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Maximos, a man of shadows and darkness and the like couldnt help but flinch. That was light magic there. It was holy and bright and he had seen more than his unfair share of loved ones blasted into agonizing bits by Luminous' crusading clerics. But Madison was not burning, through the dried blood he watched her skin heal in exactly the way he couldnt possibly have done. And the Shadow couldnt help smiling.

"Don't ya'll worry to much about me, I'm just grabing some action where I can find it.Been boring as hell around here anyway so if I can help a pretty thing like her and a strong fellow like you while clowning around with these things, then I might as well make myself useful."

This man, he had a way of speaking and a certain swagger about him that seemed to entirely separate him from his surroundings. It wasnt stupidity, and it wasnt denial, rather it seemed the sort of relaxed calm that came with understanding and honest acceptance. An honest sort of worry free attitude.

And Maximos for his part found it comforting. He meant exactly what he had said earlier, and as this stranger seemed to have no desire to eat Madison, Maximos had no desire to appear a threat. With a flick of his wrist he flicked his sword over his shoulder and forward, before it completed even on rotation every part of the sword reminiscent of a blade simply dissolved into black dust which was scattered in all directs. Everything, save for a small flat purple gem embedded in the sword hilt which fell squarely into Maximos' palm and was immediately slipped into his inside jacket pocket.

"That's very kind. I thank you sir." Maximos said with a bright smile, and immediately took a very polite and very formal bow.

Jabberwocky was making an awful amount of noise and Maximos was about to say something, but the kind stranger seemed to have the situation bravely in hand. No many people would extend their hand so willingly to creature attempting to be so threatening. And yet, the way the man did it made it only seem natural that 'Wocky would accept him.

"We'll fix you up when we're done to, ok puppy? Then we will figure out how to get the hell outta dodge if ya get my drift."

Except that. Maximos awkwardly scratched the back of his head and stepped a bit closer to the dog incase it decided to make any rude reactions that needed preventing. Shadow-dog's and holy magics didnt mix very well.

"You'll have to excuse him, Jabberwocky is very defensive of his Lady." Maximos then gestured towards Madison and said. "This is Madison. And we're actually searching for someone hidden in this very town."

He gestured around the room, and then his hand aimed squarely back at Madison. "Her. Or at the very least her memories. We have reason to believe there are files, somewhere in this station regarding her past. Unfortunately these officers dont seem to have realized they are permanently off duty."

The Shadow rubbed his shoulder idly, where the zombie shooter's bullet had grazed moments earlier but continued to meet the other man with a warm smile. "I think we'll need to secure those files before we can effect our escape. That is, of course, if your both agreeable."

Leaving without attaining the very goal of this adventure just could not be done, but neither could Maximos ask a stranger to risk his life on behalf of the young bunny. Likewise, neither could Maximos simply invite someone to the search of Madison's life that she did not want. Smiling, Maximos paused to let either individual speak.

Ziginz stood back up and nodded to the lady who he saw as attractive even in her blood stained state, but he was weird about stuff like that. He turned back to the man and looked at the wound in his shoulder but noticed his slight defensive posture.

"This is Madison. And we're actually searching for someone hidden in this very town."

He gestured around the room, and then his hand aimed squarely back at Madison. "Her. Or at the very least her memories. We have reason to believe there are files, somewhere in this station regarding her past. Unfortunately these officers dont seem to have realized they are permanently off duty.

Ziginz looked around and noded, trying to get a feel of the situation. He looked up to see the girl and her dog walking away but figured she was just going to look around a bit more.


The Shadow rubbed his shoulder idly, where the zombie shooter's bullet had grazed moments earlier but continued to meet the other man with a warm smile. "I think we'll need to secure those files before we can effect our escape. That is, of course, if your both agreeable."

"I can fix that shoulder for ya if you would like. My ability isn't anything divine or demonic if your worried about that. It just sends Ki into your body and then your boyd naturaly converts it into what ya need to heal faster, or so that's how I was told it works."

He didn't move his hand toward the man yet, not sure if he was willing to accept his offer. Ziginz could tell by this man's abilities and unique KI that he probably wasn't a normal human or any kind of celestial being, but at this point he didn't sense any evil intent from the man, and that was good enough for him. In a normal situation, Ziginz would probably challenge him to a fight, but this wasn't a normal situation, and a freindly fight wouldn't help them right now.

" If that is the situation then the best help I can probably give you is keepin' any more of these things off your back 'til you find what your lookin' for. In my experience though, it takes lookin' inside yourself to find who you realy are. Even if you don't find what your lookin' for here, I bet the secret is realy inside her."

A moment later he heard Wocky's howl and turned toward where the girl had gone.

"Sounds like we ain't got time to talk about it any further."

Lightly running her fingers over the thin layer of dust, Madison began to examine the paperwork that seemed to be undisturbed by time. There were seven folders, each of which seemed to have a different color to them once and now were nothing more than coffee stained and sun bathed collections of paper and dust. Sitting down on the chair, the rabbit slowly opened the first folder. There, it seemed that there was a file with quite a bit of violent cursive writing to it. Now, even with the rabbit’s elaborate reading skills, it was nothing more than gibberish to her. Frowning at the font, she quickly caught sight of what appeared to be a picture of a man lying on the ground with blood dripping from every inch of him. He seemed to be wearing clothes that were very similar to the undead creatures she had ran into earlier. Perhaps he was once a cop? Well, whatever he was, his picture left nothing more than an uneasy feeling within her stomach.

With a quick toss of the folder, her fingertips fell onto the next. Before she could even get the paper fully exposed her ears perked up. There was something wrong, especially considering that Jabberwocky wasn’t as peaceful as he was when they had entered the room. Stopping, Madison shot her head up to see what was the matter as the sound of his growl filled her delicate appendages. There was a slight sounds of heavy breathing and groans heading her way. Slamming the folder shut, the woman grabbed as many as she could within her arms and attempted to make her way to the door. But despite how quick she may have been, there was a blockage. Standing before her was a horde holding onto what appeared to be riot gear. Jabberwocky’s growls became rather loud as the door had finally become blocked and there was no way out as the plastic shields provided another barrier between them. With a few loud barks, the Shadow canine jumped up as though to try and attack one of them in order to protect his lady. With a loud thunk, Wocky was shot to the side and let out a whine; Jabberwocky was now hurt.

Horror filled Madison’s face as she quickly attempted over to his side. Again, another person was now injured because of her. But despite her efforts, there was no room for her to run in and assist her pooch as they drew even closer. A small whine left his lips as he tried to move, it seemed that he was nothing more than a crippled.

Horror turned to sadness.

Sadness turned to anger.

And that madness was enough to allow Madison to do the drastic.

With her hate fuelling her, the rabbit grabbed down to her boot top and pulled out her dark black pen. The cylinder body seemed to rest ever delicately within her fingers of her right hand as her left arm clutched her gathered files close to her chest. She didn’t seem to really care that some of the wet blood that remained on her body was beginning to soak the files. What she cared more about right now was vengeance.

Even though she was no stranger to this emotion there were some differences than the times before. She was tired, she wasn’t used to constantly being in a situation like the ones she had been facing. She was definitely not a warrior like her friend Maximos. No, Madison was a rabbit experiment who was now gifted with a rather fancy tool.

With eyes tightly closed, the rabbit fell to the ground and attempted to do her best on scribbling random symbols on the ground. None of them seemed to be anything that she had been taught before, because quite frankly she didn’t want the same result as last time. And she was trying everything, circles, spirals, squiggles, and lines! Madison was merely trying to get some sort of an effect. Every mark she made on the floor seemed to give a sharp vibrant glowing purple as before which provided a ray of hope.

As she remained sitting on the floor, the horde moved closer and even some of them broke way from behind the wall. They were quite a bit faster as they were not wearing the clothing that the rest of them were wearing. But rather, they seemed to have orange overalls on that contained various rips and stains. The mere smell of their rotting breath caused her stomach to twist slightly. But, her sights never fell short of the task that was on hand.

Oh please let this work...

She wasn’t thinking of flowing water, she was only hoping that something would happen. For if her spell wasn’t going to work, the rabbit was going to be nothing more than zombie food unless someone broke through the glass window again and came to save the day. That however, seemed just as unlikely.

For Madison things were not going very well. Zombies were moving in, there were explosions and gunfire. And this glowing purple scribble beneath her was serving absolutely no purpose other than being a pretty light. But the bunny wasnt giving up. She was hoping, and wishing and trying against the impossible to make something out of this nothing. There was a word for that, when a being sends its hopes and dreams out through a medium such as that brush and asks for something. Its called praying.

Her answer came in the form of silence. As far as she could see the immediate area around her went very still. She would not be able to feel them, but she would see two small arms reach over her shoulders, and two small pale hands rest over her hands grabbing the paintbrush with her, and then a voice spoke to her. It was a soft voice belonging to a child. It was faintly audible, and seemed to be echoing from somewhere very far off. And yet, it just may be familiar. It depended entirely on how much she remembered that purple haired boy from her dream.

"Its like this..." He said, with something of a giggle. And the figures and shapes and scribbles began to move and crawl across the ground of their own accord forming...

"Madison stay down!!!"

Reality came crashing back. The noise of nearly a dozen zombies falling into gory chunky bits, mixed the sound of a few more undead moaning and shuffling, and the distant sounds of combat. Everything was alive, everything was moving! Something bright and purple raced beneath her and around her, and all at once she would feel something shove her down.

There was an explosion. And when it passed, the last of the undead between her and Ziginz would have be in their death throes, and the bunny would find herself surrounded. There were only four of them, and they were about as crudely drawn as possible, they were what they were. Four stick figures, with round purple shields and crudely drawn lines for swords. They lacked absolutely any detail, with splotches and chips in their frame as if someone had literally taken a purple crayon sketch and given it life. They even existed only in two dimensions becoming almost entirely flat when they turned. One stick knight slowly removed his flat square arm from Madison's back letting her set up, at which point all four knights took a bow and took up defensive positions around her, shields raised and swords at the ready.

Not a single stick figure moved to attack Ziginz as he approached. Seconds later, a nearby filing cabinet was shoved aside and Jabberwocky came running through the opening followed by Maximos. The Shadow wore a few new blood stains, but no new injuries, and he immediately tossed aside a riot shield with several large holes in its top half from where shards of explosive KI tore through it. Maximos approached, stopped and immediately cocked an eyebrow at Madison's new guard. "Oh my. Did you do that?"

Another set of dry lifeless cries echoed down the hall. "Nevermind. It appears we're still short on time. Did you find the files?"

Ziginz looked down at his hand and scratched his head. No reason to alert her to his injury, after all it was his own fault for being so reckless. he was just happy that in the mist of the fight he hadn't lost his cool or got caught up in the masacre. Last thing they needed was for him to get....excited. Ziginz looked down to notice the tiny purple stick figures near madison. He knelt down to examine them and was rathered infatuated with them until the sound of more moans came down the hallway.

"Nevermind. It appears we're still short on time. Did you find the files?"

Madison gave a quick few nods in response, but there was a slight problem. She was looking rather faint. Instead of being her normal average self, she seemed almost tired.


“Where too?”


Ziginz could tell she was tired, her physical energy was greatly diminished. Ziginz could give her some of his but with what little time they had, he decided a quick exit was a better idea. He ran over to a wall that he hoped led outside and placed a hand on it. He didn't sense any undead on the other side, so he drew back his arm, filled his fist with KI, and with a punch created a "backdoor".

"I suggest we vamos to a quiter place. I can get us about 5 or 6 blocks away in about 5 seconds....but I'm gonna have to carry ya'll...it's complicated"

He held out his hand to the three and was ready to far jaunt them all away. With that power he could travel long distances with a single step, though he was limited to a few steps a day. He kept an eye out for undead making sure they didn't get the drop on them.

{{Sorry about the delay, I lost track of the posting order sweatdrop }}

Maximos quickly left the room for a moment as the newfound party member began to fend off hordes from re-entering their room. During this time, Madison held back for a moment and examined the door way. Everything seemed very familiar to her as she stood still. She may have not have been very useful, but her concentration was on other things. There was something very unsettling about this place, as an itch began to form in the back of her head where she couldn’t scratch. And the itch was even making her kind of dizzy.

However, it wasn’t long till another conversation broke out between the two men. There seemed to be quite a bit of panic coming from the Shadowman once the words teleportation managed to flutter through the howls of beasts from the hallways. Even the rabbit found it a little strange about his concern revolving the use of teleportation. She had never have heard him grow so concerned since she had obtained her last injury.

"I dont think thats necessary, beside we dont know what effect that could have on our rabitteen friend here. We're both strong young men, a little exercise and a little practice could do us good! I'm sure...125 Maple Ridge Lane, is very close by."

Without even having a chance to respond, Max placed a file folder within her hands which she soon quickly held close to her as though she were keeping something safe. It seemed quite a bit thicker than the last one she had grabbed a hold of; perhaps the Shadow had found some additional information to their case!

"Madison, you look queasy. If we get hit by another massive crowd and you havent the strength to stand, you could fall and get trampled...or worse. How about I carry you!"

“I’m fine. Really.” Madison gave him a quick smile. Despite the fact that she wasn’t feeling like one hundred gold pieces, she really didn’t want to make them worry. Especially considering that she had quite a bit of issues within that day revolving around her health. And she was almost positive that things were going to be alright. Besides, it was just a dizzy spell after all.

"Ziginz, how would feel about taking point, while the knights here and I take the rear?"

"Does that sound alright?" With a flick of his sword Max seemed to be prepared for battle. He seemed absolutely fierce with that sword at his side. Slowly, he made his way beside Madison as though to hold onto her by the small of her back.

“I’m fine, I can do i-“ As she spoke the woman stumbled slightly as though she were intoxicated or something. As she tumbled the woman almost instinctively grabbed onto Max’s arm for support which with the addition of him sweeping to carry her, the woman fell into his arms peacefully. And thanks to her poor nutrient, the rabbit was fairly light which could probably be viewed as a blessing since they were about to run into a horde of unspeakable nature.

Speaking of which, where were they?

Scream.

There they were!

And they weren’t waiting for them to hurry up and make a group decision. Since Zinginz was in the position of leader in the front, instantly some began to leap for him for good measure. This time they seemed a little different, instead of having riot gear or even guns, they were in orange jump suits with their hands bound together. The undead only seemed to have their teeth to use for a weapon as they attempted to chomp down on his flesh. With no sense of organization with these creature’s plans as each and every one of them seemed to jump for a piece at the same time. Now if Zinginz wasn’t careful despite the beasts being hand bound, their jaws were indeed powerful. And living on instinct, they would stop at nothing to get a hold of a tasty treat. All eyes were on the front, as that seemed to be where most of the activity.

Madison watched with half opened eyes as she found herself rather comfortable in her position. Perhaps Max was right, she was feeling a little weak in the legs. Slowly, everything began to blur around her as she continued to hold onto the file folder. The only thing she was hearing was the heavy beat of adrenaline coming from Max’s chest, which was nothing more than soothing to the stressed mind. That and the smell of soap, that seemed to radiate from Max despite how filthy he may have been. And then suddenly everything became very cold as her eyes grew heavier....

The rabbit was in a different room now, it was filled with people and the rabbit was sitting within a wooden chair within a small enclosed office. The wall to the right wasn’t even actually a wall at all, but rather a large window. On the other side of the office, sat a man within a large office spinny chair, or at least she thought it was a man as she could not see his face. He seemed to be talking to her as she watched his arms move back and forth.

Her focus slowly shifted downwards as she could feel that whatever she was gripping onto was no longer the thin files. But instead it was something soft, wet, and yet so cuddling. A small faint smile filled her face as she bore witnessed to what appeared to be a white stuffed rabbit. However, this rabbit wasn’t white anymore. Large red splashes of color covered it’s faux fur. But merely seeing this almost caused nothing but joy.

Without warning the man reached across the desk and quickly grabbed a hold of the doll from her hands and began to try and pull at it.

“Let go of Dina!” Madison practically screamed out the words which caused her to open her eyes with a gasp. Instead of being met with the pleasantries of the man she had been dealing with, instead she was met with something else. From the right, Madison a tight grasp from one of the zombies on her boot. Swinging her feet loosely as she attempted to break free as she only tried her best to not and hit Max in the meantime. Because she was sure asides from fighting zombies, Max wouldn’t enjoy getting a boot to his side very much considering he was the one who was trying to fight them off and move her through the crowd.

Before Max could even react to what she was talking about, one of the purple soldier’s quickly swung it’s mighty two dimensional blade down and sliced the zombie’s arm in half only leaving a hand which was continuing its tight grip on her limb. It seemed that the troops she had formed was proving to be a fair bit more useful than she intended as she still in the safety of Max’s arm or at least as safe one could be within a horde of the children of zombie creatures.

Maximos first reaction was to blink, and then as it seemed to be a suitable course of action he blinked again. And one more time for good measure. Ziginz had been so laid back, so calm, so relaxed. And then it was quite literally as if someone had let a gnashing beast out of a cage. His entire demeanor was different, his motions carried a whole other drive to them. Almost a hunger it seemed, a bloodlust. Maximos was still for a moment, taking in the change and then just as he stepped forward. Fire! Not just a blast or blade of it, but veritable wings of flame combined with slashing death. Red, and burnt viscera splattered in all directions as it confronted the lethal fire storm that was Ziginz. Needless to say the Shadow had no worries concerning the front line of their advance.

The Shadow kept a brisk pace behind Zigz, making sure not to fall too far behind but at the same time not to get too close either. It wasnt himself he was worried for, so much as Madison. She seemed to have fallen asleep. That was good, she needed her rest, and Maximos could hold this position for days. It was a part of every heroes training to hold a huge bag across their arms in this position for incredible lengths of time so as to make them able to scoop up and carry a damsel in distress any length and to safety. Well, that was a lie, but Maximos felt it should be, and he wasnt going to let Madison fall regardless.

Unfortunately, it was never that easy. While Ziginz had a great hold on the front, the hallway they traveled had doors and passageway. Zombies, being creatures of instinct at the very least knew the difference between a hard to catch prey like Ziginz, and something moving slower and hindered like Madison and Maximos. A small pocket of undead focused on the weaker pack and haltered their advance. Maximos' eyes and mind directed the black blade to slash and cut, but the space between him and Ziginz was growing. Zombies were diced and slashed before they could step within a perimeter of Maximos and those that crossed into that space were met with swift kicks. Still, it was a slower process then their fiery angel of death up ahead.

Forgoing immediate safety for long term safety, Maximos bolted forward, pulling Madison in close as he shoulder charged his way through the horde. Hungry teeth found his flesh and such, limbs batted and swung although bound, and just a step behind his sword attempted to severe heads, and arms, and clear the chaff. He kicked a zombie aside, commanded a slash through another, and as a group of rots fanned across his path he whispered a small apology to Madison...

...and then swung her. It looked like something of a swing dancing move, with the bunny's torso and hips still in his arms while her armored and spiked boots knocked teeth and worse out of three zombie's faces in one pass. Somehow, between the size of her feet, the strength of her legs, and how asleep she appeared Maximos severally doubted she even felt that but then... “Let go of Dina!”

The sudden outcry made Maximos stop dead in his tracks. No. That wasnt her name at all. A recently kicked and disoriented zombie reached out and grabbed Madison's offending boot. Madison's feet kicked and before Maximos could even take proper stock of the situation and react there was a flash of purple and the zombies arm was cut loose. Maximos immediately raced past the stunned zombie, hopefully with purple knights in toe. Thankfully, while on fire Ziginz was easy to spot and Maximos fell back into pace with him, he would have said something to the man but reasoned that letting him enjoy the moment was best, instead he whispered to Madison. "Excellently played, who taught you to summon those?"