A Teacher of War

Pyrrha was not a fan of having things thrown at her. This was especially true when she didn’t know said thing’s were being thrown at her. Granted Jake was really trying to hit Madeline the whole time, but the young Aeteran was the unfortunate victim of the boys attack. Being buried under all this equipment was eating into her precious ascension time. She only had a little while left, and after that she’d be no more than a dead weight. Letting out a small growl, Pyrrha’s aura would flare up, sending all the gym equipment flying off of her.

Madeline’s omnidirectional blast had succeeded in pushing Jake back. The fight was pushing Jake to adapt or at least his power. Seeing the sudden and unexpected change in Jake’s wings meant Madeline’s plan was working….maybe. The demon queen of Arcadia had just about seen all she needed to. The two teens were more than capable of learning a technique that could give them the boost. The power, they sought. Despite that, Madeline was having a small bit of fun with this whole thing. Why end it early.

Having been pushed back, Jake quickly went to work testing out or employing his transformed wings in combat. He used them as a makeshift shield to charge after Madeline. She wouldn’t let him get close, or at least she didn’t plan to. With a wave of her hand a wave of dark energy would flourish in the air, almost like a plume of fire. Sure enough the attack did it’s job, as Jake leapt into the air to avoid them. Madeline half expected the boy to use his wings to stay in the air, but he used their powerful muscles to drive himself downward, heel first, at the queen.

Madeline’s natural reaction was to leap backwards out of the way. The boy’s attack would leave him open for an attack after he wiffed. That would be when Madeline would attack, or at least it would have been if it weren’t for Pyrrha. Before the goddess had a chance to set her footing, she’d be rocked by a devastating punch. Pyrrha had used the window created by Jake, to catch the demon queen off guard and managed to land a solid blow square on the jaw.

Quickly trying to take advantage of the queen’s stumbling, Pyrrha attempted to rush in and deliver another heavy handed hook to Madeline’s face. Only this time her left hand would catch nothing but air as Madeline twirled away from the girl just as the punch was being thrown. The queen wasted little time in going on the offensive. As soon as Madeline came out of her spin, her right arm would rocket forward. Her fist connected with Pyrrha’s midsection instantly knocking all the air out of the girls lungs. In true savage fashion, Madeline would quickly grip Pyrrha by the collar and throw her with incredible force at Jake.

The boys heel slammed into the ground with a shattering crack, the ground splintering under the force. He had to learn how to control his strength, he had seen he was going to miss, yet he couldn't pull his strength back to a level where this wouldn't happen. Not that it mattered, his plan had worked, Madeline took a blow.

Recovering, Jake prepared to lunge towards the war demon again, but paused, he felt tired... Heavy, more so then before. And his chest felt itchy. In fact, his entire body was feeling itchy. He shook his head in an effort to ignore it. It didn't work, but he felt slightly better. Better enough to notice a certain golden haired alien flying at him.

Every other time, Jake had avoided clashing with his ally. Ether because he was worried she'd crash into him with some serious damage or because he was focused on attacking Madeline, but this time, he jumped towards the human shaped bullet and caught her, before jumping into the air. "Sending you back." He muttered as he used his enhanced strength to throw the Aeteran back at Madeline. Hoping that he hadn't hurt her when he caught her... Not that he could have. She's a tough cookie.

Letting out a breath as he quickly fell back to the ground, the boy furrowed his brows and moved his fringe away from his eyes... That... Not letting that factor bother him for some reason, he rushed back towards Madeline. With Pyrrha back to attacking thanks to his throw, he was going to need to do more. Alone, nether of them could effectively fight the goddess hand to hand, but together? So he got close to Madeline. Red eyes moving between alien and Queen, feet dancing and fists flying in response to the two woman fighters. Doing what he hoped, worked in conjunction with Pyrrha.

He had been trained by the Aeteran after all. He had to have some idea on how she fought that allowed him to work with her.

Pyrrha was in the process of regaining her breath when she came to a sudden stop in the air. She half expected there to be a hard thud or crash, but it seemed like Jake was ready. What Pyrrha didn’t like, was being used like a ping pong ball by Jake and the demon queen. Still, she went along with it. If Jake could put a little extra something behind his throw, then the young alien could use that to get a speed boost. So the second she felt herself get free of the boys grasp, Pyrrha rocketed forward.

The girl moved fast. Far too fast for Madeline to react. By the time the goddess of war’s muscles even thought about twitching, the Aeteran was upon her. The two crashed into the ground. And Pyrrha didn’t relent. She used all her strength and speed to continue to drive Madeline downward. This caused a large crater to form in the ground, with the two at the center of it. With a small knee to the ribs, Madeline managed to get the ascended alien off of her. There was no time for breathers.

Madeline and Pyrrha would rush towards one another, each throwing a barrage of kicks and punches at the other. Sparks rose and flew out from their exchange. Their flurry of punches and the amount of energy being put off by both of them continued to make the crater expand until they slowly started to rise into the air.

This was something Thalia was afraid of, and knew was going to happen. Madeline was starting to get into the fight. Especially now after she had forced the two teens to actually start putting forth some effort. The queen had that look in her eye. A unique combination of focus and exhilaration. In just a matter of moments, Jake to would join the frey. Lining up along side Pyrrha, the the two would almost seemingly fall into a rhythm of attacking Madeline. A slight subconscious bit of teamwork from the two began to overwhelm Madeline just a bit. For the demon queen still hadn't been taking this seriously. That was until blows started to slip through. A punch here, a kick there, and eventually Madeline would find herself on the defensive. She was being pushed back.

In her mind all she could do was mentally curse herself. She wouldn't dare say anything aloud. Lest the teens ego's suddenly inflate beyond their control. No, Madeline just needed to relax and remember this wasn't a fight to the death, it was a learning experience. She didn't need to unleash the beast as it were. Soon the punches would stop landing on their mark. The demon goddess of Arcadia would return to form and was beginning to see the pattern in their attacks. It wouldn't take much longer until Madeline eventually caught both Pyrrha and Jake's fists mid flight. clamping down tightly, Madeline would pull the two towards one another knocking their heads together. Quickly letting go of them, two orbs of dark energy would appear in the queens hands before being thrown forward at the two teens.

As the boy moved, reaction to action. Punch, kick, step, repeat. He found himself breathing in a way he hadn't felt during this fight till now. Calm. He felt... Calm. Sided with Pyrrha, in the midst of a explosive and combative dance. He felt calm. But with this calmness arose problems. Problems he could feel as they fought, as Madeline seemed to dodge more and more.

He felt slower, not just because he was tired. It didn't take a genius to see that, his use of the weaker forms of Full... FBR had taken their toll, and now that his third form had been in effect, that toll was catching onto him. But he felt slower because he had felt calmer. While his attacks never meant to have been thrown in any way to kill, he had wanted to hurt, and yet, he also didn't. His mind and his body couldn't make up what he wanted and mixed with the tiredness and this tingling feeling going though his entire body.

He wasn't focused enough, yet focused enough that his steps no longer thudded, as if the strength wasn't there... But it was. He was just not being foolish about it. Maybe he wasn't using everything he could. Maybe he didn't want too, or maybe this was his limit. He figured that when he felt a grip on his fist, clamped down tight enough it might have crushed his normal hand. But now, it was like the grip was just enough to hold. Enough that she could slam the two together, even if that only confused the boy for a moment, suddenly engulfed in spiked hair, enough still that this close blast of dark energy hit him right in his gut with nearly no chance for him to react when Madeline used the moment to attack with it.

Thrown back by the attack, Jake rolled like a ball of iron flesh, till his muscled wings slowly slid into his back as he slowed down, his hands holding onto his stomach, the pain dreadfully filling his senses. Yet it wasn't the end, the moment of inactivity gave way to more, smaller pains, as his muscles shifted quite obviously, and one close enough could hear the snap of a bone here and there, of flesh melting and growing, his dark hair, now longer then it had been before, seemed just a bit more obvious.

But he needed to move again despite the pain. He needed to get close. So, he quickly got back up and jumped back towards Madeline like a red blur once more, moving, somehow, incredibly faster then before, his hands moving down to his pants as he did so. Did he tear them midst the fight? Suddenly they had started to slide down his legs before he had caught them. This wasn't going to stop him however, he just needed to land and... No matter what kind of comment he could imagine coming... Oh gods he almost lost his pants in front of Johanna's mother. The burning shame struck his already reddened face, somehow making him appear more red then before as he hit the ground and slowed himself to a halt with a slide on his knees. "Hold on a- Ehh!"

Now still, anyone looking could see that Jake was no longer there, there now stood a young girl with black hair reaching just above her shoulders, a fringe getting in the way of her sight, red skin slowly fading back to a light pale that was her normal skin tone, eyes shifting back to the blue that belonged to the boy. The more one looked, it would be as if Jake had a twin sister, his features feminine, body smaller, yet still strong looking and most importantly a factor that certified this was a girl in the place of Jake, were the two mounds of flesh on her chest, out in plain sight before the girl did her best to cover what she could with a arm. "Noooo! Not again. NOooo-ho-ooooo-ho-ho." Jake cried out, voice certainly not his, even if it carried a hint of before, a tone, a sound that just reminded him of the voice so very different to the one he had now, yet enough to remind him what should be.

The blasts of dark energy Madeline had thrown, had two very different effects. She assumed the attack was enough to just push the two teens back, maybe cause a little pain, but as Jake was sent flying by one blast, Pyrrha remained unfazed. The ball of energy would explode on impact, surrounding the alien in a thick plume of black fire. Fire which danced about for a small moment, perhaps even just a nanosecond. Then in an unexpected turn of events, The flames were suddenly absorbed by Pyrrha. The aura of energy around her flared to life, instilled with a new found vigor.

“Well that’s new” Madeline managed to mutter before being rushed down by Pyrrha once more. The Aeteran girl seemed to improve in her speed and strength after absorbing Madeline’s attack. Each blocked blow left a small sting in the demon queens flesh. For Pyrrha this was it. She knew she was on her last leg. Her ascension was just moments from running out, and after that, well she’d be useless. So with that in mind, Pyrrha remained focused on the task at hand. She wouldn’t allow her self to let up.

Pyrrha might have been in Madeline’s face, but she was not the queen’s main focus of attention. The boy had spent quite a while on the ground. Normally Madeline might not have cared so much, but god help her if she somehow managed to hurt the only person her daughter seemed to like. She’d breath a small sigh of relief upon seeing the boy start to move. That relief would turn to confusion as she tried to make sure her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. Jake seemed….smaller than usual. That’s when he’d stand up and Madeline would be caught off guard.

Jake wasn’t Jake at all. Well at least not in appearance. The sight of female Jake was enough of a shock that Madeline forgot all about Pyrrha, leading to the queen getting rocked by an extremely heavy punch. For the second time today, Madeline had been knocked off her feet. Madeline would sit up holding her jaw. A slight smile crept onto her face. “That’s some hook you got there little one. But I think we’re done for today.” she said slowly rising to her feet.

The queen couldn’t have called the match at a more perfect time. The brilliant golden aura that surrounded Pyrrha vanished in the blink of an eye, and her hair returned to its usual two tone purple. In that moment, when her mind was no longer focused on fighting, Pyrrha noticed that there was now a female voice she hadn’t heard before. “W-What?!” she’d say in her attempt to understand what was going on.

Meanwhile, Madeline would make her way over to Jake. With an outstretched hand, she’d signal for Thalia. The tiny demon hunter would leap down from the rafters and hand the goddess her jacket. Madeline would then proceed to use the jacket to cover Jake up.
“Sharook was right. You are kinda cute as a girl.” the queen would say with a slight bit of sass.

Jake's eyes scanned around them. Looking for the sight of the stupidest clown in existences, or the black mole of a thing that had been growing out of the mans shoulder when they had found him unawares. That thing had turned him into this form before, the only, only logical reason he could think of was that it came for him now.. Only. It also couldn't have. He was pretty sure whatever it was, was gone.

He could think about it later, he was half naked and Madeline was at least doing something to fix that, so the girl took the jacket and hid herself with it. "Screw you. And that stupid cat." The girl mumbled, slowly standing as to not lose her balance as she had when she first... He first was forced into this. How... How.. He thought about his wings, their sudden transformation. As if he had changed the genetics of how his wings formed. He thought about when he had changed back to a male, how his transformation was both longer, slower and more painful. Not like magic, but as if his body was doing the transformation. Johanna hadn't suffered like he had, but after he did, his body had changed.

Shaking her head, and getting a eyeful of his own, so very weirdly soft hair, the boy/girl looked to the three other females now. Feeling very weird. "Whatever. It shouldn't be... Forever. Madeline. This was... Good. Till now. Thanks." He pouted as he looked away from the demon, not wanting to give her that much. Thanks was enough.

Oh, right. He looked to Pyrrha and by extent, Thalia, giving them a soft smile in hopes they were not too confused, maybe perhaps, mostly for Pyrrha. "This is just.. A random thing. I guess. Should be fine. I'm me. Just. Missing. Things. Mmm." He felt a strange need to both vomit and blush at that sudden moment, and found himself staring at the floor. God this was weird now.

Pyrrha was still confused as to what was going on. Jake…Jake was gone? No He was was right here in front of Pyrrha, only he was a she. The Aeteran rubbed her head as her mind spun from trying to make any sense of the situation. “I…I’m not quite sure I understand.” she said in a confused tone. A metal arm would plop down onto her shoulder. The flashed her a quick smile. “Seems Jake here can change gender. Albeit not on command. Then again, the last time this happened, Sharook said a clown was involved, and as far as I can tell, there are no clowns here.”

With a slight shrug Madeline would take a few steps away from the two. She promised she’d give them a gift for training with her. She always kept her word. Though, Jake’s current predicament raised a few questions. “I’m going to go out on a metal limb here and say you don’t exactly know how long this will last, do you?” the demon queen said to Jake.

“Eh. I don’t think it matters much. I promised you both that I would help you get stronger. I have just the thing. I will teach you both a technique!”

Pyrrha’s entire body perked up as Madeline spoke. To be honest, the young alien had completely forgotten that the Queen said she could help them. Pyrrha began to feel her heart race just a bit. Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by the queen. “I’m warning you both right now. This technique while powerful, does come with its own price. The technique in question is a power I share with my daughter. For us the power comes from our ties to Arcadia. It’ll be different for you two, but I’m confident that you can master the technique.”

Jake frowned at Madeline, having never even thought about... Getting taught something, but they offered a small nod to confirm what the demon said, he had no clue how long this was going to be, not that it was on his mind right now. "Hmm.." The boy/girl looked deep in thought as she started scanning the ground for her shirt, a hand holding up her pants and another making sure the jacket was tight to her body. His. The boy shook his head. He needed to stop thinking so easily like that. But it was weird. It wasn't like he was just a 'female.' now. It was more. Like he was always one on a genetic level.

Or more, his genetics changed so much that it just didn't feel as if anything but the feeling of lost and new parts. Yea. Still weird. Weird and oddly... He wasn't sure. He didn't even want to consider the positives about this. Not now.

But he couldn't think about it now. Madeline was offering to teach the two something. Jake had thought the lesson in battle would be all they would get. After all. He certainly learned enough thanks to the battle, and now here she was, sweaty, tired and feeling very cold and weird. "If the power is tied to your home world. Then how would we, a Aeteran half breed and a angel, demon, whatever hybrid. Learn it. We have no ties to Arcadia." The boy asked, knowing he'd get the answer, but he wanted to make sure they got the answer in detail.

After-all, this was Madeline, as much as he had... Liked, this bout, there was still no love between the two. That much was certain.

Madeline had figured she’d get that question. If it wasn’t from the Aeteran, then from the boy. It took Madeline a moment to give an answer. It had been so long since she had actually taught someone something rather than just giving it. “The ties to the realm aren’t all that important. It just means the ability comes naturally to me and Johanna. In your case, you’re more than capable of learning the technique because of what you both have at a base level….Energy. Now! If there are no more questions, I’d like to get this show on the road.”

Pyrrha simply nodded. She was dead set on learning this technique, especially if it made her stronger. Hearing no sort of rebuttal or any additional questions, Madeline placed both arms behind her back and glanced at her ‘students’. “First things first. I want both of you to close your eyes and picture yourselves at your strongest. The very peak of your being. Not just physically, but mentally as well.” Madeline began to pace back and forth, eyes never leaving the two teens.

While they might have passed the physical portion of her test, this next part would prove if they really had what it took to master the technique. The ability didn’t just give a boost to the user for free. There was a price to pay. This is actually where Madeline expected the Aeteran girl to struggle. The race wasn’t exactly know for deep rational thought. But to her surprise it looked like Pyrrha was really trying to think.

Pyrrha held her eyes closed tight. The goddess has asked her to picture herself at her strongest, and that’s what she tried to do. It was tough to say the least. All she could think about was the tyrant, her mother, and her home. Feeling her muscles tighten, Pyrrha attempted to relax. She couldn’t blow this opportunity. She needed to get stronger. As her mind cleared, all Pyrrha began to see was darkness. A pitch black that stretched out as far as the eyes could see. And then little by little the darkness began to fill. Little lights blinked into existence one after the other. Eventually these little lights melded into one bright shape. The glowing silhouette of a girl.

Jake was going to admit, he wanted to scoff at first. But he wasn't in a position to argue. Here he was, a girl, being told to imagine themselves at their strongest. But he didn't have a clue as to what that was. Even now, he still didn't have a clue as to what his... Limit. Was. But he tried.

The boy closed her eyes and saw nothing. A pitch black darkness of eyes staring at eyelids. But then something formed. The clown, the bulging mass of darkness attached to the man. They faded to Ann, who had asked him to trust her as she took that pill and suddenly, they were in that world. Where anything was possible.

He thought about that, where he had used his powers in ways he could only imagine it being used, but even that was not his most powerful. So. He let the image vanish, till it was darkness once more. And instead, he allowed his memory to come.

First a young boy, then a teen with a red suit, next, him with a red mask. His transformation, form a wannabe hero to this. He threw away his past selves and focused on him, the boy, him, the girl, despite only ever having seen this form once, a bad reflection in a cafe. Even then, it wasn't final. Because he saw... Something inside his forms. And so he pushed them away till he saw it. Red. Red light, bright and powerful.

The energy he barely understood. The energy he knew made him powerful. He wanted to reach out to it, to grab it, to understand it... To control it. And as he reached to it, he saw it vanish, only for it to take over his body, but rather then make him red, it was as if a barrier surrounded his body, a red, cackling barrier of power. That belonged to him and him alone. An energy he could use to fight, to deal with the problems his life had thrown at him... But also to protect. To protect those he cared about. Samael. At one point, Nathanial... Lorelei. But most importantly.

Most importantly. Ann. Maybe it was selfish of him to want to protect her. She could easily protect herself. He knew that. But still... He only had to see her, and himself. To know that perhaps he was at his strongest... When he had a reason to be. The boy let out a breath as held onto that image, that thought. Of a young boy covered in thin layer of energy, and the girl too far away for him to ever reach.

Yet still, he tried.

Madeline gave the two teens what she felt was enough time to visualize their strongest selves. She could feel a slight elevation in the two as she paced back and forth. This next step was going to be a bit tricky to explain. “Ok. I want both of you to stand up now.” The queen would come to a stop. Her hands rested on her hips. “I want you to try and reach for that vision you have. I want you to try and do it with the very energy you have. Draw out every ounce of it. And focus it on that mental image.”

Pyrrha was a bit confused by the goddesses instructions. And if she was confused, then she knew Jake was just as lost. How did Madeline expect the two of them to focus and reach for something they didn’t have? Hunkering down, Pyrrha began to think about how she reached her ascension whenever she needed to. It was always an outward explosion of power. So perhaps this had to be the opposite. Maybe she had to focus the power inward. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d pull that off, but she had to try.

Closing her eyes, the Aeteran half breed began to focus on the image of the burning girl in her mind. The stunning blue flames. The purity of the white silhouette. Clenching her teeth, Pyrrha began to power up, but any time she felt her energy flare up, she tried to suppress it. She attempted to try what she thought was right, focus that power inwards. None of it was allowed to show itself. It was a challenge to be sure. An attempt to power up, without actually powering up.

Jake followed the instructions of standing, standing tall, well, as tall as he could in this form, hands still gripping clothes. But that didn't matter, he was invested in this... Technique. The image was still clear in his mind. Him, the normal, current him. He had to reach to that image with the energy inside him, but... His energy was there. It coated him, his image.

So how could he draw it... And focus it... There was no real... How, to this process. Jake simply had too... Had too... Do. The boy walked towards the image, reached a hand out, and felt a force, a incredible force pushing that hand back, as if an invisible, pulsing barrier stood between him and the image. But if he wanted his energy. He needed to get closer. So he kept trying. He kept pushing, and pushing and pushing.

Now, the boy's energy was mostly a silent force as many who had seen it might know. It would only stray outside his body for a moment, before being retained back inside him, powering him, but as he pushed to gather his energy, red sparks bounced off his real body's skin, much like when he used his FBR.

Finally, the boy grasped the thin barrier around his image, and he pulled on it. Tugged and ripped, pulling the strangely calm energy from his mental image, oblivious to the sound of ground being smashed into nothing, a bolt of the red energy that had been bouncing from the boy had suddenly lashed out, striking the ground near him, creating a small pocket into the ground, almost as if the pure force crushed the solid ground into nothing.

Finally, he pulled it all away, and the calm energy gathered into his arms, giving them a flame like look as it gathered all around. He could feel it. The energy he couldn't describe before. But he could now... It was warm. A part of him that rested deep inside like a heart. Beating and pulsing. Like his lungs, breathing and expanding and retracting. Like his brain, thinking and there. A part he could not live without. With this energy, the boy reached a hand out toward his other form, his flamed palm touching the chest of the image.

And like a switch, his entire being burned with the energy, from his head to his toes, all shifting to his palm and into the image. The red energy regrew around the image, but rather then the calm cover it took before, it was far more chaotic, bouncing and lashing out, taking shape and form all around, trailing the ground and air like a growing vine.

The repercussions outside grew, as red energy continued lashing out, straining the air with a almost vicious force that threatened to consume anyone daring enough to enter, the ground around the boy was heaving and cracking under an invisible force as the boys energy simply circled about him now, still sparking and frizzing about.

Every ounce of Pyrrha’s body ached and cried out in pain. She wasn’t meant to bottle up this much energy. And despite all that, she didn’t want to let any of it go. The young Aeteran tried to maintain her focus on that perfect image of herself. But the more she tried to contain her energy the louder her muscles screamed. This would eventually pull her attention towards the pain, no matter how much she wanted not to. But by doing this something happened. With her focus shifting to her muscles, the pent up energy began to seep into her aching muscles.

From the outside, Madeline began to see a drastic change in the two teens. Both were actual opposites of what she had expected. The queen had assumed that Jake’s would be calm and reserved while the Aeterans was violent and extreme. Instead, Jake’s red energy lashed out in every direction. Sparks raged and attack everything around them, pulverizing the concrete beneath the boys feet. Pyrrha on the other hand, hadn’t shown any outward change for quite a while. That is, until her skin started to take on a redish color. She also began to give off a lot of heat.

“I…I wont give up!” The young alien managed to squeeze out through clenched teeth. Her muscles would begin to bulge and enlarge as the stored energy within Pyrrha’s body continued to seep into them. She was almost like a balloon, ready to pop at any minute. That minute was now. Unable to take the pain or hold back her energy any longer, Pyrrha erupted. This was more like what Madeline had been expecting and it brought a smile to her face to see all that power unleashed.

A violent red raging aura exploded from Pyrrha’s body. Her muscles quickly returned to their normal state, albeit slightly more defined than usual. Staring down at her hands, Pyrrha took in the sight of the strange aura. It was the same color as Jake’s, but she knew they were nothing alike. That wasn’t the only thing she noticed either. For some reason she felt lighter. Almost weightless.

Now all they had to do was wait for Jake to break through his shell and the two would have completed Madeline’s ‘training’ and the queen could get on with explaining the technique to them.

Jake found his internal thoughts were overtaken. Everything was red now. Red and black. He, the image, Johanna, the walls, floor, roof. Everything was red. His entire being burned with being this red energy. Screamed with being this red energy. He was red energy... Right. Till. It. Came.

It was all Jake could describe it as. The pure void in his mind, a long, eternal shape that had always been there, always been apart him. It was blackness incarnate, yet it was where the red energy stemmed from, pushed out from. This void was pouring more red energy into his body, and as it did, it became clearer, a being inside this sea of red. A male, a male to a man, a man to... Something.

It was him. But it wasn't. It... he was older. Much older, yet not that old, more like the being had locked in at late twenty's and simply never went beyond that, but he had the air of someone who has been alive for a long, long time. His hair was black, but shorter and he had a badly shaven nine o'clock shadow. But most importantly, he was... Brimming with red energy. "Hmm... You're new. And oh so trying to achieve something you're not allowed... But sure. Have a taste. After all. You're the first one to make it this far." The voice called to him, before vanishing with his body as the last of the red energy he had to give was given.

The red energy that had been outside and growing in force, breaking everything it came even close too, suddenly stopped, and like a switch, every ounce of the red energy, far more then the boy's size, rushed right back inside him, as if striking him with every entry back into his body. Till nothing remained of what had been outside, except for a thin, aura of red energy that covered the boys body. So delicately thin, but there. His arms were however, covered in red like flames of the red energy, but more controlled, and when the girl opened her eyes and looked to the others, they were not blue, nor a dark red, but bright red. With a dark iris. His skin was perfectly normal, only his eyes and the red haze that layered around his skin were the only sign of red energy being in use.

And the fact that he couldn't move. Not really. He was shaking, but not greatly, his skin was cracking apart, but healed just as quickly. Yet he had no clue if this was all there was to his power. Just... Just a taste. A taste that put his third form of FBR to shame. He was sure if he could take a step... The building would collapse around them. The block... Some evil thought entered his mind at that moment... If he wanted. He could destroy the city. And nothing would be able to stop him fast enough. His smile almost spoke his thoughts, the smile of someone that didn't care.

“Great! You’ve both done it! Congratulations. My work here is done.” Madeline said, clapping her hands together as if she had done all the hard work. “But you haven’t even said how this technique works!” Pyrrha cried. Letting out a sigh, Madeline turned to the two teens. The smile on Jake’s face didn’t bode well, but that wasn’t the queen’s problem. What they chose to do with this new power was up to them. Then again, she knew an easy way to wipe the smile of the kids face easy….She’d save that for later.

Placing her hands on her hips, the goddess addressed the two girls. “The technique you two have just unlocked is basically an energy multiplier. Where your other transformations tend to only activate while your under duress, this technique can be used at any time. Furthermore, this technique allows you to choose just how much of a boost you want or need.” There was a sudden shift in her expression. Her eyes narrowed at the two and her voice became a bit more serious. “Under no circumstances should you, nor are you, allowed to use this technique in combination with your transformations. That means no ascended form for you, and no red body for you.” she concluded, looking to both of them respectively.

“But if we can’t use this technique with our transformations, then what’s the point?” Pyrrha questioned, failing to see the benefits to the power she now wielded. This is when Madeline flashed a cheeky smile. “Where would the fun in that be? Be creative and soon you’ll see.” Turning her back to the two teens, Madeline waved for Thalia to follow her. “Come on Thalia. We’re done here.”

Just as the two red headed demons reached the door, Madeline glared back over her shoulder at the young feminine Jake. “Keep the coat. It looks good on you. Oh and one more thing. Try not to let this new power get to you. Unless you want a certain someone’s opinion of you to change.” And with that, the queen and tiny demon hunter left the building and vanished.

Pyrrha found herself glancing back and forth between the door and Jake, trying to figure out what the goddess meant by what she said. Shaking the questions from her mind, she turned her focus on the fire-like aura. She couldn’t wait to see what she could do with it.

Jake listened. She did. She really, really did. After-all. This was important. How it worked, why it shouldn't be used with with their transformations. Huh, he guessed his FBR was kinda like Pyrrha's ascension. Didn't matter.

What mattered, was keeping his insides from exploding while Madeline talked. The girl couldn't even say anything about the fact that this coat was Thalia's, and that it wouldn't fit him if, when he shifted back to his male form, however that was going to work. Couldn't make a comment about Madeline's warning, despite how seriously he took it. Because when they both left, and he was sure they were gone, gone.

He lost the power to keep on his knees. The girl fell to the ground, barely keeping herself on her hands and knees as her arms and legs shook, blood pooled around her as a large gash opened up around her stomach, as if the body was truly cracking apart, and while it was healing, it wasn't fast enough. "I failed." Jake said, voice full of pain and annoyance.

"I didn't... I didn't achieve the technique. This... This is... Something I shouldn'-" Jake found himself unable to talk as he vomited out blood. His red eyes staring at the burning flames that coated his small hands, unlike the thin line of red that coated the rest of him, his clothes, hair and skin.

Angry and pained, Jake did the one thing he thought might make him happy.. No, not happy, but he hoped it'd at least distract him from the pain. He rose his fist. "What is wrong with me!" She almost screamed as she brought the fist down to the ground.

And watched as the building exploded. The entire floor of the warehouse shattered and shook, the earth rumbling as a force traveled though it. The walls shuddered and broke apart as the force traveled around the center point with a pure force that pushed and broke everything in it's way. The roof heaved and began to collapse as everything about it's supports crumbled under it. And the young girl that was Jake collapsed as the red lines that had surrounded her vanished. Leaving her to fall into the shattering and collapsing rubble that was the warehouse.

Outside looked close to the same. Road and cement walkways shattered and broken, buildings near and off to the distance looked cracked and crumbly.