Chapter 3: Attack and Capture

Bilic, Valge, Felix and Jane stood tense while the demonic Koopa walked closer to them. He was completely covered in black, a hood pulled over his head, his skin pale, his eyes glowing crimson, the two long knives in his hands gleaming and the shadow vapors licking at his feet. Every time he took a step forward, the walls at his side started to darken and blood started to drip from the cracks in the roofs, settling into crimson puddles on the floor.
"Who are you and what do you want to do with us?" Bilic growled, not taking his eyes off of the demon.
"Tsk, questions." The demon chided. "I'm afraid I won't answer them." He raised his knives. "Surrender yourselves to me, and don't mess about." Bilic, Valge and Felix each withdrew a double-spiked hammer and readied for battle. Jane tensed herself in a fighting stance. The demon smirked.
"Very well, then. Let's battle." He said.
Felix attacked first, swinging his hammer at the demon, who easily avoided the attack, sidestepping before kicking Felix in the back, sending him to the ground. Bilic and Valge attacked together, making vicious swings at the Demon, who easily avoided their swings.
"Is that all you got?" He taunted.
Bilic grew angry at the Demon. "Why don't you just fight me hand-to-hand then?" He said, throwing his hammer straight at the Demon. It should have connected straight to the Demon's heart, but the Hammer just past through him. The demon laughed.
"Perhaps you'd like to fight like that now?" He mocked.
Felix had gotten up and now stood next to Valge and Bilic. Bilic was trying to suppress his anger against the demon, but he knew he couldn't fight if the demon couldn't even be touched. Six dark, shadowy tentacles seemed to flicker on the floor around the Demon, extending closer to the three Hammer Bros, dripping blood along the floor as they slithered closer. Bilic could hear Valge's breathing increase, and he knew that it only happened when Valge was terrified.
"Jane! A little help!" He shouted urgently.
Jane started to run forward, but the Demon pointed his hand sideways, and two more shadow tentacles burst out from behind his back, wrapping themselves around Jane's arms and brought her to the floor on her back.
"Nice try, girl." The demon clicked. He brought his knife at pointed it down at Jane, smirking with evil delight. "But now I'm going to take your life."

Bilic looked at Jane, defiance shining in her blue eyes as the Demon towered above her, knife gripped tightly in his pale hands. He drew his hammer again and gripped it tightly. Although he couldn't land a hit on the Demon, he wasn't going to let Jane die. He ran forward with a sharp battle cry and brought his hammer down with full force on the tentacles grabbing Jane. The tentacles disintegrated and released Jane, who got up to her feet. The demon barred his knife-like teeth.
"Impressive, boy." He snarled, and lunged at Bilic. Before he could get close enough, two hammers collided with the side of his head. Valge and Felix attacked him, Felix shouting. They rammed into the demon's side with their shoulders, knocking him to the floor then picking up their hammers.
"Stop trying to kill us!" Valge shouted at the demon. He brought down his hammer, but the demon evaporated before he could hit, the hammer going straight through the planks on the floor with a splintering crack. The demon formed again, this time carrying a knife between each of his fingers, his eyes blazing with anger.
"Enough games." He hissed. "Surrender to me now before I show you what I am truly capable of."
Bilic drew his hammer. "I'll take my chances." He said firmly.
Bilic and the demon charged at each other, Bilic attempting a lethal swing to the demon's head. The demon disintegrated and Bilic passed right through him, reforming again once he had passed and gripped him tightly from behind. The side of the knife blade pressed against the back of Bilic's neck.
"I told you not to mess about." He hissed to Bilic, the smoky tendrils licking at Bilic's legs. "Now you, Bilic Hammerask, will be my first victim."
The demon raised his knife, ready to slice, when Jane threw a kick directly to the side of his head. The demon stumbled and let go of Bilic.
"Apparently, you forgot that there are four of us." She said. She let go a quick combination of kickes at the demon, but he turned transparent and the kicks went through him. Jane gritted her teeth and backed up.
"You might think I'm not much of an opponent now," The demon hissed. "But just you wait until I can gain full power, then you'll fear the wrath of Zatkar, and I will spare none of you."
A hot, powerful wind blew through the room, stiffening everyone.
"Two more." The demon cursed, then turned to Jane, Valge, Felix and Bilic and pointed at them. "Remember, just you wait." He disintegrated, shadowy pieces of him disappearing through the floor. A blast of energy blew everyone backwards, sending Jane, Valge, Felix and Bilic into the wall backfirst, dust blowing everywhere.

When the dust had cleared, Bilic coughed and got up to his feet, questions circling in his head. Who was the demon? And how had he known his full name?
'Now you, Bilic Hammerask, will be my first victim.'
The memory sent chills through his body. He was frustrated not to know anything about the enemies, considering the enemy knew plenty about him and his friends.
He was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice two other figures in the room. One was a sky blue Yoshi carrying a long wooden rod with a bloody scar on the side of his face, a mysterious symbol hanging on his necklace, while the other was a human with spiky green hair, emerald green eyes, a green T-shirt, red battle trunks and shoes, and strange red gloves with holes for his fingers and strange markings on them. Bilic was not surprised to see that they both had similar tattoos to what he and his friends had picked up.
"What happened here?" The Yoshi asked, looking at the destroyed beds, bloody walls and puddles and cracked floors.
Bilic sighed, his and his friends' skins and clothes coated in blood.
"It's a long story, but first, we need to get out of here." He said.

"What do you mean?" Ms Mowz asked.
She looked at the figure in front of her, startled by her sudden appearance and her looks. She was an unusually tall female Toad, with a black cap with white spots, blond hair falling over her left shoulder with some of the strands colored black, with a black coat and pants and a collar-like band around her neck with three stripes of black and white. Her eyes startled Ms Mowz the most: The left eye was sky blue and the other was scarlet red.
The Toad coughed sadly. "I killed him, my own brother."
Ms Mowz was so surprised she could only stare, gasping in shock. She looked over at the dead body next to her.
"H...how?" She stuttered. "I had come to see him just an hour ago, only to find him in some type of coma. I didn't know what to do. I tried to wake him up, but he wouldn't. I started to get nervous about him, since he was normally a light sleeper. That's when a demon emerged from the wall and attacked me. I tried to...to protect my brother, but the demon started to play with my mind, forcing me to think like him. I...I lost c...control." Her eyes had started to get misty with tears. She knelt down next to her brother and let her tears fall.
Ms Mowz was at a loss for words. She had no idea what to say. Riley whimpered next to her. The Toad looked at Riley, her eyes suddenly alert. She saw the blue X on Riley's cheek and her eyes widened.
"Wait, that's my brother's signature!" She said.
Ms Mowz jumped. "What?!"
"The blue X! It's exactly what my brother marked onto all of his belongings." Her eyebrows creased. "Although he never told me he had a Chain Chomp.
Riley barked happily and snuggled to The Toad, who wrapped her arms around him tightly.
"If you're the only thing my brother has left behind, I'll..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. She noticed Ms Mowz looking at her, still unsure about her.
"Pardon me." The Toad said. "sorry for drifting off so suddenly, but it happens a lot to me now."
Ms Mowz nodded. "It's alright." She said. "I'm Ms Mowz.
"My name's Elise."
Riley sniffed and tensed. He ran outside and turned too the left, bouncing down the street. Elise and Ms Mowz quickly got up and followed. "Aaaaah!" A terrified scream came from down the street, sounding masculine. "Chain Chomp!"
Ms Mowz and Elise sprinted down the street. In front of them, Riley bounced happily, constantly circling a three-segment, yellow Pokey with a blue scarf, who was shaking violently, back against the wall at a corner in the street.
"Get away from me!" He shouted at Riley, clearly scared.
Ms Mowz whistled. "Riley, heel!"
Riley backed up. The Pokey slowly started to calm down.
"Sorry." He said. "It's just that I'm afraid of Chain Chomps. I've had some bad incidents with them."
"Don't worry." Ms Mowz said gently. "Riley is quite tame."
Riley barked happily in reply.
The Pokey took a shaky breath. "Okay." He said. "Sorry for freaking out. My name is Sharper Barkely, or just simply Sharp."
"Im Ms Mowz." Ms Mowz said. "You already know Riley."
"Im Elise." Elise said, keeping her expression flat. Ms Mowz suspected she was still trying to keep herself together.
"Can I ask you guys something?" Sharp asked. "How come it's so dark? And what's with all these demon attacks I keep hearing about?"
Ms Mowz shook her head. "Wait, other demon attacks? Who told you that?!"
"I did." A timid voice spoke from behind Sharp. Ms Mowz and Elise hadn't noticed, but an Ice Bro with a black waist bag and a blue watch was standing right behind the wall at the corner. " My name is Jainen. Sorry for hiding. I'm just timid."
Elise shrugged. "That's okay. I can relate to that." She said. Ms Mowz noticed a mark on the Ice Bro's arm. She wasn't too surprised to see that it was the same tattoo that she had.
"Elise, do you have a tattoo?" She asked.
Elise nodded, pulling up the sleeve of her coat. "Yeah, I think the demon gave it to me."
"Demons? That's what I got as well!" Jainen said.
Ms Mowz thought hard. Everyone who was awake or alive seemed to have a tattoo like hers. But what did the tattoo stand for? Nothing would come together. If it were the demons who were causing all of this, they were doing a great job at keeping her confused. She could almost imagine the demons laughing at her confusion, and the thought made her angry, almost like how Bilic had been.
Thinking about Bilic snapped Ms Mowz out of her thoughts. She had left Bilic and the others alone.
"We have to get back to the town square." She said. "I've got other friends there."
The others nodded.
"I'm starting to think it's getting too dangerous to be here alone, especially with all these demons about." Jainen said.
Ms Mowz managed a smirk. "Well then, I guess that's why we're all together." She turned around, Riley jumping alongside her. "Follow us."

"So you two ran into each other on the way here?" Bilic asked the sky blue Yoshi, who said his name was Sky. Felix had thought the name was kind of tacky, at least until Bilic and Valge punched him on the arm.
Now, Bilic, Jane and Sky sat down on the entrance step to Rougeport's Item shop while Valge and Felix were talking to the other "Literally." Sky said. "Dragon Blazer and I simply ran straight into each other."
"Let me guess, you were running away from demons?" Jane asked.
Sky nodded. "Yeah." He muttered. "Damn things were chasing me down the tunnels when I ran into Blazer. Dude mistakened me for an enemy and nearly roasted me."
Bilic looked at Dragon Blazer, who was showing off some of his fighting skills to Felix, his hands ablaze.
"How the heck can he use fire?" Bilic wondered aloud.
"It's those gloves." Sky answered. "I think they're enchanted or cursed or something like that." His voice constantly kept dropping into a mutter every time he was finishing a sentence.
"So what do we do now?" Jane asked.
Bilic let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't know." He admitted. "We don't know anything about what's going on or what we're up against, and those demons seem to know an awful lot about us." He started tapping his feet on the cobbled street in a broken rhythm, closing his eyes firmly in thought.

Valge was quietly impressed by Dragon Blazer's fighting techniques, from his boxing to Martial Arts to street fighting expertise.
"Dude, you're awesome." Felix said to Dragon Blazer.
"Well hey, I am the Glitz Pit champion after all." He said proudly.
This bugged Valge. Blazer was too proud and overconfident. It constantly annoyed him.
"Or maybe I'm just jealous." He muttered to himself. "After all, I'm just a normal Hammer Bro, not a fighting champion." He started pacing around the Town's main square, starting to grow anxious.
"How long has Ms Mowz been gone?" he thought to himself, growing worried. It felt like ages to him since Ms Mowz had taken off with Riley, and he had to push aside the thought that something bad had happened to them.
He looked out towards the road leading to the East Side of Rougeport, then sighed with relief as he saw Ms Mowz approach into his line of view. She wasn't alone however, with Riley and three other figures right behind her.
He was about to call out to evryone else that Ms Mowz was back with, hopefully, some other friends.
That's when a cold, pale, skeletal hand clamped over his mouth and pulled him into the shadows.

End of C3.
Aaand...It's another cliffhanger. Anyways, hope you enjoyed Chapter 3, as I'm trying hard with this story, trying to balance action, suspense and mystery all together.

OC Notes: Window still open for more OC's, so if there are any, don't hesitate.
Sky Yoshi is the OC of EPICYOSHI39000

Dragon Blazer is the OC of dragon19kyoshi

Sharp Barkley is the OC of Honeyman

Jainen (pronounced Yai-nen, since it's Finnish. Originally Mog, but changed name with permission) is the OC of Moley Koopa.

Elise is the OC of BoomShroom.

There's still some other OC's to add, and I apologize if I've missed any.

Anyhow, stay awesome, and sorry for the long footnote.
-Para-Zackovic (expect C4 very soon)