Enemy of my Enemy

You hear a lot of things when you fall into the grey area in the war for the Afterlife. When you have no side to call your own you don;t really acre where your information comes from. Especially when you knew in your bones that something big was coming, that the mysterious Twelve had the world dancing on a string.

That's where it began for Sal Norongachi, gathering intell. Any scrap of information he found on spiritually inclined organizations or groups was checked out but for the most part to no avail. Dead ends, it seemed the Twelve were ghosts, myths he was told. Scary stories to keep kids in check. That was, of course, until he called on James 'Hatchet' Briton. A psychic and thug who had his dirty little fingers in a lot of dirty pies and lived in the worst area South London could offer.

It was the dead of night when Sal reached the grubby looking red painted front door of James home. He could see the lights on in the living room and the occasional flickers of colour behind the discoloured net curtains that partially obscured his view, the TV was on which meant Hatchet was still awake, like that mattered at any rate.

He gave the door a light tap with the butt off his Katana, just lightly enough not to be heard by the houses occupant but loud enough to justify what he intended to do all along. He took his boot to the door.

The cheap wood shot off its hinges and sent splinters cascading across the hallway. Satisfied Sal stepped in to be greeted by Hatchet who stepped out of the living room in his boxer shorts, his beer gut hanging over elasticated waist band, holding his trademark weapon a Hatchet, hence the name.

"Oh good, your in..." Sal said noting with particular glee the blood draining from the 'Hard Mans' face.

The next twenty minutes involved violence and interrogation, Hatchet wasn't a man to give up his dodgy contacts without some persuasion and it only took three fingers and a kneecap for him to spill everything he knew. Something was going down tonight, he couldn't be sure if the Twelve were involved but he'd heard that Nikolai, the Bount who was an agent of the Twelve, had been heavily involved until his demise at Sal's hands.

London City Centre was never quiet. Day or night, no matter the hour, there were always people, going about whatever business they had. James had said that the people who could give him more answers were in Soho, working out of a large industrial warehouse tucked away in the mish-mash of buildings that the government had crammed into the area.

Sal had found the warehouse and sitting atop a rafter inside the building he watched as men and women far below worked around what appeared to be a collection of machinery and computers.


"Matrix link up, check"

"Out-put in the green"

"Initiating start up sequence."

The voices of what he assumed were technicians flitted up to Sal's ears and he became all the more curious as to the purpose of this machinery. That was, of course, until the large spherical contraption in the middle of the warehouse, hooked up to the computer terminals, began to pulse with a white light.

"Countdown commencing, begin evacuation." A tech said and he and his fellows made their way to the exits with haste.

"This isn't good..." Sal said to himself as the flickering lights of the sphere began to pulse faster and faster and then a noise like a high pitched electronic wail began to emanate from it and Sal almost fell from his perch at the amount of sheer reitsu that began to bombard the area.

He wasted no time, slashed a hole in the roof and climbed out onto it, he was greeted by a sight the likes of which he had never seen. The sky was alive, a writhing mass of bodies, shoulder to shoulder, rippling against one another. Hollow of all forms, covering the stars.

Arawn looked over the list, everything was checked off. It had taken him all day, but he had finally finished gathering supplies. He was overjoyed to return to Soul Society and take off the gigai. Gigais felt so uncomfortable to him, it was like wearing a coat in the middle of the summer. It was tricky to get his body to respond as he wanted to, which annoyed him to no end. The night was absolute now, the sun had long since abandoned it's task. The human world seemed so beautiful and peaceful at night. Which was odd since that was when it was the most dangerous. Perhaps it was that illusion of peace that made it so beautiful. Almost to on cue his phone began to wail, it wasn't the normal chime for communications. Arawn dropped his parcels and reached into his pocket for the device. The sky rumbled, he looked up to the clouds. It wasn't supposed to rain, he had check the forecast well before the trip. As he hit the talk button on the cell, he was greeted by static then shouting.
"Tzzzzzz.....a large signal....tzzzzzz......." the voice was garbled "......limited communication......tzzzzzz......available.....tzzzz" the voice cut in and out between the static.
"Hello, I didn't get all of that, please repeat!" Arawn found himself shouting back into the phone. Of course he didn't think his phone was malfunctioning, but he figured it couldn't hurt to make himself louder. "Repeat message, do you copy?" The only response was static. While Arawn tried to piece together the message he turned on the phone's radar. The screen came on and Arawn could see a massive blip on the radar very close to his location. The night was warm, but a chill ran though his body. The sky rumbled again, he looked to the clouds in the direction the blip had shown from. There was a darkness hanging there. Arawn popped his soul candy into his moth and felt his body separate from the gigai. For once he wasn't happy to be leaving the false body.
"Take the packages and find somewhere safe to hide. Try to use your emergency channel for back up." Arawn shouted over his shoulder as he took a leap into the darkness.

It took less than a minute to bring the warehouse into sight, and even less time to see that the blip on the radar false. What had shown as a massive signal was truly a mass of signals. It was of little comfort to know that he wasn't facing a huge hollow. The creatures wiggled through a rift in the sky. Barely a block away, he prayed that he wasn't the only one to receive the signal. He reached for his weapon and sighed; damning his foul luck.

He was in London, a haven of rats and murderers. Almost comparable to Paris in its filth, his plans were beginning to take some sort of cemented shape but he had as of yet failed to secure a link to the real world instead he thought he would do some reconnaissance on prime targets in this city which served as the capital of the country of England.

It was then that he felt a strange pull, a signal of some sort. He had never experienced anything of the like before so he didn’t have the words to describe it yet he would compare it to the calling of a dog with a high pitched whistle, he couldn’t not react to it or it would drive him crazy...A dog on a leash, we come whipped to your call...

He moved swiftly, one Sonido after another following this strange call through the night time city. His forward progression brought something else to his senses, it felt like a large mass of spirit pressure...Larger than us mayhap? We run to danger perhaps...

Rooftops blurred as he sped on, he could see the split in the sky now. A dimensional tear he would call it, or Garganta to give it its common name...Common is as common dose, pray that you need not the horse lest you loose your kingdom... The portal through many hollow poured, salivating from the enigmatic call that pierced the nights calm for those of a hollow persuasion.

Arriving at the origin of the signal he found Sal a man whom he had an acquaintance with and saw at a slight distance to himself what appeared to be a man with a sword and he assumed it was a shinigami.

‘‘What’s going on here? And why exactly are you here?’’ He addressed Sal.

His dark companion growled in the depths of his mind, sending a tremor of knowledge through his higher brain and alerting his senses to the arrival of two new arrivals. He let his brown eyes fall upon Yummie first of all and then his gaze flicked over to Arawn. He had, at one time or another, come across them both.

He turned his attention back to the steadily growing horde of Hollow rapidly blotting out the pin pricked night time sky above Olde London Town.

"Enjoying the view, of course." He responded to Yummie and then let a smile play across his lips and his eyes filled with inner mischief as his Dark Resident let loose a chuckle of anticipation. "Its almost time to Play." He finished.

Arawn picked up his phone once more and opened a line.
"Anyone read me!? I need back-up immediately!" he was worried. No worried was too kind a word, he was frightened to the core of his being. He fought the extreme urge to run away. What could he do against the wall of hollows descending? How many could handle before he would be overwhelmed? As he would take out one, three more would take it's place. Should those three fall another ten would replace them. The noble part of his brain told him any foe defeated meant a life saved. But the realist in him knew that no life would be spared by the wriggling mass. As the mental debate went on he noted they had yet to notice him. While it would give him chance to mount some kind of ambush attack, it wasn't what got his attention. It seemed the hollows were focused on the warehouse not too far away. Curiosity overtook fear, and Arawn got closer. The warehouse's roof had a hole, and he could barely make out two figures standing together. What the hell were people doing here? Couldn't they see the hollows coming? Why didn't they run? Time was of the essence, it all seemed too suspicious. The rift itself looked to to be centered over the warehouse. Arawn crept closer.

En masse the hollows were roaring and milling, being general delinquents and just essentially being naughty.

Sal seemed to be gearing up for a brawl, the idea had no appeal to him and he would have turned on his heel and walked away but there spark in him had already ignited. That deep rooted maniacal hatred of hollows who were once his brethren, it made his hand tremble on the hilt of his zanpakuto. His lip curled in self disgust as he felt these animal urges to kill overwhelming reason and sanity.

Casting his eyes down he sighed slightly, why fight it? A guttural growl tore from his throat, as his lips curled back over is teeth in an animal fashion and the reds of his eyes blazed vibrant the colour of laser points.

He thumbed the zanpakuto and inch out of its sheath and with a Sonido closed the gap between himself and the hollow. Leveling the blade at closest group of hollow he half laughed ‘‘Kuroi Kiba’’ and watched as a black bolt of reiatsu vaporised the small group of low level hollow.

Such an attack was like trying to shovel sand out of the desert, futile.

‘‘Kuroi Tsubusa’’ Wings of black reiatsu grew from his back, he poured more energy into it increasing their span to twenty meters each way.

Sal watched with an idle curiosity as Yummie raced into the fray, lashing out with the substantial powers granted to him, drawing on his vast reservoirs of strength that rivaled Sal's.

Norongachi watched as wings weaved from the fabric of a black hole unfurled from the Arrancars back growing with every second, blotting out the Rogue Shinigami's view of a chunk of the writhing, teeming mass.

Sal tilted his head to the side and strained the movement until he heard a satisfying crack of vertebrae and then shot off from the warehouse roof, in a more leftwards trajectory than Yummie with perhaps Thirty or so feet between the pair, and came to a halt before the overwhelming numbers.

He repositioned his Katana nto his right hand, allowing himself a firm but flexible grip, and then drawing upon his spiritual energies blazed a trail down the ever present connection that he and his Zanpakuto shared. A dull haze of energies pulsated from his body, slowly intensifying as he pumped out more and more of his natural reserves.

"Sound the Funeral Bell, Claidheamh Mor!" The Glaswegian called, the clash of metals, the sounds of battle punctuating every word of the release phrase.


The plain Katana, pulsated a dull white glow along its outline and then across its silver surface fissures of neon crimson raced up from the hilt, snaking out like a spider web they cross crossed the metal before each crack and hairline fracture's glow intensified and the blade ruptured outwards in a hale of shrapnel as a new, thicker and much larger blade of a Claymore took its place literally exploding from the insides outward.

The air itself seemed to burst into flame with Sal's release, embers dancing in the air around him, swaying in the string English breeze, the smell of sulfur strong in his nostrils and then with a brutal war cry flames of a preternatural origin burst fourth from his brown eyes and open mouth spreading across his body like a starved liquid predator consuming every inch of his body and his Zanpakuto before swaying merrily like it had a will of its own.

The fire shrouded Norongachi hefted the Claymore above his head and sent it crashing down in a straight top to bottom cut, loosing all the spirit power he had at his disposal. The blade cleaved through numerous Hollow but it was the wreath of spiritual flame that caused the most damage, adding several hundred feet of reach to the blade and spreading out across the Hollow closest to those in its path it vaporized dozens in one burst.

The darkness radiated from one of the figures and cut into the horde coming a them. The wave of energy made Arawn feel sick to the pit of his stomach. There was doubting that the figure was a hollow, but he had never seen one so small and human like. What was it doing here? Why would it attack it’s own kind? This was getting confusing.

Then he heard the shout, the words echoed in the nearly empty night. "Sound the Funeral Bell, Claidheamh Mor!" Arawn had heard those words before, and the crimson streak the burning made in the sky. His mind raced as the synapses fired. He hard heard that shout before, and he had seen such a feat as well. The memory replayed itself and the truth uttered from his lips “Sal?” he said uncertainly. While Arawn was bad at names, the man had made too great an impression to be easily forgotten. He felt a small bit of relief to see the man alive and well. He had cut a bloody path through the monsters they had faced long ago. And now he decimated the creatures coming out of the fissure. But why would a hollow be with him? The howls of dying hollows stopped his ponderings. This was no time to be thinking, he had to help out.

Arawn jumped down from the rooftop he had been observing the two from and landed on the warehouse. Looking up at the horde was a lot more frightening than he expected. It took a moment for him to stop his knees from shaking. The hollows had yet to notice him, the other two had their full attention. Arawn wouldn’t dare jump into such a fray like they had. That left him few options. He breathed a sigh and pooled his reiryoku. Reiatsu bubbled forth from his body, the warehouse roof started to vibrate. Arawn pointed his hands toward the mass of hollows his thumbs and index fingers connected. This was the first time he use this technique in actual combat, but it seemed a good as time as any. “Thunder shake the heavens, roar and shatter the silence, blaze and split the darkness. Hado #4 :Byakurai!” As he finished his chant he felt the surge of power. Normally he would cast spells parallel, but this time the resulting shots combined. Rather than a single ray of lightning he got a large blast. The cannon shot of energy rose quickly into the sky right into the hollows. In an instant several hollows were evaporated by the blinding light. The light vanished as quick as it came and there was a small gap where the creatures had been. Some of those close to the energy discharge looked down to the source, the lone shinigami standing on the roof. With many hisses and roars they dove downwards.

Arawn was gasping for breath, for some reason performing that technique was more tiring than expected. Perhaps in the human world it was more taxing? He didn't have much time to think as the shot had brought attention to himself. Out in the open he had little chance against multiple foes. He spied the hole in the roof. If could draw them down into there he could battle better. If not confine their movement, he could slow their advance. He jumped down into the warehouse with the hollows not far behind.

...Glorious slaughter...

Alongside him Sal had taken to the field of battle and swung his sword in a glorious blaze of fire that decimated their opponents. Like wheat to a scythe the feel before the onslaught of foes beyond their means.

In his excitement he had forgotten about the Shinigami he had seen coming towards them, but a large canon like explosion that destroyed several hollow drew his gaze downwards in a search for its source. He saw the shinigami there upon the warehouse rooftop, he seemed distressed for some reason that Yummei couldn’t fathom for he had no visible sign of injury. He was surprised when he saw the shinigami enter the warehouse through the tear in the roof.

Focusing his attention back to the fight he curled the black wings around him and used a Sonido to bring himself quickly into thick ranks of hollow. For a second he simply watched the confusion his speed of disappearance and re appearance caused among the hollow around him, before their vicious instinct took over and they moved to attack him. He lashed outwards with his black wings, extending them powerfully to their full length and destroying all those hollows caught in their path.

He twisted around to face the threat from the back and caught the incoming blows of two hollow on the blunted outer edge of his reverse katana. Pushing them backwards away from himself he followed up with a Sonido and plunged his blade through their skulls respectively.

He saw in his peripheral a group of enraged hollow rather quickly descending towards the roof of the warehouse where the shinigami had entered. He aimed the tip of his blade at them and was going to deal with the group with one powerful blast of his Kuroi kiba...Leave him...Shinigami...Deserves to die...

He struggled with his own instinct and hatred of shinigami for more than a second, but the decision was made for him as he was attacked again and moved to defend himself.

The initial assault had done little to thin the enemy numbers and even an unexpected burst of Kidou from Arawn only made room for more to pour through the inter-dimensional fissure in the skies above London.

Sal's blade danced all around him, arcing flame, which was only a physical manifestation of the massive amount of spiritual power he possessed, and flashing silver at any who came at him. The claymore moved like a conductors baton, with deft and precise strokes he orchestrated a symphony of destruction around his person.

Hollow lunged, flew and slashed at him, some scoring but few managing to over come his Spiritual Power, they were cut down mercilessly but more and more came. He spun the Claymore over his head in both hands, windmilling it for two rotations and then with a roar let the flaming spiritual power increase the power, reach and intensity of the spinning slash that cleaved and vaporized dozens converging upon his position.

He flash stepped out of the fray, vanishing and reappearing at intervals to butcher a Hollow as he made a back peddling retreat to a better position lest be be over whelmed. His plan didn't work out as he had planned however, as from behind the masses of low-level, smaller Hollow, a crimson light cast them in shadow, then another, and another, until there were more than fifteen points of red light in the massive hoard.

Sal only managed half a malediction before the scene erupted with a barrage of Cero, the red beams decimating the largest bulk of the weaker Hollow and cleaved the darkened sky like deadly strobe lights, firing again and again Sal being bounced from one beam to another as more and more shots joined the first volley until the sky was a web of crimson lines.

As he entered the warehouse he was greeted by the hum of machinery. As part of the 12th squad it wasn't a new experience. The sound of electronics at work, ionized air, even the additional warmth in the air. All things he had come to accept as normal while working in the R&D department. Before he landed on the ground he hand shot out and grabbed at the rafter. He hung there in the roofing looking at the strange round object and flashing terminals. Something about this place felt off, he shouldn't be in here. Arawn came back to reality with the sound of objects landing on the roof. Crap! He had forgotten about the hollows that were chasing him. These machines looked important, but he didn't have time to look them over. And he surely didn't want to wreck them while fighting the hollows.

The shinigami sighed to himself; coming into the warehouse was a bad idea. He pulled himself up to sit on the metal beam and looked up at the hole he had entered from. Sure enough a pair of large muscular hands appeared on the edge of the hole, then another pair joined them.
"Wait, two pairs of hands!?" he spoke aloud his astonishment. He kept forgetting hollows didn't have same human biology. The creature that came over the hole had 4 limbs, but they were all arms. It's body was it's head, the junction where all four arms met was a white mask. The creature roared as it's arms pulled the hole open wider. It's arms occupied Arawn jumped upward straight at the head and slashed as his rose in the air past it. He landed on the roof as the four armed hollow started to dissolve. There wasn't a moment to rest, there were other hollows on the roof. Thankfully the four armed beast he had just dispatched was the largest of the group, they hesitated after seeing his end. Arawn quickly made use of the hesitation. He lunged at the nearest creature and brought his sword down upon it's head, he spun and cleaved another mask. The initial surprise wore off and the hollows now reacted. Claws reached for him, but Arawn kept moving. Their numbers not an advantage if not coordinated. One creature's attack was blocked by another creature's lung. Arawn kept his swings small as he cut fingers, arms, and other strange appendages that came close to him. It wasn't perfect but hit worked, he had cuts along his body, but nothing fatal. His robe now bloody with the blood of his enemies and his own. More hollows landed on the roof and joined the small army. The roof might collapse under the additional weight, he had to protect the machinery. It had something to do with this whole situation, destroying them could solve the problem or make things significantly worse.
"How can things get worse?" he asked himself. Almost in response there was a red light above him. At first he thought it was Sal, but he hazarded a look and saw the crimson lights cut the night air, and Sal dancing between them. Something grabbed him, and he had to look back down. He cut away the arm at another hollow's skull. There was little he could do to from the ground. The hollows kept coming.

He stabbed a frenzy. Monstrous lives ended all about. But the tide continued.

Moving like a smudged outline he pushed his skill with Sonido to the maximum, blurring from one hollow to the next and thrusting his sword point through skull after skull. He wasted no time on defence, only keeping his speed and momentum going.

Never stopping just ending lives with an admonishable fury. And then a crimson blaze lit up the sky.

He saw the red light of death that the hollows wielded first as a silhouette of himself as he had his back to the tear. However turning he gasped slightly as first his peripheral then his entire vision filled with the sight of cero streaking across the sky and Sal dodging furiously in-between.

A mass of something drew his eye down, and for the second time he was caught surprised. A mob of hollow had descended upon the roof of the warehouse and the shinigami was fighting to fend them off, taking limbs and lives were he could but unable to free himself completely from the mass onslaught.

He felt for the shinigami but he wanted to help Sal, his situation was precarious and he had uses for him. However short of diving into the barrage himself he couldn’t do much as launching his own attacks to negate the cero would only cause a damaging explosion that Sal would no doubt find annoying.

It was with a curse then that he quickly descended to the warehouse roof, he would aid the shinigami and if he was willing the three of them could fix this mess together.

He touched down lightly after his descent and immediately sprung forward, heading for the rear of the mob. With a backhanded sweep he brought the outer edge of his reverse katana across and cut a path through three different hollows. And levelling the tip of the sword fired a Kuroi Kiba into the centre of the group

‘‘Hey Shinigami, any injuries?’’

Sal wasn't the quickest Soul Reaper around, if anything his speed was barely above average but he was stubborn and as resilient as they came. So far he'd dodged perhaps 8 out of 10 cero that came his way and even though he was bruised and partially charred from the crimson impacts he kept on going, his body a blur of accelerated motion that remained stationary as little as possible.

The good news, he thought as the last vestiges of the smaller Hollow was engulfed in the firestorm, was that he could now see the cero's origins. The swaying big nosed heads of Menos Grande trying to squirm through the dimensional tear like vulgar with headed worms.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a series of lightning quick movements and half turned his head, spinning to the side of a scarlet death beam, to see Yummie descending toward the warehouse Arawn had sought refuge in.

"Thats just great..." He growled to himself. "Fuck this..." He muttered to himself and taking a fiorm grip of the Claymores handle waited...

The blast found him in seconds, the Cero frying the air before it, zeroing in on his position. The Glaswegian gritted his teeth and charged at it, his blade rising above his head and as the pair met, Exile and Cero, he slashed Claidheamh Mor downwards.

The Flaming sword met resistance for a heartbeat before it bit into the energy wave and carved it in two. Sal used all his might and surged forward, his blade cutting a path directly down the middle of the large crimson beam. The muscles in his arm bulged to their fullest as he held the blade just so, forcing the energy clear of his path, and then he came to the end of the line rising out and above the start of the cero it had taken him less than a few seconds to traverse its deadly passage.


His claymore flicked down to his right side and then rose up in a diagonal cut its arc ending at his left shoulder, the one handed attack cleaving the Meno's face cleanly in two. He spun 180 degrees and brought the blade down again, catching another as its gaping maw opened to fire upon him, it too faded into oblivion.

Sal sped along the writhing line, evading and deflecting what Cero came his way, and with each Meno's he passed his sword sought vengeance, mutilating them with one fell stroke. Soon the Fissure was clear of the mid-level Hollow and he allowed himself to pant, his heart thumping in his chest, sweat covering his face and bare chest.

Perhaps it was the over exertion that caused him to overlook one small detail of the dimensional rip. The small, human sized, figure standing patiently just inside. He didn't miss the thunder strike punch that sent him firing downwards like a wayward cannonball, smashing through the roof of a nearby building, colliding with its flooring, bouncing along some more before bursting through its outer wall into the night once again before coming to a earth churning stop with a few choices Scottish curses, dragging himself up onto his feet and trying to halt the ringing sound from his ears.

The creatures around him suddenly parted. No, not parted, they were destroyed in a flash as a figure approached him. The hollows backed from this figure slightly. Even though Arawn lacked the ability to sense reiryoku, he could feel the same discomfort as before. This was the feeling he got from being close to the hollows, this 'person' wasn't human. While he had saved him, he was reluctant to get too close to him.
"I'm fine, thank you." He stammers, not sure how to address such a being. The hollows only stopped their advance for a moment, he is thankful for the interruption as he turns to fight off the new wave of attack. Why is this thing helping him if it's a hollow? What is his connection to the enigmatic warrior Sal? Something to do with those creatures he had seen before? The questions would have to wait, but they nor the hollows would relent.

There was an explosion not too far away from the warehouse, something had fallen from the sky. A few of the hollow had looked away from the fight at the loud noise. Arawn made use of the opening, but it didn't last long. A wave of pressure then hit him, halting him in his tracks. There was a sensation filling his body now; fear. Whatever it was it was not something he wanted come face to face with.

The presence of a monster. Something familiar about it. He turned to see in the distance a relatively small human looking figure standing in the rift between worlds. He saw also Sal, seemingly oblivious to the newest assailant get punched with a brutal force. The contact of it created a sickening sound he heard from where he was, and Sal flew into cannonball like descent crashing into the roof of a nearby building.

Anyone else and he would have been crossing the name of his mailing list...heh good one... but Sal was made of sterner stuff than to be taken out with a single blow. This...whatever it was hollow or arrancar would rue his over confidence.
First things first though he had to clear up the hollow here as leaving to fight this new monster would leave this shinigami in the same predicament as he had just saved him from.

‘‘Unlucky my poor brethren.’’

And he set to work, sword rising and falling as he cut through the hollow around him like butter. With his strength skill and speed these low level insects fell before him as if he was a wrathful god and he left not a one alive.

Sheathing his sword he used a Sonido to rise in the sky, leaving the distance between himself and the still obscure figure. Extending his hand he charged a cero, a great greeting if ever there was one.

Releasing the red blaze, he watched intently trying to gauge the reactions and determine the strength of the opponent.
In the face of this powerful enemy he felt a blood lust rise in him, the voices that were always there like whispers in the wind rose to prominence. There was no point in struggling, he would give in for now, allow the animal inside to take over. Become a monster.

The Cero scorched the sky like a deities wrathful judgment, impacting upon his attacker with a world crushing explosion filling the sky with a Ruby sphere that expanded outward from the epicenter fully eclipsing the dull light from the moon before falling in upon itself as rapidly as it had expanded.

Sal couldn't really believe that a Hollow could survive that kind of power and waited for a sign of victory. Senses expanded to maximum, vision trying to take in the entire scene at once, ears strained and yet he still didn't detect the creature far to the left of the explosion.

"LEFT!" He yelled to Yummie as the Hollow gathered a Cero in each hand, one aimed at him and the other Yummie.

Sal was already in mid-leap when the red beam hit the ground behind him, the resulting shock wave hurling him back into the warehouse to roll to an ungraceful stop at Arawns feet.

He looked up at the Shinigami, spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor and dragged himself upright. "Every time i meet you, i'm hacking up blood..." He smiled and then reigniting the power of his Zanpakuto geared up to get back into the fray. "Coming?"

The large explosion makes Arawn flinch. There is no doubt that was a cero, and even less doubt that the person next to him is a hollow. The bright light makes day of the deep night. The hollow around him are now cleared or flee from the battlefield. Wise decision he wishes he could do the same. The titanic forces that are here dwarf his own feeble powers. At best he could release two to three more double kidos. But it would probably just annoy this new opponent. That being said, he watches as the light clears and the counterattack that follows. He leaps away from the obvious target standing next to him just as Sal rolls right into him. Despite the situation Arawn smiles at the wounded warrior.
"Well to be fair it's not my fault." he laughs in response. He looks up into the sky. "I take it that one isn't your friend?"

Sal let a chuckle escape his lips as he stepped through the handy exit his high velocity impact had created. Gazing up into the sky he saw Yummie unleash a cero of his own only to be blind sided by the swift opponent, knocking the powerful hollow into the distance with a resounding series of crashes that filled the night air.

"If it wants to be friends, i think the Hollow just got asked out on a date.." Norongachi responded and then looked back at Arawn, taking the measure of him.

"You can help in one of two ways," He began. "Get up close and personal at my side or go for the ranged approach with Kidou. This could be a rough one, so don't try and get heroic and don't worry about catching me in the crossfire if you do unleash anymore of those pretty death rays." Norongachi finished and then a thought occurred and he said to himself. "You watched me jump off a building and kick myself in the head...so you know that already"

The young shinigami considered the warrior's words. The first option seemed impossible. There was no way he could survive a blow from that thing. He looked over at the batter Sal and wondered how the man could take such punishment and remain for the most part unharmed. As for the second option it was possible, using his kido from afar would be a good support tactic. The only problem was his current range. Arawn was well outside the effective range of conventional spells. He could use his double spell would reach, but he was limited in number. Actually now that he thought about it, if he moved closer the more powerful blast might be more effective as well.
"I'll try not get in your way," he finally spoke "But any kind of support I can give I'll need to get closer or have him come to me." As he spoke he suddenly realized that Sal had just been flying in the sky. As far as Arawn knew there was no spell to do that. Sal didn't look like kido type either. Honestly he looked light a man that enjoyed the 'hands on' approach.
"Putting that aside, is there any way to close that portal? We don't know how long til more of those little hollows come through." Indeed the smaller hollow and vanished and now the figure in the gaping rent in the sky remained.

Sal was never one for thinking outside the box, he hadn't even given that strange glowing orb, about twice the size of a basketball, behind them a second thought once the smell of battle had filled his nostrils but now slowly a thought chugged out of Norongachi station and gathered speed until he came to a decision.

"There's a whole mess of consoles back there, push some buttons and see if you can shut it down, i dunno if you can feel it but its pumping out some kind of artificial Reiatsu field," He said feeling the static buzz of the unnatural energy fluctuating all around them. "I'll keep whatshisface busy, i'll get him as close as i can, there will be turbulence, the guys fast as hell but I'll keep him off you as best i can." And with orders issued and feeling mighty accomplished he surrendered again to the unanimous voices screaming for blood.

He rose up to meet the Arracar, letting the full force of his Spiritual Power flood outwards so that the flaming symbol of that power intensified, spilled out all around him and roared its strength to the lonely moon.

Arawn didn't bother to hide his relief. He rather tackle unknown machinery than that thing in the sky. But that relief was short lived. Upon closer examination of the consoles he couldn't quite discern their function. They were so many wires leading to and from each unit, it was difficult to see which control panel he should start at. He stopped to look at the sphere itself, it wasn't a technology he was familiar with either. Maybe he was better off with the fighting. If the humming orb was the reason for the rift he had to do something about it.
"Okay turn it up, turn it down, or turn it off." he was talking to himself since it helped with the thinking process.

Turning it up shouldn't be a good idea. It might make the rift bigger, and probably bring more creatures. There was also the risk of an overload no telling what that could do. Turning it down might have a better chance of closing the rift. Arawn had learned that suddenly shutting a machine off can have dire consequences. It was like driving a car at top speed, and then slamming the brakes. His choice made he now had to figure how to go about the machine down. He picked a panel that looked like a keyboard access to it. The keyboard was thankfully a standard QWERTY format with a small numerical keyboard to the side. There were several switches and dials with flashing light. He sighed and started to type. His computer skills weren't top notch, but the system seemed to be more simple than it looked.



One unit on standby and 3 fully functioning. Maybe he could power down one unit at a time. That should lower the output. If the rift would close was another story all together. Still it was worth a try. He wondered how Sal was doing, but quickly got back to work.



Simple system indeed. Trying to figure the exact command wasn't easy. What was he missing?


"Wait, what!?" The humming pitch of the computers suddenly rose higher. Arawn studied the text on the screen; power unit 4 had just been activated. He could have worn he had pushed the 1 not the 4. He better shut it down.


Arawn banged his hands on the keyboard. The powering process must lock out other commands til it's done. He could hear as the fourth power unit came to life. The orb started to flicker as the new energy started to flow through it. He couldn't know the effects the additional power may have on the rift outside.

The Arrancar didn't move, it simply glared with an air of superiority at the flaming Exile, and Sal was feeling the battle rhythm course through him, holding back the urge to charge forward, letting the feeling build to orgasmic proportions indulging in the dual voices of Claidheamh Mor and Abaddon, united in their want for pain and suffering.

Norongachi made his move, distance blurred by in a meteoric surge of fire and they were engaged in a fierce melee, Claymore met Katana, the insistent clang of metal sped up steadily as the blows flew between the pair until the sound of metal upon metal was a constant and high pitched ring that filled the night air.

Sal dipped under a beheading slash and returned a backstroke of his own but the enemy was far to quick for the Glaswegian and leaping over the blow flipped and brought one heel down on the back of Norongachi's bead sending him spinning head over heels to the ground below with a bone rending impact that tossed dirt, rubble and debris into the air like an erupting volcano.

"Mother fu-"Sal spluttered but the malediction was cut short by the knee of the descending Arrancar, burying itself into his abdomen with so much force that his eyes physically bulged upon impact.

Sal's fist came up less than a heartbeat later swinging wildly as he rose up forcing the Arrancar to tilt backwards to avoid the strike and as he did so the tip of Claidheamh Mor scored a semi-circular gouge into the shattered road as Sal dragged it from its position, to his right hand side, and round, the metal leaving the stone and slashing toward the midsection of the Arrancar who flipped backwards, one foot pushing off Sal's chest forcing him back down and clearing the enemy of the strike.

The Glaswegian rolled with the momentum, sprung one handed onto his feet, skidding for a a foot and a half as his boots sought traction and then charged back into the fray.

He came in low and fast, the massive weapon snapping outwards from his left hand side, in a straight horizontal cut, and the Arracar performed a standing somersault evasion placing him to Sal's right hand side on and delivered a side kick that found the flat of Claidheamh Mor but the force was substantial enough to knock the flaming Exile off balance and before the brown eyed Norongachi could blink the lighting fast blade had found its mark. Embedding into his left shoulder all almost to the hilt and the Arrancar sneered, its face less than ten inches from Sal's agonized expression of pain.

Sal felt the blond gushing out from the wound, the crimson liquid spilling down the blade and dripping from the black hand guard of the Katana. It hurt like a bitch and the Arrancar knew it, reveled in it like all good Monster should.

The pain was, unfortunately for the enemy, a tickle compared to what his body had previously suffered, and that agonized expression quickly dissolved and his right hand locked down down upon the foes wrist with crushing force and Sal's face broke into a cold and gleaming smile, that widened slowly as the Arrancar tugged at the arm, unable to dislodge it, or the Katana, from Sal's grasp and shoulder.

"Thoughts?" Sal said through the grin and launched a thundering headbutt against the Arracars face that sent the enemy reeling backwards but was insufficient to dislodge Sal's advantage, even the powerful rebuttal that came in the form of a sharp kick to the side of the head didn't break his grip but it sent a spray of blood gushing from his mouth.

The machines continued to hum around him. The flashing lights started to flash quicker and some of the gauges changed. Arawn turned back to the keypad


The temperature had risen some what, and the core was now up to 95%. Unfortunately, he didn't know what the core was. The orb? Whoever had set this all up would probably understand the figures he saw better. What worried him was the feedback number rising. When dealing with electronics feedback was rarely a good thing.



Still engaging? The power status was already at 100% why couldn't he shut it down? How could it not be done?
"It can't go beyond 100%" he turned to look at the orb. He could now see visible arcs of electricity jump from the sphere. The tendrils of power crackled in the air. The lights on the other terminals started to flash even faster. He checked the status again. The heat had risen again by 3 degrees and the core was at 100%. Feedback had climbed to 22%.
"This definitely isn't good." Arawn could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise. Not figuratively but literally, the electricity in the air has affecting him. He knew he had to get out and away from the machines. Nothing good was would come of it at this point. He had to find Sal. Stopping the machines was well out of his hands.

He exited from a hole made in the side of the warehouse. He could see the rift still floating in the sky above. Actually he couldn't see where the night sky ended and the rift began, only the sense of fear and unease told him of it's presence. He sighed in relief that the creature was no longer up there. Arawn looked around for Sal. There was an explosion as something crashed to the ground. The shinigami jumped to the top of the warehouse. He couldn't see anything, but a small wisp of smoke. Something had fell from the sky. Was Sal already victorious? He jumped to the next building trying to get closer. He didn't want to be wrong and find himself face to face with that creature.

One arm didn't stop the onslaught from the Arrancar. They were standing mostly immobile in the broken street, slamming punches and kicks into one another and it was simply a matter of time before one, or both, of their bodies gave out.

Sal's upper body snapped to the side and he stumbled, the Fist colliding with his face again, forcing him to take a knee but his grip remained solid and the blood continued to flow from the embedded Katana in his shoulder.

"That it!" He slurred, his face a mess of lacerations, blood, and bruises, one eye already closing over as it swelled. That wasn't it, not by a long shot, and the silent terror before him stamped a foot into his abdomen again and again battering the air from Sal's lungs. Norongachi fell from the final kick but remained focused enough to pull the smaller, lighter, foe with him. His feet shot out at the falling midsection and flipped the Arrancar overhead, rolling over on top of him and hammering a few punches of his own into the enemies exposed face.

The trapped hand, gave the slightest of turns on the Katana's handle but it was enough to drive a fresh spike of pain racing across Norongachi's shoulder and distract him enough for a rising head butt to crush his noise with a wet crunch and fountain of blood.

"Dirty BASTARD!" Sal snarled through the crimson trail gushing down his mouth and chin, locking his remaining hand onto the Arrancars neck, being punched several times for his troubles, and bodily lifted the foe from the ground, holding him aloft a foot off the ground he picked a direction and charged, the Arracar slamming elbowing into his shoulders and knees into his gut that did little to slow the Juggernaut in his rapid progression to a very sturdy looking brick wall that made up one of the many warehouses around them.

The wall didn't budge easily and Sal felt his shoulder pop as his muscle fought against the strong masonry before they burst through into what appeared to be a storage facility for cars of various makes and models. Sal did pretty much all he could at this point, with the Arrancar before him as a literal meatshield he kept going, keeping up the pace he ploughed through sports cars, six seaters, transit vans and anything else that happened to be on his direct path toward the wall directly ahead.

Cars skittered aside, the screech of twisting metal meeting bone and sinew filled the space and then they hit the wall again, punched through and the Arrancar gave a satisfying gasp of pain that only drove Sal forward more, another warehouse wall met them, and another, and another until they had entered and exited four.

Sal was swaying now, chunks of metal and stone having diced him up quite severely, some even lodging in his abdomen and legs, his breathing labored and ragged he staggered to a stop and the Arrancar held securely slid to its knees in front of him before vomiting blood across his chest.

"I...really....don't...like...you" It said at last, pain breaking its silence as only pain can. Its free hand came up in a sloppy motion, like it had lost the ability to use any muscle from the shoulder down and came to a rest on Sal's chest.

"Feelings...mutual.." The Glaswegian panted, and then his eyes slid down to the hand, the blood encrusted fingers extending, all but the index curled and at the fingers tip glowed a very crimson, very frightening, light.

Maybe it was the last dregs of the longest adrenaline rush of his life that made him react so fast, he didn't really know, but one minute the Cero was pointing at him and the next he was forcing the enemies hand up and away, bending it by force at the elbow until the rapidly enlarging orb was directly between them and they fought silently to push its firing line into the others face.

Sal wasn't winning, millimeter by millimeter the orb was coming toward his face casting its eerie scarlet glow across his battered cheek. Sal grunted and strained but with one arm he couldn't match the raw power of his foe and he knew, just knew, that this one attack would end him.

He thought quickly, drew on every instinct and nerve ending he had and released the arm that was holding the Katana in place and swung a wild blow with the injured limb, the punch rattling against the face of his foe, causing the momentary distraction he needed, just as the beam fired.

The Arracar screamed a thousand fell curses at him as it clutched at the charred and dismembered arm, little more than a stump below the shoulder but Sal was spent, his Zanpakuto was hundreds of feet and a few upturned warehouses away, lost in the melee, and the world was shrinking into a pinpoint of light as his brain began closing up shop.

"ARRRAWWWNNN!!" He managed to scream to the night dragging himself forward with one arm, gripped the Katana protruding from his shoulder and drew it from his body and threw it aside before falling down into a pool of his own blood beside his severely wounded foe.

OOC: Was one more part to this, but decided to cut it. ~.~

As he landed on the roof of the warehouse the whole building shoot. Arawn looked down to see a cloud of dust. Not long after he heard a loud crash. The battle was far from over, but he wasn't sure which way the fight was going. As he landed on the ground he entered the hole left from the impact. No sooner had he entered when there was another crash from the far end of the warehouse. They were still going?
"Both of them are monsters." He spoke as he made his way through the wreckage of cars. The metal was more mangled than a high speed collision could possibly produce. "What's that smell?" Not that anyone was around to answer him, it was obviously the smell of gasoline from the vehicles. The floor was covered is fuel from the cars torn to pieces. There were veihcles untouched by the rampage. One car had been knocked completely on it's roof was leaking gas upon the floor. A single spark and the whole place would go up. Arawn got a sudden idea and began ripping his left sleeve into long strands. He dipped the strands into the gas on the floor and used his sword to pry the lids off the untouched cars' gas tanks. He heard another crash, they were still going at it. Hopefully Sal could buy him enough time to set up this deathtrap. Next he stuffed parts to the strands into the open gas lids and left the other part dangle onto the ground. The shinigami moved from car to car until his robe was nearly gone. The vapors were starting to make him feel nauseous. A single spark and the mine field would activate. He could only hope it would be enough.

His task complete he finally exited the warehouse to the next one. Even as he cleared the second warehouse he could hear more crashes. He ran now to catch up with them. There was silence now. If Sal was in trouble he needed to figure a way to lead the creature back to the first warehouse.
Just as he cleared the forth warehouse he heard Sal scream his name.
"SHIT!" was all he could say as he entered the last hole in the wall. Arawn's companion was a bloody mess on the floor and the humanoid hollow was holding a bloody stump. The creature was gasping in pain, and Sal remained still. Had he lost? Even injured that thing would make short work of him. The hollow had it's attention fixed on Sal, and hadn't noticed that the shinigami had entered. He looked up at Arawn and their eyes met. It felt like he was being choked, although no hands were at his neck. The force of the monster's spiritual force was suffocating. Suddenly the pressure stopped, the hollow jerked it's head around as if someone had just snuck up behind it. Arawn fell to his knees gasping for air a mere inches from Sal's prone body. As he struggled for breath he noticed too that something was wrong; the whole building was trembling. The windows located along the walls suddenly shattered and the sound of howling wind could now be heard. Then the roof was ripped off.

The night sky had changed since he last saw it. The rift still sat in the sky, now it was pulling things into it. Bolts of lightning danced along it's edges as the torn roofing fluttered like a feather in the wind and danced into the rift. During the fight they had moved closer to the overloading machine and the rift. Apparently the result of the overload had created a pseudo black-hole. Even the creature was surprised by this turn of events. If it had any control over the rift, it probably would have closed it at that point. The winds caused from the suction started to pull at them, his hair and tattered robe rose slowly. Arawn tried to take advantage of the moment of hesitation, he let his reiatsu flood out and quickly chanted. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Bakuo #9 Geki!" The hollow turned just in time to have the red light encompass it's body. The monster's eyes grew wide at the sudden assault, then filled with anger when it realized it couldn't move. Arawn knew that wouldn't be enough, he focused his energy once again. "The earth, what one falls upon when nature binds the lower appendages. Bakudo #17 Keikainatorappu!" Arawn got to his feet grabbed Sal by the arm trying to lift him. Gods he was heavy. Holding onto his bloodied friend he moved back into the hole he had entered the warehouse from. He heard the hollow bellow in rage as they exited. The pull of the rift was getting stronger, boxes and crates in the room were taken into the sky. With any luck the same would happen to the hollow. Arawn didn't take the time to look back, and he kept moving. It was a struggle to carry the big man, but some how managed to move through the warehouses. Arawn nearly passed out as they crossed the final warehouse. The room was filled with the gas vapors, pulling Sal had nearly exhausted him. Once again he felt like he was choking, but they made it out of the warehouse and across the street. He let Sal's body fall to the ground. The man was battered and beaten. He wondered how he had managed to as long as he did.

"Sal? Wake up! Sal!" He slapped him on the cheeks trying to rouse him as if sleeping. Arawn wished he had taken knew how to heal, it would be helpful in situations like this. He looked up into the sky. He could only watch as debris was snatched from the ground and into the dark depths. A tornado like vortex had formed and was now sweeping the area. If his spells held that hollow should be back where ever it had come from.