This page conserves the character fiction forum of the Agora forums. The posts have been left unformatted to make it easier for users to copy them here and paste them into the new forums.

Oren Itanooren12/10/08 18:25View
Missy12/10/08 22:22View
The backstory of Vulpes.Vulpes12/11/08 01:46View
Erica KesselErica Kessel12/11/08 07:52View
Missy's Story.. a Do-over and another ChapterMissy12/11/08 22:38View
UsrBinPerl12/11/08 23:48View
oren12/11/08 23:57View
Kwekwe's BackstoryKwekwe Karu12/12/08 01:02View
UsrBinPerl12/13/08 00:35View
Eternal SunsetMissy12/13/08 12:19View
Kit Ristow12/14/08 00:01View
ShyMathys12/14/08 00:27View
MasksAlissa12/14/08 00:58View
Lorae12/14/08 01:24View
UsrBinPerl12/14/08 22:07View
Missy's Story Continued..Part 3Missy12/16/08 08:43View
Missy's Story Part 4: Innocence ShatteredMissy12/16/08 18:34View
Missy's Story Part 5: Innocence AnnihilatedMissy12/18/08 17:16View
Small DangersVox12/18/08 21:36View
Saint of The Abyss: Part 1Luciferiel12/19/08 05:21View
Zero....-1Justa Zero12/19/08 17:38View
Zero....1Justa Zero12/19/08 18:26View
Óðr’s Daughter. Chapter I: A Guiding DreamAsil Karu12/20/08 02:39View
Omega To Alphaerinnic12/23/08 16:49View
Her Bloody Tears [-Past Event-]Methias12/23/08 18:09View
Lost Kitsune - A Shattered MindKiera12/25/08 18:51View
Usr's story Part IVUsrBinPerl12/27/08 20:34View
The EssexHeir Maelstrom12/29/08 04:23View
Kwekwe's shameKwekwe Karu12/30/08 18:11View
Joint Round Robin Fic Anyone...?erinnic12/30/08 19:07View
God Was On Her Lips As She Diederinnic01/02/09 23:31View
Love and Betrayal - A New Beginningkessjuliesse01/03/09 13:46View
The Diary of Cody Woodhencodywoodhen01/05/09 21:35View
Missy's Story Part 6: Innocence AbductedMissy01/07/09 06:23View
Cursed BladeYannis_Martynov01/08/09 21:27View
Story Thread: Community Round Robin Ficerinnic01/09/09 23:25View
The demon withinCanly Fargis01/11/09 16:14View
Ziau- CoLA's Very Own CasanovaZiau01/13/09 02:09View
Twisted Attentionserinnic01/21/09 20:34View
Inspiration- music and roleplayZiau01/26/09 08:01View
Compilation! Where were you when it all happened?Ziau01/28/09 09:12View
The Clock Struck MidnightMalice Ashdene01/28/09 22:31View
With Precision- a poem by Kelly Welch A.k.A Ziau Jua.Ziau01/29/09 04:36View
Alisa's dicovery of a new world (character sheet + story)Alisa Draconia01/30/09 19:17View
The Shadow Stepper- Ziau the Enshadowed.Ziau02/01/09 07:26View
Krista Lemon arrives to the streets of Lost AngelsKrista02/03/09 00:09View
Back Story Upto the Excile of Rune.RuneCrimson02/03/09 21:59View
War with the Brood, war with the Coven, and the Pack.Ziau02/07/09 04:11View
-- Halcyon's Backstory --Halcyon Nacht02/08/09 00:22View
Planer/Exonar family (aka, Erinyse, Khalan, Viridian, Cummere, Selena)Cummere Mayo02/08/09 03:53View
Kit's BackstoryKit Ristow02/10/09 18:40View
Eyes in the DarkKeyla02/11/09 09:47View
Surfacing Part ILlyr02/13/09 22:21View
Surfacing Part IILlyr02/13/09 22:35View
Tama-Chan: A Cat's Story (Tamara's background)Tamara02/17/09 07:35View
Project: A map of Post Apocalypse North AmericaTamara02/17/09 19:21View
Dreamtime RevelationsWinter02/19/09 18:08View
Reaver-the echo of the BlackwindAntiZero02/23/09 00:43View
On the Origin of SpeciesTamara02/25/09 22:38View
ConfessionKit Ristow02/26/09 01:39View
Personnel File: Pointe, Zsuzsanna C. (Inactive, Deceased)Su Pointe02/26/09 03:32View
Malice, in a Different Kind of WonderlandMalice Ashdene02/27/09 18:07View
The Dark of InspirationKit Ristow03/01/09 21:42View
Jheric: CrucifiedKayle Ashdene03/03/09 10:53View
It's my lifearsene_Braveheart03/05/09 18:18View
The Tradgedy of the HybridDigital Enigma03/29/09 07:09View
The Sin of Wrathmolly switchblade04/02/09 21:28View
Golden BoyEphran Ehrler04/15/09 06:12View
Story About A GirlAesendria04/24/09 15:34View
Climaxe by Smith and WessonSloan04/28/09 06:19View
My new project ATTENTION Russian Characters!Ziau05/01/09 06:42View
**NSFW** A Typical Tuesday Night for MissyMissy05/06/09 20:48View
Post your profile links!Cortero Landar05/07/09 10:25View
Making Logan SufferAesendria05/12/09 07:09View
Jeanne VarunJeanne Varun05/14/09 08:24View
The Vanguard's True PurposeLogan05/16/09 01:03View
Cortero's Infernal ArmorCortero Landar05/16/09 06:52View
Bookstore SurpriseAesendria05/16/09 23:16View
Post your profile links if you have in-story info in them!Cortero Landar05/18/09 10:33View
PromisesAesendria05/24/09 02:44View
Cyber Evolution Bios, Anur Seda, Cyber Reaper, and Commander of CETheassassin06/08/09 11:28View
Was any of it real?Youko_Giha06/12/09 15:28View
A shift in prioritiesLogan06/17/09 04:21View
Going homeLudvig06/17/09 19:10View
'Ren in Japanoren06/18/09 23:11View
Thelma across the boardThelemaJuliesse06/26/09 15:09View
Pre-fiction: How Kayteear got here.Kayteear07/15/09 16:43View
Story TimeCharissa07/17/09 19:03View
Pack Airship RP.Tai07/27/09 02:49View
My CharacterLilith1308/05/09 22:34View
LilithLilith1308/06/09 09:30View
The Haunter in the DarkShadow08/14/09 21:50View
The Flying HeadsKwekwe Karu08/16/09 16:52View
Why selling coffins is impossible in CoLAZiau08/23/09 04:14View
Paint it red!Ziau08/23/09 07:51View
Young Cowards.Ziau08/23/09 08:28View
Great video for RPers and people passionate about writing.Ziau09/05/09 08:55View
Dux - 264 BCDux09/10/09 18:41View
The Thing at South Gate SanitariumShadow09/15/09 22:09View
♪♫ Do you wanna RP my avatar ♪♫Kayteear09/17/09 14:45View
Jessica's MotherJessica Susser09/21/09 04:19View
Ziau Challenged me to. NSFWChasityDawes09/21/09 07:17View
The Divine Machine.................Theassassin09/21/09 22:29View
I Bleed my Blood for Myself.Ziau09/22/09 22:28View
Cronicle of a deathKayteear09/24/09 01:34View
"Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself"DavidJoshua Artful09/26/09 17:07View
Old Versus NewDigital Enigma09/27/09 20:28View
The Shadowed Order, The Eternal Order, Ordo MachinaTheassassin10/06/09 06:55View
Elamyrath's HistoryElamyrath10/10/09 00:52View
The here, the now, the dead. The Minus.TheMinus Ziskey10/10/09 12:41View
Before bed ritual.Amy Guisse10/17/09 04:13View
Alone?Ike10/18/09 15:34View
IS this High School again?Theassassin10/24/09 12:49View
Sidhe vs DrowOrlok Lectar10/29/09 04:08View
Daddy bluesarsene_Braveheart11/17/09 19:01View
Chronicles of SIEagentlyseria11/22/09 12:27View
The Lady In Black(A Drokan Exile Twisted Love Story)AntiZero11/29/09 06:36View
The growing Darkness.Leirain Koray12/01/09 11:04View
The lycanKayteear12/01/09 16:00View
City of Lost Jackman: The Untold Hollywood BlockbusterAntiZero12/02/09 07:11View
Coming home for christmas ..Kes12/10/09 22:17View
Bunneh Vs. Lich, DBZ styleKarsha Yutani12/14/09 11:59View
A FarewellRoland12/16/09 20:50View
Of Death and RebirthDigital Enigma12/21/09 20:14View
The Story of ReocoReoko Farspire02/06/10 20:47View
Homecoming......... The Story of Orpheus DarkfoldOrpheusDarkfold03/11/10 02:27View
The Story of Orpheus Part 2OrpheusDarkfold03/13/10 23:15View
Who owns who?Kayteear03/22/10 22:03View
Missing the Oceanricercar03/23/10 22:27View
Letter to the editor: Manners in LATink03/25/10 16:58View
Chasity BackstoryChasityDawes06/14/10 19:43View
Something Black and Violent...DavidJoshua Artful06/19/10 22:23View
Doctor Visiterinnic07/12/10 04:26View
Gabby Perdidevacantghost07/19/10 04:42View
PosterMessageDate
LoganHe'd been trying to come up with a wording that didn't sound like what they were actually about to do. Justice, punishment, vengeance, retribution... Pretty words, all, but they were just the title for ugly atrocities committed in the false name of an empty ideal.

Regardless, he fell in step behind his Gunslinger as they approached the small band of Coven regulars practicing beneath the break wall outside of Lost Angels. Logan had lost his vampirisim, and with it the ability to quickly judge the relative age and power of a given Tubetooth at a glance. Still, he could tell by the way they moved, the way they held to the physical habits they'd learned as humans, that they were still coming to terms with their new identity as immortal parasites. They struggled to defend too much, straining themselves to deflect every blow that came their way despite the fact that, as Vampires, they could safely take a sword to the side or leg without much more than highly temporary, superficial damage. They were too jagged, too slow for vampires. They'd yet to learn that they were no longer bound by human muscle. Their dead flesh was just a shell that they could make do whatever they pleased. Their attacks did not blur, and this betrayed their inexperience with undeath.

"Well, well... What do we have here?" droned the thick accent of his Russian friend. Logan, for his part, was content to just stand back and observe. For now. He watched as the Coven and the Mad Russian bantered back and forth, his eyes scanning the Vanguard Lycan for signs of his unpredictable, explosive rage so that he could react in time with his subordinate.

One of the Vampires--a dangerous looking male in a white shirt, glanced their way, "Doesn't matter."

Ziau stepped forward, seething and pulsing as he strained against his powerful instinct to dispense with the annoyance of speech and simply tear into the crowd. "It doesn't... You sure it doesn't, Bitey?"

They had all focused on Logan and his companions by now, and his eyes scanned each of their faces. He felt a pang of guilt, of hesitation pulling him away from the task he'd set for himself. They were only in this situation because of their association with the rest of the Coven, but the rest of the Coven was nowhere to be found, and the time to act as now. Logan spoke a half truth, the fresh hole that Erica had carved in his cheek stretching and shifting to reveal his back teeth as he formed his lips around the words. "Looks like th'people who thought they could strap me t'a table'n threaten m'wife without consequence."

The white shirted man had been in the middle of answering Ziau when Logan cut him off, and his attention shifted towards the Captain instead, "May have us confused with someone else." Then, he gave a nod towards Ziau, "Yeah. Doesn't matter."

The other Vampires, bolstered with confidence by their immortality and immitating the elders that they'd been watching and learning from, had taken to clever taunts and arrogant catcalls that Logan largely ignored. Eventually, though, their words grated away enough of Ziau's self control that he lost a measure of restraint and strode forward, muscles tensing as he rolled a speech over his tongue of the sort that usually preluded the drawing of blood.

Logan closed his eyes, inhaling steadily through his nose in an effort to center himself and prepare for what was about to come. Such measures often brought moments of clarity to the Captain, and it dawned on him that the group before them would stand no chance. Their act would be misinterpereted and answered not with hesitation but with swift retribution. He spoke as his eyes opened, "Ziau. There aren't enough of them."

He lifted the severed stump that had once connected his artificial left arm to the rest of his body, using the severed metal bone to point at KC, "You. Summon more suckheads."

This, obviously, drew laughter from the crowd, and a response from KC, choked out between chuckles, "That's too much, Logan! Too much... You of all people should know the Coven doesn't take orders from anyone but higher ranked Coven."

Before he could answer, Milly cut him off. She'd been there the entire time, of course, but she was good at being small, hiding right in front of your face so that you forgot about her until she buried a knife in your back or, worse, closed Ziau's wounds as quickly as you could make them. "Thinking big, Cap'n?"

Ziau was fondling his sword, his hand begging to pull it free so it could sing and dance through a rain of blood, "Very well... Though it would be a wonderful little witch hunt." As the Lycan spoke, he turned his back on the crowd and padded back to his woman's side. There, he produced a capped syringe full of some unidentified clear liquid and pierced his own arm so he could refuel whatever fire drove him. "If they don't have backup within the quarter hour, the two loudmouthed girls are going to be trophies of mine."

The women spoke first, mocking Ziau and offering him suggestions on how he could relax by himself, but Logan paid them no mind. It wasn't until KC spoke that the Captain's shoulders squared slightly, "You, Ziau, know as well that the Coven doesn't take threats either. So if I were you I'd tread lightly... Very lightly before making demands and threats."

The man in the white shirt, a man Logan had not yet met, spoke next, "Not a chance, Ziau. They aren't going anywhere."

Logan lifted his chin a little, a subtle movement subconsciously intended to draw the eyes of people nearby before one spoke, "I did not give you an order. I offered advice to raise your chances of survival." Logan's accent had faded, his mood and tone turning cold as the air filled with aggressive energy. But he wasn't being paid much mind any more. The focus was his Socialist friend, the raw power of the Lycan's arrogance forcing all eyes in the area to look nowhere else. Ziau seemed to relax, tail sweeping lazily behind him as he gnashed his teeth in preparation to speak again, eyes sliding easily over the Coven, "You know what an anti-Hero is? Do you know why I take up that title?" He smirked, shifting his weight slightly, "Because I am out to do what [b]I[/b] think is right, and your heroism will only default your death."

Logan moved to spread his arms, though he only had one, and his right palm turned outward to show its emptiness. He held no weapon. There was, currently, no threat. "You think that there are enough of you to survive us, then?" He spoke softly, calmly, as if over dinner or simply relaxing with friends. His words, though, brought eyes to him as if he'd roared, and the collective thoughts of the gathered group returned to the realization that the Vanguard had come here to sow pain and harvest blood. Ziau spoke through the tense silence, chuckling and aiming a thumb over his shoulder at his leader, "Final boss fight, we are."

Several voices spoke at once, all expressing a lack of fear and overlapping Milly's playful mockery of Logan and Ziau's posturing. The one that stood out, though, was the nameless man, "I'm already dead, so what is there to fear?" He gave his head a shake, matching the ego of the Guardsmen before him, "Hero, huh? Maybe I'll do what it takes for my family, to keep them protected, no matter who comes across our path."

Nobody saw Logan's nod at those words, and nobody heard the thoughts that slipped briefly through his mind. [i]That's all [b]we're doing.[/b][/i]

Ziau, contained for too long and bored with flavorless words and empty battles of vibrated air, gave a light cough and pulled his sword free, "Shall we stop beating around the bush?" His excitment wagged in his tail, and altered the final word of his sentence into a half bark that distracted the gathered eyes from seeing Logan's pistol leave its holster. The Captain gave swagger and a grin, dropping briefly back into his easygoing manner, "In th'immortal words of th'Doors... The time t'hesitate is through."

Logan lifted his sidearm as Ziau steamrolled into the crowd, his pent up fury unleashing in a hailstorm of howling rage and spinning blade. Logan took careful aim, calm, slow, as if he had all day, and his pistol dipped and shifted to follow his target as he steadily squeezed the trigger with gentle, even pressure. The weapon exploded so suddenly that even Logan did not expect it, and he recovered from the recoil on instinct to send off two nearly perfect follow up shots. All three rounds buried in the meat of Ziau's back, jolting pain through his friend and fueling the rage he needed to decimate the Coven's ranks.

He continued firing, shells flying from his pistol and raining musical pings against the ancient pavement under their feet as he strolled smoothly towards the chaos. The gauntlet on his right arm sprang to life, the buzzsaw on the end spinning to full power and weaving its deadly song into the air as the first of the Coven took to swinging at him.

Soon, the dancing battle had entered full swing, thousands of cuts opening across Vampire flesh and closing almost immediately behind their blades. Logan's cybernetically enhanced muscles hummed and pulsed with power, his broad frame uncharacteristically quick and graceful and nigh untouchable amidst the sea of swinging steel and raining gunfire. Ziau was the thunder to Logan's lightning. Where the Captain dodged and parried, the Lycan blocked incoming blades with his body. That is to say, he ignored them entirely. Logan was all precision and calculation, an invincible blur of motion that was always a half a second in front of the blades that came to meet him. Ziau was all force and fury, an unflinching mass of muscle that dared the Coven's weapons to taste his blood.

Worse, they complimented eachother to perfection, Ziau keeping himself close to his Captain's armless left side. Where Logan gave an opening, the Vampires only found Ziau's sword deflecting their attacks. Where Ziau's carefree refusal to defend himself produced a serious danger, Coven weaponhands found themselves taking bullets from Logan's sidearm before they could land their blows against the Lycan.

Blood poured from the manwolf in torrents. The Russian had taken to using his own vitae as a weapon. Pooling his blood in his empty palm, he flung it at the eyes of the white shirted attacker as a distraction an instant before he moved in to attack. Bashing, hacking, and tearing with sword and claw and teeth.

The corners of Logan's vision flashed every now and then with the image of Milly, the lithe little creature clad in shadow and mystery and mercy dancing through the chaos to spread her magic over her charges. Logan's muscles seemed to find no end of the energy they needed to continue their lethal work, and Ziau's wounds faded from view as quickly as the Vampires'. The Coven figured this out soon enough, but whenever one tried to break away from the Men in favor of their angel, they found themselves suffering under the joint focus of the Guardsmen, and had no choice but to break off their chase and return to the main fight. It hardly mattered, though, because by the time they had come under attack, Milly had vanished from sight and mind, hiding in plain sight.

The fight carried on endlessly, and where one Vampire fell two more came from the shadows and the unseen edges of the battle to take their place. Soon the small band of Vanguardians were outnumbered by a Legion of Vampires, Demons, and whatever filth the City had to offer in the form of psychotic bystanders who couldn't resist the opportunity to taste the power of taking a life. A few came to their aid; Sinthorn, long friend of Ziau's and furious bladesmith, who danced along the edges of the battle stinging those foolish enough to enter his domain. Another man that Logan had a hard time recognizing entered the fray with two handfuls of double-barreled shotgun, and Logan had readied himself for the sting of buckshot before he realized that those terrible weapons were spreading sorrow and waste through the sea of furious attackers that surrounded him and his Gunslinger.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Mark this moment and remember it well, vermin." Logan gestured with his missing left arm as he spoke, indicating the field of battered and broken bodies before him. "This is the dawn of a new day." As he spoke, his pistol dripped molten metal into the puddle of his own blood that had pooled around his feet. His shirt had been hacked entirely away, revealing a torso carved from hamburger and steel, seeping blood and sweat over what little of his flesh remained to be called dirty. "The Vanguard, long sufferers of truth and justice in a world that craves neither, have spilt gallons of their own blood to protect you for years." His eyes glided over their unwilling audience, glistening with the guilt he felt over their pain, "If you do not personally owe us your hide, then someone you know does."

Ziau was nearby, and spoke up as if on cue, "We aren't here to give charity, wear a badge, or even bring aid to those who are weak." He made his way to his Captains side, if only to show the world that he was in far worse shape. His tail, partially severed near the end, wagged with the joy of satiated bloodlust, "We are here to keep balance, bring retribution and hold steadfast the ideals of those whom despise heroes. And villians." His hands lifted, gesturing to the wounded (that is, everyone present) as a school teacher would for a class, "There is simply protect, and do not protect. Balance... and do not balance." His hands returned to his side, and he gave a low growl through the slight pause, "Lash out, or shield your ears from all that is wicked."

Logan's eyes had met the pavement while Ziau spoke, and he grew fascinated by the sight of the blood that had made a lake of the street. It seeped into the cracks and mingled, mixing without prejudice or argument or hatred, content to simply exist regardless of which races the blood had come from. "I regret that it came to this. I truly do." His eyes lifted, narrow and dangerous around the images of fallen friends and tortured comrades. "But, we tried to play nice. We fought and bled and cried for years to stay the course and turn the other cheek." His head shifted to his right, the teeth along the left side of his jaw catching the reflecting light of the moon despite the fact that his were lips pressed together. "All that got us was a collection of thankless scars and enemies on all sides. So, and I know that I'm boring you so this is the important part," His right hand rose and extended a single finger upward, "Pay attention here... If you visit harm on anyone outside your own self defense, we will return it upon you in full."

He strolled forward, walking over and around the fallen and the half-seated as they nursed wounds and cradled their arms over their open torsos. "We are not monsters. We do not torture, maim, punish or play with our fallen enemies." He paused his step to turn at the waist and take in the sight of the battle's aftermath, the air around his left shoulder's stump shimmering gently like heat rising off of a desert highway. He was releasing a cloud of unprogramed surgical nanites. Indifferent and unintelligent, these tiny machines located and repaired any and all organic injury in their limited radius, working feverishly to undo the hatred and rage that everyone nearby had worked so hard to accomplish. "We help you back up. We offer you our aid, and we save your life the next time it needs saving." Someone countered Logan from the crowd, and he paused again to turn his eyes to the man, "Does this make up for the suffering we offer in the name of justice? Of peace?"

"That's for you to decide."
05/16/09 01:03
ZiauFabam.05/16/09 02:32
MissyHmm.. I love it.. Love it all... the writing and the purpose. Excellently done Logan.05/16/09 03:07
LoganThe Coven--or rather, the Fallen, as the crowd had grown well beyond simply Vampires and their family during the battle--had recovered enough to move to each other's aid. Logan watched as brethren were lifted to their feet, sisters and lovers and brothers and husbands coming together to heft the heavy burden of defeat that they had been given by the Vanguard. Gensa, the deceptively tiny, blonde Elder had arrived too late to help in the fight, and her desire to dive into the Guardsmen boiled just under the surface. A good leader, she put her own wishes aside for the sake of her followers, teeth pressed together as if it helped to contain her rage.


"Ah, good evening Elder, came to clean up your mess?" Ziau taunted the vampiress even as he extended a hand to help KC to his feet. KC was understandably hesitant to accept the Lycan's aid, and slapped the hand away before offering Ziau a middle finger in return.

"You can leave now, Logan. My family has me, and each other. We don't need your help."

Logan strode forward, placing himself well inside Gensa's personal space and leaning forward to fill her vision with the hole that her family had cut into his cheek. "You will not presume to give me orders, Elder. This is what happens when you grow too foolhardy. This is what happens when you threaten my family."

Gensa, to her credit, ignored Logan's aggressive stance and simply brushed by so she could move to her family's aid. There were several small, bickering quips tossed back and forth as the Coven and their impromptu allies composed themselves and prepared for the long journey back to their home base. Logan ignored them all, simply watching the recovery effort and subtly working his nanites to subdue pain and mend wounds as people made their way back to their feet. Only when he was spoken to directly did he return his attention to the words coming from Ziau, "Why would they accept help from those whom they think they can walk on?"

"We are not above helping anyone, Ziau. This was unfortunate, but necessary. An example was needed to show this City that we are no longer the shuddering preachers to be brushed aside. We will not be threatened again any time soon. Not after this."
05/16/09 07:26
Aesendria"...they complimented each other to perfection, Ziau keeping himself close to his Captain's armless left side."

Do I smell Bromance? What a cute couple!

And seriously great story and great fight!
05/16/09 17:32
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