Earths Pawns (reboot)

Axel seen stars! Alistair headbutted him in the nose, blood poured as the man dived away. Axel was on his knee's as Alistair ran through the alley and all he could do was try not to pass out.

Months of hard training made no difference. Training could not make up for inexperience and he realized that now... If he was ever to fight him, Axel would die. Then Axel remembered something that made him forget all about the pain. His eye's! They were grey and not black! The man he faced month's ago had black eye's and a duel bladed battle axe... Or maybe the pain was from a mild concussion. This Alistair hit like a blacksmith hammer and ran like lightening! Axel knew one thing for sure, next time they would meet, he wanted to talk about that day he met a man that dressed like him. And to see the man's eye's one more time.

Ella's voice pulled him out of his pain induced thought's. He looked to her as she shot toward Alistair and then just started to srceamed
"STOP IT! MAKE IT STOP!"
Axel tried to get up but his vision went dark and he faded into the darkness of his mind.

 

Helen burst into the church and came up short as she saw Terios standing there with his weapons at the ready. Yet even this young man, prepared to kill her on the spot, evoked no emotion in her. Coming to a stop she stared at the young man for a while before the change in scenery made itself a priority. Her confusion returned as the old church seemed to be just about to collapse if the wind blew too hard. It would have been a shocking sight if she were capable of emotion.

"Everything is different now," she said in a calm voice. "I wonder what could have happened to make everything decay so much overnight."

She mused over the possibilities but found that only one made much sense. That one however, was preposterous.

"You can relax," she told the young man who still had his weapons at the ready. "As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not much of a threat to you."

 

Zillis remained unaffected by the loud crash of thunder that seemed to come from nowhere. Instead he watched as Zoe panicked for a moment. Though the room was pitch black he could see fairly well his eyes has adjusted for quite some time. The hardwood shining ever so faintly though no light entered save for the slight moonrays from the window.

A lamp near dead from the flame almost extinguished far from Zoes bed. A messy floor of paper and books also was part of the decor. He got up from his corner and moved silently. When he reached close enough to her bed he spoke in a calming manner.

"It is okay Zoe. I am here, Ella and Brad will be home soon enough." He sat down on the bed and gently grabbed a hold of Zoe. Placing her against his chest and laying down on his back with her, he figured the best way to keep her calm was to just let her know she wasn't alone. Thing settled outside quickly at least the noise and the light.

"Everything will be okay Zoe. Zilly is here for you. I'll be here to protect you in your times of need, You'll never need to feel alone when you need it most." with his feet he moved zoes pillow to his free hand and grabbed a hold of it laying it on the side of him in case she decided she wanted to lay on the side of him.

 

"Yeah, you better run."
Brad chuckled with a wry grin as the man with the axe made his escape. He didn't even try to fire at him, it was only fair since he left peacefully. Soon after, he looked back to Ella and his expression turned to one of deep concern when he saw that she seemed to be in agony, kneeling down and screaming. He looked around for any possible attackers but nothing caught his gaze.
"Ella...? What's going on?"
He whispered under his breath, thinking out loud more than anything as there was no way anyone could have heard him. Unsure of what else to do and becoming more frantic by the second, he put away his gun, folded up the tripod and made his way back downstairs. But when he did, the section of stairs that he was running down started to shift ever so slightly. Brad's head snapped downward as he saw the stairs beginning to move.
"No. No no no--AH!"
The stairs began to give out beneath his feet and soon collapsed entirely, sending him tumbling down to the floor. He groaned loudly as he landed face-down on the floor below, trying to regain his senses as slowly lifted his head. He stumbled the first time he tried to get back up on his feet as his blurry vision slowly started to come back into focus. His second attempt got him back up onto his feet and while he was still a little wobbly, he made his way out of the building just in time to hear Ella call out.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm here!"
Brad followed the voice to a nearby building and made his way inside, hanging on the door's framework for support. However, he didn't want to look weak in front of Ella so he turned around into a casual-looking lean as he replied again in a less ragged voice.
"What's up? Whatever it is, I've gotcha covered."

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Terios took some time to inspect the woman, even after she claimed to be harmless. After all, he rarely took people at their word, as he knew that doing so would likely lead to a quick death. After taking a closer look, he was finally satisfied-- at least for the moment-- that she seemed to be unarmed and held no ill intentions, so he nodded and put away his bow and arrow. He then sat back down in the pew, still keeping a close eye on her.
"And people tell me that I'm strange for always being so calm. She barely even flinched while I was aiming right at her."
Shaking the thought out of his mind for now, he asked the obvious question.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seemed to be in quite a hurry just now. I think I heard a church bell earlier. Does it have something to do with that?"

 

"There is some emergency," Helen told him. "I'm unsure what. However my reason for running has to do with a rather nefarious man who likes to keep his face hidden. I don't know his name. But he has taken an interest in me. One that seems rather unholy."

It all started with that hidden tomb. She should have left the infernal thing to rot in its hiding place.

"Yet even though I should fear for my life. I feel nothing at all. It is quite strange, feeling this emptiness inside yet being unable to know why."

She shrugged and took a seat in the nearest pew. There were too many gaps in her memory to make everything sit correctly. The man and his monster attacking her in the library, then those two knights attacking her and her library a collapsing ruin. Then vomiting up what she could only think of as the two men that had been before her. Now even the church was in ruins.

She stared into the dark corners of the church, though there was no way to prove it, she could have sworn that the shadows writhed under her scrutiny.

 

"Crap...she's onto me."
Even though he knew she probably wouldn't buy it, Brad stood upright and laughed it off.
"Yeah, you know, I just took a little tumble down the stairs. No big deal."
He walked over to the unconscious man. He was noticeably slower and more careful as he did so, but he still managed to pick him up and carry him on his shoulder without much trouble, holding onto him with his right arm as he gave Ella a thumbs-up with his left.
"Like I said, no big whoop. Let's bounce!"

With that, the two of them made their way to Ella's horse then back to the house with the injured stranger. They went inside and Brad laid the man down on a couch, after which he turned to Ella with a concerned look.
"So...should we, like, tie him up or something? What if he's not too crazy about being here?"
He then scratched his chin as another thought occurred to him.
"And what's Zilly gonna think about this? You know how he gets sometimes."
He averted his eyes and stifled a laugh.
"It'd be pretty funny if he flipped out, though. It always is."

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Terios looked deep in thought as the woman told her peculiar story. When she finished, he replied rather plainly.
"You might have been cursed. That's the only thing I can think of."
Social graces were not his forte, so he often came off as rather blunt and cold, as he likely did just now. Even so, there was a flash of curiosity in his eyes that could be seen even under his dark grey hood.
"I wonder what sort of curse could have that kind of effect. Can you think of any reason why you might have been cursed?"
Although he was concerned, he wasn't asking solely out of concern for her well-being. Always the strategist, Terios started to wonder if the source of this (assumed) curse could be harnessed and used as a weapon. If he could cure her along the way, all the better.

 

"What is this place?" Axel asked. It was warm and bright as a summer day. Axel turned his head to the left and right, fields of lush green grass stretched as far as the eye's could see. A warm breeze blew acrossed his face, he drew in a long breath and slowly let it out...

"It can't be..." He shakily got to his feet. "Please no, not this place!" Axel began to weep from his soul.

There was a small house straight ahead of him and a beautiful girl standing in the door. Her smile was sweet and her face as that of a goddess. He whispered one word
"Alexis..." Her eye's lit up as he spoke her name.

"You have been gone a long time Axel. You are probably so tired and hungry so I'll fix you some lunch!" She smile and said in her angelic voice.

Her voice... Once it melted away all his troubles and sorrow's, lifted him up out of his most depressed mood's. Now it made him sick and hurt in the most sicken ways, made his heart and soul weep bitterly. Once she was his and he was her's. He never ever loved anyone more than he loved her. She was his first and only love, his childhood friend and... his wife.

This was the day he began to wield his scythe and his white flame turned black a sin. This was the day that Axel will forever remember.

"Come on Ax! You look as if you saw a ghost." She laughed as she turned back in. She never heard him say.

"I did." No matter how many time's he dreamed this, it always hit him like the day it happen. "I can't keep seeing this. Please, hear me! If there are gods out there, please save me from the hell i'm in!" He watched as the smoke began to raise from the chimney, he knew no matter what, he would relive it agian.

Alexis screamed as a demon appeared outside the kitchen window and a again when another demon appeared in the den. The demon's were that of the Incubus kind but they were far more evil then the true demon's. Alexis began to scream his name... He felt his heart began to shatter as he knew what they were doing to her. They were the demons of sex after all... The screams never let until the demon's left. Axel, almost mindlessly and against his will, began to enter the house. He didn't want to, god's, He didn't want to. There she laid, cloth's torn to shred's, bloody and bruised. He held his hand's over his ear's but he knew what she said...

"Why didn't you save me? Why was you not here!? Why did you let them do this? YOU COULD HAVE SAVED ME AXEL!!!"

Axel grabbed the knife that fell in the floor and he did the only thing he wanted to do. He plunged the knife in his heart, praying that finally it would kill him...

 

'Death oh Death. Why hasth thou forsaken me?' The song sung in his head as the remenats of the dream faded. A flickering passed his eye lids was that of a candle and though it was cold before he passed out now he was warm... "How the?" He felt a pillow under his head and a blanket wrapped around him. No cloth's execpt his undergraments, how or what had happen after the alleyway?

He could breath out his nose, so the blood was gone but why? Who?

His eye's heavy but he forced them open... Boy he wished he hadn't because as soon as he did a gun was pointing right at him.

"Well damn, I would say you caught me with my pants down but... I ain't got none on." He smiled a sad smile as the girl cocked the hammer back.

 

Her question burned his ear's as hot coal's. Axel had killed more than his far share of the king's men. Bastard's raided villages, kill children and done what the demon's did to...

"I do NOT work for the king nor am I a fan either! If you looked at me without my cloth's then you should have seen the scar's! The thug's that the king use's gave me the most of them." He eye's turned to flames as he spoke but even the flames could not hide the tear's the threaten to fall. "Should i ever meet our GREAT king, I will burn him to ash!"

Axel didn't feel the tears fall. All he heard was the ghost's voice asking for help. "I must get stronger! Even if i sell my soul, I'll get stronger!"

He didn't care that she saw his tear's for his heart harden at the thought of what the king has done.

 

She was right about the haze in his vision, the world looked like it did that time he drunk WAY too much. What did he come here for? There was no money to be made, though he didn't need it. He had no family or friends here... Was it that he was hoping to see if the little girl made it? Did he care? Truthfully he didn't know...

"My name is Axel Bishop. I'm a merc and a bodyguard but most of the time I just help to have a home. I'm no saint, I never will be but I swear to you, that no harm will befall you or your friends. You helped me when you could have more easily left me there but you chose to help. I'll repay you in any way I can. As for how I found this village, ha, My wif... I owned a place about a hundred and forty miles east of here, I passed through when I traded my crops." Axel almost said his wife... "The last time I was here...ummm about ten years ago. They were just cleaning up."

He sighed as his vision cleared. He looked around the room and saw the damage and yet you could feel the aura, it said Home.

"I would like to stay a little while longer, if I'm no burden. I will help in anyway you want. I can guard or partrol or cook... You learn some trade's when you travel." Axel heard the desperation in his own voice. Gods what a mess he had become. Axel lowered his head as he waited for the girl to speak.

 

Did he hear her right!? Was she really letting him stay!? "I don't know if I can talk or trust my voice to not cra-..."

Axel stopped mid-thought as he saw her in her nightgown...."Damn... I wonder what color her panties are???" For the turth was, Axel was a upskirt and panty clad pervert. (OOT): Can anyone tell me the character that made that line funny? It is an anime! yoohahooo!

Axel shook the thought out of his head as she countued...

He nodded as he filed away the name's.

"Yes Miss. Ella." As she opened the door

"Thank you m'lady. Goodnight." Axel said as Ella shut the door. He heard the loud click as she locked the door.

Axel looked around, a bed, chair, night stand, and a window over looking the... eastern fields... The gods must really hate him. He slumped down in the chair and watched as the rain quit after a few hour's and the sun began to raise at dawn. He has never slept much since then and has gotten use to going day's without it. Since Ella took his pack, he could not mix the brew of herb's to place him in a comatose like state. His body rested but he was aware of his surrounding's as he 'slept'. But the potion had a strange affect on him, it would change his eye color to black where the white is and red where the green was. It lasted longer and longer each time, Ten minute's, thirty minute's, an hour, and now it was up to a week.

Damn... His thought's returned to Ella. Pretty, young, sharp mind, but it wasn't attraction that he felt... More like a feeling of owing her a debt. Maybe he could pay her... "Yea, good going, idiot! Make stupid joke's and she will cut your ball's off!"

Oh yeah, him... That was Axel's inter-retard. He tell's him when he is doing stupid shit, like when he to Axel not to place that mirror on his boot and follow women around. Yeah, it worked cause he saw a young boy do it and this mountain of a man came out of nowhere and THREW the boy across the road. He got the hell out of there.

He waited for someone unlock his door. Axel wondered if it was Ella or Zellis or Brad?

 

"Mommy and daddy faught hard, Zoe. They're still with you in your heart never let their memory go. They'll always be with you." Zillis began to gently run his fingers through zoes hair in hopes it would help ease her troubles.

"Don't worry zoe, I won't leave you. You'll come with me and we will all protect you, Brad, Ella, and I. One day you'll grow up to be big and strong just like Ella. And you won't need me anymore but you'll still want me around." He smiled though she couldn't see him. Do such he waited and waited until he finally heard the soft snores of a child. He closed his eyes to rest a little but he couldn't. He heard a gentle creak on the floorboards, it gave away that it was Ella, he realized she heard him comforting Zoe, Though she hadnt called out his name he got up and placed down Zoe gently,

Her head gently resting on the pillow he covered her with her blankets to keep her warm and silently turned around. He made his way to the door while she silently spoke out. "Zill, can we talk?"

Once he reached the door he opened it only enough to slip his figure out of the door. And looked at Ella.

"What is it?" he whispered. And began to walk away from Zoes door. So he could keep her asleep.

 

Alistair continued along the rooftops. It was safer up here. Less chance of getting cornered and caught off guard. No one was chasing him but that didn't stop him from wanting to be careful. One close call was one too many for his liking.
That's when he saw it.
Alistair stopped abruptly and looked into the street. There was a figure moving briskly through the town. In the dark and the rain, most people wouldn't have seen anything. Some would have been able to make out the outline of a person. But to Alistair, they may as well have been radiating light, a shining beacon against the darkness.
He could smell the beast. Taste it. Feel it. He hadn't expected to come across another so soon, and he doubted this one would be anymore prepared than the last.
He broke into a sprint, running and jumping from building to building to get parallel with his new quarry, occasionally, and subconsciously, planting his free hand on the roof to give him a greater burst of speed. Once he was close enough, he leaped from the roofs towards the creature below, his wicked blade ready to tear them to pieces.