INT. FREIGHT NIGHT FAIR GROUNDS - NIGHT. OCTOBER 31, 2025, 10:13 P.M.
Gabriel stared up at the giant monster, feeling a mixture of fear and excitement. Before his very eyes the giant skeleton disappeared, leaving only a huge footprint indented in the ground. Nadia stepped beside Gabriel, purposely bumping him to get his attention. "The creature is still standing there," Nadia urged, her voice taking on an unfamiliar sense of urgency. "I recommend we move slowly, but swiftly out of this area right now"
Gabriel looked down at Nadia, pausing at her words. Deep down, he wanted to fight the new creature, something inside him called out, demanding he defeat the monster. Simultaneously, he did not want to risk Nadia's life because of pride in wanting to fight a monster. His aura turned a light red for a moment before flashing back white. Gabriel opened his mouth, but a loud, piercing noise began ringing around the park. The debilitating sound forced him down to his knees, tears watering his eyes from the pain. Fluid leaked from his ears, staining his hands he had cupped around them. The ringing grew louder. A hand suddenly grabbed the distracted Gabriel tightly, his body unable to move as he struggled against the hold.
Gabriel opened his eyelids, a tear dripping down as he looked around, and to his horror, he was terrifyingly high up, over twenty-five feet in the air. He lowered his hands from around his ears, though the ringing continued. He did his best to ignore the sound as he tried to break the rip on his body, but failed. "HOLY SHIT!" he yelled out, his feet dangling as he squirmed. His heart raced from the rush of being stuck in the air. For a fleeting moment, Gabriel wondered if regular people could see him dangling by himself. He let out a sigh, imagining the pictures people were taking, but shook his head to clear his thoughts, realizing he needed to focus on escaping before anything else.
Gabriel was flustered , doing his best to ignore the loud ringing in his ear, yet the piercing sound was making it hard to think. Pushing through the headache that had formed, he focused on pushing energy into his hands, summoning a giant hand made of light from his palm. The summoned hand slowly started to try and pull the strong, boney fingers apart. Gabriel concentrated intensely, breaking the powerful grip was not easy. The ringing noise abruptly stopped as the giant skeleton reappeared. Its breath smelled of decay as it roared in Gabriel's face. "Fuck this!" he screamed. He summoned multiple hands of the same size to pry open the skeleton's grip, but every attempt failed. Small beads of sweat started falling down face Gabriel as he moved his arms trying to get the multiple hands to break the skeleton's grip but he failed.
Gabriel allowed the hands to dissolve into white particles as he sat there trying to come up with ideas. Gabriel looked up and noticed the skeleton locked its red eyes onto him. Air rushed around him as the skeleton slowly started bringing his body toward its mouth. "OK I'm stuck in a shitty situation about to get eaten by a giant skeleton. What can I do?" he thought to himself.
No object came forward as his mind went blank on what could help here. As the monster's teeth neared his head, Gabriel decided to do one last hoorah and pushed all of the energy he could muster into the biggest hand he could muster. The hand he summoned was light blue and was able to stop the skeleton's mouth from closing on his body."Screw you, you stupid sack of shit!" Gabriel roared and clenched both of his fists before slamming them downward. The giant hand followed suit, ripping the bottom jaw off the monster's face. Gabriel blinked and found himself free falling towards the ground. The giant hand he used dissolved into particles during the period he was let go. Gabriel clapped his hands, then spread his arms. A giant circular disk of light circled his body before floating gently under his feet. He slowly glided down on the disk downwards aiming to land next to Nadia. Gabriel took care not to land too heavily lest he accidentally fall in the pool of blood.
The disk vanished in a white light as soon as Gabriel landed. Nadia rushed over towards, quickly examining his body, her brow furrowed, her eyes anxious, and her lip quivering. Gabriel felt his checks heating up at her actions, his aura turning a light pink before disappearing. He looked at Nadia, and saw her mouth moving but heard no sounds. He cocked his head to the side in confusion, then felt liquid start running down his cheek. Oh right, Gabriel realized, I forgot the ringing sound had destroyed my eardrums. Closing his eyes and focusing energy toward his hands, Gabriel concentrated on repairing the damage. He waved his right hand around his ears, squirming slightly from the feeling of tiny things moving until the process finally stopped. Eventually, he would need to study medical books to get a better feel for all the muscles and bones in the human body. For now, his power was able to heal enough of the damage for him to hear again. The world's sounds came rushing back, almost overstimulating him with the noise of the giant creature roaring in pain.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!" Nadia screamed, her face close to his as she glared at him. Crossing her arms to show her dissatisfaction with him.
Gabriel stepped back to create distance. "Well, if you would stop for a second and pay attention, you'd know my eardrums were punctured, so I couldn't hear anything," he argued. Gesturing towards the blood still on his cheek, he had fallen from his ears.
Nadia instantly closed her opened mouth, her face turning red from what Gabriel assumed was embarrassment. Gabriel just shook his head as he turned to face the giant skeleton once again. Gabriel decided dealing with that giant skeleton is easier than having to deal with Nadia getting upset again. With the bottom jaw missing, the skeleton looked eerie to Gabriel. He thought he could see multiple ghostly hands moving around inside its mouth, the hands looked bloody and broken. The sight made Gabriel shiver, the thought of the people eaten by this monstrosity still alive inside the skeleton .
Small splashing sounds stopped right next to Gabriel, he turned to look at her. Nadia stood there, her lips turned downward as she looked at the skeleton ahead. "I don't know if you heard me before, but that giant monster," she said, emphasizing the word and pointing a finger forward at the giant skeleton, "is called a Gashadokuro. It's like a kaiju, but it's made up of the dead bodies of people who starve. It's a Japanese yokai, so why it's here is actually something we should look into later."
Gabriel tried to absorb the quick-fire information, his brain malfunctioning as steam metaphorically blew out his ears. Nadia noticed this and sighed. "Just think of Godzilla, but a skeleton with a weakness to sunlight."
Gabriel quickly shook his head, glad for the easier explanation. "So we need light that can mimic sunlight. I wonder if my powers are strong enough to mimic it."
Nadia shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know, to be honest. Your power isn't really holy-based or anything, you just manipulate light particles in the air."
Gabriel grew quiet. He knew he could practically harden the light rays and turn them into constructs. "Hey, Nadia, question?" he asked, looking down at her.
"What's up?" she replied, cocking her head to the side, interested.
Gabriel took a deep breath before explaining his idea. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the moon gets its light by reflecting the sun's rays, right?"
Nadia nodded. "I mean, yeah. Where is this going?"
"Well, what if I used a cannon or some kind of converter and absorbed the moon rays into a giant cannon or something, focusing all the energy in one spot to kill it?" Gabriel replied, his tone suggesting he did not entirely agree with his own idea.
Nadia punched her hand in excitement. "That should work! You can use yourself like a battery, recharging yourself and killing the giant beast!"
Gabriel excitedly waved his hands. "Exactly what I'm going for!"
"Fuck yeah, let's do it!" she shouted, running off across the ground at full speed, her body surrounded by a purple aura.
Gabriel pulled on his hair in anger. "What the fuck is she doing?" he muttered to himself. Tring not to be frustrated with her hot headed nature. Gabriel decided to let Nadia do her own thing, he clapped his hands together and started concentrating; bright light formed around his body again. He held his hands out, and a heavy weight formed: a white and gold colored missile launcher appeared in his hand. Compared to a regular missile launcher, this one had a small panel on the back.
Already knowing some basic aspects of using a missile launcher, he put the launcher on his shoulder. His left hand held the end of the long barrel, and his right hand rested on the handle. As he began to squeeze the trigger, small particles started appearing in the air. The panel on top of the launcher came to life as it began charging up, sucking the white light in the area into the top. The lights around the arena began to flicker as more and more particles flew toward Gabriel.
While waiting for it to charge, Gabriel watched as Nadia rushed toward the giant skeleton. The purple aura made her move even faster than when they fought Alucard at his club. Nadia's plan was to give Gabriel enough time to charge the gun, so she decided the best way to not be in the way was to distract the giant. Gabriel watched as the skeleton reached down to grab Nadia, yet she was too quick, dodging out of the grasp. Upset at missing its prey, the skeleton lifted its giant foot, brought it back, and then quickly dropped it, trying its best to squish Nadia with a heavy stomp. Nadia dodged out of the way, moving so fast it looked as if she teleported. The giant skeleton's foot hit the ground, causing the immediate area to shake.
Gabriel had a hard time keeping his feet steady as the rocking ground caused him to shake. Thankfully, he was able to catch himself, not dropping into the blood all over the ground. Gabriel noticed the light particles stopped going toward the gun; the weapon started turning a bright white color as energy built up. "NADIA, MOVE!" Gabriel screamed, watching Nadia's small form dance around the giant monster.
Nadia looked at Gabriel and started running in his direction. The giant wanted to give chase, but Gabriel wouldn't allow it. "FUCK YOU!" Gabriel yelled before pulling the trigger all the way, shooting. The missile launcher charged before firing a ball so strong that the recoil pushed Gabriel back a few feet from his first position. The ball was hot enough to evaporate the blood on the ground in its path as it zoomed upwards toward the skeleton's face. The giant skeleton had its eyes on Nadia, not paying attention until it was too late, and the ball hit its head. BOOM! The skeleton's head and upper body were instantly destroyed; the bottom half broke apart before falling to the ground.
Gabriel released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, letting the missile launcher disappear into a white light. All the energy he felt disappeared, replaced by a strange sense of fatigue as his legs started to shake. Gabriel forced himself to stay standing. Nadia came running in fast, almost slipping as she finally made it to Gabriel's side. "Dude, that was so fucking sick! Next time, I one hundred percent deserve the chance to shoot the next gun!" she exclaimed, a huge smile on her face as she talked animatedly.
Gabriel rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance; sometimes, Nadia's excitement was a little too much. A small pink hue started and quickly disappeared as Nadia leaned in close to his face. She was standing on tiptoes, staring at him with stars in her eyes. The mood was soon killed when a body dropped next to them with a loud thud. Gabriel and Nadia jumped in shock at the sudden noise. Leaning forward, he saw Blake, breathing heavily with blood coming out of his mouth, and his jacket ripped.