Spain: Crumbling Towers

Alys stood in the streets of Madrid, watching yet another building crumble to dust. She sighed and looked at her watch. "She's late..." Alys pointed out with a bored tone. She looked to the sky and noticed her smoke coming down to greet her, she held out her hands to catch it but it just swirled around Alys's tall, noah body. "What a bore," she mumbled as her smoke disintagrated while her body changed as she walked toward the train station where she was supposed to meet a group of exorcists to 'lure' them into a trap. She saw a little girl holding a lollypop jumping out of the train, and grinned, she immediatly put on a worried face and ran to meet the exorcists. "I'm glad you're here!" she cried, "you're our only hope!"

Grey had already gone back to the trembling White, who looked slightly disturbed at the crying woman, "Help? What's going on?" White managed to catch a glimpse of another crumbling building. She turned to look at Collin and Candy gravely.

"I-Is this for real?" she asked, voice choking. "Is this what's going on?"

Candy stared at the building that was crumbling in front of her, then glanced at the beautiful lady that was crying for help.
"What can we do here you guys?" she wondered in a desperate tone.

Collin looked around at the city. "This is vastly different from the last time I was here. I remember some of the buildings that appear to have crumbled were very beautiful."

He looked down at his ringless right hand and let out a sigh. "Well, as long as I'm without my Innocence," Collin took off his order jacket and his beret emblazoned with the rose cross seal and put them in his bag. "I shouldn't be attracting the akuma's attention with these. I would be a sitting duck."

Collin glanced at the sun setting in the west. "It's getting late. I say we go to our hotel for the night and start looking tomorrow. Auqustin and Yan will meet us there."

"If they make it," White mumbled bitterly. She walked down the streets, wincing as she watched the building slowly crumble. The people were looking at her with this sense of awe...this sense of fear. She fought back tears that were threatening to fall, and entered the hotel they were going to be staying at. The clerk looked up in surprise.

"A-a customer?" the clerk mumbled. "A customer!" White nodded.

"Yes, we're here--AGH!" White yelped, clutching her head. She looked around as sand started to drip onto the floor, and people were screaming. Champion was throbbing madly and her headache severly weakened her. This hotel was getting ready to turn into sand--with her in it as the panicking people ignored her.

DAMN IT ALL! WHITE! Grey shouted.

DON'T DIE ON ME!!

Alys watched the building the three exorcists walked into crumble before her eyes. "That was easy, I wasn't even needed for something as obvious as that." She snickered and sighed with relief after turning back into her noah form, and ran of to meet babylon as her smoke sheilded her of being seen.

Collin had a terrible sinking feeling as a pile of sand started to accumulate on his shoulder. "OK lets go!" He said shakily. He scooped white off the floor and grabbed the clerk from behind the counter and ran out of the building as it completely crumbled.

Collin set the clerk and white down outside. "We gotta stop doing this, white." Collin panted. Something was bugging him. "Did we forget something?"

Candy coughed and started to choke, she couldn't make her way through the door in time to save herself from the collapsing hotel as she was helping a cleaning lady get through the front door. "...help...me..." She said trying to yell but came out as a whisper as she reached her hand to the sky.

"CANDY!" White shouted, her headache still pounding. She squirmed out of Collin's grip and went over to the exorcist, falling to her knees to grab the exorcist's hand. "Champion!" She yelled, her sleeves changed into the familiar armor and with her new strength gave a vicious tug.

"Collin, help!" she wailed hopelessly.

Candy's hand went limp as she passed out from not enough oxygen.

Collin grabbed the buried girl's sleeve but the sand wouldn't let her go.

"Start digging!" he yelled as he started shoveling sand from on top of candy.

White started digging furiously, giving a shout of relief as she unearthed the exorcist's face. "Candy, hold on!" she shouted, continuing to dig alongside Collin.

Together, the two exorcists unearthed half of Candy's body. With a tug Collin was able to unearth her from the sand. He handed the girl to white and said "Here! Take care of her. I'll continue digging out others."

As he turned back to start digging again something from beneath the sand started to stir. A large portion started to rise and what looked like the ends of cannons protruded from the sand. "An akuma! And I don't have my innocence! damnit!"

White shrieked as the akuma slowly rose from the sand. She placed Candy, down, eyes closed, and Grey was soon out. He ripped the rag from his pocket, yelling Champion's name. The rag morphed into a spear and Grey ran up in front of Collin.

"Take care of Candy, I got this!" Grey shouted. He lunged at the akuma, hitting it with the butt of his spear. The akuma flew back at the hit, it's yell haunting the air. Grey flipped back, standing tense as he stared the akuma down.

"Gomen Gomen Gomen Alys one-chan" Babylon stammered as she finally arrived, running up to her sister which she sensed after the use of her powers. She panted lightly to catch her breath before smiling at the girl. "Sorry I was late. I was having a little....fun" the flirtatious Noah stated, leaving out the details of the cute village boy she chatted with on the way, as well as her foot getting accidently stuck in the sand. 

The girl gasped in excitement when she remembered something and reached into her well shown cleavage to pull out the ring belonging to the boy she met earlier. " Look what I grabbed while on the train. It's the innocence of an exorcist" she explained, taking a moment to look over the accessory. " Funny how something so little can cause us so much trouble" she mumbled before placing the object back between her breasts.

She closed her eyes for a moment to focus on the innocence in the town and easily found the disgruntled exorcists.A playful smirk crossed her features as her eyes opened. "It seems the exorcists are having a run in with an Akuma. What say we go show them how to REALLY have fun, eh Alys?"

Alys brushed her hair out of her eyes then smirked as she turned her head to Babylon. "Those weak pests probably can't even get past a level two akuma..." She chose her words carefully, "But maybe we can spice it up a bit." Alys giggled as she played with the electricity swirling around her body.

Grey lunged at the akuma threatening them, aiming to stab the floating ball in the face. All he got for his effort was a plunge into the side, dangerously close to one of the cannons. White came back, yelling Champion's name as the cannon fired. She flew across the sand, skidding to a halt. Quickly, as if this was a practiced thing, Grey took over and the spear was back.

He ran close to the akuma, bringing the spear upwards in a deadly arc. It screeched and with this momentum he jumped up using the spear as a vault. With a quick twirl above his head, he slammed the spear into the akuma's face.

"I'm sorry," Grey whispered, as the akuma slowly crumbled into dust. Grey landed calmly, brushing some of the sand off. He turned to look at Candy and Collin.

"Hey, you two okay?" he asked. The spear transformed back into the rag, which was quickly pocketed. Grey jogged over to them, White's voice echoing in his head with worry.

Akuma are here, Grey, and Collin's without his innocence! What're we gonna do!? White asked.

"Not panic, is what we're gonna do," Grey mumbled in reply.

Candy suddenly sat up and coughed out a mouthful of sand. "OMG! I thought I was going to die in there!.. Oh frick Akuma." Candy jumped to her feet and lunged for the akuma who was running straight for Collin, She summond Kanashii who blocked the akuma from hurting Collin. "Collin! Get out of here quick!" She screamed as Kanashii started to falter.

"Can do Candy." he said with a salute. "Glad to see that you're alright." he added with a relieved smile.

Collin ran down the street, skillfully weaving through the hectic fleeing crowds. Level one akuma were popping up everywhere turning innocent people into dust. "This is insane! I feel so helpless! If only I had my innocence!"

"Innocence you say?" Collin turned around to see an extremely engorged level 1 within yards of him. As it's form began to warp it continued: "Then that must mean you are an exorcist." The akuma took the shape of a giant clawed hand with one large eye on the palm. "It looks like I just leveled up. Which is bad news for you."

Collin gulped at the level two slowly advancing toward him. "WAIT!" he yelled with his hand out in front of him.

The akuma stopped. "Wha- what is it?" it said surprisedly.

"I don't have my innocence weapon. So this wouldn't be a fair fight!" Collin said.

The hand let out a booming laugh. "Do you think I really care?!" The hand clenched into a fist and it rocketed toward Collin.

Collin jumped back and braced himself just as the rocket-propelled akuma hit the ground with great force sending rocks and sand in all directions. He got back to his feet and hid behind a building hoping the akuma didn't see where he went. 'well it was worth a shot.' he thought.

As Candy finished of the level one Akuma, she ran after Collin to protect him until he recieved his innocence again. "Collin! Where are you?" Just then Candy noticed a large level two akuma peering around a corner where Collin was hiding himself. She summond Her puppets and sent Ureshii after the akuma, who threw it in the air, and bashed it into the ground with both his fists, then used his sharp nails to peirce what looked like it's chest. When the akuma was defeated, Candy immediatly felt relieved to see that Collin was ok. "Collin! Don't run so far away next time!" She called to him.

White was running through the streets, helping civillians and blocking akuma attacks as she saw fit. She gave a loud screech as a familiar giant toy snake slithered onto the scene.

"Miss me?" it hissed. White shook her head.

"N-no! You were supposed to have died back in Paris!" White wailed. She backed up, fear in her eyes. "Akuma...aren't supposed to be resurrected...right!!?"

Candy sighed as Kanashii picked Collin up by the waist and set him on his back. "Kanashii-san will keep you safe ok Collin?" Candy asked as she ran threw the streets of Madrid to meet up with White.

"Sounds good to me." He said from atop kanashii.

"Oh! by the way. hello my name is Collin. I do not believe we have had the pleasure of meeting kanashii." Collin said offering the puppet his hand.

White was in trouble. It wasn't everyday an akuma you THOUGHT you killed came back to try and squeeze the life out of you. Which is what it was doing now. "LET GO OF ME!!" White squealed, her mind too jumbled with fear to get Champion to properly work.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!!" White shrieked, airflow being cut off. The toy snake just laughed pyschotically.

Babylon couldn't hold back a proud smile at her sibling's excitement. "I like that idea" the Noah stated before jumping up on top of a tall building in one bound. She looked where she sensed innocence and saw that all the Exorcists she had met with earlier had their hands full, especially the now useless male. "Awww how cute. One of the baby Akuma leveled up sis. But it seems awfully unfair for him to waste his new power on a weaponless exorcist. Hm...." the female seemed to think for a moment before getting an idea.

"Let's pass the time by playing with the useless boy. Until his friends show up to save him they can play with our other 'pets'. Okay Alys-chan?" she stated the plan before snapping her fingers, a tall black and white level 3 Akuma appearing behind her and immediately going into a polite bow. "Yes mistress?" "Hello Feu-kun. Hey do you see that brown haired boy there in the distance? Riding on that weird....clown thing?" "Yes mam'" "Go take him and bring him out here, alive. ONLY him...for now. I want his other friends to be playmates for your three little brothers and he's useless." "Yes my mistress!" The Akuma stated before flying off towards his destination.
~~~

The akuma called Feu quickly arrived above the puppet made of innocence. He made sure not to touch it as he slyly picked the requested male up and into the air, heading back to the original destination. "My mistress wishes to honor you with her presence. Don't struggle or I'll drop you. She requested you stay alive but nothing about being beaten" the Akuma threatened. Using two wings that seemed to be made of a smoke like substance to fly.

~~~

"Awww you three are so adorable!" the previously serious Noah gushed over three new level 2 Akuma that had been summoned before her. One resembled a candlestick, another a flame, and the last a large smokey sand worm. "Hi-kun, Feuer-kun, and Ogon-kun! I would like you all to go and "play" with those exorcists you understand? Hold nothing back. You three need some training anyway" with that order the fire-type Akuma all shouted "Yes Miss Lilima!" and rushed off to follow commands. Just as they did Feu had arrived with her package. "Thank you Feu-kun! Just hold him still for the moment while I introduce him to my sister" she ordered and Feu complied with a tight hold on the exorcist.

Babylon motioned for Alys to join her. "Alys-chan this is the weak exorcist I seduced the innocence off of. Collin-kun this is my sister Alys. Now...." she trailed off as if to ponder something. "How to play with him first? Any suggestions Alys? Just remember we can't break the new toy right away."