The sun had just dipped below the mountains casting shadows upon the small town of Mandala by the time Echo and her companion arrived. The shop keepers were just starting to close up for the night and head home, and the monks, travelers, and tourists seeking to glimpse into the future with the aid of the 'Veedios' were all starting to return to their respective homes and tents to retire. Echo skipped along down the road, smiling at a mantago monk as they passed. "Here we are! Welcome to Mandala!" She spun around to face Alcatraz, walking backwards with a wide grin on her face, "Ready to go huntin'?"

Alcatraz looked around, a bit confused by everything. The world was a lot brighter than he was used to, but luckily, he had no eyes that he needed to adjust to the new lighting. "Yeah, yeah. So... Yoma huh? What do they look like? Saying as we're also fighting witches, I'm going to assume old men with pointy hats and long beards."

"Silly squash-man! Kyuububble didn't tell you? He really did leave you with little to go on. They are meany bulky hungry monster type beasties and witches are tricky tick puzzley sorts with mazes that can either appear human or a trippy mess." Echo glanced around making sure they were in the clear before lifting her arm to look at the soul gem dangling from her wrist. "Good to make sure you are clear of people when you take out your soul gem or transform. Lots of places lately don't like our kind much these days." Echo continues to explain before holding up her gem so the Pumpkinhead could see it, "It isn't reacting right now, but if it is flashing, our target will be nearby and we can use our gems to zero in on them. I can't honestly say what we'll be dealing with here though. Could be a yoma, could be a witch, could be someone up to no good. I just heard rumors that a monk and a couple of travelers have gone missing around here.""

Alcatraz glanced at his soul gem, hanging from a chain on his belt. No pulse, they were safe. Well, that's good to know. "So, I take it nobody really ever has a good idea of what they're fighting in advance? That's reassuring." Alcatraz rubbed the gang carving on the side of his head. "So, do we just wait, or what?" He couldn't help eyeing some of the items for sale being left in abandoned shops. Would be an easy grab. "...Because, if not, I could go... Get us some pocket cash, y'know?"

The road the two wishborn are walking on splits oddly, the cobblestones leading from the main path into a small side alley. On this path lies a girl, perhaps ten or fifteen years old, clutching her chest and making somewhat disturbing noises. At the very least, she seems to be in heavy distress.

"I was thinking we'd go talk to the monks abou--" Echo stops in her tracks upon hearing the sound of the girls distress and tucks the soul gem back under her sleeve. She turns quickly glancing about for the source of the noises, her eyes soon finding the young girl. "Looks like she is in trouble!" Echo changed her course, making a run towards the girl, "Miss! Are you okay?! What Happened?!"

Alcatraz shook his head. "Look, if we spend our time helping every sad punk we come across, I think we're going to have a lot of trouble getting any shit done." Of course, by the time he finished talking, Echo was already running. "...Dumbass." He let out a sigh, and ran after her.

The girl reacts little, save clutching at her chest and groaning more. Sweat beads on her brow as her face contorts into a hugely pained expression. Inbetween paniced breaths, she manages to wheeze out what sounds like "Help... please"

"We don't know if the situation is related or not!" Echo shot back at Alchetras as she reached the girl and bent over, trying to get a good look at what it was that was causing her pain, something at her chest? Echo had some healing abilities she could use if she was transformed but most likely they would be useless here seeing as she didn't spot any external injuries on the girl. "Alcy, go find a doctor!" She knelt down, placed her hand gently on the girls shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile, "You are going to be alright!"

As soon as Echo places a hand on the girl's shoulder, the girl suddenly takes notice of her. With almost inhuman speed, the injured girl's hand shoots out, grasping Echo's wrist as a smile spreads across her face, revealing too many sharp teeth. Immediately, both the wishborn's soulgems register the presence of a Yoma, and at the borders of the cobblestone path suddenly haze a bit as what can only be described as teeth grow from the ground.

The opposite end of the cobblestone path which the Wishborn had not come down also undergoes this transformation, but in addition, the entire path suddenly flips up. Almost like a piece of paper being folded, the pathway begins slamming shut, threatening to envelop both Echo and Alcatraz with it.

"Holy. Shit." Alcatraz had never been particularly good with his language, but he didn't really have the control to hide that right now. Alcatraz immediately did the greatest thing from his training: running in the opposite direction of the threat. "Yo, Echo, let's get the hell outta here. That kid looks like she can handle her own ass just fine!"

Echo looks down at her caught wrist where he soul gem pulsed just inches away from the girls hand. Internally, Echo swore shifting her gaze up to the grinning girl, a brief moment of panic setting in. She needed to get out of here quick! The young esper clentched her fist and tried to pull her arm away as she turned to aim a kick for the girls face.

The Yoma finishes closing what is now apparent as it's mouth. Trapping Echo inside as the 'girl' takes Echo's kick to the face, swaying a bit but not letting go. Inside the yoma, the images of the cobblestone path and the girl fade, revealing what they truely are. The walls are dull pink, with pores visible all along the inside of it's mouth. The girl is now a vague pink thing, shaped almost like a uvula.

The outside of the Yoma, visible by Alcatraz, is earth colored bulb almost. Four spindly legs that shouldn't be able to hold it up still manage to somehow, and segmented from the bulb section is a part of the body that looks almost like a large, fleshy arrow. Eyes open on the Bulb and peer at the fleeing pumpkinhead, and for a moment it just stays there, contemplating.

Almost by reflex, Alcatraz reached for his soul gem. The fire behind his eyes went out, and suddenly Alcatraz was surrounded by a cloud of smoke. When he reappeared, he was wearing a much more elegant long, black outfit, with dark green embroidery. His soul gem took the form of a simple brooch affixed to the collar of his coat. With another puff of smoke, he dissappeared entirely.

Alcatraz walked out of a sudden mask of black fog on top of a building, his gun held in both of his hands to steady his aim as he shot several rounds at the bulb. "This is NOT a good way to encourage me to eat my vegtables!"

"Yuck." Echo made a disgusted expression at the pink blob and the noodle like appendeges holding her and touched her soul gem with her free hand. A flurry of flower petals surrounded her swallowing her form, melting together in order to form a giant tulip. The petals open, falling away to reveal Echo in her transformed state, dressed in a white blouse and poofy dress. Her hair is pulled back into a bun and a rose opens at her arm revealing her soul gem nestled at its center. She raises her free hand, and a golden staff of leaves grows from her palm. Echo snatches it from the air, spins it and points it at the thing that is holding her. "Guardian Gladiolus!" She shouts, transforming the staff into a wickedly sharp pink sword.

Almost in response to Echo transforming, the pores on the inside of the Yoma's mouth pucker for a moment. Then, as one, they all begin lazily exuding a clear viscous liquid, quickly filling the inside of the bulb with an acrid scent. On the outside of the Yoma, Alcatraz's bullets slam into the bulb, tearing small holes in the flesh that cause the yoma to take a large amount of interest in the Wishborn. Instead of doing anything spectacular however, The yoma lifts up it's bulb with a curiously slow motion before simply bringing it down on Alcatraz's building.

Alcatraz dissappeared again and blinked to the ground, away from the building. He was fairly competent with dodging and not getting hit, but he realised he had almost no offencive abilities. Deciding to improvise with what he had, smoke spread from Alcatraz, slowly filling the area around him and obscuring him from veiw. Bullets began flying out from the smokescreen from different places, making Alcatraz's location hard to discern.

Echo raised her sword to attack just when the pores opened and started pouring out... something positively disgusting! "Ew! Ew! Ew! I am done with this gross icky stuff!" She screamed, using her sword slicing down at the uvula's appendage in order to try to cut her arm free. "Let me go! let me go! let me go!" The young girl kept swinging at it witch each demand.

The yoma's insides react surprisingly little to being cut at, with Echo's weapon damaging it enough to free her. However, the mouth as a whole remains sealed, the only change besides Echo's freedom being the rising fluid slowly seeping closer towards her.

Outside of the Yoma, several Alcatraz's obscured attacks strike the bulb, one even managing to connect with one of the eyes, pulping it. The reaction the Yoma has to this is much more satisfying, if one was looking to enrage the beast. Instead of attacking portions of the smoke screen, The yoma slams it's bulb down on one end, and then thrashes it to the side, attempting to sweep the entirety of Alcatraz's zone.

Alcatraz saw that he got a good hit in the yoma's eye. "Take that, motherfucker!", he shouted triumphantly. However, then he noticed it moving. Alcatraz couldn't get an eye on a place to move to quick enough, so before he could blink away, he was slammed by the massive bulb of the yoma as it sweeped across his area, eventually getting slammed against the wall of the collapsed building he was previously hiding on. Moving pasthis pain, Alcatraz pulled out his switchblade and stabbed the creature, hoping that his tiny blade would get it to move off of him.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Her arm was free now and that was an improvement, but Echo did not want to find out what that slimy liquid would do once it reached her. She scanned the area looking for any potential week points and huffed. The only thing visible were the ooze spilling pores and the pink thing that grabbed her in the first place. She had already seen that attacking the pink thing didnt have much effect. There had to be a way out of this. She started sloshing through the liquid, looking for something that might have been missed upon initial inspection.Echo's tromp around the inside of the yoma doesn't exactly reveal much, save for an odd section of the ground, a little bit away from her position. It looks almost like a section of the meat has twisted together, forming a tightly closed hatch that, for a little bit longer, is still uncovered by the liquid now creeping closer to her.

The Yoma seems to completely disregard the pumpkinhead's switchblade, perhaps not even really caring about such a little wound. Instead, it does something odd. Setting the arrow shaped portion of it's body against the ground before it's limbs strain. Slowly, the ground gives way, pushed apart by the yoma as it begins wedging itself into the earth.

Alcatraz let out what passed for a sigh of relief for pumpkinheads. The smoke swirling inside his head calmed down as he caught his breath. He took note of the yoma attempting to burrow itself into the ground. Without thinking, he blinked up to the top of the Yoma, and aiming with his gun, fired the at the area between his feet again and again hoping to leave a worthwhile wound.

Echo grinned a little at the new discovery, trying very hard not to let her imagination fill in the blanks as to what it might be simply due to gross. If she wanted to live through this it didn't matter. The problem now was what she should do with it. She stabbed her sword inbetween the two sections and tried to use it to pry them apart.

The yoma's insides seem to dislike this new probing, the flesh somehow stubbronly resisting Echo's attempts for right now. Small traces of blood seep from where the edges of the sword are, but more worryingly, the liquid finally seems to have arrived at Echo's location, the juices threatening to make contact with her shoes now.

Alcatraz's attack on the outside of the the Yoma's bulb hits yet another of it's eyes purely by luck. However, this manages to, again, anger it. Flicking it's bulb, and by proxy Alcatraz, up. After commiting this act, it continues it's course, now having buried the entire arrow shaped portion of it's body into the ground, and still working on pushing in further.

Alcatraz seemed to take to the air rather well, landing with a roll on top of a building. He got up and attempted to scan the beast for a weakpoint. He saw another eye. He held his switchblade in his hand. Alcatraz blinked towards the eye and stabbed it quickly, before blinking back onto the building before he could fall victom to another bout of anger.

Echo continues to try to pry the fleshy bit apart for a few seconds more before she pulls her sword free and steps away from the liquid that finally reached the heel of her shoe, the fabric and rubber starting to break down. With a swing the sword changed back to a staff which she slammed into the ground below her, "Queens Sanctuary!" As the words were screamed, a dome barrier manafested around her consisting of numerous transparant white flowers that danced and interwove around her. They would buy Echo a little time maybe, but probably not much.

Outside of the bulb the Yoma stops all of it's actions, turning it's Bulb so that it is quite clearly just Looking at the pumpkinhead.

The liquid inside of the Yoma's bulb bubbles against Echo's barrier. However, aside from fizzing and spitting, it manages to do nothing further. Outside of the bulb however, the Yoma stops all of it's actions, turning it's Bulb so that it is quite clearly just Looking at the pumpkinhead. A portion of the bulb puckers for a moment, the Yoma's bleeding eyes receeding into it's flesh again as the one eye sights him. Then, suddenly, a hole opens in the pucker, and from it a jet stream of clear, viscous fluid issues forth.

Alcatraz did something that perhaps, wasn't the smartest of ideas, but it made more sense that just taking the hit. He rand and fell off of the roof, falling barely below the acid, and with his knife drawn, tried to aim his decent to blind the yoma's final eye.

Echo had no choice but continue to hold up the barrier as the liquid touches it. Soon the heel of her shoe that touched the liquid falls away and there is a sharp sting at the bottom of her foot. She clenches her teeth wondering if this might be the end for her. It would only be a matter of time before she corrupted from holding up the barrier. Then, something miraculous happened! Echo broke the barrier as the liquid drained out the the room and set her sights again on the meaty bleeding bit of flesh. Echo called forth her sword from the staff again, attacking it repeatedly in a mad effort to get it open before the room filled again.

Instead of just blindly allowing Alcatraz to attack it, the Yoma's bulb tracks him in the air for a moment. Then, suddenly, the maw that is it's mouth opens again, the creature just allowing gravity to bring the pumpkinhead inside of it before snapping it's mouth closed once again.

Inside of the Yoma, the two Wishborn are reunited once again, Echo's attacks against the ground making progress before the pumpkinhead sails in and lands near her. Once closed, the juices begin secreting once more, and the Yoma begins attempting to bury itself in the ground again.

Alcatraz gets up and backs towards Echo, away from the liquid. "Long time no see, huh, girl?" Alcatraz's face kpets its same expression, seemingly calm given their situation. This was one of the many benefits of being a pumpkinhead. "The flowers look good on you," he said, before pulling out his gun, hoping he could find something else to shoot. "...Now do you have any idea what the hell to do?"

Echo didn't immediately notice the pumpkin head's appearance as she was still busy putting in all her effort in her attack. She stabbed again, and again, and again drawing up a spray of blood. She stepped back, holding up her hand to try another ability when a familiar voice spoke to her. She did an about face, smiling widly, "Oh! Good! I am glad you are still alive!" She tilted her head back towards the twisted bleeding meat, "Well, it seems that this thing here is effected a little when you attack it, but I haven't made much progress. The pink thing just wobbles a bit, and you aren't getting near the things that are spitting out that ooze." Echo shifted a little onto her good foot. the other one seemed to be burning with pain now.

The twisted meat in question was now bleeding somewhat heavily, having evidently taken a large amount of damage from Echo's attacks. In what could be seen as a last ditch attempt to protect itself, the Yoma's uvula-thing suddenly grows out of the ground next to the wishborn, shaped like the girl who started it all, pleading with them.

Alcatraz didn't react at all to the girl's appearence. Instead he simply raised his gun and pointed it straight at the girl's head, taking the time to aim so he wouldn't miss. Slowly, with extreme control, he squeezed the trigger."Fuck. You."

Hopefully Alcatrain could handle the girl for a moment. Echo turned back to the bloody wall, raising her hand into the air. For a moment a spot above her waivered and distorted, "Aster Fall" She yelled, directing her arm down at an angle towards her target. Numberous purple jagged star-like objects manifested in the shifting space above her, and shot themselves one by one in quick succession at the hatch with incredible force.

Echo's final attack slams into the Yoma's digestive valve, the stars managing to destroy the flesh barring the wishborn's advances. Beyond this lies a barely person sized hole made of flesh, and generously slicked with blood. The 'girl' does not stand to Alcatraz's bullet, rescinding back into the lining of the yoma's stomach with a shriek.

Alcatraz blows some smoke out of his mouth as a sigh of relief. He turns his static face towards Echo, motioning towards the hatch. "Women and children first, kid. That makes you twice." That was almost polite of him, if not somewhat cowardly.

Once she notices that its open Echo turns around, noticing with relief he had managed to take care of the girl. She limps over to him and grabs hold of Alcatraze's arm in an attempt to drag him towards the opening. "Nonsense! Lets go through this mess together, Alcaphone!"

The hole in the bottom of the Yoma actually proves to be a somewhat short journey, as the Wishborn pair is dragged through it. Instead of arriving where one might expect they would, the two instead find themselves spat out in a much smaller chamber, this one housing not much in the way of interesting features. That is, of course, until one looks up. Indeed, the roof of this chamber seems to actually be the Yoma's brain, wrinkled fleshy pink mass coating everything.

Alcatraz felt like he was getting repedative, but really saw no other choice. He reloaded his gun with and pulled a trigger towards the cieling. "...I should have thought about that beforehand, shouldn't I?" Alcatraz looked around. "Might be a good idea to get outta here, eh?"

"Well, at least it is a different squishy thing we are dealing with now and we are out of the oozygoozy. I say we've made progress!" Echo looks up in the direction Alchatraz fired, wondering if his shot had any sort of effect.

The brains in question contract violently as the bullet strikes them. As blood seeps slowly from the place where it hit in question, the chamber the wishborn are standing in shakes violently. Outside of the chamber, the Yoma pulls the arrow portion of it's head out of the ground, thrashing it around as things begin happening inside of it.

Alcatraz felt the wobbling of the room, and suddenly, it became more and more intense, violently shaking. In one movement, Alcatraz fell down, and he had to grab his head by the stem to keep it from rolling away. With his free hand, he picked up his switchblade and made a slit in the fleshy 'wall,' which he then put his hand inside as SOMETHING to hold onto. When he felt somewhat secure, he let go of his stem, his head ontop of his shoulders, and extended his hand for Echo to grab.

Echo took hold of Alcatraze's hand the moment it was offered, almost missing as she lost her balance and fell backwards with the sudden jolt of the room. She held on tightly, digging her sword into the yoma's flesh just as Alchatraz did, hoping that this way if one blade should fail, the other would help to anchor them.

The Yoma slams it's head back against the ground after thrashing around for a little bit, and in a last ditch effort attempts to scrape it's head across the ground to make the pain stop. Soon after, the rest of the Yoma's body falls, and finally it falls completely silent, blood loss in it's brain having taken it. One last thing falls from the hole in it's brain after the Yoma dies, a small glittering crystal caught in the last of the bloodflow.

Alcatraz let go of the wall and placed his switchblade back in his pocket. His hand lingered in Echo's for awhile, though it was unclear if it was because he felt protective or if he was scared out of his wits. When he finally let go, he tried to look around for an exit, failing to find one that was obvious. After calming down, he transformed back to his normal self, his face giving off a friendly glow. "...I think I could get used to this, actually."

Echo smiled, happy that the trashing about had stopped. To be honest it had been making her sick to her stomach "Good to hear Alchabooboo!" She said, covering her mouth for a moment, "You did much better than the last new wishborn I brought with me. I think you are going to be alright!" Slowly, she used her sword to help pull herself to her feet, "Next we gotta find the grief seed inside of this thing and clean out the gloomies in our gems. Did you get hurt any by the way?" Her voice seemed to remain cheerful and upbeat despite the queesiness she was feeling at the moment.

Alcatraz rubbed his hands around himself. "I... think I'm fine. Am I supposed to be fine? Should I be injured? It slammed me. I think I should be injured. WHY AM I NOT INJURED?" There were a few puffs of smoke before he calmed down again. "...Yeah I'm fine."

Echo giggles at his reaction. "Yes! Being fine is good news! Lets get to work then! The sooner we find the grief seed the sooner we can get a place with a nice shower! Should look like a crystal of some sort."