. All of a sudden, Dan and Illuis heard the bag unzip. The man at the end of the bar pulled out a green helmet with a crimson red cross on it. The man placed it on his head. The man slowly paced up to Dan and showed him his palm. Immediately after he did that, a knife penetrated through his palm, petrifying Dan.

“Boo,” the man smirked. Dan screamed loudly and madly once he saw that and jumped down behind his bar. Illuis came up to the man, but was quickly stabbed in the shoulder. Illuis punched the man in the face and then pulled out a coin he had in his pocket.

“Who are you?” Illuis asked.

“Name’s Mark. Are you the one that they call Illuis?” the man replied.

“Yep, how do you know about that, Mark?”

“A friend told me about your act,” Mark replied.

“Nice to see that the word is getting out,” Illuis remarked. “Say, you want to see part of my act?”

“Sure,” Mark said. Illuis tossed he coin in the air. The mirror on his top hat started to glow dark purple as the coin disappeared. Mark was impressed by the trick but Illuis stopped him before he could approach Dan and attack him. Illuis snapped his fingers, making the coin zip past Mark’s face, slicing it. Mark retracted the knife and covered his face as the cut was deep. Illuis picked up the coin and saw that Dan was making a 007 Martini. Once Dan drank it, a silenced pistol appeared out of nowhere next to him. Dan picked it up and pointed it at Mark. Mark stopped feeling the agony of the cut and looked at Illuis. “Nice trick…but let’s see if you can top this.”

Mark pulled out a corkscrew from one of his knuckles, as well as a knife and a pair of scissors on two other knuckles. He punched Illuis in the chest, but Dan fired at Mark twice. One of the bullets managed to hit him. Mark quickly snatched the gun from Dan and threw it out the window, not seeing Illuis grab a bottle and smash him on the head. As Mark tried to keep himself stable, Dan started to make two drinks. One was an Ice Pick, the other was a Tropical Itch. As soon as he drank the Ice Pick, one dropped down in front of him. He dipped that pick into the Tropical Itch and waited for the right time to throw the pick. Illuis, on the other hand, grabbed a deck of cards and covered his chest with them, as if they were bandages. A violet aura was on the cards and it assured that the cards would stick onto his wounds. Mark finally got back in control and kicked Illuis in the stomach, throwing him down to a table. Mark came down on Illuis and punched him twice. Once with his regular hand, another time with the hand with the objects sticking out of the knuckles.

Illuis used his special illusion power to turn the cards into a boxing glove, smacking Mark in the face, which in turn launched Mark onto another table, breaking it. Dan took the opportunity to throw the ice pick at Mark’s leg. Mark quickly took it off as the card boxing glove Illuis had broke apart into separate cards and went back into his deck. Mark came up to Illuis, but immediately had the urge to scratch his leg. He resisted for a while, but it eventually got the best of him, which allowed Illuis to strike. Unfortunately for him, Mark managed to get rid of that itch, which in turn made Mark headbutt him.

For the course of a few minutes, the two fights continued and they grew more and more destructive. Carl’s casino was nearly in shambles after the fight and Dan’s casino had various broken tables and chairs. The witnesses in Carl’s fight talked amongst each other about these other Poderians that Trevor must have not told them about. The residents in Dan’s inn were speculating about what was going on downstairs. One of them managed to see part of the fight and told others about what they had witnessed. Slowly but surely, the concern about the other Poderians grew as more and more people found out about the details through various means. The fights may have ended for the people involved in it…but the chatter about the fights has only begun.

[drychris1337]

SPOILER: Click to show

Seriously...

Chapter 5-3: Crossing The Street

The next day’s light had passed through Illuis’s apartment room. It didn’t serve as a wake up call as he was already dressing himself. He saw the blinding rays shine all over the room, and quickly closed the blinds. He went downstairs to the bottom floor, to find Rosa wearing the same attire she wore on his second date. The two exchanged greetings with each other and went to the sidewalk. At first, they didn’t say a word to each other and simply strolled down, trying to avoid oncoming strangers, but then Rosa said “You know what I find strange?”

“What?” Illuis inquired.

“I hear that they call Trevor a ‘pacifist’, and yet I see him with two shotguns behind his back. How does that make any sense?” Rosa responded.

“Oh…well,” Illuis slowly replied, “the reason he has those guns behind his back is to symbolize something that he had done a long time ago. It wasn’t something that he was really proud of. Every time the subject’s brought up by someone…he simply refuses to answer.”

“But then how do you know that it was something he wasn’t proud of?”

“The way he would shun those who wanted to know gave me an indication. That and at one point, he said that. He really doesn’t believe in using violence though, don’t let those guns fool you.”

“How would you know Illuis?”

“The man’s shown up at a few of my shows. There’s been times where he’s been pissed off by so many people, I fear that he’s going to shoot them in the face. But he’s managed to keep his composure.”

“That’s so odd…” Rosa said. The two ended up at a 4 way intersection between Moneylender Avenue and 23rd Street and found that there was a traffic guard with a light purple shirt underneath the regular orange jacket, brown pants and a green rusted stop sign that seemed to look like it had been pulled out of the ground in front of them. Something about the traffic guard’s attire struck Illuis as familiar.

“Come on kids, it’s safe. It’s always safe to cross with Traff I.C,” the guard slyly commented. The voice and declaration of his name fully convinced Illuis who this crossing guard was. He nudged Rosa and told her to go on the other crosswalk. The kids were hesitant to cross, but the leer that Traff gave them assured them that they were safe. Confident, the children walked to the other side. Out of nowhere, two cars came by, at full speed, dashing through the crosswalk where the children were. The kids rushed to the only safe stop and clenched together in fear. The others saw Travis cackling at the event and scorned him with profane insults. Travis took the commentary quite lightly and then noticed Illuis diagonally across to him. He jaywalked to him, and smacked him on the head with his traffic sign.

“Goddamnit…not one day….” Illuis thought to himself.

“Well, well, well…if it isn’t Illuis the Idiotic Illuisionist?” Traff mocked.

“For fuck’s sake Traff. I’m trying to have a nice day with Rosa. Screw off.” Illuis remarked. Travis looked at him in a sense of shock, seeing that Rosa was there with him. Travis paced closer to Rosa, scanning her body and the expression on her face.

“Hi,” Rosa greeted in hesitation. She tried to walk away from Travis, but he quickly grabbed her.

“I didn’t think you had it in you, Illuis,” Travis replied, grasping Rosa’s arm as she tried to loosen herself.

“Good for you,” Illuis gritted as he made his hand glow with violet aura, “Now will you kindly screw off?”

“No…I think I’ll stay. I’m not doing anyone any harm. Except for those kids on the crosswalk,” he snickered. He then started to laugh uncontrollably, letting go of Rosa. Illuis saw this as a good time to sucker punch him. He clenched his fist as tight as he could, with the purple aura glowing stronger then ever and threw a punch. But out of nowhere, Travis was dragged out of the way by a bunch of long green branches that were coming off the flower Rosa had on her hair. Illuis missed his attack, but looked at Rosa’s rose as it tried to cover all of Travis in a cocoon of sorts. Travis managed to break free and retreated as the vines of Rosa’s rose did the same thing. Travis growled and came at Rosa. Rosa’s rose released a puff of pink powder that stunned Travis. Travis was completely befuddled by the release of the powder and dazed back and forth, in a manner fit for a drunkard. All of a sudden, five vines came up from a crack in the sidewalk and formed fists, pulverizing Travis like mad. The vines then attached themselves to Rosa and coiled around her knuckles, releasing thorns. She then threw two more punches at Travis and kicked him away from the sidewalk. Travis looked at the damage he took and gave up with any further attempts at disturbing the two.

Everyone that was looking didn’t know what to say or do. No one really did when this sort of phenomenon occurred. They just saw some woman that they think looks familiar sprout out vines from the ground. How could they honestly respond? It was odd that Illuis was also in this sort of state, as he had seen things that were equally as mind-blowing as that. Rosa noticed all the eyes that were on her and dashed away, making Illuis follow her. Illuis caught up with her and stopped her in her escapade.

“What was that?” Illuis asked in amazement. Rosa looked at him in a false confusion, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Illuis smiled at her obvious fib and requested to her again. She refused to answer after a few more times of questioning, but she finally decided to explain the situation.”

“I’m…a Poderian,” she sighed. Illuis gasped but later realized that he should have known that she was a Poderian by what she did earlier. Then again, he thought that she was from some other place or planet, so this merely served as an assurance.

“No kidding,” he said, as the two walked forward.

“This was the only time I ever revealed myself in public about my powers,” she replied. “I didn’t mean to surprise you like that.”

“Well, I was more amazed than surprised.”

“Really? I didn’t expect you to take this so calmly…”

“Well, I’ve seen this sort of thing before…I never expected it from you though.”

“You’ve seen other Poderians?”

“Sort of,” he silently answered, nearing to her so that no one else would know, “I am a Poderian.” Rosa froze for a second and then took a good look at him after hearing that. She placed the pieces together and she finally managed to make sense of it all.

“That explains how you can do the tricks.”

“Yep. It comes from this mirror I have up here,” he responded as he pointed to a dark violet mirror in a crimson red frame with devil horns on it. “Many people think it’s just a trinket…but it’s actually the dark mirror of the demon of deceit.”

“What is the demon of deceit?”

“It’s a demon that specializes in the realm of deceit. This demon likes trapping humans inside of the mirror and constantly messes around with them. The demon then issues a challenge to the person trapped inside of it. If the human succeeds, he is free of the demon, escapes the mirror and then uses the mirror’s powers for whatever it wants to do. But if the human fails, it has two more tries until the demon swallows their soul and sends them to hell.”

“Did you beat him on the first try?”

“Far from it. The demon had defeated me with ease. I was trapped in that mirror from a very young age. My whole childhood was dedicated to trying to defeat the demon, and I spent a good chunk of it, trying to outsmart and fool the demon.”

“So, wait…unless you defeat the demon, you stay in his realm, unharmed…until you defeat him?”

“Well, he harms you with mind tricks, but that’s the basic jist of my situation. I finally managed to beat that demon and escape to the real world, albeit it came with a horrible price.”

“What was that?”

“My parents were killed once I had escaped. They were turned into skeletons. I didn’t have time to even say anything to them after the last time I saw them alive. It’s like the demon took them as his consolation prize,” he maudlinly uttered. An awkward silence arose and not a single word was said from either one, as they kept going to their destination. Finally, Illuis took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry you had to hear that. I just get a little carried away with the details about the origins of my powers.”

“It’s ok,” Rosa comfortingly replied. Illuis thanked her for that and asked her how she got hold of her powers to which Rosa answered, “I’m actually not sure how I got my powers. I just had them one day and kept it a secret.” The two finally came up to the Cocktail Inn, the place that Illuis decided to take her for this date. They went through the doors to find Dan serving his drinks as usual, and the place as crowded as ever. Rosa put her white rose inside of her jacket, releasing a long bundle of silky brown hair. The two then came up to the bar and sat down, trying to make more uplifting chatter, as they waited for Dan to see them and take their order.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 6-1: Meeting The Bartender

“Yo!” Illuis called Dan as loud as he could as he waited with Rosa. Dan had his hands tied with various customers. Illuis tried a few more times, but Dan was still deaf to his calls. While he was serving the others, Illuis and Rosa continued to talk to each other. Eventually, after served dozens and dozens of patrons, Dan finally catches up to Rosa and Illuis, who by this point, were talking up a storm.

“Hey guys!” Dan remarked. “Sorry I didn’t get to you guys earlier, I’ve been busy with the patrons.”

“That’s alright,” Illuis commented. “I shouldn’t bother you on a busy day.”

“Nonsense,” Dan said. As he prepared a special drink for his friend, he continued to talk. “So I see you have a pretty lady under your arm. Who’s your mystery dame?”

“Hello there, Daniel,” Rosa gleefully responded.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you two come in together. But while you’re here Rosa,” he commented as he spun a bottle in the air and caught it with his hand, “Are you still going to be open for Saturday?”

“Yeah. I can only hope you’ll be too,” she replied. Illuis let out a little chuckle and finally got his drink served. Dan started to prepare Rosa’s drink, but then found himself interrupted by a scream at the other end.

“Goddamn it, Cocktail Man. Where the fuck is my drink?!” a familiar voice called. Illuis sighed as Rosa did the same as well. The Cocktail Man flipped a few ice cubes in a glass and slid the drink to the other side of the bar. He got the drink that he was working on for the bloke on the other side and shook it. Once it was prepared, he splashed the drink to the sliding cup. The drink landed perfectly on the glass. The patrons clapped at Dan’s feat and he bowed at them.

“There, Carl. Will you calm down now? You can always go to your casino’s bar,” Dan called back.

“Yeah, I could,” Carl responded as he waltzed to Illuis. “But you make for some entertaining tricks that none of my boys or girls could do.”

“I suppose so…” Dan replied as he returned to work on Rosa’s request. Carl got between Illuis and Rosa. He intervened in their conversation and put his arm around Illuis.

“So Illuis, how ya been?” he smirked. Before Illuis could respond, Rosa tapped Carl on the shoulder. He turned his head. “Uh…yes?”

“We were having a conversation, Carl,” Rosa grumbled.

“I know. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t ask my pal here about his emotional state. Or would that be offensive?”

“She isn’t reffering to the topic you’re bringing up,” Illuis mocked. “She just thinks that it was rude of you to interrupt us. And quite frankly, I was enjoying my discussion with Lady Rosa.”

“Alright, alright. Don’t get all high-brow on me, jackass,” Carl replied. He chugged his drink and sat next to Illuis though.

“Say, Illuis…” a voice said. Illuis looked around. When he looked at Dan, he shrugged and continued to work. When he looked at Carl, he made a gesture signalizing that Carl wanted to know what Illuis wanted to know from him. When he looked at Rosa, she just let out a tiny smile and sipped on her drink. He heard the call once more and swore to himself that he wasn’t going insane. He turned his head across the bar and finally saw a man in a trenchcoat at a table, calling for him.

“You the one who called me?” Illuis pondered.

“Yeah. Have a seat,” the man replied. Illuis pulled a chair and sat down to listen to the shady character.

“Do you feel as though something’s unsettling in your life?”

“No…”

“Anything bother you at all?”

“Aside from that joker at times, no.”

“Nothing seems to sorry you?”

“Sorry me?” Illuis asked. Once he said that, Carl reared his head and came up to the table quickly. He put his head over the man in an omnimous sort of manner. The man looks up to find the angered leer of Carl upon his presence and looks back at Illuis. He hands to Illuis a card and then gets away from the table. Carl rolled up his sleeve and cornered the stranger to a room. An uproar of crashes and smashes were being heard from the place and the nearby tables started to shake. Finally, Carl smashed the man through the door. The man ran off and Carl went back to his seat to clean up his bruises.

“Uh…what was that all about?” Illuis asked.

“Nothing…the guy just owed me a little cash,” Carl responsed gruffly as he finished his drink off. Illuis and Rosa chatted for a while and then left the bar. The two walked back to Illuis’s apartment. The two said their goodbyes and headed home. Once Illuis got to his room, he put his jacket and tophat on the rack. He then looked at the card that the man had given him. He just stared at it for a long while before he would dose off. He knew that when the stranger came to him, he lied about having something that had disturbed him. He just didn’t want to open himself up to a random stranger.

[drychris1337]

Chapter 6-2: An After-Show Surprise

It was a Friday night at an entertainment hall in West Perfect Chaos City. Illuis had his final night creating the money based magic tricks. He tried everything he could to dazzle his audience. He made coins rain on the stage, he made a dollar bill fly and he even did that trick he talked about with Dan. The audience went wild when he did his final trick which consisted of him pulling a bag out of his sleeve, showing that there’s nothing in there, swung it in the air as if he was filling it up with air, tied it up, shook it and then opened it to reveal diamonds, gold coins and pearls. Afterwards, he went out and conversed with Rosa and the patrons. They made for some interesting conversation and eventually left Rosa and Illuis alone in the hall. After a couple of drinks, Rosa decided to head home. The two said their goodbyes and Illuis finally decided to leave.

As he headed out of the entertainment hall, the lights turned off. The night breeze creeped up his back and he decided to button up his jacket. He followed the street lamps to his house but found himself feeling watched. He looked around after walking a few blocks and didn’t notice a single suspicious soul silently sneaking up near him. He kept walking, but continued to feel that presence. He looked around once more, but once again, nothing occurred. This ordeal started to get under his skin but nonetheless, Illuis went forward. Eventually, he heard a whisper coming from an alley. Thinking that it was in his head, he avoided the alley. But the whisper amplified itself, worrying Illuis.

“Hey…you,” the voice commanded. Illuis froze himself and wondered if he should go to the alley. Like any sane man, he marched forward. The voice slithered its way to his ear throughout his path to his apartment. Once he got there, he noticed a man with a red jacket and black pants waiting at his apartment with that mildly tormenting voice. “I guess an alley is no place to talk to a man such as yourself, eh?”

“Who are you?”

“I am simply an acquaintance of yours”

“You don’t look like anyone I’ve met,” Illuis scoffed. The man chuckled and proceeded to pull out a cigarette. While he was lighting it, Illuis noticed a mark on his neck. It struck him familiar to the mark that Carl had. “Say…what happened to you on your neck?”

“Oh that? Well that’s just how I can communicate with folk such as yourself.”

“Come again?”

“You see, Illuis Niro…”

“How do you know my full name?” Illuis asked in alarm. The man looked at him for a moment and inhaled the fumes from the cigarette. He then puffed a cloud of smoke to Illuis.

“Sorry about that,” the man responded. “To answer your question, I’ve known you for a while. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you through different means, but they haven’t seem to work that well. So I’ve decided to talk to you directly…or as directly as I can.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, the thing is that I can’t really talk to you face to face. At least not for the moment. I have to use this civilian here as a messenger of sorts.”

“So wait…you’re controlling this poor sap?”

“That would appear to be correct, Mr. Niro,” the man said. Illuis slowly realized something after he confirmed that.

“I guess we might have ‘met’ before then.”

“What do you mean?”

“The mark on your neck kind of looks like the mark on Carl Zenzi.”

“Oh really? I don’t think I recall conversing with you in his body.”

“Anyways, what exactly do you want stranger?”

“I simply want to know if you got my card,” he requested. Illuis looked puzzled but then he recalled that he had gotten a card by the shady fellow in Dan’s bar.

“This is your card?”

“Precisely.”

“What exactly is this card for?”

“Well, Mr. Niro. It’s simply for whenever you feel worried.”

“But I’m not really worried.”

“Many people aren’t worried and I can understand why you would say this to me. But like many people, we all have problems that we don’t want to tell to people. And you may not want to share it, but you sometimes want to release that aggravation of your problems. That’s what the card is for.”

“But I don’t understand why I would need this if I really don’t feel as though I need it.”

“Well, perhaps I’m looking at this in the wrong angle,” the man replied as he threw his cigarette butt to the ground and stomped on it. “I shouldn’t really force you to talk to me if you honestly don’t feel like conversing. Besides, I bet you’re tired and confused and wouldn’t even bother to go on. But if at any point in time, you think as though things aren’t feeling that great, just give me a call. I’m sure that I could have something set up for you that could help you alleviate the tension you feel when things just start to pile up.”

“Alright,” Illuis remarked as he headed to his apartment. Before the man parted, Illuis said, “Wait…how come you gave me the card instead of someone else?”

“Well, it just seemed like you would be the one that would need the most help. Then again, I guess I’m not one to judge a book by it’s cover,” the man replied. To which afterwards he mumbled, “Even if I read the first few pages.”

“What was that?” Illuis asked. Once he turned his head to see the man, he had already vanished into the darkness of the night. Illuis sighed deeply and went into his apartment room. He didn’t bother to change out of his clothes and decided to lie on his bed. He pondered about the mysterious man. He pondered about the shady fellow. He kept thinking to himself why they would want to target him. Sometimes he wondered if he was simply dreaming the past few days. But for the most part, he felt uneasy about what occurred. He threw his hat to the ground and tried as hard as he could to get some rest.

[Deleted]

This story certainly does NOT get enough attention.

I do enjoy what you have so far Chris, you should keep it up!