Chapter 6

"How convenient." A deep voice drawled. "We caught both the Angelborn AND the Dragonslayer." Two men, one with dark skin and deep bags under his eyes, the other with pale skin and a cross-hatched tattoo around his left eye, stepped out from the shadows.

"You mean I caught them, Hypnos." The tattooed man snapped.

"True, true." Hypnos amended. "My apologies, Silas."

"Who the hell are you?" Ani snarled.

Hypnos rocked back on his heels. "Reformers."

Ani narrowed her eyes. "Reformers of what?"

Silas shot out his hand, conjuring a magic tether that wrapped itself around Ani and pulled her towards him.

The other mages lunged forward, only to be immobilized by a wave of Hypnos's hand.

"How strong are you?" Silas murmured curiously, lifting the Dragonslayer up to eye level, leaving her booted feet to dangle off the ground.

"Why should I tell you?" Ani snapped.

Silas sighed, brushing dark hair out of his eyes. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this the hard way. Ah, well."

The magical tether around Ani tightened, like a snake around its prey, glowing a sickly purple in the twilight. The girl stiffened, letting out a strangled grunt as it constricted.

"You're… gonna have to…. gah! … try harder than that… buddy." She ground out.

Silas grinned manically. "Oooh… I love it when they act tough." He mumbled, a crazy glint appearing in his eyes. The tether tightened.
A cracking sound rang out, and the Dragonslayer yelped, feeling one of her ribs snap. The man grinned wider. "Ah yes. Good. Not so tough now, are we? Nothing like pain to loosen a tongue."

"Silas, just measure her strength with your magic." Hypnos sighed.

"Ah, but it's so much more fun this way."

"Silas."

"Alright." The tether loosened slightly, and glowed brightly. Ani whimpered as the coils closest to her body began to turn golden, sucking the magic from her body. The tethers around Maverick, Mal and Axel did the same, turning red, silver and purple, respectively.

"Oh, lovely. She is very strong, my friend."

"Enough to raise our master?"

"No, no. We'll need the other three as well. Just in case."

The tethers on all three fell away, Ani crashed to the ground, unconscious.

"Why you-!" Axel snarled, the pendant around his neck glowing blue.

Silas frowned. "You're supposed to be out of magic! How-?"

"Angelus: Wings!" The pendant glowed a blinding white, encasing the Nephilim. Silas and Hypnos stepped forward, but Mal took a dive at their legs, knocking them over. When the light cleared, Axel was shirtless and sporting 14 foot long angel's wings sprouting from his shoulder blades.

"Mal, Maverick. Ace Angel technique."

His team members nodded, tapping in to their second origin.

"Glass Make: Sword!" Mal shouted. A weapon made out of pure glass with a long thin blade and a basket hilt formed in her hand.

"Two of Spades!" Maverick was holding two axes shaped like the suit spades.

"Lenore, get Ani out." Axel instructed, summoning his angel blade.

"What makes you think I need to be protected, Angel?" Ani scrambled to her feet, golden eyes blazing. "I can still fight." Lenore grabbed her by the back of the shirt and set her down next to Axel.

The Nephilim huffed in annoyance. "Stupid Dragon. Here." He looped the chain of a charm over her neck. "This has healing magic. Use it."

"Aye."

Shawn's pocket made a buzzing noise.

"Is that your phone lacrima?" Dan asked, peering over the rim of his mug. Shawn nodded, fishing it out (along with ten gum wrappers, a guitar pick, and a Kleenex).

"Huh." He muttered, as Alyannie and Echo frowned at the garbage he had dumped on the table. "It's Maverick. Wonder what that jerk wants."

Raid sweat-dropped a little. "He's really not that bad."

"He's my rival."

"…Ah."

"'Sup, asshat?" Shawn asked, answering his phone, only to pull it away from his ear as an annoyed shout nearly deafened him.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLIN' AN ASSHAT, EMU-FACE?!"

"You."

"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Dude, are you fighting?"

"Yep. Dark guild. We need help. –Shit! Just hurry up! –Dammit!"

There was a crash, then nothing but dial tone. Shawn pulled the phone away from his ear, frowning slightly.

"What was that about?" Alyannie asked.

"…I think they're in trouble."

Silas rocked back on his heels. "Ah. Would you look at that, Hypnos? They're resisting."

"How precious." Hypnos replied.

The dark mages' began to glow with a dull white light, Silas' tattoo expanding to cover his whole body. The bags under Hypnos's eyes grew as well, giving him a deranged look.

"We really didn't want to get violent." Silas snarled.

"You're not fooling anyone, Silas dear." Hypnos chuckled.

"Alright. Alright. I've been itching to crush your tiny skulls."

"I'M NOT THAT SHORT!" Ani screeched, running forward. "Sound Dragon's ROAR!"

A cacophony of sound burst forth. Hypnos and Silas jumped out of the way. Axel and the others sweat-dropped. Mal was the first to recover. She threw her sword at Silas and slammed her fist into her palm.

"Glass Make: Hammer!"

Maverick threw a flurry of cards. "Card: Flame Thrower!"

Silas had to dive out of the way of a blast of white-hot flames.

Figuring the two had Silas covered, Axel spread his wings and jumped into the air, aiming for where Ani was giving Hypnos a good dose of Dragon Magic.

"Divine Retribution!" Axel conjured up a handful of electricity and lobbed it at Hypnos.

The man dodged and snarled, "Flight!" blue power encased his feet and he roared up to fight the Angelborn.

Ani shook her head. "Stupid Angel." She waved to her exceed. "Lenore!" The purple cat nodded and lifted the running girl in to the air.

Silas was stronger than he looked. Mal and Maverick leaped backward to avoid a massive, glowing net that threatened to encase them.

"Dammit. We can't fight from this far away." Maverick hissed.

Mal grunted in agreement. "Keep an eye out for patterns. All mages have them."

"Aye."

Ani sucked in a breath, her cheeks puffing up massively. "Sound Dragon's Roar!" She screamed. Hypnos stretched out a hand and the magic curved around him.

"Deflection Magic." Axel called.

"I noticed." Ani replied. "Power Booster, too."

The Angelborn gave her an approving look. "How'd you know?"

"When you're on your own, you need to know everything you can about whatever can hurt you, be it magic or mortal."

"Interesting take."

"Kept me alive."

"He's over-extending himself." Maverick pointed out, using a spell to block a whip-like bit of energy.

"Yeah. Good eye."

It was all going pretty well, until reinforcements arrived. A woman with pure white hair and black eyes suddenly appeared. The air seemed to swing forward like a door and she walked out.

"Hypnos. Silas. Leave the Guardians. Come."

The two antagonists instantly stopped fighting and moved to her side. "Hypnos, put them to sleep. We don't have time for this."

"Aye."

Axel woke up with the worst headache he had ever experienced. "Shit." He swore, putting his head between his knees. The Nephilim didn't remember falling asleep and he didn't remember how he got… wherever he was.

Next to him, Maverick let out an enormous snore, and Mal muttered something about baguettes. On his other side, Ani was sprawled on her stomach, cuddling Lenore like a teddy bear. Suddenly, the Card Mage sat up.

"Gah. My head." He moaned. Mal rolled over and knocked her head on his knee, which jolted her awake with an annoyed growl.

"I was dreaming about baguettes." She sighed, seeing that there was no bread in sight.

"Where are we?" Maverick asked, glancing at Axel.

"A dungeon." Ani answered. The three swiveled to look at her. She was sitting up and scowling at them. "Now shut up. I'm trying to sleep."

"How do you know what a dungeon even looks like?!"

"I've been arrested a few times."

"YOU'VE BEEN ARRESTED A FEW TIMES?!"

"Well, yeah."

"WHAT FOR?!"

"Mostly destruction of property."

"W-what happened the other times?"
Ani began counting off on her fingers. "Vandalism, thievery, and assault of government officials."

"…How many times have you been arrested?!" Axel asked.

"Ten times."

"TEN TIMES?!"

A/N: I'm ending the chapter here. I'm sorry I haven't updated for so long, I've been sick and school has been tricky. Yeah, Maverick and Shawn are rivals, they kinda have a relationship like Natsu and Gray, where they pretend to hate each other, but are best friends. Also, it turns out Ani's a delinquent.

Also, I was hanging out with some of my friends last night and we were watching Ouran High School Host Club and I was imitating how Tamaki imagines Haruhi running (I ship them SO hard, by the way). Well, in my prancing, I managed to step on a piece of mechanical pencil graphite. To make a long story short, it got stuck in my foot and my friend K (not real name) had to pull it out and it ended up being a centimeter and a half long. It was stuck way in there and was SUPER hard to get out. Basically, I have a hole in my foot, three mentally scarred friends and am unable to walk normally. Yay. Life is good.