Halloween Event (Pt. 4): Burning Silver And Ink

--- Joshua ---

“Ugh, why couldn’t I be more of an asshole…” He groaned to himself, feeling his near empty reserves of Ink

(Because then the audience would be dead and wouldn’t be able to pay up that sweet sweet Madness.)

“Point.” He admitted, before watching the neon covered teen pull her arm back and punch the air in front of the attacking Deviant.

Something that would’ve been harmless if not for the truck-sized arm manifesting in a swirl of blue light and decking the Deviant into the station platform.

“Well… at least I don’t actually have to fight that guy.” He told himself, only mildly surprised by the fact that the teen had powers after she was ballsy enough to walk up to a burning Deviant thrice her size.

Figuring that she had that handled, instead of intervening with the fight he reached out with one of his toon hands to pluck up a teen that had fallen several meters away before placing them back on their feet closer to the door.

“Now then, I’m not fighting so you don’t get to stand around gawking. Move it!” He ordered while making a shooing gesture with his oversized hand.

Not needing any further prodding the teen nodded before taking off towards the station exit.

With it now established that there were three Deviants involved in this event, the crowd began to avoid him as he meandered through it while occasionally picking up the occasional half-trampled teen before they could be too injured.

Of course, despite the fact that they weren’t his main priority, this did not mean he was stupid enough to ignore the dueling Deviants.

The girl had proven herself to be fairly agile, avoiding each of the larger bruiser’s swings before using one of the two spectral arms following her to punch the burning man. Though none of her blows seemed to do as much damage as her initial suckerpunch, given how the man barely moved more than a few inches from each blow.

As for the spectral arms, he noticed the fact that they were seemingly made out of a blueish gray metal and looked more like clawed gauntlets than actual hands. Whatsmore their movements only seemed half in sync with the girls, moving only when she meant to punch before defaulting to an at rest pose behind her in contrast to her own boxing stance never lowering her guard.

“Hmm… Now what Deviancy do those count as?” He couldn’t help but wonder as he eyed the silver arms.

(There’s Madness in the air, but I don’t think it’s coming from either of them.) He noted, as his senses stretched out all around him and-

Something pulsed through the air and the world around him turned black and white before regaining its color.

“Okay… what the fuck was that?!” He blinked, hearing something in the air as he looked around him in a daze. (That… was not normal…)

Shaking his head clear, he only just noticed the body flying at him. Sadly this was not enough notice to do anything about it.

“Fuck!” He cursed as he and the girl were sent tumbling across the ground in a tangle of limbs.

“Gah, if you’re not going to do anything then stay out of the way!” The girl told him as she shoved him away and staggered to her feet.

“I’m just trying to clear the venue out so you two can really cut loose, darlin’.” He groaned, swinging his legs into the air before flowing onto his feet as the world glitch black and white once more.

“Shit… Are, are you seeing this or is it just me?” He asked her, with just a touch of desperation as the world regained its color.

“See what?” The girl frowned, never taking her eyes off the burning man as the two stared each other down.

“Right, okay… just me then…” He frowned himself, staring down at his hands. “What kind of Deviancy are you?”

“Now isn’t really the time.” The neon covered girl told him, as the burning man pulled his arm back and a glowing sphere began to grow in his palm.

“Just wondering if this is some kind of power interaction.” He tried to explain, before watching as the burning man threw a fireball at them and the girl blocked, using her silver arms as a shield.

“Again, really not the time!” The girl repeated as the burning man began bombarding her with an onslaught of fireballs. “Now either help me or get out of my way!”

“Fine… Just give me a second.” He told her, taking a step forward as the world lost all color before blacking out briefly, leaving him behind the burning man without explanation. “Okay… that was… different.” (But kind of familiar…)

He glanced around dumbly at the colorless world around him before stumbling as the world regained its color. “Yeah, okay… Not liking whatever is causing this.”

Shaking his head, he focused on the burning man once more before throwing one of his ink blots at the Deviant in the hopes of distracting him for a moment. (Because I really want to talk to that girl about whatever the fuck is going on right now!)

This turned out to be an… interesting idea as the ink blot proceeded to explode on contact with the burning man, causing the rampaging Deviant to stutter and stumble. Thus giving the neon covered girl the perfect opportunity to rush forward and hit the burning man with an oversized silver handed hook to the face.

When the girl moved to follow with another blow, the burning man caught it with his own hand and glared at the girl as he started growing another fireball in his free hand.

Joshua decided that this was an ideal time to throw another Ink Blot at the burning man, causing it to once more detonate on impact, stunning the Deviant long enough for the neon covered girl to deliver an uppercut and knock the burning man back as she freed her hand.

Seeing this as good a time as any to disengage from the two dueling Deviants, he hopped just outside of the pair’s fight and looked down at his hand as he covered it in ink. (Ink that is apparently very flammable…)

From there he extrapolated just how bad of an idea it was for him to get into a fight with a fire user given how the Malice Doc once told him something about his ink being in his blood (or maybe it was vice versa?) Either way, he quickly came to the conclusion that being set on fire was a horrible idea.

(You don’t say?)

(Well at least they wouldn’t possibly explode!)

Turning his attention back to the fight -(that I am not stupid enough to rejoin)- he watched as the neon covered girl proceeded to launch the burning man into the air. At which point she proceeded to grab the Deviant with one of her silver arms as it began to rapidly grow until it was taller than the building they were in before slamming the burning man into the trainyard ground with enough force to make the station floor shake a bit.

Rather than accepting this as the end of the fight, the burning man ignited into a pillar of flame so large that it consumed the equally massive silver arm, and elicited a scream from the neon covered girl.

(Guess she’s got some feeling in those things then…) He couldn’t help but grimace as he watched her clutch her arm and curl it close to her chest. A sight almost as painful to look at as the massive figure climbing out of the half-charred crater in the middle of the trainyard.

Knowing he didn’t have long he took a moment to glance around and make sure that (yes, all of the dumb teenagers seem to have been smart enough to run from the living wild fire) before turning back to the two dueling Deviants with just a touch of apprehension as the world turned black and white.