Chapter Two: First world Problems

Chaos wandered about the warehouse, lost in thought. He usually brought his sister along, but he felt like being alone this time. It was late, possibly past midnight, but he didn't care. Chaos looked over to a large dumpster, and decided he was going to redecorate it. He balled up his fist, and started punching it, causing a loud banging sound to be heard. Luckily, they lived in the middle of the Melan City, making the sound blend in to the chatter of people, and breaking of windows. He finished making the once cubic dumpster into what looked like a large crumpled piece of paper, and sat on a nearby bench. 'What should I do?' he thought to himself. 'This urge is becoming too much for me…' He felt around his teeth, specifically his elongated canines. The have matured about a year ago, and ever since then he's been thirsting for blood. He remembered his older siblings, Demetrius in particular, who gave into the urge so easily, and became blood-crazed. Those episodes were terrifying, and he never wanted to have one, but fighting his instincts became harder every day. He remembers a certain night, when he overheard Father Ember and the twins, Nicole and Nicolas discussing their unique powers. Being so similar made them special in the sense that they could combine their abilities much easier than the rest of the family, but one thing caught his interest. Father Ember also told them that those whose powers contrast so greatly can become much stronger than the twins. Father Ember used him and Raven as an example, saying that Raven's affinity to elemental magic, and his own affinity to dark magic made them a threat to the world. For this reason, Constantine had casted sleeping spells on them for decades, to delay them from ever maturing. This caused resentment in Chaos, making him more and more rebellious. Taking all of this into consideration, he felt that if he should ever become blood-crazed,he might hurt Raven, and now Kira and Zero. He wanted to own the power, to master it, but at the same time he feared what would become of him. Raven's fangs haven't matured yet, which is why he wanted to become stronger, or just strong enough that he could control her, and himself if they became sighed, as he noticed the sky turn a lighter shade of blue. 'Better get home before I start to sizzle' he thought to himself, as he walked back to the warehouse. Inside Raven was already up, eating cereal.

"Good morning brother" she greeted. "Would you like me to serve you some breakfast?"

"It's fine, Rave, I'm not really hungry right now" he said. 'At least not for that.'

"Alright then, Zero told me to go see him." She continued to eat her cereal, and noticed the sky. 'He was out all night again…'

Chaos knocked on Zero's door. "Up here, brat." Confused, Chaos turned up, to see Zero high up hanging on the frame that held the roof up.

"What are you doing up there?" he asked.

"It's today's lesson!" replied Zero. "Since we can't do combat, Kira told me to teach you the basics of stealth and concealment. He'll teach the advanced stuff later."

"Where is he anyway?"

"He's out looking for a new training ground, as soon as he finds one, we'll go back to the regular ass-kicking's, but until then, try to get up here," Chaos smirked, at the simple task and prepared to jump up "-Without using your vampire powers."

"Why not?" he demanded, "What difference does it make how I get it done, if I get it done?"

"Look, I'm not vampire expert," he began. He dropped down about forty feet, and landed silently. "but I know that you can't just endlessly fly around. You guys run on some kind of energy, and when that's gone, you're going to basically be human. So for back up, you'll be learning how to climb, run, and hide, like a ninja. I personally think that going head first is the way to do things, but if I didn't have Kira having my back, I would've been dead a long time ago. Now, what you're going to do is find a way to get to where I just was, without flying, or using superhuman strength; which includes jumping."

"You suck, you know that?" Chaos told him. He looked around, but he honestly had no idea how to get up there. How'd Zero do it? 'This is going to be a long day.'

Raven watched her brother as he continuously fell, and got up again. She really admired his persistence, but at the same time thought he was being stubborn. He has been trying the same route for that last hour, and hasn't gotten closer at all. She really wanted to get stronger too, but nobody around could teach her what she was good at. Raven has already taken stealth lessons from Kira, as well as trap setting, but that all required being prepared. What Chaos wanted to learn, and what Zero did, was fighting with what they had. Going into a foreign battlefield, and conquering it. Kira could hold his own in battle, too, but Raven felt she was not carrying her own weight. The sun was rising, so she needed get into some shade for now.

Riku had been in Shigai for almost twenty-four hours, and still nothing had tried to curse him yet. He was starting to think that what happened the other day simply, didn't. He knew it wasn't true, but as the hours kept rolling on, he started to doubt everything. He was seriously taking into consideration trying to reach Ghost, but who knows where he went. Ever since the war, he's been gone. Riku knows that he was still alive, but his whereabouts were totally unknown to him. He looked around the city, and noticed that the few people he saw before, we not there. Riku decided that he was going to head back to the Shadow Palace, but he heard something.

"Riku, where did you go?" It was the boy from the other night, sitting on some stairs looking down at Riku. "Why did you leave us?"

"Who are you?" he asked. The boy walked over to him, somewhat irregularly, and coughed a little.

"I'm not doing so well, I think I might be dead in a few more days."

"What are you talking about?!" Riku demanded. "Answer my question!"

"You don't understand, do you? I know exactly who and what you are. Everybody does. It won't be long before the witch-doctor comes looking for Stacie."

"The witch-doctor?" he asked baffled. "Why would he come looking for Stacie?"

"Nobody is allowed to remember, the curse is only here to keep us under control," he replied. The boy's eyes showed he hadn't gotten any sleep in a while.

"You're crazy, you have no idea what you're talking about do you?" the boy looked up angrily.

"I AM NOT CRAZY!" he shouted, as he ripped a rusted pipe from the railing. He jumped down from the railing, dropping almost thirty feet, swinging the pipe at Riku. Riku quickly evaded to the right. He heard a loud snap, as if the boy had broken his legs, but the boy ran at Riku, swinging the pipe madly. "I AM NOT CRAZY! I AM NOT CRAZY!"

"Calm down!" shouted Riku, evading another swing. He wasn't going to attack a ten year old boy, even if he was trying to kill him. The boy grabbed a piece of wood on the floor, and began to swing that as well. He couldn't dodge forever, so Riku reached into the Shadow Dimension and extracted a katana, to block. As he did, however, he couldn't close it. 'What's going on here?'

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU WATCH!" the boy shouted, as he jumped high into the air, and swung down his two makeshift weapons. Riku managed to get his blade up in time, but the force of the ten year old was supernatural. Riku could feel a crater form around him, as the boy pushed him further into the earth. He pushed the boy away, and began to run. He couldn't win this fight, the boy was being cursed, which means if he struck him down, in reality, he had only stuck down an innocent life. As he made his way through the city, he noticed that suddenly more people began to emerge from the buildings. He was somewhat relieved, and stopped to take a breather.

"What is going on here?" he asked an elderly lady. She simply stared at him, and gripped her frying pan tighter. Riku looked over to her, and she swung it horizontally. Riku jumped back, and was shocked when the pan bent back, and the wall had a huge hole in it. "What are you people?" suddenly, they grouped together, and all answered in unison, as the elderly lady and the ten year old boy lead them.

"THERE IS NO ESCAPE, RIKU. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE HERE, NOW!" Riku sprinted out of there as fast as he could, but the people were everywhere. He tried to get to the edge of the city, but they were all blocked by more and more people. "SURRENDER NOW, RIKU! YOU ARE ONLY DELAYING THE INEVITABLE" Riku looked around, and he was surrounded by literally hundreds and hundreds of civilians. He then pressed both hands together, and began to chant, as the quickly approached him.

"Get away from me, NOW!" he shouted in multiple demonic voices. A giant wave of energy began to push the cursed people away, knocking them all unconscious. The exhaustion set in, and Riku fell to his knees, struggling to stay awake. His vision became blurry, as he saw a black figure running towards him. "Get…away" he muttered, before finally collapsing.

Kira had thought he's searched anywhere, but everywhere was so populated, their cover would be blown after a week if they were lucky. 'I can't go back and tell them I haven't found anywhere, they'd be so disappointed. I got to keep looking; it's barely mid-day, I can find one by nightfall' he thought to himself. He noticed that many people that were traveling had horses, covered wagons, and ox. He was one of the few still walking everywhere. He knew that he'd need money, but where could he find enough to buy one, or maybe even two? Zero was the one whose idea was to steal everything they need, but it was wrong. Sure the victims of their petty crimes were criminals to begin with, but they could only use that excuse for so long. He looked at the ground in thought, and suddenly a small shadow whooshed by. Kira looked up at the sky, and saw a small speck in the distance, heading to the mountains. 'That's it! We can go there for our new training ground. It'll be nearly impossible for anybody to get up there, but I know we could.' Kira then turned to rush back, but he then realized something. 'What was that thing flying up there? I've never seen anything that could fly so high, especially in a mountain's climate. I'd better check it out, before I put the kids in danger.' Kira then walked over to the mountain, hoping that whatever it was, by some slim chance it could be friendly. The way to the mountain was long, and Kira was having second thoughts about it, thinking he should get Zero to help him, but if he did that Chaos would want to come, making Raven come too. He had no choice, and had to go about it alone. The base of the mountain was so steep; it almost looked like a ninety degree slope. 'Well, better get started…' he thought to himself, as he took a running start and jumped onto the face, and began to climb. It was hard, and the top never seemed to get closer. Kira knew that if he was struggling to climb, no normal human could do it, and maybe even Zero couldn't either. 'The wonders of free climbing,' he thought bitterly to himself. Several times, edges he grabbed crumpled, and nearly made him fall. 'This is going to be a long climb…'

Stacie was showing Jessica around the castle, as a way to get her to talk, but it didn't seem to work. They were somewhat getting along, but Jessica everything seemed to scare her; the statues, the dead garden, the fountain of blood and pretty much everything.

"Well, do you want to go back inside?" she asked Jessica. "I could make something to eat, or something. I haven't really had guest over, I'm sorry. I'm really new to this."

"Yes. It's ok, everything is just so, different around here." Stacie smiled and lead her back inside. "So, how long have you lived here?"

"About six years. It's really peaceful, once you get over the whole deadness of it. The animals that live here are really weird too."

"A-animals?" Jessica stuttered. "What kind of animals?"

"Oh, there are lots of things, but most of them are invisible. They could be anywhere. Riku says that most of them are harmless though." Jessica paled, and began to brush herself off any invisible creature that might have gotten on her. Stacie just started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"I was just kidding! Oh my god, you should've seen your face!" she laughed. Jessica chuckled weakly, and slowly sat back on the couch. "I'm sorry, it's just you looked so paranoid, I just couldn't help it." Jessica remained silent. "Alright, I'm done. What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know, I haven't really talked to anybody, since my brother passed." Jessica cleared her throat, and rubbed her eye. "I'm sorry, I guess I never really got over it. The witch-doctor never let me see him."

"What do you know about the witch-doctor, anyways? You don't seem to trust him very much."

"He's the only one who knows how to control the curse, and the cursed ones. He disappears often, but he always comes back."

"How long does he usually stay?" Stacie opened a bag of chips, from god knows where she got them.

"Well, normally he stays for a few hours. He used to live in Shigai, but ever since the hospital got shut down, he hasn't visited very often." Jessica sighed, remembering how the city used to be. "Nobody is allowed to go into the hospital anymore. It's locked up, and only the witch-doctor has the key."

"Uh huh… chip?" she offered. Jessica shook her head. "They're good!"

"I'm fine, but thank you." Stacie continued to stare at her expectantly. Jessica noticed, and finally took one. "Thanks."

"Now you eat it," she told her. Jessica chuckled and put the chip in her mouth. "Don't choke when you swallow." Jessica then spit out the chip, coughing. "Aw, you see you did it wrong."

"I know how to eat," she told her.

"Well, it didn't seem like it. You choked on it and it wasn't even halfway in."

"Stop talking like that!" she whined. Stacie was confused and shrugged. She resumed to snacking on her chips.

"You're a strange one, you know that?" Jessica gave her a mild glare. "Hey I didn't choke. I'm a pro."

"Can we talk about something else now? I feel uncomfortable…" She looked down at the floor, and Stacie sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her. "What are you doing?"

"Comforting you? Riku does this to me all the time when I'm feeling down." She then began to stroke Jessica's hair. "So just talk, I'll listen."

"Um, ok" she said, as she was petted. "You're weird."

"I'm not the one who choked on a chip" she countered. Jessica rolled her eyes, and started talking again.

Riku woke up, in what looked to be a cave. He had no idea why he collapsed earlier, the spell he did never overexerted him before. It was as if something was draining his energy. He looked around, and noticed his sword was leaned on the wall next to him. The crackling of a fire caught his attention, and he looked over to it. In front of it was somebody feeding it wood. It was already dark out.

"I see that you're awake, Riku" said the figure. It was a young man, probably in his early twenties. He wore chainmail, which seemed to have been weathered over many years, and combat boots and pants.

"How do you know who I am?" he asked, springing to his feet, and grabbing his sword. The man made no move to defend himself.

"You seem a bit edgy. I'm not an enemy, I'm an old friend." Riku sheathed his sword, and walked over to him.

"Who are you?" he asked again. The man turned around, and Riku's eyes opened in shock. "Vladimir?"

"Yea, you thought I was dead didn't you? I know, after Project IV fell, everybody was considered dead, but here we are."

"I don't know what to say, but thank you. If it wasn't for you, I don't know what would have happened to Stacie."

"How is she anyway?" he asked.

"She's just fine now; she's at home, with a guest." Vladimir chuckled to himself.

"It's nice to hear that you two are happy together. Some of us weren't so lucky."

"What do you mean?" Vladimir gave him a strange look, as if Riku didn't know common knowledge.

"I don't know where you've been, but the world has gone to hell. After Project Iv fell, Projects I, II, and III fell shortly after. I've been searching for survivors for the last two years."

"How many have you found?" asked Riku, in hopes that he had found Sakura, Ellie, or even Kazuya. "Has anybody from Project IV been found?"

"Just you, and apparently Stacie now. I've found four from Project II and two from Project III. I'm the only Project I survivor, but since I was transferred before the war, I guess there are none."

"What exactly are you finding survivors for?" Riku pondered.

"Look, do you remember Will; the guy behind the war that destroyed Project IV? Well he has become the new king of Serikodo shortly after that. At first, there was rebellion after rebellion, but he easily fought them off. They were all lead by former members of the former government Projects. Well, Will took notice of this, and began to capture the leaders. Without them, the people lost hope, and nobody has been willing to stand up to him ever since. He plans to kill everybody who has supernatural abilities, and try to find that radioactive meteor that gave us all these powers. I still don't know what he plans to do with it, but somebody needs to stop him before he does. I can't do it alone, so I've been looking for anybody that could help, starting with Ex-Project members."

"Is that why you brought me here?" he asked.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you, if you'd like to join me. We could overthrow the new government, and make a new one."

"Look, I know you mean well, but I don't know if I'm ready for another war. I've lost all but one of my friends, and I can't bear the thought of losing her too. I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you, at least not now. Whatever is going on in Shigai is my priority right now, and I need to get to the bottom of it."

"I understand…" replied Vladimir. "If you ever change your mind, we'll be willingly to take you, and Stacie."

"I'll keep that in mind, Vlad, but right now, I got to go back to Shigai."

"Wait, let me help you. I can go searching for survivors anytime." Vladimir stood up straight, and his gloves began to glow a faint white color. "For old times' sake."

"If you think you can keep up, let's go." Riku walked over to the cave entrance, and saw he wasn't too far from Shigai anyway. Riku put his sword away, into a portal, and the two of them ran back to the city.

"So what do you think it is?" asked Vladimir.

"I don't know, but it isn't a curse, that's for sure" replied Riku. Vladimir looked puzzled.

"Why do you say that? Have you dealt with curses before?"

"Yes, many different kinds, but they all had one thing in common. The cursed person has some kind of tell marked on their skin that glows when it's active. Some curses will have your chest covered with black symbols; others will have blood coming from their eyes. When Stacie was in whatever state it was, she said she remembered everything that happened. Also, we were both trained to fight off curses that don't have markings on one's body. These are much weaker, but are harder to detect. Stacie would have been able to break it."

"That's a lot that you know about this kind of stuff."

"There's more, but I'll leave it for later. Right now we need to find the epicenter from where this so-called curse is coming from."

"Alright, where do you want to look first?" Riku began to think, when he got a sudden idea.

"We're going to the Shigai Hospital, and we're going to pay the witch-doctor a visit."

"Sounds like a plan" replied Vladimir. "Are we going to go head first, or black ops?"

"Black ops, I've speculated that whatever is controlling the people, can use their senses to surveillance the entire city. We need to avoid from being seen at all." Vladimir nodded, as the approached the gates of the city.

"Wait, I've got these short wave radios we can use to communicate. Just put this in your ear, and you can hear whatever I say. Same goes for you." Riku looked at the strange earpiece, and put it on. "Alright, just talk in a whisper, and I'll be able to understand you clear as day."

"Alright, I'll take high, you take low" ordered Riku. The two of them then split up, and began to make their way to the Shigai Hospital.

Kira noticed it was already nightfall, but he was almost to the top, or at least to a resting point. As he finally pulled himself up, he laid on the hard surface of the mountain. He was exhausted. He stood up, and started to look around, and was very pleased with the area. He could see that the mountain range was somewhat of a valley on top, and that it could easily stretch for miles. He heard a distant flapping, and immediately went into stealth mode. He looked around and saw the flying creature from earlier, and was totally baffled. It was a dragon! It landed gracefully, and started walking into the valley. Kira made his way soundlessly, and saw something even more bizarre. The dragon was morphing into a human. He had spiky black hair with green streaks running through it, and wore a black shirt and jeans. He didn't seem like much of a threat in his human form, but Kira knew better than to assume so hastily. He then walked into a cave, and Kira lost sight of him. He then rushed to a position in which he could observe better. There he saw the dragon-boy sit down on the floor and spit into a pit that instantly caught fire, lighting the inside of the cave. Kira then saw that he wasn't alone, and there was a woman there too. They began to talk, but Kira didn't like the feeling of watching them, and decided to leave. Just as he was about to, however, he was face to face with the dragon.

"Hi, I'm Drake, why are you spying on us?" he asked in a strange voice. "Were you peeping on my sister?" Kira stared dumbly and shook his head. "Alright then, say it's dark out, why are you up here anyway?"

"It doesn't matter, I was just leaving" he replied, standing up straight, and walked around Drake. As he did, a wall of black appeared in front of him.

"Who is that Drake?" asked his sister.

"I dunno Luna, I haven't asked yet. He looks funny though." Kira took offense to that.

"What do you mean I look funny? I'm a freaking ninja, I'm sexy like that!" he scolded. Luna made her way over, and looked at Kira.

"Well, are you going to tell us why you're up here, or are we going to have to get it out of you?" she asked politely. "I'm in a good mood, my good friend was just over, so I don't really want to interrogate you." Kira knew that he was outnumbered, and most likely outgunned, so he told them.

"Look, I was just trying to find a new place where I could train with my family. Two of them can only do it at night, so the current area we live in isn't ideal, especially with the highly populated city we currently live in."

"How'd you get up here anyway?" asked Luna, somewhat curious. "Drake only flies people we know up here."

"I climbed the side of the mountain" he replied. "I didn't think anybody lived up here."

"You CLIMBED up here?" she asked again. Drake had gone back to the cave, and began doing whatever it is that Drake does. "I have to say, that's really impressive. You have any powers that helped you?"

"Sort of, but it's not like that actually did me any good. I hardly ever use them, and neither does my brother for that matter. I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

"No it's fine," replied Luna. "It's not often I get to talk to boys, other than my brother. I just want to know, why are you wearing that face mask? It's hard to breathe as it is up here, without having that over your face."

"Personal reasons," he replied. "Well, I guess I'd better head back. Sorry about any trouble I might have caused you."

"Wait! You guys can train up here if you'd like. It's pretty lonely up here, just me and Drake all the time, and Ellie only comes every so often, since she's always busy. Drake won't mind. How many of you are there? We've got plenty of space up here."

"Really? Look, that's nice of you, but I don't feel like I can accept such a generous offer."

"No it's not a problem, I swear. How many people are you?" she asked again. Kira was so shocked at how nice Luna was. She was offering a complete stranger a place to train.

"We're four, including me. It's my older brother Zero, me, and two kids Chaos and Raven. Raven won't be a problem, and we can take care of Chaos. Look, thank you so much, you have no idea how hard it is to find an isolated place where we can't hurt anybody."

"I doubt you'd be able to hurt us if you tried. I enjoy the company, so it's a win-win situation. You said that two of you can only train at night, right? Is there any reason for that?"

"Well, it's just a special circumstance; we don't like discussing very much." Luna nodded. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, I got to go get them."

"No problem!" shouted Luna behind him. Drake then walked over to her, completely serious.

"So, he's bringing his friends up here?" he asked. "You have no idea who they are, why would you offer this place to them?"

"Drake, you can come and go all you want, you can freaking fly, I'm stuck here most of the time. Besides he said two of them are kids, I like kids."

"I think he might have seen me transform" informed Drake. Luna didn't seem to mind.

"What does it matter? He has secrets too, I don't think he'd tell them ours." Drake nodded, and headed back to the cave, acting goofy again, rolling on the fire place, to put it out. 'Oh Drake, I love you, and your crazy antics.'

A/N

"It's a bird, it's a plane!" why exactly are you so excited for seeing a bird or a plane? Yes, a joke to end the chapter. The next one will be up next week, thank you for reading, and please review.

(^_^)