Enter Raging Clown

[bloodyrags]

In the middle of the Nevada desert, outside Death City, A figure slowly crossed a dune. It sat, and stared out at the massive academy and surrounding town. The figure was at least 7 feet tall, it's massive arms and legs in contrast to it's skinnier torso. It's limbs tightly wrapped in ragged red cloth, the figure stares with eyes shielded by a knight's visor at the school.

It's entire face and neck also bore the bloody hued material, a knights visor covering it's eyes. A long, tangled mane of matted red hair spilled from it's head, and it's bare chest stood exposed to the elements. All in all, a feeling of sheer wrongness seems to emanate from it. It's very self emanates a sense of chaos... of Insanity.

Bloody Rags stands, and looks over it's shoulder at the three shuffling forms behind, as they catch up. He turns back, and stares at the DWMA. He finally speaks, and his voice is filled with a satisifed, gleeful rage. "So,tHiS is WhERe the WArriORS of THis TIMe ResIDe. MAyHaPs they knOW of THe fATe of BaLOr... Or NOT. EitHER WAY, ThEIr guts and blOOD wIll hOnOR his MEMory.....
And with that, his madness wavelength pulsates, his rage growing in an instant to berserker levels. He laughs, a bloody, insane laugh. The sheep would come. They would come, like so may before. And their blood would dye his rags, like all the others. It had been a long time, since that last fight. In the name of Balor, he would kill. It was what he would have wanted his servant to do.

[tokoz]

Near the edge of Death City, on a rooftop, a young weapon sprang across the gaps inbetween houses. His legs hit the next roof, and, as he stops to catch his breath, a sudden jarring feeling spreads over his body. A feeling of wild, unchained insanity. It was weak, but it stopped him nonetheless. For, despite it's obviously outside source... It was familiar. It whispered of unbridled rage. That, he knew well enough.

Bran sighed, then jumped from the rooftop of the building, landing on the next running, speeding his way out to the outskirts of town, a block or so away. As he reaches the city limits, he drops to street level. He walks to the end of the pavement, and the gater, and after a bit of hesitation, passes through it. Only a few hundred feet away stands a bizarre monstrosity. It cocks it's head, and looks at Bran.

"WeLl, WEll. WhAt hAVe we HEre. OnE of BAlor's ChILdrEn... A berSerKEr... LeT me sEe if you ARE woRthY of thE giFT yoU bear..."
With that, the massive Clown leaps at Bran. The Spear just barely dives out of the way of it's hammer-like fist, and backs away. He kicks off, jumping st the clown, and attempting to stab at it. Nearbye, three Ragged Men watch confused as their bloody clothed master grabs at the boy on his back.

[Denise Carroll]

It was hot. Barren as well, unless the monotonous sand dunes were worth noticing beyond their slight variance in size and distribution across the desert. The young witchling had never paid much attention to the other witches discussing their business in the human realm, though it seemed safe to assume that it consisted of more than a great big yellow nothing. It was also quite hot and dry, and made her delicate face feel chapped. How could such a desolate place be the source of her precious Hello Kitty toys? Just where had those big sisters gone to be able to find them?

Denise zipped along a few feet above the sand upon the flying broom she was slumping forward on. There was no map in her backpack to pull out, even if she had the foresight to even consider bringing one. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so careful about staying out of that big sister’s sight. She certainly would know where it was that the girl found herself at. Maybe this wasn’t even the human’s realm at all. Maybe the portal spell was able to tell between those who were supposed to go out, and she was stuck in the between since she had tried to sneak out using another witch’s portal. That sounded to be a likely thing- and she was sure someone had told her once before that naughty young witches who tried to play with those portals would be punished like this. In any case she was already sorry for it. All she wanted was to be a good girl and get the toys by herself so that the big sisters could attend to their own business, that was all, really. If she could just explain to someone, this could be straightened out and she could find herself back home.

She pouted and kicked up to broom to rise several tens of feet up into the air. There obviously wasn’t anyone to run into at ground level, and maybe she had been going in the wrong direction this whole time. Denise twisted and turned to look all around, and squealed in delight at the large structure that sat towards the west. Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier? Of course she wouldn’t have been able to see this if she was just sticking to the ground the whole time. Silly her. It was a close enough distance for her to see that it was a large city rising from the sands, and there was something very important about the large skull on display near the very top, though she couldn’t recall at the moment just what it was. Whatever it was, she would try to remember once she found people to get her bearings. The important thing however was that she wasn’t alone anymore!

"Hey! Whoever's down there!" she called out as she waved frantically to the figures standing outside the city walls. The girl made a diagonal descent as she neared them, though maintained a good several feet away. Even though she had no choice but to talk to strangers, the big sisters had told her enough times to guard herself around them that she heeded at least one of their warnings. "Do you- Oh! What's going on?" The boy looked close enough to "people" that she assumed he was a human, though the strange figure holding him up was far too distorted for her to even begin guessing what category it fell into. Oh no, maybe this wasn't quite the safe haven she'd assumed it was. What if that thing was whatever was sent out to punish the people who found themselves trapped in this place? The creature was already preoccupied with that boy, but he had several minions standing by. If it was actually more people, she could probably explain her case, but this whatever-it-is didn't seem like the type to listen, or care. "I, I, never mind!" she cried and attempted to beat a hasty retreat.

[bloodyrags]

The massive harlequin sensed the boy before he topped the dune. He laughed a little. A child of Balor, one of the berserkers. This was just too funny. He should have guessed it would be so, however. His liege had made warriors, and his creation would of course endure through the generations. If this place be for warriors, then a Berserker would of course be there.

As the boy crossed the dune, and stared hard at Bloody Rags, the clown had laughed, and challenged him. The boy accepted, and his arm swung at the thin weapon. Much to his disapointment, he could see the boy was dodging around him. He whirled his massive arms like mace-and-chains, but the boy was fast. Suddenly, his prey was no longer there. Bloody Rags looked around, and as he did, he felt a spear pierce his back. He whipped his head around, to see the weapon. It had snuck behind him, and latched on, like a little leech.

As he attempted to grab at the little pest, a voice echoed from above. He glanced up, and saw a little girl on a broomstick. A witch? He snorted. Fools. He was having such fun toying with the little imp on his back. The blood that ran from his wound suddenly sped down his arms, and solidified around his fingers, which transformed into sharp, bladed claws. He tensed his legs, and jumped. He sped up, passing the witch at the top of his arc, and making a slash at her. Six centuries of imprisonment had scattered his skills to the winds, however. His slash missed her completely, and swung towards her broom instead.

[tokoz]

Bran groaned as he was tossed around on the back of the twisted clown. He had read about these things... Created by strong concentrations of Madness, they spread it from place to place. That would expain the fuzzy feeling he was getting in his skull. He felt like he was about to disembowel someone... And he didn't care much who. He could feel the chaos of this clown's soul slamming into him... And it felt... like something was reaponding.

His thought was interrupted by a call. A witch, a young one , was floating on a broomstick. She looked lost, and quite afraid, and... Very pink. Bran felt the monster stop thrashing, and tense. And then, as it's , Wait, it's fuckin' BLOOD coalesced around it's hands, becoming claws, it jumped at her.

Bran acted without thinking. He shifted back, and kicked off the harlequin's shoulder, tackling the witch off the broom, and tumbling to the ground. "Aaaaaaaagh! Sonnova-" Damn, that hurt! He shakily stood, making sure the girl was Ok. He thought he had cushioned her fall, but he wasn't sure. He glanced at the clown, slowly standing. Oh shit. It looked pretty pissed. He grabbed the young withc, scooping her up, and taking off for the nearbye city. "Hey, you have to trust me, Ok? I won't hurt you, but HE will. And probably laugh. I swear, I will not let anything happen, Ok? He sighs. Fuck the stuff the teachers said about witches. He would be damned if he let someone, especially a young girl, die.

[Denise Carroll]

She didn't understand- was what she had done so terrible that she needed to be punished like this? All she did was try to be nice and how could they! The witchling squeezed her eyes shut and let out a shrill scream, jerking her broom up higher to escape the claws that came barreling towards her, but the boy was quicker. "That hurts!" she said as he threw himself on her with total disregard for his own safety. The little girl geared up to throw a fit as she lay on the sand to inform all parties invovled just how horridly they were acting towards her, but Bran prevented even this. She was further outraged by her initial tantrum being interrupted, and kicked at his chest and pounded her little fists into his back as he picked her up and began running.

"You're so mean!" Denise hollered angrily at both her attempted savior and the clown he was trying to flee. "Mean mean mean! What are you doing? You left my broom behind you big stupid head! You're both big stupid heads! My big sisters are going to hurt you!" No wonder she had always been told to stay in the witch realm, not when there were things like this to deal with on the "outside." The flying broom had been reduced to splinters by the attack, but the point was that every last piece of kindling was hers, and he had just made her leave them all behind to the big bully who had seen fit to attack her. "Hey, you're not listening to me, go get my broom back!" Seeing that he was intent on ignoring her, the girl bit into his shoulder. We'll see how he brushes that off!

[tokoz]

Bran steadfastly ignores the screaming little witch as he barrels toward Death City, the clown loping behind, gaining ground slowly. He was so close... What was he going to do once he got inside, though? The girl was struggling, obviously angry, though that was likely just stress. Even if he got inside though, what then?

He couldn't just turn her over to Shibusen. They'd likely kill her.  He'd also likely end up with her soul, and it would forever remind him he got a *Ouch* girl killed. One with very sharp feet... Damn. Clown's catching up. Bran speeds up, legs pumping, and manages to avoid a thrown cactus. He could hide her in his apartment for right now... The consequences of that would be even worse though... One, if he was caught, which by her yelling was seeming likely, he'd be dead. And so would the witch. 

He glanced at her again. He'd also likely be labeled a pedophile post-humously. But there was no way in hell he's leaving her to that thing. They were almost at the barrier now, and Bloody Rags had fallen behin- She bit him. Alright. Time to lay a rule down. Bran spun Denise around, and glared in her eyes. "I'll get the broom later stop kicking me when I'm trying to get us out of here NO BITING. Now. We have about 15 seconds. I can help you get home. Right now, roughly 99% of the people here will be afraid of you, and a lot might try to kill you. But I am NOT getting executed because you blow up. Make a choice. Either let me help you, and I will. Or stay here and try your luck, if I'm really such a big stupidhead." Bran indicates Bloody Rags, only three dunes away now.