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Malachi was now trusting Teagan with his life while he fought. He understood her abilities and continued to plan ways in which they'd be of the utmost use in this battle. As there were no electronic devices in this particular room though, the only thing he could imagine her doing right now was what she was doing at the moment. Being the best backup lady she could. The Iranian appreciated the young woman's help more than she knew. Only by winning this fight, thought the commander, could he show his appreciation. After Teagan's disk-shaped bombs exploded on each side of the long-haired, magma wielding devil, Malachi resumed his approach. The magazine to his handgun appeared in his smoke formed hand with which he used to punch at the Exirian General. The man was dazed, so Malachi's attack landed effortlessly. Upon contact, one of the darts burst causing his cheek to harden into obsidian immediately. This was Malachi's plan for this fight. Not to kill him outright, but to first harden him into a mindless statue of rock. Afterwards, Teagan, Max or Samy preferably would blast him to rubble.

The Exirian General reeled in the siring pain that was his element being forced into a foreign form. He stumbled against a wall, but bounced off immediately. Malachi didn't need anymore openings, so the blonde did his best not to reveal or allow any. Looking over the smoke man's shoulder, he saw the red haired woman. Her abilities obviously weren't elemental so a shot of magma would easily kill her unless she had something up her sleeve. The long-haired blonde wasn't one to waste time on thoughts or tactics when one was presented already. He drove his fist into the floor sending an attack below Malachi straight to Teagan. Thanks to it being plaster and not Earth, the attack was slower than I should've been. After kneeling, the Exirian General found himself in thought....once again, he'd opened himself up for attack.

"Oh no you don't you son of a b***h....get up!" Before any harm could be done to his partner, Malachi lifted his leg to his opponent's nose in a swift kick that sent him back up against the wall. A bit of magma was splashed onto his shin and his upper leg when the blonde was knocked into the wall again. Malachi's mind wasn't on it, but he could definitely feel it. The stinging sensation was multiplied by his ashen core that lay just inches beneath his methane exterior. "Just when I thought you goddamn Owls couldn't get any lower..." Angered and fueled by rage and adrenaline now, Malachi delivered two punches. A right and a left hook. The right connected with the obsidian area of the general's cheek. The other, unfortunately, was caught. The general positioned himself so that Malachi's punch would sail over him into the elbow of his other arm. The end result saw Malachi stuck in an hold with his side completely open to any of the general's attacks.

With his armed locked, Malachi attempted to knee the man in his lava dripping face, but before he could, the blood eyed demon had struck a devastating blow. His punch, which was thrown wildly and strongly as if he knew it was going to hit regardless, tore away the lower left side of the CO's abdomen. The trail of his punch scorched away that, the center of his torso and the upper right side of his chest around his collarbone. As a brief counter attack, Malachi crushed the darts in his right hand over the head of the general rending almost half his body solid and cool rock. Silently, Malachi pulled away from the man holding his chest that dripped now with melted ash. Teagan was behind him, so he made sure not to rotate to show his current state. His hacking cough which came as a result to having his most of his torso burned away was more than enough of a sign for the red head behind him. "Alright....Ms. Snarky Skank....get your gun....and shoot like there is no tomorrow......." The Iranian fell to the side leaving the general open for Teagan to finish off. His wound was still invisible to her, but if she neared, she'd see the glowing red liquid dripping onto the floor from his body.

(I got on a roll...sorry about the large post..)

Malachi vision was starting to blur now thanks to the pain which now enveloped him. This man wasn't a weakling like the other Owls he'd faced up until this point. Still, his rage and blind fury was his weakness. The commander had seen this all too familiar sight before and with a grin, recalled the same strategy that saw him through each time. From how the general acted and used his powers, Malachi could see that he wasn't reliant on them, but he wasn't well versed in it's inherently destructive nature. It was magma after all and magma, much like fire, burns to cinders whatever it touches. Essentially, it kills all that comes into contact with it. This meant that with an ability so high on the tier list of abilities, as per the UNS, the general didn't see a need for a real strategy when he had such a brutish ability to abuse. His wildly thrown punches and his underhanded tactics were just a sign of what the general was capable of, but thanks to his methods of strategics, the general himself probably couldn't visualize anything beyond the most efficient ways of killing with his power. Simply put, the Owl was just another Owl with power so easily wielded, he didn't think much before acting. The Iranian CO knew what to do now.

Still holding onto the smoldering trail of burned ash that ran diagonally across his torso, Malachi pushed himself off of a bookshelf to gain his footing. The sounds of Teagan's gunfire brought a grin to his dry, parched and arid face. It let him know that she was still there fighting alongside him against this volcanic monstrosity. As the bullets pelted the general's rocky outer coating, Malachi lurched forward onto his feet and prepared to go on the offensive again. "I'm...I'm on it! Just keep---keep shooting!" The commander's voice that once echoed authoritatively and powerfully was now reduced to a hacking and wheezing remnant of what it once was.

The general could no longer move as swiftly now that half of his body was coagulated. Even his right eye was locked in place thanks to the UNS's serum. Grinning confidently now, Malachi threw a punch at the Exirian general's stoned cheek. Upon contact, his jaw cracked and fell to pieces, but beneath it was something Malachi hadn't expected to see. Beneath the obsidian surface of the general's jaw was more magma stirring and churning angrily. Taken aback by the revelation, Malachi stood in thought, his arm still connected with the cracked area of the man's jaw.

"In case you didn't know, Malachi," began the General in a bubbling, fizzling tone, "Elemental Owls have 'cores'. If you want to deactivate a power with that green liquid of yours, you'd have to stab me while in my flesh form. Like this, it'll just harden my exterior which will be uplifted by more of my element..." For the first time, the general spoke out to Malachi. His statement was loud enough for his partner to hear as well. He wanted her to hear it. He wanted her to know that their little green jelly filled toys wasn't going to put him away unless he was caught off guard by it. And now that they were in this fight with this knowledge, the general Soliel knew that there was no escape for them. Looking into Malachi's dark, onyx eyes, he could see the regret welling within them. The expression on his smokey face only read disappointment. Shame was evident, but it was shrouded by the fear that was now settling in upon his features. Soliel smiled, then lifted a column of molten rock from the floor...

"Teagan! Stop running! He'll kill us both if you get any closer!"Malachi hadn't taken into account that elemental users......worked like that. The UNS hadn't prepped him for such a thi---they weren't to blame for this mistake. He himself was an elemental user, but never did he take the time to experiment with his own abilities as a real Owl would've. The man before him was well versed in his powers...and the way he was swinging it around was just how it was meant to be used. The man's ability was rage, hatred and anger all rolled into a scorching, burning liquid. There wasn't a need for a strategy if the opponent was trapped from the beginning. Lack of information lead to this moment. Lack of experimentation and lack of backup plans. Malachi knew he was going to suffer now...

Soliel's column of magma erupted from the ground burning away the commander's right arm. This sent him reeling backwards. In mere seconds, the room filled with a painful yelp and numerous curses that came scratching out of Malachi's dried throat. Seeing an opening, Soliel rushed his opponent throwing a swift forward jab which Malachi averted with his only working hand. The magma user had a number of choices now that his opposition was missing a hand. The Exirian general held no remorse when he grabbed and burned the man's wrist. Hadn't he come to kill him, the both of them could've walked freely and no altercation would've had to occur. But, the UNS made their moves in the form of the two agents there. The blonde devil had no choice now. Malachi's arm was tugged outward towards the center of the room. His body was still attached to it, albeit barely. From the setup, the commander fell onto the floor after being tripped by the younger, more energetic Owl.

Looking up at Teagan while propping himself with his free, somewhat smoldering wrist, he nodded towards the door. His eyes begged her to run from this fight and to run from Exire. His apologetic scowl begged her simply to leave this place and never turn back and someday forgive him for the dire situation in which he lead her into. He lifted his hand and attempted to whisper a dying message to his subordinate, his daughter that he never had but was silenced before even a hoarse, arid breath could come out. A large thick blanket of magma covered the commander's body melting away all of him, save for the narrow ashen hand that was reaching out to Teagan. Soon after the molten rock covered Malachi's smokey, ashen form, his hand fell to the floor leaving behind nothing but a dark gray outline of what used to be.

(3333rd post. Malachi is dead now so that just leaves a few more of us.)

Samy glared at Mez when he remarked on her tears, "lets just get out of here" she sighed bringing out her hand guns as she waited there at the buildings entrance, she could see faint movement along the ground as she noticed large roots began to shift and grow along the entrance concrete, heading to seemingly block an escape route for the two of them. "i just want to go home, curl up in my chair in front of the fire with a cup of coffee, and a paper, that is all id rather do right now" she said tears unknowingly streaming down her face as the last few window panes that had survived the last fight began to vibrate slightly.

The sound of glass shattering was cut short suddenly as an eerie screech reached Samy's ears, and she stumbled back slightly wincing in pain as her ear drums were pierced by the noise. her curse went unheard as her hands went to cover her ears and suddenly roots shot up out of the ground like a thorn to slice through her stomach. Caught off guard Samy managed a roll to her left and received a painful laceration on her right side, Shaking and cursing she dropped one of the guns to place her hand to her stomach and try to clear her head. Masses moved quickly from over the vines and Samy was almost caught off guard as an Owl suddenly Jumped at her with fingernails like claws and sharper teeth, On reflex she brought her leg up and brought him down to the ground taking her calf around the back of his neck and shoulder and firing a bullet into the back of his It's head. Without a second thought she brought the gun up again to fire at as many more owls that climbed through the door as she could, dropping several like flies before the screech came again and dropped Samy to her knees. Damn it! she thought seeing stars as she fell to one knee. and was suddenly hit backwards by someone with a mean a** kick.

Samy held back a cry as she heard bones snap and crumble upon impact as she hit a wall and slowly feel back to the floor, knocking the breath from her lungs because she was unable to control her fall. "Damn it, Damn it, Damn it" she cursed and coughed as blood ran from her mouth and she struggled to stand, pausing in slight shock as she noticed Max lying not even three feet from her. She coughed again felt the tears threaten to fall before she started to laugh, pulling herself to her feet she reached for his gun lying right there next to her. Laughing louder she quieted down to raise the gun to her shoulder and fired off several of the green Gel rounds, changing nearly 20 of the owls into humans before she ran out of ammunition and dropped the riffle, Bringing out her knife to wait for those that began to rush her, Come on dicks, you have brought this on yourselves, she thought preparing to strike before a vine snagged her foot to hold her still as another shot from the ground to pierce her lower chest this time. She coughed as she felt her lung fill with blood and gasped before several more small vines shot up to pierce through her body and she gagged, feeling her chest cavity fill with her life liquid and she fell over struggling to breath. She had known she would die, so she accepted the fact, reaching through the now pooling blood to grab at the still slightly warm outstretched hand that was his, She coughed once more as her vision blurred and she gripped the cold fingers, "I- im S-sorry Max" she choked and squeezed his hand tightly before loosing consciousness as her body bleed to death in suffocation.

The World is Ours…

And so was the fate of Team Empty…There efforts in Exire will not go unseen, unheard and forgotten.

Exire had grown in the past two and a half months and its influence as well saw an exponential increase. Owlkind now had a beacon of hope and a hand of help to reach out to in their time of need. Like a silver parasite, Exire’s grasp now covered most, if not, all of New England. Raven’s invisible hand stretched from the tip of Maine to the ports of Massachusetts bay. Exire was prospering and there was no revolutionary that didn’t revel in the fact that Owls were finally starting to take over. Only the Humans now were apprehensive about Exire’s rather fast expansion. It was only two months ago that they took over New York…now they were daringly close to spilling over into the D.C. area…

Rome, Italy was reduced to nothing but a smoldering crater of residual aura now by Thomas Moses’ right hand man, Johan. In the midst of the fight that took place before that world changing event, the Death Owl had purposefully downgraded himself to the status of Wind Herald. An eighth of his endgame was completed when the event transpired, but thanks to Johan’s detestable daughter, Anya, he was spared the status of Earth Herald as well. Needless to say, this left a bittersweet taste in Thomas’ mouth. To add insult to injury, Lucien had become the Death Owl within those moments.

The tormented genius now armed with the ability to bring death unrelenting has now returned to his old ways. His goal? To rid the world of evil and hatred by making himself the focus of it all. To be a martyr for both Owl and Humankind. Things were coming to a point now…

Roulin, the Life Owl and the leader of what was considered by many to be the replacement for the leading Owl team, had now started down a darker path. His love, Cecilia, had sustained injuries in the last two skirmishes. The mitigating factor involving his azure beauty was that with the help of Lomoli, Roulin’s older brother, she managed to kill Adam and replace him as the Herald of Gravity. Twice now, he’d failed to kill Raven just as he promised himself he’d do. Furthermore, it was now apparent that the shockwave emitting woman wasn’t about to roll over just because of a generous donation either.

Among these three things, it was the latter event that stung the most. While she traded her power for his Heart, he still felt that an understanding, which was in fact there, was still at the moment invisible. The understanding…they're both were weaker than they know, but through their own means, they’d get stronger. Whether it was by expanding a new world order or by slicing the scalps of unwilling, oblivious Owls with powers deemed too good for them, they’d both continue to grow until one of them died at the others hands…

This is the final chapter of the Owls story. Che’s deck has yet to be found and Timothy, the once somewhat blissful Herald turned devil at the loss of his only true friend, is no longer as concerned with the safety of The Oracle Raven. Che Presidiomni’s, William DeScythe and the young band of Owls they guide are further being pressed into the small corner that is their plan’s chances of succeeding fading. Exire is growing and getting stronger, Roulin and Lucien have now turned to the path of recklessness and The UNS is getting stronger every day. Will the Owls pull through and save the world from the regime that threatens to change history forever or will the succumb to the pressure of it all and lose the one weapon that may change this game completely?

No....The World is Yours…

A red head of unknown origin randomly walked through the streets of Japan appearing very lost. Her appearance was not overly unusual considering the different styles Japan now seemed to offer. "Booze? beer? where the hell am i?" Ember really had no idea where she was, powers of observation said she was in some Asian country off the coast, and in all her thousands of years wandering the world she had never managed to learn any of the Asian languages. So here she was, Quickly losing her patience among the natives of this country. She had been locked up for about three months since the attack on new Exhwire, meaning three months without booze made a sober Ember very testy.

"You! you, Beer? alcohol, Booze? s**t what do other countries call it! wine?" randomly grabbing a man walking past her on the street she made people begin to watch her funny, the man in her grip let out a cry and began to struggle as she pulled him close and began to shout, spouting random nonsense at him before letting him go with a very irritated look, "god damn it! does anyone here know how to speak English!"

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Two months in DC and Danny was actually enjoying himself outside of using any gaming systems. He was beginning to get used to his power over the dead, not that he actually really needed to get used to it considering it was a subconscious reaction, but it did help for him to test his ability to see what all he could do with it. Lazily laying back in the cropped grasses in the national parks he watched a pair of owls below run about in panic as two of his dead canines chanced them in circles. he was easily amused by this chase. "Nika, what did you think when realized i raised the dead?" he also had to wonder what everyone else had thought in the beginning as well. Zombies were not a popular subject among the public despite how many video games actually had them in there.

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Morgan shivered as she sat in Jack's family living room, wearing a sweater and covered in a thick wool blanket, curled up to conserve as much heat as she possibly could, "tell me why again i was dropped off here with you?" she asked blowing the steam off of a warm tea before taking a sip and managing to burn her tongue slightly, jumping she set the tea down quickly and swallowed feeling the pain on the top of her tongue as she rubbed it against the roof of her mouth.