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"hehehe this just became more fun, guess I better cool my jets though, keep forgetting I got other people up here." Maximos' lips curled upwards in silent agreement. It wasnt that he felt Ziginz should cool down, rather that Maximos knew the feeling. He had taken more than his fair share of injuries earlier the day and night before in an effort to defend Madison. Fighting along side, or in defense of another person was not something the Shadow was very well
versed in.

Other people. Gus, was struggling to stand. And in the still moment, Maximos looked back over his shoulder. There was Madison some distance away. He imagined she likely was marveling at Ziginz health. But then again, she was convinced that cookies and candy could heal wounds when Maximos attempted to explain his body could metabolize the sweets quicker than hers, in order to replace lost blood. So, most anything that happened in the battle was sure to shock her.

The Ki warrior had proven himself above to recover injuries when he first arrived, as he had healed both Maximos and Madison. He had also done more than his fair share of damage to the undead below using his Ki, so as Maximos heard the wet splat of acid being sent to the ground he assumed what had happened. That was good. For all his endurance Maximos was rather sure he was not going to be able to slay a beast of this size while attempting to defend a charred Zigz and scared Madi.

"I should be fine now, sorry to cause so much trouble." Thankfully, he didnt have to. Gus was standing now, barely. His talons dug into the roof for support. Maximos eyes fell directly on the bird and did not budge. Depending on how much of Ziginz clothes had survived, Maximos could shadowcraft him something new. But that was a side thought at best. Madison was bound to see a less than fully clothed man at some point in her life. "No trouble my friend, so long as your alright."

"I have an idea, maybe we can trick this thing into destroying itself. The roof is already weak, and he has to weight at least a few tons, we might be able to drop this guy a few floors, but we have to be careful not to take the whole roof down with him." Something was different in the other man's voice. The emotion behind him felt different, calmer, wiser. That was the second transformation he noted, Ziginz certainly was more than he appeared to be. Regardless, Gus advanced. His beak slammed the concrete like thunder, shaking the fragile roof with each murderous peck. Close he came, then closer.

"Excellent plan Ziginz!", Maximos said. This was what adventuring was all about, his enjoyment was clearly painted on his tone. "But even if we defeat him and keep the roof in tact, we still have the issue of the undead swarm below. What if we..."

Maximos brought his sword up, and his shadow moved in tandem with it. The sword came up, over his head as if he was preparing for an overhead slash, and a sheet of pitch black rose in front, and around him and Ziginz like a defensive fence a few feet off the ground, ready to become a defensive dome if the bird struck home next time. "...intentionally destroy the roof? If we're lucky then perhaps his fall, plus the caustic wave of his body fluids, and the noise will attract and distract enough zombies for us to effect an escape."

Mr. Zegell had an ingenious idea, destructive magic was one thing, but it took time and energy. Gus gave them a free way to ruin the roofs structural integrity without expending more from themselves. A few more acid splashes, a few shoves in the right direction, and the bird might fall through his own mess and in the course of such remove their mess. Maximos only hoped they could ride that potential success out of this Noct-forsaken place. And yet so much relied on what the gigantic mutant bird did next.

Chitter chatter may have been occurring, but unlike in many story book adventures that our heroes may have read in their spare time. There wasn’t time for a cut scene to occur while the heroes discussed their plan of action. The large beast began to appear to be waddle towards them, although it seemed more to be like flailing. It was a slow a steady beast, but every movement was just as elegant as the first as the sound of its strength crushed everything within its path. Gus was nothing that they should take very lightly.

Madison cringed slightly as she witnessed the men decide their plan. Although she was positive that there was some genius to it, the way the creature moved almost frightened her. If they weren’t careful she was almost positive that the two of them would become bird food. But despite how much she wanted too, there wasn’t really much she could do without getting in the way, or worse. It was her destiny to be in that position of helplessness it seemed especially within this situation at the moment anyways.

"Lets try to take his attention away from Madison first, then when he next uses his breath weapon, we trick him into following us in a circle. I'll work offense and you stick to defense."

Finally, the two men had what appeared to be somewhat of a solid plan. As Ziginz created another weapon it seemed that the bird’s face was beginning to resemble one who may have been suffering from overeating which was also known as food baby. He was watching the man, especially with his rather interesting colored bow that he was now holding. And slowly, he was drawing it back the bird’s head tilted to the side curiously.

Boink.

A small object lightly bounced off of Gus’s head that had been released from the weaponry that the man had been holding. Despite how painful it may have been at one point, it really didn’t seem to affect him. Instead the bird only blinked and then let out another chirp as he cocked his head to the side. He seemed very confused by the man’s actions.

Overhead, the sunlight continued to peer between the clouds and pour down onto the battlefield. As it sparkled downwards, a mysterious situation seemed to have occurred. With Nameless tightly within Max’s grip there would definitely seem to be a small problem if he wanted to play the defensive member of the party. The blade was beginning to reflect the rays of light causing even the black metal to reflect like a precious gem. Blinking slightly, the large bird stopped in midstep and looked over towards Max. Even his glasses were providing a source of reflection very similar to a water surface; and Gus seemed to find it absolutely amazing. Because of the distraction, the bird began to change his direction and moved towards the Shadow man instead of the Ki Wielder. As the bird walked, acidic spew began to dribble out of the corners of his beak.

It seemed that the bird was beginning to lose his lunch, and Max was going to be his new target.

Nothing. Well this was a bit of a tragic turn of events. To top everything off it seemed the bird was about to loose it's lunch again. Well then, lets see how he liked fire. Ziginz focused on his next shot fireing a flaming KI arrow that flew at the creatures mouth. The result would be either a good hit, nothing, the creature's head catching on fire, or an explosion. At any rate it would hopefully get Gus' attention for a moment.

Maximos watched and waited, patient and silent. Events were playing out and every one of them a factor in the equation that was this battle. Ziginz's attacked, and scored a hit and seemed to have little effect. This may have seemed to most as if it were a wasted effort, but to Maximos it was something else. Ziginz' efforts had taught them two lessons in the course of this fight, first was the effect of Gus' bodily fluids, and second was while obvious and even usual assault points such as the head and likely the internal organs could be easily struck they offered none of the debilitating effect they would have had against other foes. They would have to strike the bird monster another way.

Maximos' role was to play defense. He moved his sword from in front of him, to his right side. Its blade was held parallel with his shoulders and yet on even height with his hips. This was most definitely not a defensive stance. His right hand was higher than his left, a position meant for providing maximum force. Maximos slid his right leg a bit ahead of his left and bent his knees just a bit. He felt the shadows pull in Madison's direction and yet he could not afford to take his eyes off of Gus. The window of opportunity would be open for a second, and after that it would be too late for him.

And then it happened. The deformed avian monstrosity lurched and gargled, and showed every possible visible sign of its monstrous weight and mutangenic gullet becoming unstable, and finally it puked a stream of fiery acidic death pouring forward for Maximos. And it was in that instant, when the shower of caustic ichor burst forth that Maximos moved. He shoved off his poised legs, he leaned his shoulders to the right and with all the force his weary legs could muster he rushed directly at Gus. The best defense, after all, was a good offense.

Gus had given himself a small blind spot. The stream of blazing goop might not have been able to burn the bird, but it was highly unlikely he could see through, or past it. That meant, that while Maximos was targeted by the stream he was also veiled by it, so long as he stood in its path. The Shadow burst forward in a straight line along the shadow of the combustible stream, just fast enough to avoid showering in it. When he reached Gus, instinct would have told him to slash it across the gut and spill its organs out across the pavement but Ziginz's example had thankfully taught him that such an out pour of viscous liquid would surely kill him. In that, indirectly, the other man had saved his life. Instead, the moment Maximos reached Gus he dropped down low, bringing his sword forward in a manner similar to a baseball players swinging his bat. The Shadow brought his sheening black blade slashing across Gus' legs as he slid out and behind the bird.

If Maximos remembered his avian anatomy correct, bird talons were sharp but little more than bone covered with muscle and a uneven skin. In other words, they were one of the weakest parts of a birds body save for the wings. And since Gus was a humongous and already terribly unbalanced creature to begin with, damage or even removal of one of his stalkly and already overstrained legs probably wouldnt be able to support his weight. And if he fell, its was very unlikely he had a means to stand up again or really move again, and would likewise be unable to aim his venomous puke anywhere at all.

That was all hopes, all Maximos did know was that as he exited behind Gus...he saw Jabberwocky running in for the kill! The Shadow had just completed his slash and took his right arm off of his sword letting it swing out with his left, he dropped low and slid straight at the dog looping his right arm around its neck to stop it from approaching just incase things went awry and skidded a few feet away to safety.

"Ziginz!" He called out, the moment he stopped. Just in case everything he had planned was mistaken, Maximos could count on the fact that Gus was at the very least disoriented now that his target had seemingly vanished. At the very best, he was falling and in pain. Either situation left the bird wonderfully open for vicious attack.

Madison flailed and almost jumped out of her skin as she witnessed Maximos take a bath in acidic vomit. However, she seemed relieved as she witnessed the Shadow slash at the bird’s stomach. As he swung a large pile of organs seemed to dribble out what appeared to resemble organs. But the bird wasn’t done. It’s loud powerful cry could be heard over the crowd as it began to try to peck where Maximos was standing causing large shards of gravel to shoot in various directions. Despite the bird’s effort’s it seemed that it was completely flawless.

With one final move from the Shadow King, the bird fell to its side and began to squirm on the ground slightly. Every cry that left it’s lips caused vomit to fly about eating holes deeper into the cement. Max may have called the other man’s name, but with the added force to the old roof top the sound of cracking echoed loudly over the roof tops. This was definitely something both Madison and Max were well aware of. It seemed with the added weight of the large bird being forced to distribute all of his weight into one area it caused the roof to crack very loudly.

“MAX I THINK IT IS TIME TO GO!” The rabbit’s voice squeaked slightly as she gripped onto the ledge of the building tightly. She had quite a vivid memory of what happened last time they were in this sort of situation, and that was not something she was willing to happen again. Either way, almost like shards of glass the building began to crumble from the years of rust or the weight placed upon it. Whether or not this was the original plan it seemed to be working as the valiant bird named Gus was going down.

But there was a problem with the way that things were going. As the bird weight impacted the cement the circumference of the bird’s stomach seemed to grow than what was originally expected from the Shadow man. Now from where Madison was standing it was hard to even see what was the result on the other side, but she was almost sure he would have been caught under the bird’s weight or even worse. Horror fell on the woman’s face as she witnessed the massacre. Now she herself was at a cross roads, she could run in and investigate and risk death but if she did that, her mission would be failed but if she stayed put she would be betraying her friend. Slamming the files on the edge, Madison reached down and placed a broken piece of the roof to keep it from blowing away. Frantically the bunny woman moved closer to try and do her best to see the fate of her companions.

CRACK!

It was too late.

Finally the weight had given and the bird let out a loud cry as it tumbled to the bottom of the burning police station. With a loud thunk at the bottom, ash and smoke flew upwards into the sky causing darkness to fill the pale tapestry of dawn. Luckily, not the entire roof collapsed as she had originally anticipated, but rather the center hole only seemed to grow another large section barely leaving anything intact except for the section she was standing on. With the victory of the giant pigeon’s defeat the woman began to look about through the smoke to find anyone within the mass remains of chaos. However, if she wasn’t careful with her step her remaining platform would be ripped from her into the depths below.

“Max....Wocky?...Anybody?” Coughs left Madison’s delicate lips as she waved her hand in front of it to try her best to keep the dark clouds out of her face. The thickness and foulness of the smell seemed to cause an invincible smokescreen around her which would only prove difficult to find both Maximos and Jabberwocky. With every cough that her chest forced out of her, she knew she had to keep searching.

Slowly a lull settled over the rooftops as Madison’s search continued. The gravel beneath her feet began to crush the loose gravel on as the bottoms of her shoes hit the pavement. This was the second time this sort of situation happened to the two of them, and judging by her discoveries of silence she was only met with the continuing sounding of nothingness. Most people who were in this rabbit’s situation could only think one thing, considering how much has happened to the two adventurers on their quest it would be dubbed unsafe or even that Fate was not a fan for either of them. Either way, it was clear that good fortune was not on their side. But Maximos and Madison were not like other people...

In the distance Madison could hear the slight sounds of scraping of nails and rubble began to move. Almost instantly she moved towards the noises with both ears shooting straight upwards in excitement. Slowly through the smoke and dust two silhouettes appeared, one was of a man while the other was of a canine. The young woman knew exactly who it was.

"THAT IS NOT MY FAULT, I WAS CAREFUL!" He was battered, as his jet black suit was now patched with gray dusk and various tears which she knew would mend shortly. But despite his heroic acts, he was nothing more than safe and sound before her. Most people would probably have viewed this as luck, but that wasn’t the case for Madison or Max. The two of them made their own luck, and the woman had no doubt in her mind that he was going to make it out alive. She was just happy to see that he had made it out in one piece.

"Are you okay?" And despite all of the damages that were done, the man still had his classic signature smile on his face. He was covered from head to toe in dust as there was the occasional rip in his clothing. However, despite the appearance of what he MAY have had for injuries, he was perfectly fine. Slowly moving closer Madison nodded excitedly, however she soon found herself flung to the ground.

What on Gaia could that be? Was it Gus making his revenge?

No, in fact it was Jabberwocky returning for a job well done. After a few slobbers from his dark colored tongue and giggles, Madison pushed herself off of the ground and only continued to hold the canine shadow in her arms. It was only natural that a smile would form on her face as he seemed at home with the rabbit. Looking back up at Max, the woman soon saw that his face turned from happy to a bit more serious.

"Are the files safe?"

“Oh. Yes. They are just over here.” Standing up, Madison slowly stood to her feet she turned to make her way back to the edge where she was standing earlier. Behind her, Jabberwocky happily followed as though he was playing fetch with his favourite toy. Thankfully, despite the unorganized chaos that had been fluttering around on the bricks, the files had remained put thanks to the broken piece of debris that she had been using earlier.

"Did Ziginz make it?"

Max had gone to a different part of the brick wall and the rabbit froze with the files in her hands. She wasn’t entirely sure if he had made it out, heck she didn’t really even know that he had a name. But there was nothing more that could be said as there was a slight rustle of the paper’s in her hand. It was quite poetic as they stood quietly not sure what to say. Out of nowhere, a large breeze rustled past and thanks to the grip Madison had on the documentations, the file opened and began to make a fair bit of a ruckus. Madison was almost pleased to see that most of the pages were held together by a bright silver paper clip. As she went to close the folder once more the woman froze and stared at the sight before her. On the top was a rather interesting photo that she had never seen before and yet it was so familiar.



Lightly, her fingers ever so gracefully ran over the frame of the photo as a slight bit of Nastalgia flew over her.

It was sunny that day and we were at the park... There were birds and sunshine....I can still feel the warmth on my skin. There was a man and woman..who had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen...They said I could feed the birds....

"Oh fleeb this. Honestly?"

Fleeb was right.
Now it seemed that they were running into two problems. For despite the fact of the safety the door may bring from the hazards that were on the rough, there were still the hazards of the things inside. As Max held his head in a dejected manner, Madison quickly shoved the photo back inside the file. Scanning the roof tops, the woman soon noticed that yes, they were standing by stairs by a strange silver cage like thing surrounding a ladder was close by as well.

“Max! Over there!” Without any hesitation, Madison moved herself over to the strange contraption and looked at it only for a moment. For a woman who lived mostly on instinct, there really wasn’t no need to take longer than the fraction of a second to get what she needed to do. Opening her coat, she quickly shoved the files inside for safe keeping as there was no telling was running through her head. Now the files were safe, the rabbit quietly turned over to where Wocky was and stared at him. Only in response the dog wagged his tail happily and barked rather loudly waiting for his command.

“Come on boy! Meet me at the bottom!’ There was no chance that she would have been able to carry the dog down with her. But she was almost positive that he would try and follow if she made it into a game. Climbing on the edge of the brick ledge the rabbit tightly grabbed a hold of the sides of the metal caging. Her hands only began to shake as the ground disappeared from underneath her with every step. With both of her boots locked into place, the rabbit lightly loosened her grip and caused herself to repeat what Max had done earlier in the other apartment. A loud whoosh sound began whizzed past the woman’s ears as she raced to the bottom.

Now here was hoping that Max would decide to take a similar lead.

Now despite how cool Maximos seemed to make this look earlier, repeating this act was nothing short of terrible. Her lack of experience of this adventurous feat seemed to reflect as she felt herself tumble down along the side of the building. Her gloves only getting hot as the friction raced along the metal pipes. Even her stomach felt like it was on the bottom of her oesophagus. Even the willingness to scream didn’t seem to escape her lips. With her hands, they little hit one of the connectors causing her to fling off of the pipe. Now, this was a very dangerous stunt considering that she still had enough of a height still left to go that if she didn’t land properly it would be a great way to break a leg or something.

Twisting her body, Madison began to fall through the air as gracefully as she could. She was flipping very similarly to what may have looked like a sky diver; however whether this was intentional orr not was entirely another story. Her arms flailed trying to keep her balance through the bustling wind as well as keep her skirt from revealing an unsuspecting peep show. Finally a loud piercing squeak left her lips as the ground was now growing much closer to where she was as she knew that no matter what she was going to do this was going to hurt.

Very similar to a rubber ball the rabbit smacked onto the cement on her bottom and began bounce along the hard surface and squeaking to a hault. Yeah, it hurt but she was very lucky that she didn’t manage to break her delicate frame. Looking to her right she quickly noticed that despite her tumble, Jabberwocky only landed softly beside her with a wagging tail of delight.

Shaking her head, Madison gave a small pat on top of his head to notice something quite unusual. Raindrops were beginning to fall from the sky. This seemed normal enough, except for the fact that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Slowly looking up, a few of the strange droplets landed on her glasses causing a slight obstruction. It wasn’t rain, it was zombie ooze. As disgusting as it was, she couldn’t help but notice the sight that was going on overhead. There was a black blur that seemed to be doing nothing but flips and intense movements with a dark metallic shine fluttering around it. With a light tap it seemed to come to an end at the bottom of the cement much more gently than Madison had landed earlier revealing the Shadowman named Maximos.

Blinking the two of them sat in silence for a moment as she watched him clean off his pant leg from various collections of goo from his undead victims. He seemed disappointed to see the collection, but a smile fell on his face as he witnessed Madison still sitting on the ground practically in awe. She looked like a fan girl for a moment as she attempted to piece together how on earth he managed to perform such a stunt from such a great height. Maybe with a little practice of hurling herself off buildings she would be able to do the same thing.

"It looks like we're finally free. But your quest isn’t over. Where to now?"

“Oh yes!” She spoked rather excitedly as she stumbled to her feet from her sitting position. She fumbled slightly as her bottom still was under quite a bit of pain still from her fall as she knew that she was most likely going to get a rather wonderful bruise there. Dusting herself off she than patted herself down looking for the files that were once on her person. Did she really just loose them in such a short time span?

“Where did they go...” Looking over herself quickly, a small nudge came from behind her and she quickly caught noticed to see that the canine companion that was following them around had a large folder his massive jaws. Smiling she lightly pulled it from his lips and grabbed a hold of the manila folder. With it in hand, the rabbit quickly began to flip through at it curiously... but it was more like staring at an ancient relic that was written in another language. Madison had honest no idea what any of it was saying. Sighing slightly, the woman handed the folder over to Maximos.

“Um...Um...You look!” She smiled nervously. But despite her obvious nervousness, she was nothing more than excited as she was almost vibrating with anxiousness as the folder passed from her delicate fingers to his. Once having both hands free she pulled her glasses off of her face to remove the dark green goo to keep her hands busy.

If Max would open the file he would find that it was nothing more than what appeared to be a journal of a detective. The font was done on what appeared to be a typewriter with pictures paper clipped to paperwork. The first image was of a large house with a large garden attached to it. It was a perfect family setting as it had plenty of room to grow fruits and vegetables as well as a swing attached to the large orchard in the front lawn. Next came the picture of the small child that Madison had been examining prior followed by a two more individual pictures of a man and a woman. Both of which seemed to have a striking resemblance to what Madison even looked liked, more so to the woman than the man.

Moving those aside began the real literature...



Clearly there seemed to be plenty of time and thought placed into this as there was the occasional coffee mug marks on the papers as well as ashes from a cigarette. But alas, there were still more pages to flip through.



Something was odd about the last entry as an entire section of paper seemed to be torn from the file. It was very strange considering that the entries prior were placed into so much detail...



This was entirely different than the rest of the entries as the font was different font from a typewriter. Even the shade of paper seemed lighter in comparison to the rest of the older files. This was something that was indeed fishy.

“So what’s the address?” Madison smiled and blinked as she tried to peer over the file with her glasses now placed back on her face with nothing more than a smile, she was completely oblivious to the paperwork that was before the Shadow man at this point. He probably got more details than he bargained for...

But at least now he had an address, right?

Madison stood in front of Maximos as though she was a small child waiting for the first day of school. At the moment there was no telling what sort of news could be waiting for her. She almost looked as though she was vibrating as she stood in front of him. It was another step closer and another step further.

But as she stood before him she cocked her head slightly as the man read over each of the pages curiously, flipping them in search for something. Occasionally his face poked over the top only to see that their eyes meeting every once in awhile. Never once Max’s smile disappeared from his face...but yet there seemed to be something the matter. It hit her as he tried to answer her question and only received silence for a moment.

"125th Maple Ridge Lane, House 226 on top of the hill."

He almost looked as though he gave himself a little nod of approval as he closed the file before her. Stumbling, the rabbit stood to her feet and dusted herself off for a moment. Alas, they had a solid location! It wasn’t much as she wasn’t entirely sure what they were looking for, but she was almost positive that Max really didn’t either.

Even with the smile he was trying his best to plaster on, something seemed a little off at first as though he was giving himself his own diplomatic decision on what he was supposed to do. Before she was even able to answer he reached over and lightly ruffled her hair causing one of her ears to fall over her eyes as they did once when they first met. Laughing, Madison moved her ear up and gave a small chuckle in response.

"We'd best get moving then shouldnt we?"

“Yes sir! I think we have spent a little playing with our Zombie friends...now time for some serious work!” Madison smacked her fist against her palm very dramatically. Madison was getting sick and tired of dealing with them, and now that they had a break it was nice to be given a chance to actually get stuff done. With a hop and a skip in her step she quickly ran up beside the Shadow Man and grabbed onto his hand tightly. With a giggle in her voice, the young woman began to swing her arm back in forth with him in her grasp. There was no way for him to escape the adorableness of her ways now. With his free hand he quickly pointed out another path for them to follow than back at her happily.

"I believe its this way. We're almost there, are you excited?"

“Very much so. Finally, things will begin to make a bit more sense in my head.” There was a small shimmer of hope that reflected in her eyes as she spoke. For many, it was hard to imagine what they would do without their memories, and yet she was doing it. For young Madison, she had been missing them for quite some time and now she was close to getting there. Just the mere thought of it caused her to almost giggle with delight.

Quietly, the two of them wandered the streets with their hands intact. It was a lot different now that it was just the two of them as the sun reached high noon giving the entire street giving it life. There was no screams, there was no battles, only the sound of their breaths lightly exiting their mouths and the panting of Jabberwocky beside them. Everything was picture perfect as the shadows hung in balance it was an afternoon stroll now for the two warriors, with not a word said between them.

“Max...” Her voice was gentle, but within the silence it was almost shattering as it tinkled in the air like a small bell. Tilting her head upwards, her face was so full of hope and joy. Even within all of the darkness that Max may have read, this young woman was a beacon of light.

“Thank you so much for coming with me... I don’t know what would have happened if we had parted earlier. Without you I don’t think I would have gotten this far.” A scary thought actually. Considering how much trouble the two of them had gotten into so far, it was nearly impossible to imagine the outcome without their strange encounter. And for that, she was greatful. She couldn’t imagine who else she would have wanted to have with her on this journey.

Looking forward, Madison stopped for a moment and noticed something in the distance. Up the road, there was a hill with a house on the top. It looked as though there was a large decayed orchard tree in the yard with a large fence around it covered in vines. It resembled something from a horror movie, but to the rabbit it was home. A small part of her wanted to run towards it, but her feet stayed planted on the ground. It was at this moment a new feeling had filled her stomach. She had been so excited about going towards it, now fear was beginning to settle. What happens if this was all too much for her to grasp. Or perhaps there was a reason for why they were blocked...

“Come on... we are almost there.” There was a change in the way she spoke now as it sounded like she wasn’t addressing Maximos anymore, but rather herself. With her hand tightly holding onto his own she calmly took a step forward towards the unknown.

There was no turning back now.