Preach With Conviction (FI- OPEN)

[ParamountKeymaster]

Jack was taken aback slightly, his blunt frown and raised eyebrow hinting that he was none too pleased to have his song cut off.

"Ooh! Now here's some white boy music I can get behind!" the raven chided as if to simply annoy Jack further.

Nonetheless, he let the interruption roll off his back fairly quickly, resuming his mid-air dance and gracefully showering the room in flames.

Beyond Jack's view, not too far from where Cat had carried Patrick, a small garden patch appeared to be growing on its own accord. "Cat. Come hither."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Cat's ear perked at the sound of a familiar whisper. She quickly followed it, gently setting Patrick's still form down amongst the partially-animated plant life. "Rio? Where've you been, man? This guy's been cheesing me off!"

[DMis]

Todd kept playing as he let the sound waves start to snuff the flames. A smirk showed on the musician's face.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Jack's typical, sinister grin soon returned, somehow made all the more insane-looking from behind his goggles. With one final, outward motion, his cyclone of fire burst forth in one last wave, engulfing almost the entirety of the church in flames. And then he was gone.

Or, at least, to the naked eye he was gone. Having rendered himself invisible and as quiet as a mouse,*Jack floated up behind Todd and waved his hand over his opponent's head, silently casting a spell. Not a spell to manipulate or lull. Quite the opposite, in fact. In this small dose of enchantment magic was an intense amount of morale. A boost of strength, constitution and will. Perhaps even a greater urge for battle. For victory. A dormant rage ready to break free.
_{*(a church mouse if you will lol sorry I'm terrible)}
Jack smirked and drifted back a bit and turned himself visible, anxious to see if his work had been put to good use.

"Not bad at all for a vampiric prat,
But I still think that you can do better than that."

Rio peaked from behind his barrier of magic and flora, showing enough of his face and speaking softly enough for only Cat to see and hear. "Cat, observe yonder. Upon his initial kindling of this sanctum, Jack adorned himself with yonder security spectacles. Myself theorizes that his vision necessitates a lack illumination."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

It took everything in Cat's power not to burst out laughing at Rio's choice of words. Her next reaction was slight confusion. "So wait, what? You're saying he needs those goggles to protect his eyes from light or something?"

[DMis]

Todd raised an eyebrow unsure why his opponent just cast that spell. "Are you attempting to dupe me? Or is it just just to make me confused?" Todd asked as he felt that urge to win. He brought his bow to the strings once again.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"I assure you that neither choice was my intent.
I'm just looking for fun to any extent.
Your skills interest me; this fight could be amusing.
So give me your all, because it looks like you're losing."

With that, Jack resumed his destructive rampage, rapidly darting around the inferno, bouncing off walls, smashing his fist and cane into everything in his path, completely obliterating everything in his wake.

You're up to something... Evan thought coldly. You have to be...

The raven awkwardly looked around at the burning, crumbling structure that barely resembled the holy place it once was. Somehow he managed to twist his little face into a grimace. "Yeah, this is gospel, alright."

"'Tis what I presume," Rio answered. "If thou covets aiding in Jack's worst..." He paused briefly, regaining enough self-awareness to know that Cat could easily take this particular phrase out of context. "Jack's... defeat... then perchance thou ought to purloin yonder safety spectacles."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"You want me to steal his goggles." Cat glowered slightly at her partner, then shrugged and twirled Goldenhand between her fingers. "Yeah, I can do that."

Without another word, Cat charged back out into the open, taking a moment to survey the chaos that had unfolded. Everything was on fire. Jack was flying around and destroying stuff again. Todd was trying to stop him. It was a mess.

She turned and spotted the raven. "HEY! MACE WIND-BRAIN!"

[DMis]

"I only loose if I give up," Todd replied before taking a breath. "Shall we take this outside?"
A plan was starting to form in his head.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Jack landed and skidded to a halt, shooting Todd a quick nod.

"A change of locale does sound ideal.
This sanctuary seems to have lost its zeal."

That said, Jack harmlessly phased through the fire and a wall, calmly stepping into the outside world.

The raven cringed at Cat's call. "Oh f*** that. I ain't got time for this b****!" He then promptly flew out one of the broken windows, following Jack's lead.

While the others were preoccupied, Rio lifted Patrick into his arms and teleported them both to solitude in the garden just outside the church. "'Tis not the hour for respite. Thine accomplice requires thou yet."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Once again, being ignored riled Cat up. She furiously chased the raven, fully prepared to swat it out of the sky. "HEY! Get back here, Jules Winnfreak! I'm talkin' to you!!"

[DMis]

Tod quickly followed Jack by taking the raven's way out through a window. 'Don't give into rage. You'll make mistakes. Be caustious. This foe is more dangerous than that of Noire,' he mentally noted.

[ParamountKeymaster]

For a while, Jack said nothing. He simply stood in the grass with his back to Todd and the burning church, doing simple tricks with his cane and humming what was probably another P!ATD song. This blatant display of stalling only further worried Evan.

Is he tempting Todd? Does he just want to see Todd display his abilities in full? Why would he...?

And right then and there was when he figured it out.

...Oh, crap baskets...

"Back off, you little psycho!" the raven insisted as he flapped his way out of Cat's reach.

Rio cast a spell of his own over Patrick, hoping to wake him up. Then, although he kept a close eye on the boy, he moved back over to the church, showering it in various spells, all with the intent of slowly but surely extinguishing the flames and restoring the broken building to its original state.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Clearly unwilling to take no for an answer, Cat charged Goldenhand up with Pandemonium energy until it was large enough to reach and promptly smack the raven to the ground. She then picked up the carrion bird and sharply whispered, "You're a part of this, okay? You're backing me up here or so help me, I'll throw you at my mage and he'll turn you into a popsicle!"

[DMis]

Todd quickly flipped around. "Well you coming up here or are you going to blister your host's back?" he taunted as the purple viola switched out for one that looked like it was made of gears.