The Beginning Of The End (Levi/Neil)

[Zane Ferris]

Mingus Mountain, Arizona
Jan. 18 2009

A splash is heard as a small fish jumps from the small creek winding under the bridge, the trickle of the stream feeding it seemed to echo of the canyon side. The sun was slowly casting its final light on the road that wrapped the side of the cliff. A single man was seem walking down the road, no cars passed him. It was a desolate stretch of road, no one ever took it due to the high chance of accidents and rock slides. Anyways a new road had been put in that was more direct to the next town.

The man seemed to want to be alone, everything about him screamed "Get away from me." He was wearing a black trench coat the brushed the ground as he walked, created a very visible path where he had traveled along the side of the road. His spiked hair seemed to shine at the tips in the dying light of the sun, he wasn't a large man but he was indeed noticeable as he walked.

He sighed, "That moron ran off again, next time I think I'll just kill him myself." he said to himself as he walked. There was little tone to his voice, it was very monotone, no emotions seemed to leak into his works.
As the sun slowly dropped behind the horizon line the temperature dropped, the man's breath could be seen exiting him, he reached up grabbing the collar of his jacket flipping it up covering a good deal of his face.

The sound of tired could be heard tearing down the road, a red mustang was flying down the road. The man felt the bass of the car from some distance away, he didn't even turn his head, as the car came whipping around the corner he slide on the gravel heading straight towards him. He never turned his head, never looking at the car, he simply swung his arm. There was a slight pause, the air seems to stand and go stale as time seemed to freeze. Suddenly blood splattered across the road, the man's trench coat went flying into the air.

Foot steps suddenly contined, the car lay in four pieces and the driver and his passenger lay cut to shreads on the side of the road. The bent down grabbing his jacket and tossing it back on, he continued down his path, stepping to the side of a street sign and continuing forward, Mingus Mountain, Arizona - 15 Miles.

[Levi Storms]

Levi was sitting up int he canyon above the road. He'd found his way up here to settle for the evening. He was tired of dingy hotels. He was okay with the outdoors. It was peaceful. Serene. Something he didn't always take the time to enjoy.

Levi suddenly had a feeling of another presence. He peered over the cliff edge and saw a man on the road below. He watched, and a few moments later saw the car chopped into quarters. "Interesting" Levi thought. He looked back and forth and saw no other cars. He was the only witness. Of course, levi wasn't concerned with the dead man, he'd found a potential new recruit.

Levi Quickly focused on the mind of the man walking down the street. He allowed the image of the trees to physically melt away, and a black abyss to suddenly encase the man. He seemed almost violent. There wasn't a point in approaching him. Not unless he wanted to be chopped into two. Levi instead allowed only a large booming voice to be heard. No physical form would be seen.

"Chopping a car in half, eh? Pretty neat trick? Want to share how it's done?" Levi grinned, watching the scene from above. Waiting to see the mans reaction to the sudden change in his environment.

[/blockquote]

[Zane Ferris]

As he walked Zane had an unease about him, he felt like he was being watched, he didn't care much for people staring at him. As the sudden darkness hit him he looked around but did not panic, he turned his head. "Distortion abilities interesting." he said to himself. He closed his eyes for a second and remembers the road, making sure to focus on the memory of what he last saw to avoid the cliff side.

When the voice banged above him, he continued to walk, "Very similar to how you are causing the darkness, but instead being a coward and hiding away I confront my problems." Zane said. He then remember that there was a small out cove away from the road where he could sit and now worry about the cars or anything catching him off guard. He made his way in his mind that way, when he felt that he was there he sat and crossed his legs.

"Well he is obviously in a location that he could have seen the car, and still keep and eye on me here."[/i] Zane thought to himself. He then began to think about how far he had walked along with the height of the canyon around him, "Also since he is blacking out everything he is obviously is within sight if I could see him."[/i] Zane stood back up.

He raised his hand up forming his blade, he swung his arm cutting a large portion of the canyon side, moving his arm rapidly to make sure anything falling at him would be dust before it hit him. He may not have been able to see but this unforeseen enemy had not stripped him of his wits. "I'll chop the whole canyon side down if I have to." Zane said still in a monotone voice. "How about being a man and facing me?" he tried to call upon his opponents pride to confront him.

[Samuel]

Neil slammed on the brakes to avoid running into the smashed car pieces in front of him. There was plenty of distance, but he had been paying more attention to his cheeseburger than the road. "That was stupid of me. But in all fairness, its just out of place here, with no obstacles around it." Neil stepped out of the old green pick up truck; Tex's former vehicle. It only took a brief glance to figure out what happened. "Those alien bastards! They weren't happy with just abducting people, now they try to take cars. And aparently, there was a malfunction, and it broke. Well you'll never probe me, ET!" Neil made a point of shouting.

He then went back to the truck, and fumbled around behind the seat, looking for Tex's shotgun. "He took it out? Thats not like him. Unless I was robbed already. Am I losing it? Maybe I should deal with the threat at hand. But there is no known threat. So I could drive away. But thats what they'd be expecting..."

Instead, Neil grabbed the buck knife from the glovebox and ran over into a shrub to wait for the aliens to find him.

[Levi Storms]

Levi grinned. The man was intelligent. He picked up on things quickly. That didn't mean he was unbeatable though. Definitely not. He just posed a larger challenge to Levi. Levi focused on another part of the man's brain. This time his senses of sound and touch. The next swing would sound and feel like he was cutting through nothing. The canyon would seem like it didn't exist. Levi still didn't like standing just above where the man was violently swinging a weapon. He stood up and began walking along the cliff side.

"You seem to be having fun swinging that weapon of yours. That all you can do. Make your hand a sword? Rather boring if you ask me. I guess we can't all get great gifts though, now can we? Anyways, the names Levi. And you are?"

Levi was now a safe distance away from the man, and in front of him stood a tall tree. He reached up, grabbed a branch and hoisted himself up. He got to a branch near the center of the tree, and again began watching the man. He was quite interesting. Levi was excited to see how this would play out. It had been awhile since he'd had someone act like this towards him. He hadn't been picking many fights lately. He'd been doing quite the opposite. Making friends wasn't this much fun. Not at all.

[Zane Ferris]

Zane continued his swing, when he no longer felt resistance of his blade hitting stone he stopped, getting the sudden feeling that something was coming at him. He leaped to the side, "He can alter all sense and change what he is doing as he goes, interesting." Zane said aloud continuing to think a way out of this predicament he was in.

"A page from AMP's book may work in this situation, but I hate doing things so....distastefully, and messy." Zane raised his hand into the air holding it straight above him, this was not Zane's style, normally a well thought out plan would be the best course of action, but he was done with the darkness, and this man. "I am Zander Ferris, but you may call me your executioner." Zane said with a sadistic smile on his face, "And you have no idea what true power is."

Zane focused on his hand, forming thousands of tiny blades around him, they began to spin, then fly in every direction cutting into the mountain side. Slicing trees into mulch, boulders to pebbles, he was going to turn the entire canyon into rubble.

[Samuel]

Neil watched, after finally noticing that there seemed to be a fight going on around him. He looked up into the rocky areas, but couldn't see anyone at the moment. "This is when a gun would be useful. I just can't remember where I put it. Was it in the bed? That would be pretty irresponsible of Tex. But still..." Neil stood up out of the bush, with the knife in his teeth. The man out in the open seemed not to take notice, as he was yelling at some trees. So Neil went ahead and climbed into the bed of the truck.

"No, no, no shotgun, but its not all bad." He hoisted a hoe out of the pile of tools in the truck. He left the knife and climbed out with the shovel in hand. Suddenly something knicked the front of the truck. And then another something. There was a storm of small blades in the air, which seemed to be originating from the guy Neil assumed was blind and crazy. "Shit, Tex might have been helpful here. So we need to stop this, like, now. Okay, focus Neil. If he's a power user, he needs to focus to do something like this. So it would be really tough to do if one were seasick. Really seasick." Neil hadn't used a complicated form of empathy in a while, but it was second nature to him anyway. He thought about what it is like to be seasick: One is dizzy, disoriented; they feel nautious, and often have a headache. He used that feeling on himself for a second to test it, and realizing that it worked, he sent it full strength into the stranger.

Although he was focused, he noticed that half the truck was eaten away, and that he should start backing up quickly.

[Levi Storms]

Levi sat quietly in the tree, but was beginning to notice a change in this Zander's behavior. His brain activity, which had seemed so structured and controlled moments ago, was suddenly becoming far more erratic. Levi was lucky he was observing the scene as spike began suddenly shooting out of the man in all directions.

"Fuck! Shit! Oh no!" Levi shouted, totally oblivious to Neil's presence. Levi fell backwards, hiding himself safely behind the tree. He knew he'd let his focus slip some though. The man below had probably seen the scene flash. Levi focused quickly again on his mind, and allowed the scene to reform. This time though, he put himself into the images.

The Levi image walked up behind Zane, and the spikes looked to be bouncing off of him. He looked almost invincible. "Come now, you don't think that's going to hurt me, now, do you? I'm much tougher then that. Like I said though, Levi. Nice to meet you."

The fake Levi smiled and nodded curtly. "Now, why don't you tell me what you were doing all the way out on that road? You must have some goal or another I presume.?" The fake Levi held his hand up and snapped, and Levi allowed the scene to shift to a nice restaurant. A table separating the two with glasses on it. The image motioned to a seat, and took one himself.

While Levi allowed this transition to happen, he noticed the seer in his shoulder. He looked down on his right arm. Blood was staining the white t-shirt he wore. "Ah, jeez. Not cool. Should have dropped him down a pit or something." Levi shook his head, keeping his mind locked to Zane's, ignoring the pain in his arm.

[/blockquote]

[Kuro Boushi]

"That will hopefully have done something." Zane said to himself lowering his hand and stopping the blades, seeing the sudden flash in the blackness of the layout of the area, "He lost focus." he said quietly. As he thought about the situation he finally figured out a plan, a way to take this guy out. "Its all an illusion, everything is just a play on my senses and nothing more."[/i] he thought.

As Zane planed out his way out of this situation he felt a sudden impact in his stomach, it felt like someone punched him full force in the stomach. He tried to focus on the image if Levi, but his vision began to sway, his stomach became violent. He leaned over and began coughing, pulling himself back up. "What the hell....." he said, "Is he able to physically effect my body as well."[/i] he thought.

As the image changed over to the dinner Zane stayed where he was, in the flash he noticed that he was in an empty clearing next to the road, it was a perfectly open area, exactly what he was looking for and needed for his plan. He brought his hand up and whipped his mouth, taking some of the vomit that had came up from his lips. He then took off his coat, reveling a tightly fitting black sweat shirt. He held his hand out and formed a large cross. He then rammed it into the ground the placed his coat over it.

He looked over to Levi, "If I try and sit I will just be in a position that will not only give you an opening but work my legs holding my body weight up like sitting. I would rather stand." he explained himself to Levi, "What I am doing is my business, and what does it matter to you, soon enough you will be dead anyways." Zane said to the man. He felt another impact in his stomach, "Seems kinda pointless to try and have a conversation with me when you are attacking me as well." he sighed to Levi spitting on the ground.

[Samuel]

Neil ceased the seasickness, seeing that the blades were no longer a threat. 'There's somebody else here too. Up in that tree, most likely. That would explain mr. knives here yelling at it.' He thought. Walking to the oposite side of the road, Neil stood in plain sight of either person, about twenty feet from either one

"It looks like there's been some kind of accident here," Neil yelled. "I don't mean you two trying to kill each other (by all means, continue), but I was here too, and I'd like to keep my skin on my bones for now. I'd shank, pardon, shake your hand, but you seem like the stabby type, and your friend over by that tree is, well, hiding from you or I. Probably you; since I didn't do anything."

Neil flipped the shovel over and held it by the handle, with the blade against the road. "My name's Neil Tack. Perhaps you've heard of me?"

[Levi Storms]

Levi peered around the corner of the tree seeing another man standing out there. And he heard the name. Neil Tack. He'd heard it before. Levi quickly racked his mind, thinking. He was sure it was very recently. Then it hit him. He'd heard Joshua mention it only days prior. This was the man Joshua was concerned with. Apparently he was after him. Levi was slightly concerned now.

Zane seemed rather violent. This Neil guy must have been powerful to toy with Joshua. He couldn't stay here anymore. He needed to leave this place now. He couldn't just leave Zane though. Joshua feared Neil. He couldn't invite him to the army. He could end a threat though. Zane on the other hand. He was still a potential ally.

Levi focused deeply on Zane's mind. It was time for his final trick. He allowed part of his mind to link to the image, and into Zane's mind. Now he could watch the scene from quite a distance. He knew that his illusion would drop as soon as he got to far away though. The only remaining image would be the imprint of himself. Levi had a plan though. Two birds with one stone.

He pushed his mind even more. He created a separate image for Neil. rather, he blurred an image. He allowed himself to be invisible. Neil would hear or see nothing from tree. He wouldn't be able to see Levi leaving, or even hear his footsteps. When Levi's images were firmly in place, he stood up and walked away from the scene, heading the direction Zane had been heading. If things went right he'd need to see him again.
He allowed the phantom of him to continue talking to Levi, now picking up quite clearly in his own mind what was being said back to him.

"I don't know what you mean by attacking you. I haven't done a thing. That little trick of yours seems to have made you sick though it seems. Maybe it was too much power? Well, moving on..." Levi took a sip from the cup on the table. "You don't wish to sit. Fine with me. I understand. I have a proposition for you though. An organization... More of an alliance. People like us. Looking for a more equal world. One we can live in without fear. We'll end this cruelty against our people. We'll take the world back and create a new and fair one. What do you say?" The phantom stood from the chair, and circled to the same side that Neil would be standing on if it was visible. Time to finish the plan.

Levi was now far enough away. He couldn't keep the illusion up any longer. He let it drop. Both Neil and Zane would see everything clearly. The only image would be that of Levi. One that only Zane could see. The image stood side by side with Neil. It would appear as if the two were aligned. Neil though, could not see this image. Levi hoped his plan would work as he wanted it to. He continued to walk forward, seeing the scene in his mind, the whole while keeping linked up with Zane. He had to focus on his mind or he could lose his connection.

[/blockquote]

[Zane Ferris]

Zane looked at the men, the visions had finally ceased, but there where two of them, "One made me sick the other was in charge of the visions,"[/i] Zane looked them over, "Its odd though, I mean your alliance, to work to allow our new found powers to grow and not have to live in fear, it just shows how week you really are." Zane said antagonizing Levi, "Your powers, your plans, everything about you simply screams coward." Zane said as he looked them over.

Zane looked over the other man, "Neil tack" Zane said in a hushed tone, he seemed to grit his teeth, "This isn't good, this guy is the only person that could give AMP a run for his money on the crazy scale."[/i] Zane thought allowed, this was not a situation that he was ready for.

He looked over to his jacket still hung neatly on the cross he had formed, but looking closely at the arms of the cross you could see they were slowly breaking down, "I burnt through to much energy for an all out brawl with the two of them."[/i] Zane thought to himself, he closed his eyes and pondered to himself, "The visions that you cast are very close to real, if only you could maintain them while in fear of your life I wouldn't have been able to figure it all out, but having him hit me with what ever that was, making me physically ill, that was a good plan making you seem more powerful then you really are." Zane thought allowed also explaining to the two men.

He focused on his hand forming his blade, "Come now, if truly wish to end this, then attack me now." Zane said, he didn't have time to hesitate with a long dialog, if he wasted to much time he would be completely drained for the day.

[Samuel]

"Fight you? I'm not much of a fighter. More of a serial killer. Besides, you seem like the kind of guy who does more killing than fighting. You'd think we would get along more. There's really no reason we couldn't. I'm actually looking for a new bodyguard, if you're intrested. But I think the more pressing issue at hand is finding this other fellow."

Neil pulled the shovel up and held it at the ready, expecting someone to come out of somewhere. He moved over to the side of the road nearer to the river. He tried to focus on the flow of the water, realizing that someone was using somekind of mental illusion to hide themselves.

He didn't enjoy the situation; since he was far more vulnerable than usual. It was unfortuanate that he had to dispose of Tex. "Where are you, talking tree stranger? If you would care to express yourself in someway, I promise not to kill you. Oh, and I don't think i caught either of your names."

[Levi Storms]

The phantom stared at Zane with his eyebrows raised. What was this man talking about? This was not what Levi wanted. "Kill you? Why would I want to do that? You are one of us." Levi motioned to himself and Neil. "We are on the same side here. You are being ridiculous. How am I weak? I am the one making a stand. What are you doing? So join us and let's put an end to this injustice. Or you can continue hiding yourself, and you can continue to be the weak one."

Levi took a step towards Zane, before turning his slightly and glaring at Neil. For his plan to work, Levi had to play this up correctly. If things went his way, he could accomplish both of the tasks he had just been given. "Neil, knock it off. There is no one in that tree. It's just the two of us and our new friend here! Levi looked back to Zane.

Levi quirked his head, and put on a smile. "Now, what are you planning on doing? You going to waste the next few years doing nothing important?! Join up with us and there is nothing stopping us from becoming great. Or you can try and kill us here. You aren't going to succeed in eliminating the both of us though. I can assure you of that." Levi stared straight at Zane, waiting for an answer. Levi knew there were very few options that could happen here. He was going to make any of them work his way though. He was going to be the victor in this battle. Nothing would stop that.

[/blockquote]

[Zane Ferris]

He looked confused at Neil, "Body guard?' he laughed a little at this, "He's either a moron or something is going on, he can't be blind and have done the damage that he has. Can he?'[/i] Zane questioned himself. What was Neil talking about find the other person? Levi was clearly right in front of him, there was no way he didn't see him, or maybe.

Zane needed to at this time keep his cool, he need to stay focused on this situation and not allow his temper to get to him. This situation called for a clear mind and a very well thought out situation. but Levi's words seemed to attack his pride something that he could not stand for.

"Weak" Zane said softly, the one thing that Zane could not stand for, he tried to contain himself but it was to know avail, "You think I am trying to hide? You think I am the weak one." Zane said raising his arm out to his side, "I am not the weak one here, and you shale die for opening your dirty mouth against my, I AM ZANDER FERRIS! AND I WILL BE YOUR MASTER." he screamed. As he shouted the ground began to spin around his feet, slowly the dust rose to his hand, his blade began to rapidly grow, soon hitting larger than a three story building. "DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH" he shouted jumping into the air raising into the sky in an instant. He soared above the two men now below him, the giant blade in his hand, he swung him arm down rapidly aiming for Levi first.