Hey there! This took long enough, huh? I refrained from cracking another joke at #3 before I'm sure you all are bored of that by now.

I got this to about 3000 words, and decided to cut it off there just for... suspense. Yeah, that's why. Not because I wasn't sure how long the ensuing fight and aftermath would last. Totally. Anyway, about a week is skipped since last chapter because that would just be incredibly boring. You can thank me later, I guess.

Chapter 8

"Fucking finally!" Charlie yelled as she burst out of the room. "I thought I was going to go crazy! Too bad the weather outside is so gloomy. I would have loved to go out."

"Come on, I brought you some Persona Q to play. It couldn't have been that bad," Raphael told her with a frown.

"I was in there for a week. That gets real tedious after a while. And I don't know anything about those characters!"

"It's not that difficult to figure out."

"Says the person who played the main games!"

"I have not. I don't own a PlayStation 2!"

"So? It's called an emulator!"

"My laptop would probably literally burst into flames if it attempted to run that! It's old and cheap. I don't have a lot of money, I'll have you know."

"Both of you! Zip it!" Elisabeth yelled, shoving her way into the conversation.

Charlie grumbled, though secretly she was a bit grateful for the interruption, as she was not in the mood to argue or even speak with the one that'd been acting as basically her only company for the past week. Marie had appeared on the odd occasion, but the two were not exactly very familiar with each other, and thus she only felt it appropriate to sometimes act as a nurse, which was very weird considering they were nearly the same age.

"Please tell me I can go murder something now," Charlie requested.

"You won't be murdering anything," Elisabeth sighed, to which the teen growled unhappily. "You will, however, be beating up evil demon creatures."

Upon hearing this, Charlie perked up and an evil grin spread across her face.

Elisabeth rolled her eyes as though expecting such a response. "This will merely be a test, to ensure that you have enough strength to not warrant being locked up again. Got it? Don't push yourself."

"Yeah, yeah. Where is it?"

"I thought you didn't want to go out since it's so gloomy," Raphael muttered.

"That was before I found out I can now go beat up a demon!" Charlie yelled happily, an almost deranged smirk on her face.

Raphael leaned over to the duchess, whispering, "I think you broke her…"

"Oh, so you're going to pin the blame on me now?"

"Hell yeah I am. I mean, look at that smile."

The duchess frowned and conceded, "Okay, I suppose you aren't wrong."

Raphael looked at the woman as though she had been replaced with a horrible alien recreation. "You seriously just agreed…? You know what? One deranged lunatic at a time. I'll deal with you later."

"Thanks for the compliment," Elisabeth muttered sarcastically.

Raphael absentmindedly patted her on the back. "Anytime."

Elisabeth let out a low sigh. "Everyone, focus for just thirty seconds. I beg of you."

"Your thirty seconds start now," Raphael informed her, glancing first at a clock and then to Charlie to ensure that she was paying attention.

"Oh boy," the duchess groaned. Her next debriefing speech came out in a flurry of words that was difficult to understand. But, because I'm nice, I'm not going to shove it into one big word in order to indicate that. "Your target today is a water demon. Remember I mentioned those once? Yeah, they're back. I have little information on them, but you should be able to find them, no problem. Fighting, who knows? I have no clue how to combat such a thing. Wait for it to start raining, and then go and find some poor sickly guy running around in the rain."

The duchess sucked in a large breath while Marie gently placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling in a silent 'Well done.'

Raphael looked pleasantly surprised. "I had no idea you were such a fast talker. Too bad I missed half of that. You still got twelve seconds, too."

"I got it," Charlie commented.

Raphael nodded. "Yeah, I kinda figured you would."

"Why's that?"

"With that smirk on your face? I bet you wouldn't miss a clue pertaining to your target's location even if it meant diving into a volcano."

"I would not go that far, and you know it."

"That deranged look on your face says otherwise."

"A volcano would kill me."

"So you'd be perfectly willing to rob some innocent guy?"

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe. Depends on who's the idiot."

"You'd get caught."

"People are idiots. It wouldn't be that difficult."

"Tell that to all the people who're in jail because they fucked up a heist."

"And this coming from a teenage who's robbed the Louvre numerous times and has outsmarted many, many adults who are considered the country's finest investigators."

Raphael smirked. "But of course, I had a thieving father and a rhythmic mother who unintentionally taught me everything I needed to know. And I have a dog."

"Yes, because a dog will make all the difference."

"Hey, Fondue is the only reason I am standing here today."

"For some reason, I highly doubt that."

"Okay, I know I'm amazing," Raphael once again flipped his hair in that 'I'm perfect' way, "but I'm not that amazing."

"And you say that as you once again make a gesture that usually only occurs in overly confident females with long hair."

"Are you insulting me?"

"Of course I am! That is not a normal thing for a boy of any age to do!"

In the background of all this squabbling, Marie and her mother watched silently. Marie was still somewhat unused to the bickering that was the common interaction of Raphael and Charlie, and as such had a concerned look on her face. Elisabeth, on the other hand, had been anticipating such a mess, and so had an exasperated expression that indicated that she had hoped to shove them out the door before such a thing could occur in her presence.

"Alfred," the duchess called out softly.

The aforementioned butler was by her side immediately. "I assume you want them out of here?"

"Very much so. Thank you."

Alfred approached the two bickering teenagers. He loomed over them briefly, making them stop fighting in favor of looking at him, glancing back to other adolescent, and then back to Alfred as they tried to discern what he was about to do. Seemingly satisfied by their level of confusion, he grabbed them by the collars of their shirts and dragged them to the entrance, tossing them into the dirt without a shred of remorse.

"Ow!" Charlie complained. "Hey, if you wanted us to leave, then you should've said so!"

"Maybe, but I know you by now. You would just end up finding a way to fight over that, too."

Raphael grinned with a small, out of place giggle. "So you noticed."

A drop of water fell onto Charlie's nose, causing her to look up. "It's raining," she commented.

"Yeah, really couldn't have solved that fucking Rubix Cube out on my own," Raphael said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, fuck off," Charlie growled while crossing her arms. She looked to Marie, who was still by her mother's side. "Yo, Marie! You coming, or are you even more of a wimp than our dear redhead?"

"Whoa, what gave you the impression I was a wimp?" Raphael shouted, cutting Marie off before she had a chance to yell anything back.

"Everything. I mean, you're as thin as a toothpick. How you haven't snapped in half yet is beyond me."

"What a nice friend…"

"Whatever gave you the impression you were my friend? You forced me into this. It's your fault I'm losing my mind."

"You're not losing your mind; you're just bored."

"I've been locked up for the past week! I just want to go home and play Shadow of the Colossus or something! Anything but more Persona Q."

"Okay, that contradicts what you said earlier, but more importantly, you have a PS2?" Raphael asked almost before she managed to finish the sentence.

"It's a PS3, actually," Charlie corrected.

Raphael proceeded to stare at her like she was God himself. "You have to let me play it!"

"No, fuck off!"

"Both of you! Either go kill the demon, or just simply get the fuck off my property! I do not care which option you choose anymore, just do it!" Elisabeth stared at them with a look in her eyes that indicated that she would personally snapped both of their necks if they dared to say one more syllable.

"We won't be killing it, though," Charlie pointed out.

Elisabeth twitched angrily.

"Uh, something tells me we should go," Raphael said, grabbing Charlie by the shoulders and pushing her along at a quick pace, "and that we should do so with all due haste."

"I will rip off your heads and feed it to the ducks if you dare return!" The angry duchess shouted.

"Feed our heads to the ducks?" Charlie asked. "Is she aware that ducks are not carnivorous?"

"I'm sure that she would be perfectly willing to spend several years of her life genetically modifying a duck for the sole purpose of feeding us to it," Raphael commented. "Therefore, I advise you shut the hell up right now." He sighed. "So, how are we going to find this idiot?"

"Elisabeth said that we need to go out when it's raining and look for some poor sickly guy."

"Oh, is that what she said? I thought she said something about a 'core dickly kye.' Obviously that's not right."

"I'm not sure how you managed to mishear that so poorly."

"Hey, she was talking really fast, alright?"

"Yeah, I remember. But I heard perfectly, so I don't understand what your issue was."

"…I hate you."

"Hey, that was unprovoked!"

"Guys, please stop bickering," Marie requested.

"Marie!" Raphael yelled, nearly jumping five feet in the air. "Why are you here?"

"I'm one of the warriors too," she responded, holding up the pendent that marked her as such.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that." He chuckled sheepishly.

"So, apparently I'm going to have to keep you two on track, is that right?"

The two shrugged.

"Great… We have a lot of ground to cover, and I'm not sure how long the rain'll last, so-"

"Two hours," Charlie commented in an offhand tone, cutting Marie off.

"How do you know?" Marie asked.

"The wind's strong today, and I can see some of the sky in the distance," she replied, lazily pointing in the direction she was facing, of which did show a little sky.

"Okay, then. Fair enough," Raphael commented. He turned to Marie. "I assume you're going to be our strategy planner, and even if you don't want to be, I'm giving you the role regardless. What do you say we do, O Wise One?"

"I am not a 'Wise One,' but sure, whatever. I say we split up and looked for idiot lunatics dancing in the rain."

"What if it happens that he's just some idiot?"

"Then if he sees any of our shenanigans, we knock him out and hope and pray that he doesn't remember our faces later," Charlie answered for Marie, who nodded in agreement.

Marie cleared her throat dramatically, changing into a purely business mindset. "Charlie, go north. Raphael, take the south."

Charlie crossed her arms. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going east."

"That leaves the west unsearched," Raphael pointed out.

"Then you'd better start running so you can finish your section faster and do that," Charlie told him.

Marie clapped her hands together to get her partners' attention. "Alright, guys. Let's go! We only have 119 minutes left!"

"You do realize two hours was only a rough estimate, right?"

Charlie stared at the guy who was seemingly attempting to eat the rain, an overjoyed look on his face, with a dumbfounded expression.

She grabbed her phone and called Raphael. "Yo, I think I found our guy," she told him when he answered, not even bothering with a simple 'hello.'

"And why do you say that?" Raphael questioned.

"Uh…" Charlie tried and failed to find a good way to describe what she was seeing. "You really need to see this for yourself. Even if it isn't our guy, it's funny as fuck."

"Fine, fine. Where are you?"

Charlie gave him her location and hung up, watching the scene in front of her with an amused, albeit slightly disturbed, smile.

Raphael eventually arrived and looked around. "Where's Marie?"

"I don't have her number," Charlie explained.

"Then why didn't you tell me? I would have gotten her."

Charlie shrugged. "It slipped my mind. She's far too new to be of any importance to me."

"What a nice guy you are," Raphael commented sarcastically.

"I'm not a guy. I'm female," Charlie reminded him.

Raphael distractedly pat her on the head. "Good for you," he muttered as he looked through his phone in search of Marie's number. After successfully locating the desired contact, he texted Marie and put away his phone, looking up. "So, where's the weirdo?"

Charlie glanced back in the direction she had been previously watching. "He's right in front of you, idiot."

"I can see that now. I just figured he'd be on the roof or something."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I just figured that he would figure he'd get better rain or something."

"It's water falling from the sky, something tells me it can't be better or worse."

"Well, no. But some people have weird thought processes."

"Yeah, yourself included."

"Hey!"

"You two!" Yelled a voice. The bickering teens paused and looked to the source. It was the man who they believed was either possessed or a lunatic.

"What do you want?" Charlie lazily called back.

"What're you doing, standing around here? You'll catch a cold with this weather!"

"Same to you, buddy! We should be asking you the same question!"

"I'll have you know I just like dancing in the rain."

"You say that, and yet I haven't seen you dancing for one second of the whole three minutes I've been standing here!"

"Yeah, because I get self-conscious!"

"…You're telling us to go away, aren't you?"

"Yes!"

Charlie huffed. "Fine." She turned on her heel and started walking away, beckoning Raphael to follow. They turned down an alleyway and waited for a moment before peeking over the corner.

The man looked this way and that before simply dropping to ground, a demon rising from him. It grinned and happily absorbed the rain.

"So I wasn't crazy. Good to know," Charlie commented. "Should we wait, or rush in an attack while we're sure we have the element of surprise?"

"We outta wait for Marie," Raphael said.

"Why? Don't trust your superpower of being 'super fucking lucky'?"

"Not at all."

"Come on, we survived against a superpowered snake, frog, bird, ogre, and wolf, with the worse injury being a severed wing, of which I can live without even though I'm somewhat unhappy about it. We can take down a…" Charlie looked past the corner again and then said, "a demon made almost entirely out of water, the only real vunerable part being the head that I can't reach… Maybe we should wait."

"Yeah, just a little," Raphael chuckled.

Eventually, Marie arrived, and the water demon immediately jumped back into its host's body. She looked around in confusion, and pulled out her phone, looking at it to ensure that she was in the correct place.

Raphael thought fast and texted her to duck into the alley, hopefully without being noticed.

"I'm really starting to hate the rain," Marie complained when she spotted them.

Smiling, Charlie kicked at a puddle, spraying water in the other girl's direction. Marie shrieked and jumped back. She grumbled unhappily while Charlie smirked gleefully.

"I hate you people," the duchess' daughter muttered.

"So does your mother," Raphael said.

"And honestly, I don't blame in the slightest. Whatever, just… are we doing this, or what?"

The two more experienced teens nodded and donned their armor.

"Ah, man. I'm wet under my suit!" Raphael grumbled.

"Uh, it's a not a suit, it is called armor," Charlie corrected.

"Shut up."

"Guys, focus," Marie said, clapping her hands together to get them to do just that. "Either of you know of a good plan of action?"

"Why are you asking us?" Charlie questioned.

"You're the ones who actually have experience in this stuff."

"True that. Our strategies usually involve brute-forcing it, though, so…"

Marie groaned. "I suppose I can't say I'm shocked."

"You really shouldn't be."

"Okay… got any suggestions? Besides brute force, that is?"

"The vulnerable part seems to be the head," Raphael said. "Charlie can't reach up there with the same ease as us when we're flying."

"So you want me to run distractions?" She realized.

"Got that right. Its feet appear to be made not of water like most of its body, so you should be able to hit that and topple it."

"I don't think toppling it would be good. It'd probably end up landing on me."

"You're the fastest runner among us. You should be able to get out of there in time."

Charlie looked over the corner. "I don't know. It's about as big as those people that you hear about on the internet that shop at American Wal-marts. Only scaled up to extreme proportions."

Marie took a glance at the demon as well. "Uh, I think I agree with Charlie, Raphael. That sounds like it would only end in disaster."

Raphael confidently clapped Charlie on the shoulder. "Don't worry! Everything will be fine! I'll see to it that if you get trapped, we pull you out before you can say 'Shnazlehocker'."

"Oh great, is that going to become your catchphrase or something?" Charlie groaned.

"Yep!"

"You do realize that the demon is made up of water, of which is completely coating me. If it lands on top of me, even if it has the viscosity of syrup, it will immediately engulf me because water molecules are attracted to each other. I won't have time to yell 'Shnazlehocker'."

Raphael frowned as he thought. "As long as you can hold your breath for 20 or so seconds, you'll be fine."

"It will probably be hitting me with the force of a truck, though. All air will likely be driven from my lungs. Also, and I hate to admit this, but I never had the motivation to learn how to swim. Therefore, I do not know how you're supposed to hold your breath underwater for more than 2 seconds."

"You never learned to swim?"

"No! S-shut up!" Charlie turned her head away from the two teens in front of her as she felt her face turn a bright red.

"Aw, don't worry," Marie said, trying to act encouraging. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm a terrible swimmer. I don't have any sense of coordination when I'm in water, and I was raised in an orphanage, so they didn't have the money for someone to teach me."

Charlie glanced at Marie and smiled a little. "Yeah, that makes me feel slightest less stupid. Alright, back on track, I'll act as a distraction. You guys fly up and attack the head."

Raphael nodded and looked to Marie. "Marie, I want you to stay a good distance away and keep a close eye on Charlie. If anything happens to her, give me a shout and I'll help out."

"All right, let's kill some demons!" Charlie said gleefully.

"We're capturing them, not killing them," Raphael corrected.

"Don't care," Charlie informed him with a flat tone of voice before rushing out into the street.

Next time! Hopefully anyway...

We see the fight. Yep. That's it. Really. Don't worry, it should be interesting enough. I hope