Amadeus Darkside: Such Rotten Timing.

They had mostly sobered up by the time they got to Isaac's funeral. Few people where there. Just the four of them, River and her son, a dark-skinned man who might have been related and a blonde sorcerer who normally acted like he hated all the others but now it seemed had had a crush on Binding or something. Amadeus didn't talk to anyone. Usually he was very chatty, but not today. Memphis was chattier than normal. He was offering more than a few short sentences to Bernard and River, and at one point even went to talk to the dark-skinned sorcerer.

They went home in relatively low spirits. Bernard reminded the others Isaac had believed in reincarnation. One of the reasons he strived to be such a good person all the time was so that he could go higher up on that chain. He would either be remade in a better form or ascend to paradise, that was what Isaac believed.

Amadeus got home, took out a notebook and a pen and began writing. Nobody ever saw what he was writing. Nobody ever came to his house other than his mother every Christmas. It was a simple note. A 'dear nobody' sort of thing. He wrote one whenever he felt annoyed or depressed or just downright awful. A 'dear nobody' to a relationship he had never had in real life. 'Dear future wife, dear future child' there was a 'dear uncle' in there somewhere. The first one he had ever written had been shortly after he had met the man now counted as his best friend. 'Dear friends'.

--

Bernard felt oddly tired when he got home, almost as if the energy had been drained on his way back. The funeral had meant he was getting the day off and he just collapsed into his bed. Isaac hadn't seemed especially close to anyone, but he was the best of them, Sult was sure of it. He was the only one who didn't use violence or hurl abuse to break up fights. Heck, when Bernard and Amadeus had started fighting after the whole thing about sleeping with Mel, Memphis had fired a gun to get them apart while Isaac had talked them down until they no longer wanted to rip each other to pieces. Melantha was in the kitchen. She made cakes when she had steam to blow off or emotions to set free. He decided he wanted a cake and hauled himself off the bed.

--

River had to go out. Memphis lay back on the sofa, Jaime sat on his chest. It felt awkward being left alone with a small child. All he could think of was the fighting and wars and suddenly he decided he wasn't right in the head. Jaime gurgled in amusement at something out the windows which took up the entirety of what would otherwise be a wall. The detective craned his neck to try and see and in the end caught sight of a humming bird. He grinned and gently played with his son.

-----
Ireland

They arrived at the hotel. It smelled smoky, as if the lobby had recently been aflame. The woman at reception gave them an apologetic smile. "Heya. I assume you'll be wanting a room?"
"No, we want a giant chocolate elephant." Erskine hissed under his breath. The receptionist, her name tag said she was called Aoife, frowned.
"Sorry, he's had a bad day...we had a bit of an...accident a while back and he's hurt, so he's a little moody." Mist stated, glaring at her boyfriend. Aoife nodded again, frown deepening as she took another look at the man and his injuries.
"He should go to hospital. How'd you get out without a scratch?"
"I wasn't with him at the time."
"I'm not going to hospital unless I stop breathing in the middle of the night or something."
Mist shrugged. "He's spoken."
Aoife gave them both a concerned look. "O-okay...uh...so do you want one room or two?"
"One." they said together before sharing a look, as though they had not discussed this before and were both a little surprised at what the other said. The receptionist put the details into the computer and grimaced. "We're out of separate bedded rooms. You don't mind sleeping together?"
"We're already sharing a room." Mist mumbled.
"Yes, but I thought...since he's hurt...it would be uncomfortable."
"I don't mind." Erskine insisted.
"Okay. How long do you plan to stay?"
"Hopefully just the one night." Mist replied, forcing a smile onto her face.
"'hopefully'?"
"Three nights at the most."
"Okay. Name?"
"Anne Edelmar. His is Niall O'Rourke. He's paying."
"I am not."
"Okay...okay..." Aoife gave them one last odd look and took a key off the wall, leading them up to their room. Once they were alone, they sat on opposite sides of the bed and stared at each other.
"I was hoping for separate beds." Erskine mumbled.
"Why are we even sharing a room?"
"Is it cheaper to share?"
"By one pound, yes...but we have people after us...my figuring was it would be safer to sleep in the same room."
"Mine was 'for God's sake, please don't leave me alone'." He took his robes out of the shoebox. "...I thought I had my phone in here as well..."
"Ghastly found your phone in one of the halls after he tried ringing you. I have mine anyway. Number?"

-----
America

Abla Hazardous was in a foul mood as she entered America. She held the hilt of her katana so hard it hurt. Stones and bits of gravel were kicked up as she stormed in alongside Vengeous and the others. After that thing with that Mara girl she felt like slaughtering some people. She hadn't heard about Darren yet. Nobody had. She swung her weapon out lazily to catch an innocent bystander. She couldn't wait for the bloodshed to really begin.

-----

Lilia waited nearby, watching a transaction of sorts. Arachne held her child close to her and thanked Jack, telling him to report back to Daemon. He told her about Daemon being captured by Frivolidad and Arachne shrugged it off and walked away. Lilia waited for Jack to hop off before following. Her heels would make too much of a noise, so she was daring to go barefoot now. The ground was already tearing through her delicate stockings. She scampered silently after the Child of the Spider, the animal paws from the fur she wore around her shoulders slapping her rhythmically. She tried to keep her breathing as quiet as possible as well.
"Esra, get off the floor." Arachne had stopped, and Lilia stopped as well, getting ready to strike.
"I'm good down here."
"What are you doing down there?"
"Cowering."
"No, you're lying across the hall so no-one can get past."
"Step over me."
"I'll kick you."
"In front of the child?"
"In the face, now. It was going to be the stomach, but now the face."
"I have a lot of stomach. It would have been like kicking an air bag, only with less chance of breaking your leg."
Arachne opened her mouth to say something else when Lilia's Gist raked its claws across her back. She pulled it back in and glared at Esra, just daring him to get up. He didn't. Reckless was crying. She had been crying since she had been separated from Perseus. Lilia picked her up and shushed her gently.
"It's okay, Faine. I'm Lilia. I'm taking you somewhere safe. I'm taking you to a man similar to the one who's been caring for you so far. He's very nice and he owns a magic moving building."
"...does he have ice cream?"
"Almost certainly." She smiled at the little girl, then glared death at Esra, who whimpered. She kicked Arachne and told Esra to heal her before flouncing off.

-----

Memphis awoke late at night having been shaken awake. He was shocked. He had never had a sleep like that. It was perfectly normal, not even a dream. He hadn't even noticed he had fallen asleep. The light was on, River had their son in her arms and she looked terrified. "Mem, Vengeous is back! There's a fight going on right now! The whole place is under attack down there! There's even an overspill up here!"
He leapt up, mind suddenly whirling. "Hide."
"Where?"
"In a wardrobe or something." He kissed her and the baby and went towards the front door, grabbing his gun and car keys as he went.
"Memphis?"
"You were right. I'm one of the best fighters the Sanctuary has. I'll be back, I promise."

-----

Bernard was jerked awake by a stray fireball. Melantha burst into the bedroom, a protective jacket wrapped around her. "Bernie, up. They're back."
He stood and followed her down the stairs. "We're fighting?"
"I don't know about you, but I sure as hell am."
He nodded and burst out into the fold, pushing out against the air.

-----

Amadeus was one of the first to see the fight starting, one of the first to get involved. He was currently pressed into an alleyway, half-crushed by the masses of bodies clashing and killing, and just trying to get out before he developed a serious case of claustrophobia. He finally stumbled out and almost fell onto his back, sending daggers of pain into the minds of the nearby enemies.

He backed into someone as he evaded a strike from a large, bald man with a stupid white goatee beard. The someone turned and fired a gun over Amadeus' shoulder, getting the bald man in the chest. The sensitive turned and thanked his detective friend as Bernard stumbled up to them, trying hard to not get killed by Abla Hazardous. Both his friends stepped in at once, Memphis with a wall of air and Amadeus with mind daggers. She stumbled back and took a swipe at Heatwave instead as Sult defended from another enemy. The detective jerked back, just out of reach of the katana, and Darkside began blocking her thoughts until she stood there as though paralysed, a blank look on her face. The sensitive did the same to a few others closing in until it was up to the elementals to keep people at bay. Hazardous was the most dangerous though, true to her name. He had to keep her paralysed.

Which was why this was the worst possible time to have a vision. Worse than having one while crossing the road. Maybe not as bad as having one while crossing a level crossing. Darkside's visions seemed to be different to most Sensitives'. He would collapse, appear to have a fit, lay unconscious for an unknown amount of time and then awaken with hangover symptoms. His mismatched eyes rolled back in his head and he fell as Memphis turned and Hazardous got her thoughts back.

At first Bernard was only aware that there was a lot less defence. In fact, it seemed he was the only one still trying to hold them back. Then his mind actually registered what he had just heard. The gasp. Just a gasp. Like an unpredicted cut, not like a katana going all the way through your stomach. The sight of that made Bernard so close to throwing up...he was able to somehow stop that from happening and focus on fighting. Then the sword was withdrawn and Abla was moving on to Amadeus, thinking to punish him for the mental block. Darkside had stopped fitting now and his eyes darted frantically beneath the eyelids, lips muttering noiselessly. Sult used his magic to throw one of Mevolent's lot against the assassin and leapt over the Sensitive, kneeling by his wounded friend's side. "Mem? Memphis?"
Memphis let out a hoarse moan. "I t-told Ri-River I'd be o-o-okay..."
"You'll be fine. We just need to get you to a doctor."
"A...A...Amad...he saw this...happen..."
Amadeus sat up behind Bernard with a groan, sounding just as hoarse as Memphis. The Sensitive got a few approaching sorcerers seeing them as easy pickings off their backs and crawled over, opening his mouth ton ask what was going on when he saw his friend.
"Memphis!"
The detective coughed up a little blood and Bernard felt a sort of hopelessness expand in his chest. He got up, taking his friend's gun and continued to fight, unaware that Amadeus appeared to have given up.
"Mem?" The blonde man took his friend's hand. "I won't leave you. I'm getting you out of here."
Memphis rolled his eyes. "I'm dying..."
"You're my best friend. I've known you since we were thirteen!"
"Un-unluck-lucky num-...ber..."
"I'm not letting you die...I've known you too long, too well. I know it sounds gay, but I can't live without you."
Memphis laughed, pulling a face shortly after due to the pain. "Thank you...for getting me away from Lord Vile...all those years ago...I never...never said th-thanks..." His eyes rolled back in his head as he lost consciousness. Amadeus didn't stop to wipe his streaming eyes, didn't dare take time to hide that he was crying in the slightest. He took his friend's limp form and hauled him through the battleground, attacking the minds of anyone in his way with a viciousness never seen before from him.

((...I hope to use the false name Niall O'Rourke more often...I love it as a name...))