Inheritage: Things Fall Apart

head Chapter 2 /head

Hallowed Be Thy Name

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KOTHO Meeting; 912 Warf Avenue

To say that Ryoga was surprised was not untrue, but a understatement.

To say he was shocked was still as such.

To say that he was freaking the fuck out…

… THAR WE GO… Thar we go…

Mainly that little jaunt off misspelling and CAPSLOCK USAGE was to more accurately describe what I really couldn't think of words to describe.

Mainly, the fact that this guy had just grown wings.

Wings.

Ryoga nearly fell off of the crate he sat on.

Well, actually, he did fall off.

He managed to grab the edge of the metal crate before he landed on the ground with an audible thud.

Ryoga suppressed cursing loudly as he hung there by one hand.

Of course, it wouldn't have mattered really, as the crowd was starting to yell and scream for joy.

Hanging there, something caught his eye. A small red stone, just behind one of the chairs. It glistened in the light that was coming from the angel dude in… kind of an angry way.

Ryoga's eyes flashed back up to the angel. He noticed that the angel had basically ripped his shirt off when growing the feathered protrusions. In the middle of this dudes chest was a yellow stone, embedded into his chest. It seemed to be the thing that was radiating that light.

The man flapped his large wings, causing the dust on the floor to roll away from him in waves. The clothes of the people blew in the surprisingly strong wind he was creating. The red stone also started to roll away from the man, towards Ryoga.

As the stone dropped from the makeshift stage, it impacted the ground with a soft crystalline sound. The sound wasn't heard by the loud humans.

The stone weaved around debris and garbage as if guided by some sentience. Its glow illuminated the area around it.

And it was headed strait towards Ryoga.

Ryoga watched it roll towards him. It continued steadily around the edge of a puddle of water, not rolling down the incline, until it stopped gently on Ryoga's shoe.

Ryoga slowly bent down and picked it up. The stone felt warm to his fingers. Now that he had a closer look at it, he realized that this wasn't a stone.

The stone not only glowed with that soft red glow, it seemed to have fire within it, licking the insides of the stone. Etched into the stone was a small, plain symbol that glowed like the fires within the stone could escape through it.

Ryoga gripped the stone before he slipped it into his pocket.

The angel went on, preaching about his god and his power, although it was now obvious that he wasn't talking about anyone but himself. At least it was obvious to Ryoga. He set himself up to say which lord or which god he was talking about several times, before suddenly talking about himself again. And in all this, the matter of dealing with the werecreatures played a very minor role.

He even said a few things about a 'dark god'. He didn't elaborate much, except for stating and restating that even this 'dark god' wished for the termination of the werecreatures.

Ryoga learned where the leader of the KOTHO resided. He stated it fearlessly, saying that the leader was a messenger of his lord, and that he could not be harmed.

And where else should he be but New York City. Atop the tower in the sky.

He did not elaborate on the tower, but he did tell where the main KOTHO headquarters would soon be. Deep under the New York City ground level, roughly under Greenwich Village.

After it was all said and done, the angel went silent. He the spoke in some language that Ryoga had never even heard. The angel kept repeating one word…

"Falaihan."

And after all that was said and done, the angel suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, and disappeared.

Diggers Residence

"An angel?" Gina asked, looking at the werewolf over the brim of her glasses.

"Yeah, an angel," Ryoga said, cocking an eyebrow, "You know, blonde hair, pale skin, white wings, the whole shebang."

"Anything you notice about what he said or did that stood out?" Brianna asked, "With Gina's computers, we might be able to find some history on the fellow or at least who his 'lord' was."

"Nothing about who his lord was," Ryoga told her, "He seemed to be purposely vague on that part. He was flashy, and was one hell of an oratory speaker."

"Being so vague, he might have wanted the identity of his lord to remain a secret," Gina said, turning to type on her computer.

"He also talked about some dark god," Ryoga said, "And that the dark god's citadel was in someplace called Naples. He mentioned several other places. One of them was Tokyo, but the others I can't even remember."

"Naples is in France," Brianna said, "Or Italy. I can't remember which."

"France," Gina murmured.

"Thanks," Brianna quipped.

Ryoga idly put his hands into his pockets. He felt the stone, and pulled it out.

"Oh, yeah!" He said suddenly, "He had an odd stone in his chest. Looked like a gold ball about the size of your fist."

"In his chest?" Gina asked, pausing from typing.

"Yeah, at the top of the ribcage," Ryoga said, he held out his hand with the stone in it, "And I found this thing there."

Brianna reached out and took it. She looked over the odd stone for a moment.

"Looks like some sort of magickal artifact," Brianna said, "Gina, you know what this symbol means?"

Gina glanced up, and studied the symbol. After a while, she looked to become frustrated. She finally reached up and took the stone to look closer.

"It…" Gina said, "It looks almost like Cuneiform, but the lines are curved more. I've never seen the symbol before in my life."

"Maybe… we should ask Daddy to help us figure it out," Brianna asked.

"He would be the most likely to know," Gina sighed, "But you try thinking of a way to get him to look at it without his asking us where we got it."

"I'll take the wrap," Ryoga said, "I was the one that went there, and nothing went wrong. Plus, I'll tell him that I found it when I was wandering around. It wouldn't be that far from the truth."

"You're right," Theo said, "It does look a tad like Cuneiform. But it's not. This symbol brings several magickal symbols to mind, specifically the rune for destruction. And just by looking at it you can tell it has something to do with fire. Where did you get this, really?"

Ryoga didn't falter under Theo's prying gaze.

"I didn't, it kinda found me," Ryoga said, "The thing rolled uphill for a small ways to get to me, from halfway across a room across a concrete floor. It was down in the industrial district."

"Near Warf Avenue?" Theo asked.

Ryoga chuckled nervously.

"Yeah, kinda close." Ryoga said, scratching the back of his neck.

Theo sighed.

"You spied on the meeting didn't you?" Theo asked.

"E-yup," Ryoga said blatantly, not skipping a beat.

Theo sighed again, he paused for a moment.

"Learned anything interesting?"

"Yeah, I saw an angel…"

That Night

After having been tested by both Gina's machines and Theo's Magick, not much was learned about the small stone.

Gina could tell that this wasn't actually a stone. It was like a strange mixture of mineral and biological agents. Like it was a gem stone, but it was also a living being.

The stone let off a constant temperature of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It also let off a dull vibration that was almost undetectable by even Gina's advanced technology. It also let off an odd energy that Gina had never seen before. It had similarities to almost every other type of energy recorded by science. Light energy, sound waves, kinetic energy, chemical energy, heat energy… the list went on and on.

Theo shed a little bit more light on the issue.

The stone WAS a living being, being that there was a soul kept inside of it. A very… very powerful soul, the likes of which nothing had ever seen. It seemed to be dormant, but constantly aware.

The being was not evil, although it carried the taint of death, marking the being as a murderer. But there was obvious good nature in it. There were several things about it that Theo couldn't make out, it was too vague, and the being seemed to block off certain things so that Theo could not see.

Theo did not pry into those areas again.

Theo said that the energy running through it was mostly nonmagickal. There was a HUGE amount of magickal energy in it, but that accounted for maybe only 3 of the total amount of energy. The rest of the energy was what Gina found. It was unidentifiable.

Attempts to communicate with the being inside of it merely came back with simple, yet cryptic answers.

"Fire. Steel. Instincts."

"Onyx. Battle of Angels. The White Towers."

"Brothers in Arms. To Create, to Alter, to Destroy. Let the Destroyer enter here."

And once, they got a completely off the wall answer.

"I like beer."

And on several occasions, the stone has disappeared from where it was placed, bypassing any mechanical or magickal lock and shield. It would then reappear in Ryoga's possession.

Ryoga, having found that keeping it in his pocket constantly annoyed him, being as the stone wasn't really a small stone (2 inches in diameter), eventually placed it inside his displacement.

That's when it finally started to act on its own accord.

Finished

13:39 pm

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Heh heh…

It's fun to provoke people.

They send hateful mail.

And then if it gets hateful enough, I can sue them.

And get money.

Only one laugh for you.

Only one.

Bwah!