ARMS War: First Evolution
 

Your knowledge of this battle has caused your whole world to change. Every mysterious death or suspected terrorist attack brings suspicion as you wonder if another like you was responcible. Already it was known ARMS users were within the city and killing other users. One was far more obvious then the others. The news reports mysterious fires, often taking out entire blocks, no one has seen the cause, or atleast not survived to tell anyone. The attacks appeared as random, but you knew better, each one was in the area of an ARMS user, someone was hunting.

The city had already begun cracking down, a curfew was in place and all emergency crews were put on continual alert. This did not stop his hunt. However this time you intended to investigate, be it stopping his rampage, gathering info on a threat, or simply seeking all that ARMS he has under his control, there were plenty of reasons to want to be there.

As you near the battle location becomes clear as several buildings erupt in flames. The heat from the blaze was difficult, even for an ARMS user. You knew even you would quickly tire in such a place. As you investigate you see only two figures moving. One was a young man fleeing the other. The other was completely clad in a heat-suit, except for his right arm. It was massive and seemed to be made of glowing red stone, cracked and broken by flames erupting from it. The arm raised, and from it came a massive cone of fire. The alleyway was instantly engulfed racing towards the man who just barely turned a corner as a nearby wall was blasted, the contents igniting under the extreme heat.

The man was already winded, and the one in the suit was taking his sweet time, knowing that in this enviroment he couldn't run for much longer

That pulsing sensation again.

Setsuki awoke, yawned, stretched, and slowly pulled herself to her feet. She had slept on the roof of a tall building like so many other nights. Rubbing at her left eye, Setsuki stumbled lazily to the building's edge and peered over towards the streets below.

She didn't need her ARMS to tell her that something was amiss. She could feel the blasts of heat from where she stood. What kind of fool-?

Shaking her head rapidly, she hopped down to an external stairwell and began descending. Idiots like that guy deserved to lose their ARMS. Instead of working on acquiring more ARMS to improve himself, this idiot saw fit to just use what he had to settle personal vendettas against people he didn't like. And he did in such an unprofessional manner. Setsuki wanted his ARMS for herself, but she'd settle for just shutting him down so that he'd stop making an ass of himself and destroying the city that she found kind of comfortable.

Now on ground level, Setsuki met the fleeing man first as she landed about a dozen yards in front of him. "Get lost or get dead," Setsuki said unemotionally to the man. The lighting was dim, allowing the man to clearly see Setsuki's converted legs. She gestured behind her with one of her kunai. "Now."

Somewhere in the darkness was a young man with a pulsing brain, in a beanie, a cardigan, a clever t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. Fires in the night had begun to worry local authorities. According to the departments the source couldn't be found even though the mass had spread quickly, like the quantity had grown from the air itself. Something unnatural had been cooking, and Don wasn't stupid. So he loaded his revolvers and crept out for supper, a feast for the gods, to be taken by him.

He saw the light first, glowing burning hues in the darkness, painting the clouds with their destruction. Then he felt it, that obvious tinge beyond his common senses. The itch that told him one of his own was close. Close became within sight in due time, revealing an odd scene for Don to make out. On one hand was the obvious ARMS user, the pyro itself. Clad like an alien with no discernible sex with an arm of brimstone pulled from the depths of hell itself. He was making his way down another burning alley so if Don wanted to actually fight him he would have to go around.

On the other end of the corner stood the pursued, tired and scared seemed to read his form. Though more obvious was the woman who stood ahead of him, holding a knife with cold confidence that shone in the light. Other things shone as well. ARMS, legs like that could only be from ARMS. He would have whistled if he wasn't keen on using the element of surprise to his advantage. In the darkness of the alley over he kept still, thinking if not too hard. It seemed to his advantage to let her catch the pyro's attention first. If he was lucky he could spend the entire battle misdirecting his position through ricochet. If not...well at least he was good at this.

A soft whipping sound hit the darkness as he drew his pistols, his mind working the mathematics of his surroundings, every opportunity. Every possibility. The firelight kept it all clear to see. He gave one pistol a cocky spin, this meal would be quite nice.

"Get to higher ground. This guy's power may be visually impressive, but he can't take his own heat. He's probably got back up to have done what we've been seeing in the news," Dorian whispered to Yumiko from around the corner, as he pressed his pistol into her hand. "Just in case there's more than one of them."

With a nod he started around the corner just as Setsuki dropped near the man. He held up a hand with two fingers toward Yumiko, indicating two targets, before pointing toward them.

And then he dashed. His legs pounded the ground just as Setsuki made her ultimatum. Dorian, however, had no intentions of wasting time talking to an active hunter. Instead his arm quickly morphed and altered, thinning down in thickness and stretching out into five red tendrils of flesh wrapping around each other, resembling nothing more than a pulpy rope with each tendril ending in a claw.

Of course neither the ninja nor the pyromaniac had time to reflect on its aesthetics as the new ropey appendage shot out toward them, twisting and unwinding as it did so, each curving apart only to re-aim themselves back toward the pyromaniac from multiple directions.

Dorian planned to tear the heat suit off of him and eliminate much of his tactical advantage, if not kill him in this single assault.

"Right." Yumiko nodded, closing her left hand around Dorian's pistol and looking at it for a moment. She'd had to shoot a gun before, but never since she lost the use of her right hand... Doing so might be a little difficult now, but she'd adapt, for she felt she'd need that skill quite soon. Looking up, she caught glimpse of Dorian signalling her two targets.

No time for reflection now, Yumiko had a job to do.

Moving in the opposite direction of Dorian, from the corner the two had been lurking behind, Yumiko took a brisk jog. The ambient heat was pretty intense, like standing in front of an open oven, or standing too close to her own weapon's destructive radius. Yumiko could already feel herself sweating, and she'd have liked to go slower, to save her strength, but Dorian wasn't going to wait for her. "Heh, two agaisnt two, eh?" Yumiko had a nagging feeling he was going to need all the help he could get, and that meant she couldn't tarry.

It was only a couple meters to the building's stairwell access, and a quick glass swinging door later, Yumiko hurried up the two necessary flights to reach the rooftop of the small building. Overhead the heat wasn't any better, and in the mass of flames she couldn't make out a whole lot across the skyline. The street, and it's accompanying alleys however was another story entirely. Yumiko could easily make out Dorian, who'd already begun his attack, the pursued man, the flame suited man, and another figure whom looked like some sort of ninja...

Movement left...

In Yumiko's peripheral vision, she could also make out faint movement of another figure, and it stopped as quickly as it began. She couldn't see it well, and she wasn't sure if he was an ARMS user or a random civilian, but the situation looked like their opponents were quickly multiplying. Dorian's expectation of a trap might have been correct, and that worried her. Raising the pistol in her left hand to her mouth, she pulled the slide back with her teeth to cycle the weapon. Hopefully, she wouldn't need it.

*Chink* Simultaneously, a quartet of black rods at the end of her right arm cylinder extended, and began to slowly rotate with a "Vwr-vwrr-vwrr!" sound as the assembly itself began to glow a soft gold. Yumiko resolved to wait atop her rooftop vantage and see where any other hidden enemies would emerge from.

Setsuki spun around with a muttered oath and then bolted right through a nearby window. Nobody home. At least that was a good thing.

"Oh god, this night went to hell before I could even hope for a fight without interruptions," Setsuki said with a hand on her forehead. She really wanted to kill Dorian, if for no other reason than to keep him from interfering with her goals, but the night was rapidly clustering into one huge mess. Like moths drawn to a flame, ARMS users were piling right into this situation like maggots onto a freshly slain corpse. The pulsing of the veins in her legs indicated at least two if not more of those who had considerable ARMS strength.

Setsuki briefly considered the fleeing man. It didn't seem like he had any ARMS on him. Maybe he was just one of those numerous one-percenters, idiots who were given the chance to achieve awesome power but lacked the instincts and drive to nurture it by killing others. Setsuki had gotten to where she was by killing more than her fair share. Her legs would have probably indicated him as an ARMS user, but with the users that had greater amounts of ARMS on them all around, she couldn't confirm that possibility. As far as she was concerned, he was just some nobody who pissed off the wrong guy. The kind of wrong guy that would be introduced to ARMS and then put it to horrible use just like she would.

"'Least I'm not the only one having a terrible night," she said before moving on, hoping to circle around and attack the pyromaniac from his flanks or rear. She would kill that fiery douchebag and have his ARMS no matter who stood in the way.

A muffled laugh could be heard as the young woman threatened him. They stared one another as he spoke, his voice inaudible by the suit, but she could make out one word. "Burn".

It was at that moment the suited man felt another presense, multiple ones. With a glance he by chance saw the incoming attack, and just barely raising his arms in defence. Dorians claws imbedded into the stone flesh, and were instantly assualted with intense heat that even his enforced ARMS could not take for long. This was no suprise considering its composition, the suprise came from the one that struck his left arm, which was assualted with the same heat.

Without hesitation his arm was aimed at the attacker. From it shot a blast of fire that quickly became a wall of flame rushing towards Dorian. With heat strong enough to melt steel and the force of an explosion. All could judge in an instant, this was a high level fire attack.

The night blazed with heat, and Abbadon knew damn well why. ARMS. The miracle serum that gave him and others a chance at new life… A show like this could only spell out trouble, it would attract every ARMS infected in the area, like moths to a flame. The pyro was obviously powerful, powerful enough to cause this much damage meant that he should stay away, but he won’t. The allure of consuming him was too great.

Abaddon walked down an alley way leading toward the epicenter of the fight, each step strengthening the feeling that others like him were around. “Ooh boy, looks like I was right. Where are they though” Abaddon said softly to himself. He took out his 1911 quietly so as not to alert anyone else. To his right a door swung open, revealing two people trying to escape the mayhem, when they noticed Abaddon they fainted from fear. They had stared into his eyes, and being normal humans they did not stand a chance. Fodder for him to use. The Colt 1911 was ready to use, and use he did. Abaddon flipped the pistol over so that he could use the its butt to smash his victim’s heads in and as such silently killing them. He had need for their bodies.

A few minutes later when he was sure that they were dead he raised his hands toward their bodies and raised them from their death. They were now under his control and would listen to his every command. They would look like normal humans from far away due to the fact that they just died, other than the fact that their heads were caved in you couldn’t tell the difference between them and anyone else. Abaddon commanded the corpses to move toward the fighting and to try to hurt someone before being completely obliterated.

After giving these commands Abaddon went through the open door and searched inside for the perfect vantage point to watch the fight. He wouldn’t risk death before knowing what he was up against, and as such he would use the zombies to figure out the information he needed to feel comfortable enough to fight the pyro. Maybe he needed more dead, he said to himself while laughing. When he found the perfect vantage point he leaned against the wall pistol ready. Tonight would be a long night.

Neville was actually seated quite comfortably in his apartment kitchen when he heard the broadcast over the emergence radio. More strange fires in an area he knew ARMS users lived. This was a thorn driving in his side. It was a group of ARMS users Neville knew personally, even sponsored as the harmonious alternative to fighting. All his work undone in fire. He dumped his Spam sandwich in the trash. Locking his door behind him, he headed to the roof access. The heavy coat shifted uncomfortably on his hunched shoulders. An unfortunate necessary to conceal his unnatural appendages. A feather flutter to the floor from his coat. Neville put it in his pocket.

On the roof Neville entered the shack. In it were many baseball bats. Some wood, some metal, some completely bent from an incredible swing. Neville tested an aluminum bat. Satisfied, he stepped outside and shed his cumbersome coat. Arching his back he let the wings sprouting from his shoulder blades fan out. Smoke rose from the east. Neville faced the fire still several blocks away.

"Flying is daunting," he said psyching himself for the fight, "You've got wings on, but you realize the unbelievable separation from the present to a time before you knew what ARMS were. It makes one truly understand how singular one really is." He took flight.

High above the fire the air cooked his wings like chicken roasting over the grill. When he absolutely could not stand it any longer, Neville dove to the streets below. Landing on his feet, Neville swung the bat in the righteous roar. The pulsing in his blood called out to the others inflamed like him. From afar Neville saw two human figures moving towards the battle. "Hey," he called, "Why don't you two start moving the other way. This isn't a thing you want to get involved with."

The figures advanced towards him. "Didn't you hear what I just said? It's dangerous out here." That's when he really saw them. There heads were crushed, but they kept moving. Now they were running, running at Neville. "God damn," he brought his bat up readying a hard swing.

It seemed this problem was going to have a few more variables than he had originally included in the equation. He counted three new bodies for sure, with a possibility of a fourth. One he didn't need his heavy senses for, the man came out of the night like a nightmare rushing with an arm that, to be honest, creeped him right the fuck out. That formation of flesh wasn't right, thanks to proper body control and years of medicine he wasn't sick, but it was still rather creepy.

The second he heard cycling her gun, an obvious sound he had learned whilst practicing with firearms to find his preference he caught view of her above. His eyes dilated about as far as they were gonna go and he caught a faint image of her form, and that arm of hers. Seemed the acronym seemed to be spawning a tendency. ARMS on arms all about him, what an odd thing.

Then the 'angel.' Wasn't hard to spot him, obvious wasn't even proper, the man was as noticeable as the fires about them, and the corpses that seemed to be chasing him didn't seem friendly. Which as he led his mind on it caused the assumption of one more.

The man was a puppeteer from afar that, considering the ability, would probably be easy to notice if he could only spot him. He assumed it by the knowledge that the two in the prime of the battle couldn't be controlling them without amazing coordination skills, the woman above could be but he considered that the arm was all she had, they were no friend to that angel. So someone new...

His mind was milling through this when the fires had begun, well he figured this was a good a time as any to begin his assault. Big baddie first, then move on to the less obvious ones as they move on.

He started with two quick shots from his .44, they were aimed at the hip joints of the man if he was composed correctly, edited with ricochet so they would seem less like an assault from his alley and more like an assault from every angle. The key was shutting down his mobility. After that he could formulate a plan to shut down his ability.

And the game was on.