It's like I've been here before... (Duo, Open)

[Hirosame]

Alex walked silently into Kalm. It was a bright day outside, but the evening sun was setting. After a long day of travel, he felt a bit tired. He had just walked through the open plains, hoping something would happen. Something did happen, but the Zolom is a commodity for the area around the Mythril Mines. After defeating one of the lesser Zoloms, Alex felt tired, after not being in the usual spin of things and having lost his battle formation. But, he knew he needed one night in a good inn to get things straightened up.

Alex moved into the inn, and requested a room for the night. It wasn't too much money to afford one; the money he got from the Zolom's dead carcass managed to pay it off. After reserving a room on the 3rd floor, apparently the top floor to this little town Inn, he made his way through the village, seeing what had changed. And, of course, to his usual dismay, nothing was different. There never is anything different anymore for him. He shrugged it off, and made his way back to the inn.

On his way back, Alex was confronted with a few small children with sad looks.

"Mister?" One of them asked. "Can you help us get our ball back?"

"Of course I can." Alex replied. "Where is it?"

A little girl stepped up and pointed to the roof of a house. "We were pwaying den all of a sudden I kicked the ball and it fwew up to dere." She looked upset, and Alex knelt down and smiled at her.

Don't you worry about a thing, I'll get it, no problem. The childrens' faces brightened up, and laughed and cheered with joy. Alex stood up and walked over to the side of the house with the ball on top. The water spout was hanging down, so he decided to use that as his means of going up. He latched his hand around it, put his other hand a bit higher up, and began climbing up the side of the house.

Alex reached the top semi-quickly, and found the ball sitting on the top of the roof in plain sight. He walked over, reached down, and picked up the ball. He shouted down, "Is this the one?"

The little girl screamed with happiness, and Alex laughed. "I'll take that as a yes. Here it comes!" Alex threw the ball back down near the kids, and they all cheered and giggled as they went back to playing. Smiling, Alex leaped down from the house in a single bound. He walked back over to the inn, went inside, and headed up to his room

[Duorzum]

Alex wasn't the only one inside of the inn.

Duo had checked out of the inn already, however, he wasn't going to leave the establishment just yet. He decided to lounge for a little while, relaxed in a chair in some corner of the lobby. The violet demon was in his human disguise, having gotten many stares and mistaken identities already. He had been called Vincent Valentine several times. The Original wore red and had crimson eyes, while Duo wore dark purple and had violet eyes. The Original was pale, but Duo was as pale as a porcelain doll.

Apparently, people were dumb enough not to see the most obvious of differences.

The demon in disguise watched Alex run through the inn door and up to the third level. Hm... he smelled like a Zolom. After catching the Zolom scent, he deduced that the man had returned from a fight with one. Still... he could've at least masked the tell-tale scent. Filthier than a Chocobo pen that's been unattended to for a week. The Zolom scent got him thinking. Perhaps he could help waging the secret war between the experiments and their creator....

He kept the idea in mind.

[Hirosame]

Alex began unpacking his things, the closets there were quite roomy. There was enough space to pack almost anything in the world. But, his few things he had with him would fit in one closet and a drawer. After his things were all unpacked, he went back downstairs to talk to the inn manager about food items for if he was here on an extended visit. There was one thing that he was curious of about this town, it's the fact that the dead are said to come back to life due to residue from the Meteor a few years back. But, it wasn't possible that that would happen. And even if it had, then he would be able to take care of it all on his own.

Alex had just walked downstairs and began to talk to the manager about the food. The manager said that food would be brought up daily and put in the fridge while it was around noon. With his question answered, he turned to go back upstairs, when he saw the figure of a person in the corner. He couldn't tell who or what it was, so he left it be for now. He figured that they would confront one of these days, or at least before his research was over with. Not like it was uncommon for him to get weird looks from people all over. So, with this in mind, he left the person in the corner to do whatever, and Alex went back up to his room.

[Duorzum]

Duorzum headed outside, gliding on silent feet. Despite the armor he was wearing, he was surprisingly quiet. He'd see that male again. First... to cover his trail. He'd take wing, yes, but they'd know he was here. Wings also leave behind a trail, just like footprints. To the trained eye, they would be clues as to when the thing in question flew, and in what direction. He'd have to leave by vehicle. Nah, scratch that, supply vehicles never come through Kalm.

He had this nagging feeling that he was about to get a very rude greeting sooner or later.

[Hirosame]

Alex threw himself onto his bed. The night was here, streetlights were alight, and all was quiet outside. There were a few crickets chirping outside, because the window was open to let it cool down inside. Alex thought about the day, and he imagined it clearly. He thought to himself, OK, so I left the Mythril mines, Killed the Zolom, and hiked my way over here to Kalm. It seems like it was a pretty full day for me. He slightly shut his eyes to relax himself, deep in thought about the past. He couldn't help but remember Dezzy and Kaida. He remembered his friend Alexia, who had helped him through a few tough occasions. He used to feel love for Dezzy, but no longer, since he had left for quite some time.

Alex shrugged the thoughts out of his head, got up out of bed, and walked over to the couch. He turned on the Television and started watching the News. Nothing new was happening, but the rumors about Kalm's Living Dead came up for a few minutes. There was even video footage, but he could tell it was fake. Even still, exercising some undead would help him get back into the swing of things. Alex felt much better about his normal state of being, in fact a lot better about he would have normally. He trusted his own strength to a far extent now, and he felt he wouldn't have to use all his energy in a fight. But, just in case such a terrible fight should occur, he would be ready.

The video feed from the Television station cut out, and all went to static. Alex turned off the TV and walked over to the window. He saw something moving outside, and his eyes widened a bit. He quickly turned off all the lights, being ever energy-efficient as always, and ran up the stairs to the roof. Once there, he began scanning the town for anything suspicious. There didn't seem to be anything at the moment, but Alex didn't let his guard down for a second. There wasn't any new movements that he could see at that time, however. Nevertheless, he kept a watchful eye over the town's quiet and dark houses.

[Duorzum]

It was very quiet. Almost unnervingly so. Calm before the storm, perhaps? Duo took a brief look at the environment around him before darting into an unlit alley. He decided to just screw the plan. They were going to find him anyway! Through his human disguise, a pair of demonic purple wings spread wide from beneath the shield of the violet cloak. With one great down-stroke of the amethyst wings, he was already in the sky in a violet blaze.

He had his guns ready in case the creature was to arrive in a blue-white fireball....

[Hirosame]

Alex grinned a bit. There was something moving in the sky not too far from him. "Well," He began. "This could be a bit interesting." Alex held out his hand away from him, not losing sight of the moving figure. A bright white flash appeared, and then a white wind surrounded an area right outside his opened palm. His sword began to form from the winds, starting from the tip of the blade down. As it was completed, the winds vanished, and Alex grasped his weapon. He held it in a ready stance, and figured out his next moves.

OK, he thought to himself. Looks like he's going from building to building, judging by the way he's jumped. I bet I can intercept him somewhere on the rooftops if I move quickly.

Alex put his plan in motion, and began hopping from rooftop to rooftop, estimating on where they would eventually collide. He figured that the moving target would have seen him by now, so Alex was ready to retaliate if the need had arisen. Then, Alex stopped a little over half way to the estimated rendezvous point. He steeled himself for battle, trying to see if the target would come at him instead. He was curious to find out who, or what, he was chasing after. If it was a monster, it'd attack him immediately. If it wasn't, it'd keep moving, and Alex would have to reposition himself further away from where he is. With his battle plan set, Alex waited in silence.

[Duorzum]

His wings were wide open, so that would give him away as something not human. He was actually flying. Duo landed on a rooftop to get a better angle at the sky. The violet demon in disguise wanted to know if anyone or anything were to drop in unexpectedly from straight up. After fruitlessly scanning the sky, he came to the conclusion that there wasn't anything coming.

What he did notice was another humanoid on the rooftops.

That made the experiment gunslinger to pull out his unstable, six-barreled beasts. He scrutinized what he could see with a cold violet stare. Was he a spy? An experiment? He could not tell. His creator was pulling out all the stops to get rid of his "failures", and it would not surprise Duorzum any if the humanoid across the way were a product of science.

[Hirosame]

Alex went back to running toward the landed foe. Now that it was on the ground and unmoving from it's spot, Alex figured now would be a good time to go and see who, or what, it is. Being ever-diligent about his surroundings, Alex didn't miss the chance to jump between the rooftops. With his sword trailing behind him as he went along, Alex made sure to be ready in case the enemy should attack at any given time. Once he reached the same rooftop as whatever it was he was looking at, he got into his ready battle position. Not wanting to take any chances, Alex looked about himself carefully to make sure that there wasn't any other entities there in case it was an ambush.

Once he saw that him and the beast were alone, Alex relaxed his grip a bit. The questions he had for the monster were obvious ones, so he went ahead and asked. "Who are you, and are you the one who's causing all the trouble around this town at night? I'm certain you've heard the rumors about this town being visited by the undead, and I thought maybe you know something about it. If you do, would you tell me?" A few seconds after he finished speaking, Alex felt stupid of the questions he asked, but there was no way of taking them back now. He waited to his inquiries to be answered by this unknown person or beast.

[Duorzum]

Duo's face remained stoic as he was spoken to, but that shattered with a slight frown when he heard that the dead were returning to life. This just made things worse for him and his ragtag group of misfit experiments. If the dead were returning, that that meant the previous thorn in their side would be revived to cause more damage. That was impossible. He left the blade in the corpse. There wasn't anything that would make him rise again as long as the blade was still in there. Duorzum had wedged it good; nobody would be able to pull it out.

"The dead rise once more? Unfortunate. It is no longer my problem."

[Hirosame]

Alex gave a surprised look, dropping his blade down slightly. This was a surprise to him, because he thought that this being would have had something to do with the rumors and whispers he heard around town. Well, this is a bit unexpected. He thought. Well then, might as well get what I can from this. Alex devised a plan that might get some useful information out. By making himself seem relaxed and helpless, the person might be willing to share some information about his origin, and more importantly, why he was here.

He smirked, and stood at ease. He held out his hand, and his sword disappeared in a similar way to how it entered. The only difference is that it disappeared from the handle up to the blade. "So you don't have anything to do with the rumors. And I also take it you don't know anything about them." Alex thought for a second, and then resumed. "So you were that guy in the corner, weren't you? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that Vincent look you have is a bit off. Weren't his eyes Red?" Alex figured that this might catch the man off guard, and get some real information from him.

[Duorzum]

He listened to what Alex had to say. There wasn't much of a reaction from him when he heard the Original's name again. Duo had always wanted an identity of his own, not someone else's face. Leave it to someone else to continuously point that out to him. When Alex pointed it out, Duo glowered at him, violet eyes glowing in the dark.

"Indeed. What do you know about the Original?"

He wasn't about to go crazy on him, unless Alex struck a nerve. A nerve was struck, yes, but it wasn't a nerve that'd tick him off. The "monster" put his guns away, clicking them back in their holsters.

[Hirosame]

"I suppose you mean Vincent when you say 'The Original.'" Alex said. He shurgged, and continued. "I knew him, talked with him a bit, but not much. He never was one to talk for an extended period of time. Can't blame him though, after being the Prototype for the Sephiroth project, for not wanting to talk to humans." Alex definately had a way with people, but this wouldn't work in case this guy wasn't an easy case.

And then it hit him: This guy can't be human. Alex smiled a bit, having figured something out. But then he felt stupid, because it was kind of obvious in the first place. He shook it off, and focused on the subject matter. "But, if there's one thing you and me have in common," Alex returned the man's glare. "Neither of us are human." He knew that this might spark something, a question or two maybe, so he readied himself to answer fully.

((OOC: Sorry it's so short, beginning of Winter Break for me and it's been a long day, so I'm a little burnt for now. Gonna watch Spirited Away and then I'll probly be better.))

[Duorzum]

"I read his files. The Original was human once. Don't give me this talk about prototypes."

He kept his taloned gauntlets on the back of his guns. What did this man want from him? Duo's wings appeared again, not fully spread out, but not fully folded in either. His tail also pierced through the human illusion, occasionally swaying in mild irritation. Sure, he didn't have a perfect human disguise, but he did have full control over it, allowing the parts that aren't human to either disappear or show. He allowed his tail and wings to show, since they were away from human eyes.

When he heard that the other male wasn't human either, he asked a one word question, "Experiment?"

[Hirosame]

Alex smiled a bit larger at the man's last question. "No, I'm no experiment. I'm the Prototype, if you will." Alex held out his arms and looked directly into the other's eyes. "I'm the first being in my home world to have achieved a unity between Light and Dark powers. I would be considered a sentient being in this world, having not been originally from it, and having the ability to do..." Alex paused. What better way to learn than through example. "Well, I'll just show you then."

Alex closed his eyes, and a whirl of wind began to form around him, strengthening when he inhaled, and weakening as he exhaled. Finally, he inhaled long enough for the wind to encase him fully, and the earth began to shake. Clouds began to form all around the moon, but not covering it, and one single, powerful beam of light shine down on where Alex was standing. Dust was beginning to be picked up in the winds, and a cyclone of light, earth, and wind raged on. In the middle of it all, Alex opened his eyes, which were now glowing a piercing white light. Exhaling finally, two bright vibrant wings spread out from his back, their wingspan the size of the building rooftop. The tornado of elements died down quickly, and Alex's Angel form was revealed.

His clothes were now white, his hair remained it's black color, but his eyes were now bright green, like that of a Mako-induced Chemical reaction. His sword was once again in his hand, but now it glowed as he did, bright white. Alex grinned with a Heavenly smile, and looked toward the man. [glow=white,2,300]"This is what I meant when I said I wasn't Human, and that I'd be considered a Sentient being." [/glow]Alex raised his hands up toward the moon, and the clouds around it dissipated. [glow=white,2,300]"I am an Angel, and was born as such."[/glow]