Human Nature

Three minutes passed.

Marsh laid out flat, his shoulder and hand bleeding profusely, his face stunned into unconscious sleep.

A bright yellow light shined from under the concrete rubble. It grew brighter and brighter as the concrete crumbled into a smoothie of dust.

And from the light, Vlad reached out, his hands and arms pulling through the piles, his body going overboard, he reached for life.

He stood over Marsh's body, his hands still glowing.

He touched Marsh's forehead.

"Vitality Sight!" (Vlad)

He felt through Marsh's lifeforce, his body's internal and external. He sighed in relief.

"Good... You're still alive." (Vlad)

Footsteps echoed from the destroyed floor above.

"Yo, Vlad you ok?" (Jack)

He looked up with his bruised and cut up face.

"How the hell did you survive that?" (Ginger)

He wiped the dust off his ripped jacket. He looked at his glowing yellow hands.

"I used my magic to channel my lifeforce through my veins. To push my muscles to their limits and make my blood rush ten times faster. I also increased my adrenaline so I didn't pass out. I'm fine... But..." (Vlad)

Ginger jumped down to the rubble. She noticed Marsh lying out flat, unconscious, with a burned monster next to him.

"Is Marsh ok?" (Ginger)

"He is still alive." (Vlad)

Jack jumped down as well. He bowed forward apologizing to Vlad.

"Sorry for the... The blowing up everything... I had no clue you guys were down here..." (Jack)

"It's no big deal Jack. We got the monster anyway." (Vlad)

They looked at the monster, it's shredded skin and flaky fat, it's wrinkled edges covered by abnormal rolls.

Ginger touched itss fleshy gore and guts.

"These monsters..." (Ginger)

Jack squatted down next to its chard body.

"These things... I've fought one before... Yaku didn't mention this to anyone else, but he saw a man in a trench coat with red eyes controlling one. He wasn't one hundred percent sure at the time, but as the memories kept flooding back he kept telling me more details. And I had the feeling that something was off. At that church... That someone was behind that incident." (Jack)

Vlad rummaged through the destroyed concrete. He searched through the ripped backpack and through the scattered supplies littering the hallway.

He found a bottle of Instant Heal.

"Jack can you put this on Marsh?" (Vlad)

He tossed the Instant Heal to Jack.

"Vlad, you look more roughed up than Marsh, are you sure you don't need it? (Jack)

Vlad felt his cut-up face, his bleeding stomach, and arms, he felt his beating heart.

"I'll be fine. I heal faster than him anyway." (Vlad)

Jack sprayed the Instant Heal onto Marsh's wounds. Its warm cold feel, like magic in a bottle, the wounds started to close up.

"Is this stuff safe?" (Jack)

Ginger turned down the hallway watching if any other monsters would show up. She turned back to the group.

"It's just healing magic. It's only potent enough to stop the bleeding and close up the wounds. So it's not that effective. Plus the names a bit of a lie." (Ginger)

Jack tossed the empty can away. He walked back up to the dead monster next to Marsh.

"Speaking of magic... These monsters... I had a feeling... You think they're made from magic?" (Jack)

Vlad fell back onto his ass, he looked at the dark crumbling ceiling above, his breathing slowed down, in and out, he calmed his inner lifeforce.

"For sure it's made of magic. When I first touched it I felt hundreds of morphed animals and monsters screaming out in pain, it's combined DNA, it's scrambled lifeforce. All into a single creature. And I also felt an overwhelming human element to them, like they were conscious and thinking." (Vlad)

"So their human, monster, animal, and magic..." (Jack)

Jack suddenly leaned back into remembrance. His memories flooding through. The closer he got the harder it was to keep them in.

"Not just human. I also felt a core, an orb in the center that contained magic... That was definitely the magic part... And it was sinister..." (Vlad)

Jack woke up from his quick and mysterious remembering trance.

"Sinister how?" (Jack)

Ginger turned around. She looked at the sleeping Marsh. She looked at Vlad and Jack.

"He's talking about when a Sorcerer goes Rogue, but not just Rogue, evil... Eventually magic can turn sinister, can become filled with malicious intent." (Ginger)

"Like, BLACK MAGIC!" (Jack)

"No, that doesn't exist." (Ginger)

"Oh..." (Jack)

"It's just bad magic. It gives off a feeling of pain and misery. You'd be able to feel it when you see it. But a lot of high-level sorcerers can hide their magic's intent." (Ginger)

Jack held out his hand. He tried to summon and control his own magic.

"My own magic's intent? This is all a lot to keep track of." (Jack)

"You could always go to Sorcerer School?" (Vlad)

"That's a thing!" (Jack)

"No, he's lying." (Ginger)

"Oh..." (Jack)

"But there is a training camp if you want to learn more about your own magic. It's like school but worse." (Ginger)

Jack sat down on a piece of flat destroyed concrete. He looked at Marsh's sleeping face.

He was awake.

"Good morning Marsh." (Jack)

---

Ono. The silvery haired girl, with beautiful dark eyes and a soft smile. She leaned forward staring deeply at Yaku's darker eyes.

"So... What do you have to show me?" (Ono)

Yaku took a sip of his drink. He then reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a ziplock bag. He tossed the bag onto the small singular table in front of him.

"It's from a Black Chance Box." (Yaku)

They sat in a cafe, on high stools, next to a large window looking out on the morning streets.

"Did you say Black Chance Box?! You got your hands on a Black Chance Box! And you opened it?!" (Ono)

"I didn't open it, but..." (Yaku)

He thought about telling her about Jack's magical abilities and his trick to increase the number of boxes. But then he realized Ono would take full advantage of him, so he stopped himself.

"Yes, actually, scratch that, I did open it. And this item... I've done my own tests and I can't figure out what it is. And since your an expert on Magical Enchanted Weapons I thought-" (Yaku)

"You thought right!" (Ono)

She quickly picked up the feather. She held it up to the window. She leaned in looking at its intricate details, its holy shine.

"It definitely comes from something with magic, could be ancient, could be modern. It could come from a monster..." (Ono)

She placed it back on the table.

"It most definitely comes from a monster... I'd say..." (Ono)

She leaned in close, sliding her face against the small wooden table, slowly turning toward Yaku.

"I'd say it's at least A-Class or higher. I can't tell you its properties without taking it back with me, but I can tell you it's strong, very strong, in whatever way it works, and whatever it is... Is that enough to satisfy your excuse to go out on a date with me?" (Ono)

Yaku put the feather back into his jacket pocket.

"Um... Ok thank you... And now that we're done with that... We should talk about..." (Yaku)

He looked away embarrassed.

"Um..." (Yaku)

"You not good this are you?" (Ono)

"Ono, it's been a while." (Yaku)

She leaned forward placing her face cutely on the small table.

"Ono..." (Yaku)

"You want to talk about us, don't you?" (Ono)

---

On the second floor of the concrete facility, the group is traveling to their last destination.

Jack and Ginger are walking on the front line, as Vlad and Marsh are slowly limping behind.

"Ginger aren't we done with this place?" (Marsh)

"Not until we get to that locked door. That's our last destination before we report back to HQ. I think it's the perfect place for a Monster or a Rogue Sorcerer to be hiding." (Ginger)

They reached a long dark and damp hallway. Doors opened wide, blood and guts hanging, from edge to edge. The smell turned gruesome.

Jack stepped up in front of the group. His memories. His remembrance. He remembered. The chance. The chance.

A man in a purple mask, trench coat, and bloodied bandages wrapped around his arms appeared from thin air.

He held out two balls of flesh, he pointed them at the group on the other end of the hallway.

"Go my little ones." (Frankenstein)

He tossed the balls down the corridor.

"Yin and Yang!" (Jack)

He tossed his black orb into the air. He ran in the other direction. The two rolling balls of flesh.

Frankenstein crossed his index fingers wrapping them up into a tight chain.

"Release!" (Frankenstein)

The chain snapped.

The balls began to form into massive waves of flesh and gore. Spirling in and out. Hand, hooves, legs, nostrils, eyes, toes, tongues, mouths. All types of all living things were pushed into a gigantic wave of gooey skin and plummeting flesh.

Jack grabbed Ginger by the hand. Her pulled her away from the wave.

"Everyone get back! I'm gonna kill it in one big blast!" (Jack)

Vlad and Marsh turned around as Jack and Ginger passed them. They turned around. Marsh was too slow. Vlad was too tired. Ginger reached out. She held out her two hands.

"Don't worry my magic is perfect for this type of situation!" (Ginger)

She pointed her pinkies and index fingers at the space between the black orb and them.

"Glass Mirror!" (Ginger)

An invisible barrier formed between the space between.

"Jack now!" (Ginger)

He used his magic.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The monsters exploded into trillions of small chunks. The walls and building shook as the foundations became unstable due to the high pressure and force being erupted inside.

The walls crumbled around them. The ceiling began apart as the floor turned to cracks and wrinkles.

Ginger's invisible barrier protected everyone from Jack's initial explosion, but the surrounding damage and the fact that they were all in a building about to fall apart, posed a greater threat.

"Shit the ceiling!" (Ginger)

She turned to Jack, but he was already gone, already missing. She then looked to the ground as it collapsed around her.

She fell to the darkness below.

Vlad and Marsh stood next to each other. The walls and roof slowly fell apart from every angle.

"Vlad! The roof!" (Marsh)

"Stay behind me kid!" (Vlad)

He pushed Marsh to the ground, standing with his fists to the sky, ready to take the falling ceiling with all his remaining force.

"Vitality Exorcism!" (Vlad)

A bright shining light shot out from his palms.

---

Dust everywhere... Rubble everywhere...

The building crumbled apart.

Two stories turned to one.

One turned to none.

Two minutes passed. Ginger laid flat on the desert landscape. Her heavy breathing and exhausted limbs.

"That Jack... Huf Huf Huf... That explosion was too much... Huf Hufe... It took all my magic to nullify it..." (Ginger)

She stared up at the sky. The cloudy sky. The morning sky.

Footsteps echoing from the destroyed building, a few meters to her right.

Vlad held the injured Marsh in his arms. His body glowing bright yellow light.

"Where's Jack?" (Ginger)

He silently laid Marsh out flat on the ground next to Ginger.

"We can't worry about him right now. Marsh needs our attention." (Vlad)

She looked at the injured kid. His body was scratched to hell, the wounds on his arm and shoulder had reopened, and his head was cut open, bleeding all over the place.

"My magic can slow down the bleeding on his head. But it's... It's beyond my capabilities at the moment... I... We'll need a doc..." (Vlad)

"A doctor... Jeez...! Huf Huf... That was a shit show...! Hahaha! You think I'll be able to get my promotion points now? Nah... Probably not. Hahahaha!" (Ginger)

Vlad fell to the ground with a thump. His body exhausted to its limits.

"What are you talking about? Promotion... All that stuff... Like I said earlier... Just... Just wipe it all... All away... For how long... How long I've lived... It's best not to worry... On... Things... So... Impertinent..." (Vlad)

He dozed off into a long long long rest.

Ginger sat up.

"Vlad...? Vlad are you ok?!" (Ginger)

He woke himself up with pure will power.

"I... I... I...! I can't... I can't stop now!" (Vlad)

---

On the destroyed facility. Rubble and debris in every direction. Concrete spread on every level. Smoke rising from the center, a pillar of ash and dust.

A purple mask. Purple eyes.

"I know about your mother's death. What happened to her." (Frankenstein)

Jack stood opposite of Frankenstein. His purple eyes peering through the slits in his clothed mask.

Jack's green eyes peering through the layer of blood.

"My mother's death... How? Who are you?!" (Jack)

Frankenstein stepped closer. His bandaged arms held out in a hug.

"Not to be attracted. Not to be retracted. Only subtracted and multiplied. Who am I?" (Frankenstein)

"Huh...?" (Jack)

"I am Frankenstein!" (Frankenstein)

"Frankenstein...? Like the monster?" (Jack)

"No... Silly silly..." (Frankenstein)

He stood in the sunlight. The dashing lights and bright shines of the outside world.

Frankenstein looked down at his destroyed building. His dead experiments and creations.

He turned back to Jack.

Purple... Green...

"I have been looking for you my friend. I know every little thing you did back then. Your lost memories. What you did to her, what she did to you." (Frankenstein)

"Who?! what are you talking about?" (Jack)

"How much you loved her." (Frankenstein)

"Who- Who... Sofia?" (Jack)

He nodded.

"Sofia...? Sofia? Who..." (Jack)

Jack fell forward onto his knees. He grasped his head. His memories. His past. The monsters. The forest. His mother. His everything.

He was frozen. Unable to move, speechless. That simple name lost in his mind, his memories, a snapshot of his past locked in an infinite spiral of love, death, remembrance, reincarnation.

He snapped...

"It's just human nature." (Frankenstein)

Jack held out his hands...

He made the hand signs...

Yin and Yang.

His eyes turned black and white.

His magic... Became sinister...