Chapter 2: Shape of One’s Soul

A dark alleyway, a corner of the city unknown to most, writhes with the mass of a fresh kill. A young figure peers down at the tragedy. "That makes three," she says in a somber tone "At least I must be close." She says seemingly to herself, before pressing onward into the darkness.

New York City, September 17th, 9:00 AM. Malva was walking closely behind the orange haired boy. She had been trying to learn from Anthony the past few days, even if his lessons are hard to grasp. Malva watched the boy walk infront of her. Anthony mentioned his name was Dan, and that "He's a bit rough around the edges." Malva wasn't one to judge a book by its cover, but it's hard to argue with the sentiment when Dan himself almost encourages it. He typically wore a flannel shirt with some kind of rock T-shirt underneath, and some banged up jeans. He also carries a large instrument bag, but it isn't clear what's inside. The shape seems clunky and weird for something like a guitar, but Malva wasn't too worried about that. 

"Soooooo…" Malva began while coming up from his side "You're learning from Anthony too, right?" Dan looks down at her with a sarcastic look on his face "No shit, Sherlock. How'd you figure that out? Maybe the fact I live there?" His words were as sour as his tone. "Let's get back so you can finish your dumb lesson." Malva playfully pouts back "You don't gotta be so mean." As she says this, Dan looks over to her with an annoyed expression, before turning to see her performing very overdramatic puppy dog eyes. His expression softens and he lets out a slight chuckle. "Fine, fine." He waves his hand dismissively. "I know you're gonna ask about what Anthony is teaching you, so shoot." He walks casually forward while she ponders her question. She remembers back to what Anthony was talking about. "A construct is made using two things, your knowledge and your will. Once you master those, you can pretty much do anything." The teachings Anthony has been giving are somewhat vague, but Malva seems to be picking up some of it.

"So, how do I do the whole… will thing?" Malva asked with a simple expression, like a child asking why the sky is blue. Dan put a palm on his forehead while leaning back a bit "Damn old bastard didn't even tell you about soulage?" he said as he rubbed his temples. "Look, The short answer is, you gotta first find your soul." Dan stares at Malva, as she blankly stares back. Silence creeps across the air. "Yea that's goin' nowhere." As Dan says this, he forgot to look in front of himself as the pair were walking, and struck his face into a street sign. "Son of a bitch!" He yelps, despite appearing to have no physical damage. Strangely, neither Dan or Anthony have taken any form of injury through the past few days. Given the amount of times both have either been struck by either the bar or Esmeralda, Malva asks "Hey, how come you don't get bruised?" Dan, rubbing his head "Same thing I just mentioned, soulage. I'm not good at the whole teaching thing so ask Esmeralda about it."

Dan points ahead of their path "We gotta stop up there, we get our lunches at the corner store." and without even realizing it, Malva was back at Mr. Guspatchi's small corner shop. A boisterous voice rings from behind the register "Malva! Haven't seen you much lately, get a hobby or something?" the large and familiar man smiled. As he welcomes his close friend, the customer in front of him seems mildly annoyed. A young, dark toned woman, with her hair tied up in a bun using a crystal hairpin. She wore a cold blue dress that rose just above the shin. She looks very well put together, and was checking out what seems to be a lunch before she continued on some errand. "Can you continue, please?" She spoke in a refined manner, yet there was an underlying sass to every word she said. "Ah yes, yes just a moment." Mr. Guspatchi says as he turns to finish ringing her up. As she pays for her things, her and Dan make eye contact. She seemed to glare for a moment, and Dan had an exhausted look on his face. She walks up to him after paying, "Well, look who it is," she starts, "the prodigal son. Your father sure has a nice way of ensuring the return of our comrades." She crosses her arms with her bag tucked under. "I'm sure he does, whatever he did." Dan replies, almost not caring about what she's saying to him. "Yea, seeing him fly through the window was certainly… something." Her expression softens as she lets out an exasperated sigh, she turns to Malva with a somewhat more friendly tone "I wouldn't associate with guys like him if I were you." "The hell's that supposed to mean!?" Dan snaps from his non-caring attitude into agitation on a dime. "Nothing you have to worry about." She says with a coy attitude. They glare at each other, Dan meeting the woman's smug smile with a nasty grin. "You'll be happy to hear she's not associating with me, but my dad. He took her on as a student." The woman's smug look turns to one of concern as she looks to Malva "What? Oh you have got to be kidding me." She rubs her temples in frustration. "Alright, I'll just have to make a report later. But first I'll need your name. Or, I suppose I should introduce myself first. I'm Olivia Lockhart, a private investigator." She holds up some kind of badge she pulled from her suit jacket. "I work for a construct agency. I know you must be new to the concept, seeing as you don't have soulage yet." Malva has a sudden puzzled look on her face. An investigator for constructs? That must be who that angry guy was the other day. How can she tell I don't have soulage? "Uhm… Malva, ma'am." Olivia's softer expression gets a twinge of annoyance at the use of "ma'am". She sets herself upright and re-addresses Dan, with a more casual tone. "Just… try and stay out of trouble alright? I've been tracking excessive construct use in your bar's area, and I don't think it's you guys. As for you," she turns to Malva with an almost apologetic smile. "Reconsider associating with them. You're putting yourself in unnecessary Danger." Dan puffs out his chest. "She chose it all on her own, you know, woke my ass up at 5 in the morning to tell me about it." Malva pouts at Dan "I'm not the one who pushed you down the stairs." She says under her breath. "I FOUGHT those stairs and WON for your information." he plants his arms crossed, as if he said something intelligent. Both Malva and Olivia give him a dumbfounded look. "Right then, I have lunch to deliver. Give us a call if there's trouble, Steven hates when you handle it yourselves." the woman says as she hurries away. The pair stand a bit befuddled, as Malva looks to Dan "So what was that about?" Her questioning continued. "Ugh. She's a cop with a construct, part of a little agency. They pester us all the time." Dan answers her questions haphazardly, not really caring to give an answer at all let alone deep insight. 

As they step into the small corner shop, the smell of fresh deli meat lingers through the old, dimly lit store. Small shelves line the shop in rows, filled with various snack foods or drinks. Malva approaches the counter, as Dan peruses the junk food. "I see you've made a friend!" Mr. Guspatchi loudly proclaims, causing Malva to blush. Dan doesn't seem to be paying attention, however. "Yea, I guess you could say that." Malva laughs sheepishly. Dan abruptly appears next to Malva with a bag of spicy chips he rummaged from the shelves, a two liter soft drink, and a wad of cash in 10s. "this and thr-" he looks down at Malva. He re-rummages in his pocket and pulls out an additional crumpled five. "Four sandwiches." Malva raises an eyebrow, but shrugs. "Thanks I guess, but you don't have to pay for mine. Mr. Guspatchi basically raised me, I live just down the street." Dan looks confused at Malva for a moment, the gears turning in his head almost audible. He slowly retracts the crumpled five from the counter. The pair soon wrap up their lunch errand. As they begin to leave the shop, Malva calls out "take care!"

The pair return to Bigsby's, Dan holding what's left of his meal, kicks the door to the bar open. "We got your food, old man." as he plops the bag on the bar. "And here you go Ez." Dan hands Esmerelda her food with a friendly exchange of smiles while passing her stall, walking past into the backdoor. Malva, slightly stunned by Dan's sudden retreat, sits at the end of the counter with her own meal. A loud 'THUD' shakes the counter top, as Anthony rises from underneath, rubbing his head. "Awh, you're back, good." He rises from behind the bar and vaults over, onto the stool next to Malva, sitting reversed.

 "I had a great idea!" he proclaims, "Why talk so much about it, when I could just show yah!" As he finishes this phrase, he plants a few miscellaneous pieces in front of Malva; a glass lens, some metal wire, and a small hand whittled handle. "What is… all this?" Malva stares at the apparent junk. "Oh, your first construct, of course!" He says this as if he were gloating already. After a moment of Malva staring at him, Anthony rights himself and continues "The concept should be simple enough, just hold this piece o' glass between your thumb and fingers, and concentrate as much as you can on what you think a 'soul' looks like" he says this while picking and placing the glass piece in her hand. Malva gives a confused look to Anthony, then shifts her stare to the glass. "Well, what does a soul look like?" Anthony's expression shifted to one of thinking, "Putting it bluntly, it changes from person to person. You kinda gotta flub it a bit. Just… use your best guess." His grin seemed reassuring, but the task, daunting. She gazed at her reflection in the glass piece, before closing her eyes. Anthony watched eagerly, waiting for something to happen. She focused, straining herself pretty hard before finally giving in. "I'm not sure this is working." She says with an apologetic smile. Anthony's expression drops for a moment, before returning to shit-eating grin. "It'll just take some time, you'll get it." He waves his hand dismissively. 

Esmeralda takes the seat next to Malva, "Take your time, envision yourself. Try to see what really represents you, and get in touch with it. Imagine that shape." She coached, her instructions guiding Malva. As the fledgling concentrates again, there's a form of calmness that she emanates, and as she looks to the glass piece, nothing had changed. "Hmmm… guess it takes more practice. Just keep tryin'." Anthony spouts as a spectator. "You guess?" Malva stares at Anthony with mild disappointment. 

"To be fair, I've never taught this part before." Anthony says with a shrug. He swigs of a drink that had been on the bar for a while, as Esmeralda rubs the bridge of her nose. Malva looks between the two, confused. Esmerelda catches her attention "What he means to say, none of us have experience gaining soulage through training. Anthony, Dan, and myself all awoke to the ability either through trauma, or forcefully." Anthony Chimes in "Dan is the only one without prior experience when he found it, and the two of us have pretty particular backgrounds, so you can't really make comparisons." Malva's expression sours "So what? You don't know how to teach me?" Anthony replies, offended "I know what I'm doin'! Just haven' done it befor'. The first step is makin' a lens to see soulage, then you can learn it easy!" Malva gives an annoyed expression, before a confused one. 

"I keep hearing that, but what is it? 'Soul-age'?" Anthony and Esmerelda look at each other, Es glaring at Anthony with daggers for eyes, as he returns a nervous shrug. "You didn't even explain that? I can't believe you, honestly." The disappointment in her voice was palpable. She then turns to Malva "Soulage is the body of the soul. It completely surrounds and houses a person, and permeates their very being, similar to an aura. Everyone's soulage appears differently, in many unique shapes and forms. Having this ability, and infusing it into an item creates a Construct. It is the first, and hardest step of the learning process." Malva nods along as Esmerelda explains, not quite grasping it perfectly. 

"The most important thing to remember, everything comes from your belief and will. You shouldn't require Soulage to make this," She says as she gathers the pieces and hands them to Malva. "Just keep trying, and shape it the way you feel is best." Malva looks at the miscellaneous pieces, imagining how it would have to be put together. As Malva contemplates the junk, she snaps to a realization "Oh right, I have to help my mom with the truck today! I gotta run," She hurriedly gathers her things into her bag. "I'll be back tomorrow!" She calls back to the bar as she runs out the door. Anthony kicks back, "yea, you can count on that." he chuckles to himself.

Malva jogs down the sidewalk, making a quick turn before colliding with another body. A loud smack is heard as the pair fall to the ground. As Malva collects herself, she looks up to see a young man with long, stark white hair rubbing his head. "Oh! I'm so sorry, hold on, let me help you!" The young man scrambled, he was lanky and pale, and had a nervous look about him. The scrambled boy assisted Malva to her feet. "Oh dammit, it's already time!" he says looking at his phone clock, before running off around the corner. She investigated herself, finding it didn't hurt at all. Malva stood somewhat dumbfounded at the interaction, and carried on to her destination. As she walks, she can smell the familiar scent of the Taco truck, and her mother's famous ground beef. Malva opens the back door and steps inside, seeing her mother turning in circles preparing food for a few customers. "Oh good, you're just in time!" She lugs a large box of soda into Malva's arms. "Put these away, will you?" Malva nods along as she helps her mother, and the day wraps up like any other. As Malva toils through the work, she continues thinking about the junk. She wondered what they meant about her soul, and how she would find it.

The questions plague her mind as she lulls to sleep, and churn once again the moment sunlight hits her eyes. She rushes through her morning, blazing by her mother and out the door. "I'll do It!" she thinks to herself "I'll make it work, no matter what!" The determination carried her sprint through her morning route, as if she were gliding across the wind. Before she had even realized it, she had finished her commute.

Entering her usual morning spot, she rummaged out the assortment of trash she got from a drunk man. Looking at the items directly curbed her enthusiasm, as it dawns on her she still doesn't fully understand it. She fiddles with the pieces and ponders how to use them, but her thoughts are interrupted. "Hey!" Casey flings herself over the concentrated Malva. "Whatcha doin?" Malva's arch over the junk buckles with the added weight, as she responds "Being confused." she said bluntly. "What's with the stuff? You making something?" She picks up and holds the glass lens to look through, moving it back and forth in Malva's face to create a warping effect. "Kinda, I guess I'm having a hard time visualizing." As Malva maintained her strange pose while deep in thought, Casey mimicked her pose and questioned. "Hmm, what're you stumped on? Stick shape?" She waves around the loose handle. "Nah, I have to make a… monocle or something. I just don't get how it's supposed to go together." Casey raises an eyebrow, as Peter steps closer to the pair. 

"What's that? An arts and crafts project?" Peter asked. "Something Malva needs to make, guess you gotta look through it." Casey holds the lens and handle, not finding a particularly good position to fasten them. "Ugh, that's not even the hard part." Casey pipes up "Well, shoot. Maybe we can help." She sets the junk somewhat orderly on the table. "Hmmm… if you could compare me to anything… what would it be?" Peter and Casey give her a strange look. "Seems unrelated, but I guess if I had to pick something… maybe a flower? You act really nice, but I know you're strong enough to grow through concrete!" Casey giggles at her own comparison. "But seriously, what are you making? Is this wire thing meant to hold this?" Peter continues worrying about the real issues at hand. "Uh, I guess so? If anything I think the wire is how you connect them, like a glasses frame?" Malva responds, not sure of the physical composition herself at the thought. "Oh yea, this handle has a hole in the top for it." Casey claims her observation. "Well, good luck with this one, I'm grabbing a snack before class." Casey states as she plops the handle back into Malva's hands.

 A flower? Maybe Casey was on to something, but Malva couldn't quite put her finger on it. As she thinks to herself, the morning bell rings. Casey, Peter, and the rest of the students hurry off to their classes for the day, Malva slacking slightly behind to gather her project. Malva's classes continue as normal, but she distracts herself with the trinket. She toils on what Casey said, as she does the same with the pieces. She goes from class to class, pondering over how to put the contraption together. She clacks the pieces together through her day, every bit of her mind focused on making it, much to the dismay of her teachers. 

After hours of focus, something almost clicks for Malva, as she loops the metal wire around the lip of the handle, and then surrounding the lens, remembering everything she was told. As she finishes her craft, she looks down at the somewhat misshapen monocle with mild discontent. "Well, let's see?" she thinks to herself as she raises the lens to her eye tentatively. As she peers through the gadget, at first she simply sees the world as is, but as another student walks by, Malva could make out a sort of… outline? A silhouette? She wasn't quite sure, but surrounding everyone she peered at was some strange foggy aura. Some had more details, she could make out a few things like feathers, wheels, or even a flowing river, almost like clouds forming familiar shapes. Malva, taken aback at her apparent success, could barely contain her excitement. 

She spends so long watching people with her lens, she almost forgot the school day had ended, and she was supposed to go home. As she remembers this, an ominous feeling grips her, as if it were instinct. Confused, Malva evaluates her surroundings. But doesn't see anything at first, as she frantically looks back and forth. Something is wrong, and for some reason, she can feel it. As she goes through a mild panic, she remembers the thing she had just spent all day making, and peers through her lens at the area. As she does, only just around a corner of a nearby building she can make out a massive silhouette, much like the others, but at least four times the size, accompanied by a bright red color. This is the first time she had seen one with color as well. Almost as if waiting for this moment, the aura fluctuates, and disappears into the dark back alleys of the neighboring buildings. Malva is frozen in place, not knowing what to do, as she feels a hand on her shoulder. "Hey! You finish that art project thing? Looks… neat? Weird shape though." Casey blurts towards the mortified Malva, who jumps in reaction. "O-oh, hey Casey. Yea, I got it done. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be at first." she nervously smiles towards her confused friend. "Well, if you wanna show Peter, he's sticking around for his club stuff. I think the library? He seemed pretty interested in it anyway." She laughs a bit. "I'm heading home, see yah!" Casey jogs off, as Malva waves her off. Unsure of the strange presence, Malva decides to listen to Casey. Leaving the school grounds felt… dangerous for her. As Casey walked away, Malva checked through her lens, seeing a silhouette somewhat resembling… a chain link fence? 

Malva's concern melts away as she turns back into the school, and can make out more and more silhouettes and shapes, as she walks to the library. Entering into the library, Malva can see a motley gathering of the manga club, looking across the shapes of aura, more intrigued by each new form they take. She looked to Peter, who had seen her and walked over. The silhouette surrounding him seemed simple, if not a bit excitable. "So you finished making your…" He pauses as he looks at her, with this junkie lens to her face and giant smile. "Thing? It looks sturdy at least." Malva peels away from the lens, realizing how silly she likely looked staring at everyone with it. "Yea! It came together pretty easy once I figured it out." "Glad you got it figured out, then." Peter replies, not understanding what she was struggling with. 

"We're wrapping up for the day, if you wanna hang out for a while!" He points a thumb at the tables where a few chess boards are, with a group of people gathered around, it seems only a few are left. "I don't see why not, you seem excited about it." she laughs. Peter rejoins his clubmates in the circle, as Malva sits a bit outside, using her lens to look at everyone. As she glances over the group, she sees mostly silhouettes and vague shapes, but she could swear she saw a streak of purple in the mix. She is taken aback, but the color doesn't seem to stay. She looks across the group again, but can't discern anything else. She can hear Peter's voice from the other side of the group sound out "Man, this is so close! Way to go, new guy!" The group's chatter continues as the game goes on, Malva keeping her eye through her lens. Soon, the games wrap up and the small groups disperse. "I hope you had fun, even if you only watched like half a match." Peter laughed. As Malva followed Peter out of the library, she saw another silhouette with color deeper into the school, this time it appeared as a white or light blue wind. "I'll see you later." Malva waves off to Peter as she draws closer to the aura. 

She follows the flowing aura around a bend of lockers, before coming to a somewhat familiar sight. Olivia, the officer Malva encountered, walking through the halls of the school with her head on a pivot. She was surrounded by the same flowing wind, but upon closer inspection, it looked like it was snowing around her. As Malva gawks at the swirling snowflakes, Olivia turns and notices Malva. "Oh, fancy seei-" The woman starts with a surprised, yet pleased look. However, her expression quickly shifts to urgency and concern as she bolts directly at Malva. Olivia pulls Malva from behind the corner and behind herself, while she extends her free hand forward. A burst of cold erupts from Olivia's free hand, and as Malva looks up from bracing herself against the cold, a wall of ice covers the end of the hallway. Olivia whisks the remnants of cold from her hand, and turns to Malva. "A bit sudden, but at least that answers one of my questions." Olivia states as she readjusts herself. Malva stands herself upright with an expression of awe. There were sparkles in her eyes as she examined the ice that had manifested, but her wonder shifted to fear as she saw a gash across the thick ice wall, cutting halfway in and across the entire length of the ice. 

"Are you done gawking?" the woman asked, to which Malva regained focus. "Right, why are you here? And what's happening?" she says, gesturing at the Ice queen's fresh architecture. "I'm here to stop a… criminal. That-" she points at the gash on the opposite side. "Was said criminal. I don't know why they're here, but I've been tracking them for the last week." 

Her expression seems focused as she speaks to Malva, but it proves difficult to maintain that mood as Malva stares starry eyed. "So you can make ice? Can you make shapes? How much ice?" Malva excitedly asks questions faster than Olivia can react. "If you must know, I am capable of freezing anything. So, yes, yes, and yes." Her smug claims had Malva in awe as she bounces around the ice, observing it.

 The gravity of the situation returns to Olivia's expression as a clattering is heard on the other end of the school. "Stay behind me." Olivia says while looking down the way, readying herself. A trash can rolls across the end of the hallway slowly, seemingly the source of the noise. Malva hurriedly held her lens up to her eye, the aura surrounding Olivia was more active than before, whirling and churning around the hallway. At the end of the hallway, the same dark aura from earlier lurked around the corner, drawing closer as the sound of dry footsteps approached. 

A shriveled husk of a body lurks around the corner with shambling steps, wearing the remnants of some kind of suit. The body of the man was decayed and withered, with visible bone and sinew barely clinging itself together. He carried a strange looking dagger, with a curved short blade with a split down the ridge to the handle which itself is draped with some kind of fur. Olivia was taken aback by the appearance of the creature.

 "The hell? What even is that?" Malva recoiled from the sight, the ominous feeling quickly morphed into one of concern and worry. Olivia gives her a reassuring look "Don't worry, nothing I can't handle." she says as she creates sharp icicles with the wave of a hand, which launch at the shambling husk. The creature jolts and writhes as it is pierced through, once in the right shoulder and one in each leg. 

As it begins to fall,it breaks into a breakneck sprint, before leaping just above Olivia. She creates an ice wall mid-air in front of the oncoming attack, as the creature slashes downward, shattering the wall to pieces. Olivia retaliates with a left hook, creating a mass of ice alongside her fist and slamming it into the side of the undead abomination. Its thin body seems to crumple from the force of the block of ice, as it flings across the floor like a ragdoll. Loud scraping pierces the echoey halls as the knife of the creature halts its momentum, leaving massive gashes across the floor as it digs the knife in. Its right side was coated in a layer of ice, cracking as it moved its limbs. Both get into a stance to prepare for the next move, as Malva stares awestruck after recoiling from the ferocity of the brief interaction. 

"Quite fast for having no muscles," Olivia says, in a complaining tone. "I'll just have to slow you down." The husk launches from its position, but this time Olivia launches a huge burst of cold wind down the hallway, causing frost to build up on everything within sight. The husk freezes over, and is launched back from the attack. Olivia holds her arms out, maintaining the force of this wind. The undead grinds its flight to a halt with a similar screech as before, but this time it halts much sooner. It begins to force itself against the wind, despite the force Olivia is putting into it. Olivia darts her vision from side to side of the hallway, "Get in a classroom!" she calls out.

 Malva, heeding the warning, scurries up to a nearby door, fumbling with the door for a moment before busting it open and tumbling inside. Olivia leaps in behind, slamming the door and freezing it shut. Feral clawing and slashing rings through the hallway as the confused creature thrashes around. "Alright, that should buy a few moments." She adjusts herself, fixing her hair and calming her breath. "What is that thing!?" Malva blurts out, unable to hold her fears at bay. "Honestly, I have no idea. I've never seen the dead walk, but I suppose there's a first time for everything." Olivia says through winded breath.

Malva seems puzzled as she follows up "Why is it even here? I've never seen any of this stuff until recently, why now?" "It is strange, now that you mention it. This sort of thing usually completely avoids public places, no matter what… Well whatever that thing is, it's getting stronger." She seems to reflect on something for a moment. "I have some words of wisdom," She says as she prepares to breach the frozen door, "Always put living first." she halts as it becomes quiet on the other side. 

Before long, a voice can be heard "Helloooooo? Malva? Jeez, who invited Elsa and… a wild tiger? Is this how schools usually look? Malva, if you're in here Ez sent me to pick you up. Something about 'needing protection'. Oh hey, there's some- EEEEWWWW what even IS that? Is that BONE? Dude you need to see a doc- OH SHIT!" Loud crashing and scraping comes from the other end of the hallway. 

Olivia's expression shows that she seems to already be tired of this. "Great, the idiot's here. At least he's good for one thing…" She says as she opens the door slowly, the ice seemingly not interfering with the door at her command. As the door opens, Dan is flung from one end of the hallway directly into the ice wall covering the other end, he slams into it with a loud crack. "Ooooohohoh okay, playing rough then? THEN LETS- oh hey there you are." Dan pauses his dramatic speech as he notices the pair opening the door.

The undead creature stares blankly at the three, as if it's struggling to comprehend the change in circumstance. "Well, I'm gonna have to rely on you to distract it. You can handle that, right?" Olivia barks orders at Dan, who responds in turn "Distract? I'm gonna KILL this thing!" as he shouts, he tears into his instrument bag to reveal a large modified chainsaw, meant to be held similar to a sword.

 He yanks the pull cord, and the engine roars to life. "Alright ugly" he points the blade at the creature "time to rip you a new one." He breaks into a sprint, dragging the chainsaw along the ground, as the husk returns the sentiment, intending to joust. As the chainsaw is dragged, it cuts deeper and deeper into the floor, as Dan gets faster and faster. Right as the pair go for their swings, Olivia launches another icicle into the creature's blade, knocking it off course. Dan takes this opening, and cleaves straight through the undead's would-be bicep. Before the severed limb hits the ground, it yoinks the dagger from its loosened hand, and swings it across Dan's stomach.

 Blood splatters onto the ground as Dan coughs up more onto the visage of the abomination. "Not bad, you smelly bastard!" Dan kicks the husk in the chest, with an audible crunch. Holding his belly, Dan falls to one knee. "Holy shit! Dan!" Malva lunges forward, before Olivia's hand blocks her way. "You'd be in more danger than he is right now." 

As if on cue, Dan stabs his chainsaw into the floor, and a horrendous screeching sound rings out as it pierces the ground. The gaping wound begins to close as Dan rises to his feet. "What, you worried about me? I'm flattered." He looks back at Malva with a shit eating grin while delivering his cheesy one-liner. Malva stares at him, flabbergasted. Dan points his chainsaw at the walking, mutilated corpse. "Alright, let's try that again." Dan and the husk leapt at each other. Their weapons collided between them, and a large gash spontaneously appeared in the shoulder of the husk. Dan laughed "Yea, that's right!" he swung his leg at the dis-armed side, causing its body to fold as it was flung into the nearby lockers.

Malva had an epiphany, as she raised her lens to look at the two down the hallway. The husk had the same red aura she had seen, fiery and vicious like a raging wildfire. However, what caught her attention was Dan, who seemed to have various bladed weapons and metal scraps emanating and floating around him, as if shavings were peeling off of him and coalescing into the seeming junk he was surrounded in. 

Dan swings his blade down, but the husk slips the the side as Dan careens through the lockers. The corpse lets out a low growling noise, before belting out a yell while it zipped right by Dan, and left a similar gash in his shoulder to the one he had delivered to it. 

Olivia ran in behind the distracted creature, and placed her hand directly on its spine. As she does, frost and icicles cover its torso, riddling it with fresh wounds and aching bones. As she prepares to backpedal, the creature's arm moves in an unpredictable and unnatural way, cleaving Olivia's arm off with a terrible ripping noise. This blade was not sharp.

 Olivia lets out a pained scream as she propels herself backwards, placing her free hand on her wound, freezing the area. "Oh my god!" Malva screams in reaction to the visceral injury, before gagging a bit at the sight. "Calm down." Olivia said between pained and bated breaths "I'll… recover later." she winces as she reassures the panicking youth, while giving a weak smile.

Dan leaps at the undead, swinging his chainsaw downwards with full force, to which the creature blocks with its blade. As the chainsaw grinds on the knife, Dan yells out "THAT'S NOT ALL!" in what sounds almost akin to a metal song rasp. Malva, watching through her lens, sees many blade shapes manifest around Dan's back, and swing forward into his chainsaw, and around the zombie's guard.

 The undead's legs crumple from the continuous slashes and his blade gains additional strikes of force, pushing it further and further to the ground. Some of the blades pierce and pin the monster to the floor, as Dan raises the chainsaw overhead. He lets out a piercing scream as he brings the saw down with as much force as he can muster, cleaving the monster in half vertically. "And stay down." He says, wiping blood from his mouth as he stands up. The roar of the chainsaw dies down as he slings it over his shoulder and returns to the pair. "As promised, thing's dead." He proclaimed proudly, puffing out his chest and pointing at himself.

Olivia rests her head in her palm and shakes her head as Malva nearly explodes from the sight. "How are you alive?!" She points at Dan, accusingly. "I-I saw your-" she gags a bit. "Relax, I'm fine. I can heal damage like that easily." He acts exceptionally proud, "I absorb stuff my chainsaw cuts, so if I keep cuttin', I'm all good!" He finishes with a dumb smile.

 Malva looks dumbfounded, before glancing at what remains of the decrepit carcass. "Gross… but at least you're ok." As the tension settles, Olivia cuts in "I hate to say it, but I'm glad you showed up when you did. Thing was tenacious, even for a Wielder." Dan perks up "Oh yea, drop something?" he says, waving her own severed arm at her. "Man, you sure are a butter finger! But I'm absolutely welcome to lend a hand." he says each word with a progressive increase in snark. Olivia snatches her arm away from the miscreant. "And now I regret being nice to you. Great." She turns to walk away, passing Malva. "Remember my advice, alright?" she imparts a weak smile to her, and leaves. 

Dan recollects himself, almost literally, and begins strolling out. Malva follows him as they head back to Bigsby's. The pair arrive at the bar, pause for a moment and enter. Meanwhile, Olivia stands in front of a rather unimpressive office building, with a small hanging sign that says "Book n' Quill: Investigations" she glances at the sign before heading inside. After a few moments in the bar, and in the office, two very upset old men yell "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'A ZOMBIE'!?"