Unfamiliar Ground (By invite only, please)

London was sleeping. Ten thousand lights flickered softly across the city, casting the illusion of daylight across houses and even entire streets, while the first faint blush of dawn rested lightly on the horizon, ready to dispel the need for such artificial light as it heralded the breaking of a new day. But despite the early hour, and despite the fact that most of the honest citizens of the vast metropolis were slumbering in their beds, the streets were far from empty. Criminals, and those tasked with catching them, plied their trades in the dark alleys and side streets, while men and women of entirely negotiable affection lingered on the street corners.

Had they known what lurked in the lightening skies above, not a soul amongst them wouldn't have made for their beds with unseemly haste.

Perching amidst the gargoyles atop the towering spire of a cathedral, Elise stared down at the world she had left behind so many years previously. How long had it been since last she had ventured here? A decade? A century? It was so hard to tell, for without means of measuring the passage of time in Hueco Mundo a year could so easily slip into two, into three, into ten. Before you knew it, a lifetime could have gone by, and the mortal world would have changed beyond recognition. Not that the Hollow would have recognised London even if it hadn't changed, for she had never before set foot there. No, her world had been an ocean away. This... this was a land every bit as strange to her as the Great Desert had once been.

But some things were constant. Here, in America, in the cursed realm she now called home. In all of them, some things never changed. Her needs were amongst those immutable facts. The irresistible urge to feed, to wreak havoc and sow the seeds of terror, the unrelenting desire to repay the world for her agonized demise. Even now, bathed in the serene haze of the coming dawn, she felt naught but hate and hunger, and slowly she swept her eyes across the distant streets, searching for suitable prey. Occasionally, she caught scent of muted spiritual pressure, but never enough to lure her from her lofty perch. No, such scraps and tidbits weren't for her. She wanted more.

And suddenly, abruptly, she felt it. A spike of energy, gone almost before she noticed it. Twisting, she stared down into the gloom, seeking the source with feverish eyes. Where had it come from? Where?

There! A woman was running. Men were following her, shouting as they went, but the Hollow barely noticed them as her hungry stare followed their intended victim. She was the one.

Smiling viciously to herself, Elise unfurled her wings, flicking droplets of tainted blood across the ancient stonework as she drew her twisted form into a crouch and launched herself into space, her wings stretching out to catch her weight. A single beat of the mighty limps was enough to arrest her descent, and then she was soaring, eyes fixed upon her prey and her talons flexing unconsciously beneath. Soon she would feed.

London town. A hell hole of a place. Lets forget the evilness of the tube maps and the sheer disinterest the citizens had for each other and focus entirely on the fact that most pubs closed early on a week night.

It was a shocking state of affairs, one Nik Woverius Rillians was displeased about as he marched haphazardly down unfamiliar streets in what he hoped was north of the river. He was no where near ghetto enough to survive south of the Thames, if the stories and channel 4 were anything to go by at least.

Still, it wasn't particularly cold in the heart of old Britannia and the stars were out in force overhead. It was pleasant actually, really quite pleas- that's when he head the screams and felt the tremor of something quite sinister nearby.

Bollocks.

Nik wasn't a hero by nature but he gave chase none the less, alcohol has a way of making people stupid after all. He rounded a corner that looked just the same as all the others and saw a group of people legging it down the street and the small shape of their target.

It was a foregone conclusion that he'd actually consider his actions after this point and he found his legs just kept moving ever onwards toward whatever danger awaited him.

The stench of something far more foul still niggled at him though, it was close and growing closer. It never really occurred to him that what lay ahead and what was descending from above would collide in the very near future.

Descending from the heavens like some twisted parody of the heavenly chorus, Elise swept down upon the hapless woman and her pursuers with vicious glee. The girl shrieked as the Hollow landed, skidding to an unsteady halt on the cobbled street, her eyes suddenly fixed upon the foul creature that had so suddenly appeared before her. Her legs shook, seeming on the verge of collapse as she took an involuntary step backward, seemingly having forgotten her pursuers in the face of the Hollow's sudden appearance.

"Ere darlin," the closest of the verminous cretins smirked, lunging forward to catch her by the shoulder, "Knew you'd see things our way in the end."

Flinching from his touch, the girl half-turned, gesturing toward Elise even as she did. "Don't you see it?" she gasped, "Please, god, we've got to run!" Perhaps it was the desperation in her tone that did it, or the sheer panic that was welling up within her eyes, but the girl's words seemed to affect the man. Wordlessly shoving her toward one of his companions, he took a wary step forward, drawing a wicked blade from beneath his jacket as he did.

"Who's 'ere?" he called, eyes staring wildly at the seemingly empty street.

From a mere metre away, Elise laughed softly as she stared down at him. The girl, still shaking, was staring at her again, eyes wide with terrible fear. Somehow, she knew what was about to happen.

"There's nobody ere," the man grunted, turning back to the girl even as the Hollow lunged, her talons plunging deep into his back and exiting through his ribs in a spray of blood. A twist was enough to bring them slicing free amidst a geyser of gore, and then the wretched husk was crashing to the ground amidst a spreading puddle of its own fluids, whilst his murderer continued on toward her prey. The other two, evidently horrified by their leader's grisly demise, began to back away. One drew a gun, a pistol of sorts, from beneath his coat, while the other began to cross himself, muttering prayers for protection.

Neither survived more than a few moments, though the first had time enough to fire a single shot, and the latter time enough to wail for assistance from a god who all too obviously wasn't listening.

Flicking her talons clear of the minced remnants of the mortals, the Hollow turned her gaze upon the woman once more. Horrified by the butchery she had witnessed, the mortal had fallen to her knees on the cobbles, and now pressed her hands tightly against her ears as she wept, tears running trails of mascara down her cheeks. From where she stood, Elise could almost taste her fear, could almost taste how it would flavour the potent spiritual energy that seemed to flow through the girl. She was, she knew, going to enjoy this.

Well buggery was all Nik could think as he skidded to a halt and observed the veritable blood bath taking place just up the street. It was round about then that the adrenaline burned off just enough alcohol for him to think clearly. It was a Hollow, he knew about them from his time at the Orphanage. The question was, did he really want to get shishkebabed by one on a Tuesday night?

The girl was screaming, whimpering, and being generally petrified. It was a sound that would drive most men to idiocy- I mean who doesn't want to be the knight in shining armour?

Rillians, that's bloody who. He had no aspirations for anything above a quite drink and the occasional back alley fumble. This wasn't his fight, it wasn't his problem.

That was when the girl made eye contact with him and that squirming feeling of guilt coiled itself tightly in his gut. He wished that he had been born the bastard he pretended to be, wished it hard and he raced forward toward the winged demons back and summoned the mental powers gifted to him. He focused upon a gauntlet, a strong and durable exo-skeletal casing for his left arm as it flew toward the monsters back.

It would either connect and cause a distraction and then he'd die or it would miss and cause a distraction and then he'd die. All in all, he wished he'd gone clubbing.

Momentarily distracted by the prospect of a fresh soul upon which to feast, Elise hadn't noticed the approach of another mortal. Why would she? This city was full of them, millions upon millions of them living out their miserable lives, ever ignorant of the true world around them. What was one more?

In truth, it appeared that one more was enough to make a difference. At least, it was enough when that one mortal was no mere sack of meat, but one who possessed a startling spirit energy of his own. The Hollow discovered that the hard way when a fist, harder than any human's fist had any right to be, smashed into her back and sent her staggering across the charnel waste that littered the street. Hissing a curse she half remembered from her mortal days, Elise caught herself against the wall, turning sharply to glare back at the fool who had dared interpose himself between the Hollow and her prey.

"What's this?" she growled, sniffing at the air, "You don't smell like a Shinigami. I'd know their stench from across the city. But you can see me... and you know a little trick, it seems." An impressive trick, for a human, she had to admit that, but a trick nonetheless. Compared to the powers she wielded, the mortal's gifts would be as useful as sticks and stones against the lightning. On the other hand, they might slow her down enough that the girl might escape, or, worse still, that the Shinigami, the true threats to her existence, might arrive.

The Hollow couldn't allow that.

Raising her clawlike fingers, she stepped menacingly toward the human. "You'll forgive me if I make this quick, human, but I was always taught not to play with my food."

You pissed it off. Are you happy now!? He snarled internally at his conscience which decided not to offer a response.

His brown eyes flicked between the Hollow and the girl, who hadn't moved. Why hadn't she moved! BLOODY MOVE, IDIOT!

"Who just back attacked a monster? And she's the idiot?..." He thought as, with a bit of surprise washing across his face, the Hollow spoke.

Nik had technically been trained for this. Ten years in what equated to a freaks boot camp preparing him for the day of government service should have meant he was equipped to deal with a singular Hollow. A further ten years of doing nothing of the sort left him ill at ease however, his skills would have surely suffered.

"How about making friends with them, friends? We could do that. I don't like being eaten. I mean look at me, you'd catch something from" He swept a hand up and down his torso. "This."

Move girl. Get up and run. Was what he was thinking. He was committed now but at the very least if the woman got away he'd die knowing it wasn't ALL for nothing. Just mostly.

Having apparently expended the entirety of his courage in attacking the towering Hollow, the human stumbled backward, babbling away in apparent hopes of dissuading the abominable creature from spreading his entrails across the already bloodsoaked street. Sadly, if such was his hope, he was to be disappointed, for Elise had already offered him more words than she had spared any other living creature in the last century, and she had little desire to waste further time in idle conversation whilst her prey sat untouched. So it was that she launched herself forward, moving with a speed that belied her ungainly form as she swept one taloned hand up toward the pest, hoping to bisect him without further ado.

Alas, such hopes were to be forlorn, for by design or coincidence the human stumbled backward at precisely that moment, narrowly avoiding the deadly claws and forcing the Hollow to take a faltering step forward as she regained her balance. As she did, she caught a trace of sound from close behind and half-turned, glaring furiously down as the girl, having finally managed to take some measure of control over herself, scrambled madly away, desperate to put some space between herself the fell apparation that had materialised in her darkest hour. "If you run," Elise hissed venemously, "I will ensure your death is agonising." The words seemed to freeze the girl in place once more, but the Hollow couldn't spare another moment to consider her; instead, she found herself forced to return her focus to the human who had interfered. Already, this man had taken more time and effort than the entirety of the trio she had butchered, and now he had come close to granting her chosen meal a reprieve.

Such insolence really couldn't be forgiven. Elise would have to ensure she made an example of him.

Can you hear the music? Nik always heard the music. It was like a sound track constantly playing just at the edge of his hearing. The tutors at the orphanage had told him that it was some side effect of his powers, his mind linking into some ethereal noise. It was there though. It was always there.

The beast moved with serpentine grace, a mere blur that his mortal eyes could barely perceive. A well timed act of clumsiness saved him the first stroke and he found his balance returned after a repositioning of his right leg.

The hollow turned its attention back to the girl and cast terrifying words into the air, enough to drain what little blood the woman had from her face. Her steps faltered and finally she froze in position. To afraid to stay, to scared to go.

"If you stay you'll die," He called out to her. "If you go you might die. I know what i'd choose." He raised both his fists and settled into a rusty fighting stance, while his eyes tried their best to take in the street. He needed something, anything, to even the score.

"Come on she-bitch, lemme see ya rawk face." He smiled and darted in to attack, slipping low from the right and then coming up upon her left. He was using muscles he hadn't in a decade, his own speed surprised him and as he blurred to a stop but not without the momentum carrying his upper body onwards.

The telekinetic went with it and planted one hand onto the ground and focusing all his will into his shins and feet sheathed them in telekinetic energy as he fired of a one-two kick to the monstrous mask of his opponent before finishing his flip with a push and landing a few feet back, close to the woman.

"Why are you still standing there you silly bitch! RUN!"

A stream of words flowed from the mortal's mouth, seeming more garbage and gibberish than any form of coherent sentence. And perhaps it was the man's intent to confuse the Hollow with the litany of absurdities, for while Elise momentarily allowed her attention to settle upon the words, the human launched himself forward, a gleaming aura of spiritual energy sheathing his feet as he lashed out. The first blow connected, one booted foot slamming against the Hollow's unguarded arm, splattering tainted ichor across the alley and forcing her to stumble unsteadily aside. Alas, the second blow was not so accurate, and the human was forced to settle for his single strike as he sprang backward, dropping into a crouch beside the terrified woman and bellowing at her to flee.

Astounded by the mortal's impertinence, Elise took a moment to recover herself. That was time enough for the girl; stirred from her petrification by the man's actions, she tore her gaze from the monstrous form and fled unsteadily from the alley, her trainer-clad feet pounding against the cobbles as she ran.

The sight of her prey fleeing was enough to stoke the Hollow's fury, and with a wordless snarl she threw herself at the human, lashing out with one taloned hand and then the other, striking with all the speed she could muster so that she might deny the human a chance to draw upon his telekinetic talents once more. That task was not so easy as it might have seemed, however, for though Elise possessed greater speed than any denizen of the mortal world, the human was slippery, and seemingly in possession of the devil's own luck; again and again she lashed out, and again and again the human avoided the lethal strike by little more than a hair's breadth, oftentimes seeming only to survive as a result of stumbling across slippery, blood-soaked cobblestones. It was, without any doubt, utterly infuriating, and had Elise not already been consumed by rage she would assuredly have been by the time she drew aware, glaring vindictively at the human.

"You think you have won?" she hissed, gesturing toward him with one clawed hand, "Because she has escaped? I can find her again. And you won't be alive to save her next time."

The girl appeared to regain her hearing and made like the clappers out of the dank alleyway and out of sight onto the street. Excellent, Rillians thought, now that she was out of the way he could...do what? He was attune to the powers that moved beyond the veil, had been all his life, and he could feel that he and this-this Thing were on as even a footing as you could get. It would come down to two things; Luck and experience. You couldn't accurately calculate the first but that didn't stop it occuring mind you.

The talon slash was so unbelievably fast that Nik was sure it was over, he was resigned to that realization, thinking about all the things he'd yet to do, the pubs he'd still the visit and the girls he'd yet to charm with the line 'Hey, I bet I can get your knickers off without touching them'. So lost in these thoughts was he that he didn't note the slickness of the stone underfoot and skittered to the left, the rapier sharp talons brushing against his jacket. His hands hit the brickwork closest to him and even the slightest adjustment of his poorly soled trainers sent him off balance again, splaying his legs out in both directions and sending him to the ground like a drunk twister player.

The sudden impact with the cold and quite frankly disgusting alley floor jarred up his arms but it saved his life again as the whistle of razored death slashed overhead.

Some semblance of equilibrium was restored, enough for him to literally scrabble backwards when an impaling claw came down toward the back of his head and punched clean through the cobbles.

Nik managed to get upright, the ground at the mouth of the alley was still wet but no where near as soiled, and felt sweat beading upon his brow. Gods above, below and side to side he was out of shape..

"Where I grew up they taught you many things." He said with heavy breaths. "The one I always remembered was; The Reaper is always watching." With that said he focused his mind, drew up whatever power he held in his being and let it flood the area, a dull white glow shimmered around his outline and solidified into a light blue line.

"The clocks ticking Hollow. Think you can kill me before they get here and kill you?"

If the human thought to scare his foe with mention of the self proclaimed guardians of the afterlife, he was sorely misguided. Indeed, as the shimmering cyan glow swept up to enshroud the mortal, Elise allowed a sibilant laugh to hiss between her teeth. "Shinigami?" she crowed, "Even if they were to arrive before the last breath escapes your broken corpse, why would they stop me? They hate you as much as I, human, and will let you die just as they did the Quincys." The harsh weight of true lent force to the Hollow's words, and she delivered them with no small amount of satisfaction, eager to see the look of smug satisfaction drain from the interloper's features.

But in truth, there was some small measure of value in the creature's words; for all that the Reapers would do naught to preserve the life of the mortal, they would assuredly attempt to destroy her once her bloody work was done. And could she truly hope to survive against a Shinigami, particularly once she had expended so much precious spiritual energy rendering the mortal down to steaming debris?

Somehow, it seemed unlikely.

Better then to end this quickly, to butcher the human and vanish into the night like a fragment of a fever dream. Her hunt could be continued another night, when perhaps her prey might have forgotten the fear that now chilled her blood and poisoned her soul. Yes, the meal would be all the sweeter then, and the wait would do nothing but heighten her anticipation of the feast to come. But such thoughts were perhaps a touch premature, given how the mortal yet stood before her, his body sheathed in the gleaming cerulean light of his telekinetic shield.

First things first, as they said.

Raising one clawed hand parallel to the filthy alley floor, Elise drew upon her memories of the nuclear flame that had engulfed her mortal form. With the memory came pain beyond reason, a ghostly echo of the agony that had flared through her form as the flames had consumed her, but she wavered not an inch and instead focused upon the ball of hellfire that was slowly coalescing in the palm of her hand.

"As far as your question goes, mortal," she commented, allowing her crimson gaze to flicker back to the human as the fireball formed, "I really do believe I can."

Bollocks- bluff called...

Suck it up mate, don't go all gooey now, something will crop up. It usually did, he was often saved from unthinkable situations by chance and circumstance, his only hope was that something similar would occur.

Then the fire hissed to life around her eviscerating hand, snapping at the air as it seemingly stoked itself, gorging on the terrible power that resided within the Hollow's twisted shell. It coiled upon itself, into a ball of dancing destruction that shifted this way and that, even has he watched.

Well, he thought, bugger this for a laugh.

Rillians had always had a decent turn of speed. It was a point of pride growing up and with the thought of searing flesh and scorching agony fresh in his mind he used that speed to his advantage and darted out of the alleyway and into the street. His long legs carried him if not awkwardly, to an observer, but with definite quickness as far from the Hollow as he could manage.

Never be a hero. Didn't we talk about this ten years ago Nikolas!? NEVER-BE-A-FUCKING-HERO!

For a moment, Elise thought the mortal intended to stand and fight. Just for a moment, and then the illusion was shattered, dispelled as the interloper took flight along the alley, feet slapping wildly against the slick cobbles as thoughts of self preservation won out against delusions of bravery. Laughing cruelly, the Hollow cast the sphere of hellfire after him, before flexing her ragged wings and launching herself skyward. Another flap of those same tattered pinions sent her soaring into the steadily lightening sky, and from that heavenly vantage point she turned her gaze upon her latest pray once more. The fireball she had cast moments before, her loving gift to him, erupted mere inches behind his heels, sending fragments of flame spiraling into the air like hellish cherry blossoms.

"You can't escape, little morsel," she called mockingly, swooping down from the heavens toward the fleeting figure, letting gravity aid in her pursuit. Not that she needed aid in catching the mortal; Elise knew she was faster. How could she not be, when her prey was just another mortal? Just another soul that had no greater purpose in existing than to serve as a snack for a creature such as she.

With each passing moment, the Hollow drew closer to her prey, until she could almost hear his gasping breaths over the beating of her own wings. She could almost see the blood pumping through his fragile mortal body, and her talons twitched, itching to bury themselves deep in his back. And then she was upon him, swooping down from the lofty heights like the devil's own bird of prey, talons extended to spear through the hapless human's spine.

FasterfasterfasterfasterfasterfasterFASTER! Nik willed his body as out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light, not unlike that of a fireball hoping to blow his legs off. He risked a glance and, yep, it was a fireball hoping to blow his legs off.

GO FASTER! He thought with such force that his teeth ground down and he drew out more of his energy and bolstered his already painful legs. The surge of speed kept him ahead of impending doom but not by much and the resounding explosion that shattered the ground behind him trip and stumble, turning to the right as he did to stare at the sky. He wished he hadn't.

It was like some terrifying horror movie. This monstrous avianesque creature plummeting towards him with not a positive thought going through its mind. At least not a positive thought they would both appreciate.

His turn/fall was almost complete and the creature was a heartbeat away from gutting him, even before he hit the ground. It was all happening so fast that the first sized chunks of flaming rubble were still cascading through the air. It was purely instinct, self preservation, that made a hand snap out toward them and ensnare one in his mental grip. A grunt and a flick of his wrist sent the flaming gift straight at the Hollow's face.

He his the ground shoulder blades first and the merest push of his upended legs turned his fall into a backwards roll, he was up on his feet again but not before the warm wash of blood stained the front of his now ragged t-shirt. It was little more than a glancing blow from her claws but it had cut inches deep into his flesh during his escape.

Nik didn't stand on ceremony and with one hand held against the blood seeping from his wounds he made off again, hoping against hope that lady luck with smile upon him one last time.

Once, in another life, Elise had been told that the universe had a sense of humour. At the time, she had dismissed the statement as just another fragment of nonsense, but now, as the mortal mirrored her attack in his own crude way, hurling a chunk of blazing stonework at her face, she began to think she had been wrong; the universe did have a sense of humour, albeit a twisted and sadistic one.

Uttering an oath that would have tarnished silver, she twisted herself around to avoid the burning detritus, only to find herself almost scraping along the wall of one of the buildings which lined the cramped, dreary street through which the human was fleeing. Another abrupt shift in her path brought her clear of the frontage, but Elise knew it was only a matter of time before another obstacle presented itself. No, if she was going to teach this mortal the error of his interfering ways, she would have to end this farcical chase now, before fate's subtle knife slipped between her ribs.

How, though? That was the question. London was laced with alleyways and backstreets, so cornering the wretched man would be no simple task.

Unless...

Snapping her head around to peer through the early morning mist that was starting to descend across the city, the Hollow studied the street ahead, searching for a stretch with no alleys or byways bisecting it. There were few enough such stretches in the great rabbit warren of a city, but some bizarre quirk of fortune presented one but a few metres beyond the fleeing human and, smiling viciously beneath her weeping mask, Elise drew once more upon the flames that burned eternally within her soul, summoning up spheres of flame that hissed and raged in her blistered palms. A mere heartbeat later, the twin spheres were flashing through the air, hissing angrily as they evaporated the moisture of the morning air before exploding against the facades of two nearby buildings with force enough to bring masonry raining down upon the street below.

Now I have you...

The blood didn't seem to want to stop. The physical harm to his body wasn't life threatening, he could see that when he looked down at the gashes, but the loss of that precious crimson fluid was already taking its toll. He was weakening, his head was growing lighter with each bounding step. It wouldn't be very long now until that hideous bastard caught him and then only the devils knew what...

Nik felt his back grow warm and quickly the temperature rose to an almost unbearable heat. He craned his neck to look over his shoulder and his brown eyes went wide as he saw the two orbs of bone blackening fire shooting toward him. They rocketed to within a a foot of collision and he threw up his free arm in a futile effort to ward off the inevitable.

The fireballs however passed him on either side so quickly that he couldn't respond to the sudden course change and the resulting stone shower that hailed down upon him from both left and right. The bricks pounded his body without mercy and soon he was rolling across the ground, knocked from his feet by impact. The blood now flowed from his head as well and his vision swam before him, his head felt like it had been cleaved.

A desperate attempt to get back to his feet ended with his vision darkening and unconsciousness taking him before his body went slack and he lay motionless upon the debris strewn road.

Blood. The heady, delicious scent of the spilt sacrament that trailed in the mortal's wake was like the finest of incenses, a sweet opiate that tickled Elise's palate with hints of the potent power that was steadily seeping from the human's broken form. Hunger, a ravenous lust for spiritual energy, consumed her, and even as debris and detritus continued to rain down from the ruined facade, she swept down from her lofty perch, carmine eyes blind to all but her wounded prey.

Landing with a grace that belied her ungainly form, the Hollow swept her torn wings back as she stalked toward the wounded man, her her step trailing droplets of poisoned blood across the rubble. Occasionally, droplets of her foul blood would seep against lingering traces of the humans, and the two liquids, so similar and yet so very different, would hiss and froth angrily before boiling away entirely. Entirely focused upon the source of her ire, Elise spared this peculiar piece of alchemy not a moment's thought, but instead continued on, talons twitching in anticipating whilst her blackened wingtips brushed against the walls of the alley. "And here our game comes to an end, little morsel," she whispered, eyes alight with anticipation of the coming kill.

Yet perhaps such words were hasty, for though the mortal was clearly wounded, there yet remained some fight in him. Even as the Hollow made her predatory advances, the human struggled to rise, only to fall ignominiously against the bloody cobbles as his body betrayed him. But there, in the world of the living, the man couldn't truly be alone; even in his darkest hour, he was surrounded by billions and billions of his kin, and it was scarcely imaginable that the two could have fought as they without a one of them noticing something was amiss. And so, in hindsight, Elise knew she should have expected an interruption of one sort or another, although none but a seer of the future could possibly have envisaged the form it took. No, who could have foreseen the bolt of cerulean energy that speared through the halflight of the dawning day, striking the wall above Elise's head with force enough to shower masonry down upon her head.

"Hold, abomination! Your time upon this world is at an end!"

"Do it." The bald man said to his black suited partner as they stood a few rooftops away, watching the chaos unfold. His partner needed no more incentive and he took the stocky, suited, man by the shoulder and suddenly they were moving beyond the speed of the natural world.

It had taken Harry months to get used to this supernatural mode of transportation that Gerard used. He was a Quincy, raised and trained by the Agency. They had worked together ever since graduation, doing all the quiet things that no one ever spoke about. That no one would ever admit to.

They appeared three houses down, just in time to see a brown haired man almost buried in the remains of a building. Harry took out his cobalt, the small blue pistol hummed as he tuned its internal SP engine, the ghostly glow of the artificial spirit particles danced around its blue metal and with a nod at Gerard they moved down the street.

The Quincy vanished again and Harry took off at a sprint toward the wounded man, he stopped a dozen or so paces away and raised his pistol, adjusting the specialized sun glasses that adorned his face and viewed the swirl of spiritual energy they showed in the Hollow.

Gerard was no slouch and before the creature could utter a word he had reappered, up and to the left and loosed a volley from the spiritual bow that materialized at the end of his right arm. The building exploded as the bolt of cerulean vaporized its exterior.

Harry risked a glance down at the man and gave a smile. The tip, was right on the money. He took aim again and positioned himself a foot step from Nik's downed body.

"Two choices ugly, back off or become target practice. You're choice." He growled.

To reinforce this statement Gerard let loose a salvo of arrows that exploded the ground at the creatures feet as he landed next to his partner.

"I would much rather you took the latter option..." The Quincy said coldly, aiming down his outstretched arm, with the Hollows head firmly in his cross-hairs.

Whirling, Elise sought out the source of the cyan blast and the voice that had followed in its wake. At first, she saw nothing, just the shifting shadows cast by the dancing flames, before a flicker of movement drew her gaze upward. There, two figures - a quincy, marked out by his glowing bow, and another human with the gift of sight beyond the veil - stood imperiously.

From where she stood, Elise could feel the energy radiating off them, tempting her with its potency. And beyond the human, half buried beneath the rubble, her prey yet remained, the scent of his blood still lingering in the air. It was like a feast laid on for her, a feast of such sumptuous splendour that not a soul could refuse it. But not refusing it, giving in to the urges of her hate and hunger, would surely grant nothing but true destruction, for the auras of the two newcomers were awash with power, and the Hollow knew she had but a whisper of a chance of defeating either.

And together? Together they would assuredly banish her soul into nothingness - a fact the Quincy was quick to reinforce with another vicious salvo of those soul destroying bolts.

"It seems fate has spared you for another time, human," she murmured to her fallen foe, scraping one talon across the blood slicked floor as she backed away, "But I know your scent now. We will meet again." Bold words spoken in the face of such foes, but there was no masking the defeat that lay behind them. Certainly, there was no way she could claim her next act, the rending of space with her talons to create the gargata gateway, was anything other than a retreat.

But Elise was patient. She had all the time in the world to take her revenge. And one day, the time of reckoning would descend upon all those who dared stand against her.