The Hero and the Beast [Johnathan vs Radioactive - STAY THE FUCK AWAY if you're not strong enough]

"...I can feel it. It's near... Something that I should've faced ages ago." Here he was, standing on top of a giant, crumbling piece of rock. Long, black hair was swaying behind in the strong winds - this rocky dessert was mostly devoid of life. The constant battles on earth made sure that no effort would ever be done to cultivate places that had been nearly unhabitable before, let alone now. But oddly enough, today, nothing moved here. Not the Hollows or demons normally roaming these Wastelands could be seen. Was it because of his tall man talking to himself? No, not at all. His spiritual pressure was miniscule at best, almost non-existant. He was one of the monks of destruction - a Quincy. Lacking own Reiatsu, their power was the spiritual energy all around them - not their own strength of soul.
"Don't fool yourself. This terror you feel is only natural. Whatever is out here... It's a force of nature more than a person. Nobody should HAVE to face it, never." A second voice, a second figure. Phasing into visibility, 'it' materialized - but in truth, it was just a mental image. The mental image of his own spirit, Shironeko, which was both Johnathans other side as well as his eternal companion. And yes... What he felt was something horrible. No reason had to be said why. This energy... Even without outright trying to be menacing, it already was. A normal human would've turned around and fled the area by now, but apparently, this strange man did not even have any means of transportation with him.
//Hirenkyaku!//
In a flash, both the tall Quincy and the cat disappeared, breaking away some of the crumbling boulder. Now standing further towards the source of this energy, his position was still slightly elevated. A single, cold drop of sweat ran down the left side of his face.
"If this energy is really what I feel... Then there is no helping it. I have to find out just what it is." The voice showed determination far beyond anyone else, and an actual small smirk was on his face. "We should be awesome enough to fight it if we have to. After all, we're..."
"A force of nature ourselves, I know." A small chuckle that sounded more like meowing - the spirit had taken on the fake image of a large, white cat with burning red eyes and white, beautiful wings on her back. The name reflecting her color, the color reflecting her allignment. It was an old clichee to say that angelic spirits represented the light - but in her case, it was very true.
"How come, whatever being you are... Show yourself."

So this was what he would be facing today? The Quincy had to avert his gaze for only a small moment from the display in the distance. Bright light... No, not light. It was a violent release of energy. An explosion of sorts, with enough destructive force to rip apart the world around it. Such terrible energy released... But Johnathan did not move. The Hero of true Light had no intention of saving those standing in the way of this force of nature. To attack another unprovoked, they had openly invited their deaths - while it pained the benevolent hero to see this brutal display, it was the rule of nature. The weak predated upon by the strong. Had this monster attacked them first, he would've had a reason to step in... but like this? No. The sickening energy was something he was even able to feel from a distance... Unnatural and corrupting.
But not only the hero felt it, his spirit did so as well. Almost immedeatly, his body began to produce something similliar to antibodies - he was highly resistant to poisons of any kind, radiation was no different. Although this 'spiritual' variant was different from the 'real' one, it was still basicially radiation - the Quincy-Ziamichi was maybe one of the few people able to stand it for longer than normal. However, his gaze began to shift. As his powers as a Ziamichi activated, the first sign began to show in it - from grey and blue, to a red like the blood in his veins. Yet, it was not demonic or evil - a simple strong red gaze, full of his will. The first words of the shark were heard, and with them, all possible escape was nulled.

That was when Walker realized what he was facing. It ran towards him - simple running with amazing strength behind it. One should never assume the ones who looked like walls to move like them too - this 'shark' was no different. But his realization came from him being a shark, not from him being fast. Memories spewed forth into his head, together with information collected over his life so far longer than intended by nature.
And with knowing what came towards him, his entire mindset changed. As if a switch had been flipped, the normally nice and composed expression that was even present in fighting was replaced - resentment, a tiny bit of fear, and most of all, anger. A big, weiling anger and hate from a time so long gone... It was so strong that it even startled Shironeko for a small moment.
//J... John? Hey, John! Get yourself together, will you?//
Having the ghastly voice resound in his head calmed the tall man of german origins.

As Radioactive approached, it became an almost funny scene. Overbearing, uncontrolled energy by the shark, and little to no direct spiritual pressure from Johnathan. As per usual for a Quincy, the threat he emitted came from the godlike skill hidden in his body and blood, ready to be released at any time. But still, it began to circle around him - an aura of strength. White particles, like pieces of light itself fragmented and thrown into a whirlpool around him, this aura was the strength of Reiatsu - a meager, laughable amount compared to the shark infront of him. But there was something in his stance, his whole demeanor, which revealed true strength still hidden. In fact, not running away with soiled pants at the sight of a monster like Radioactive was a feat in itself!
"You want to know my name? I wasn't aware you even cared for things like that... Radioactive." Of course, he had heard the stories. And those stories were the reason behind the unnatural rage emitting from the man who had proclaimed himself as a hero so many times in his life. This monster infront of him was the being that had killed more Quincy than anyone else on the entire planet!
And with that, suddenly, Johnathans voice was raised. Before, it had merely been an umamused, stoic voice without emotion, not letting his hate seeth through. But this was different now. A face twisted in anger, and with it, the white particles intensified.
"I am Johnathan Walker, the last german Quincy! You, the one who killed my people like cattle... I will defeat YOU!"
Then, it revealed itself completely. The Reiatsu slumbering took form. Instead of just white particles, it was a white 'shape' - only the Reiatsu of beings on Captain-levels and above had a spiritual energy so high that it took an almost physical shape behind him. Was one now looking at a furious warrior with black hair flung high upwards by energy? Or was one looking at the opened jaws of an angry, monstrous demonic cat? Or maybe even both? With red eyes completing it for both him and the aura of power behind him, the boulder underneath Johnathan was pulverized.
As he dashed forward, it was not simple moving. He was using Hirenkyaku - the flash step of the Quincy, nearly completely silent and surpassing Shunpo in basic speed. This Hirenkyaku though was more so resembling a mad dash downwards - but no single movement was wasted. The Quincy had yet to enter a 'real' Ziamichi-form, but no matter what happened, he was always able to never miss a step - he had senses like a cat, only heightened even further. His Reiatsu seemingly grinded against the immense pressure that was the shark monster.
During his mad dash, Johnathan reached onto his belt. Three weapons, two now connected with strings. Seele Schneider - the bladed arrow of his people. The blade was in fact made out of countless smaller blades, and it vibrated so fast that it severed the binding of spiritual particles and solid matter, cleaving through anything it was aiming at as long as no stronger and faster vibration was there to counter it. Higher density even improved it - because spiritual energy cut by it would be absorbed into the blades, making them stronger and even deadlier.

Inside of his mind, Johnathan had already passed the point of fury. The outbreak of his voice had been the final release - his anger was not clouding, no. It cleared him from all thoughts possibly setting him back - and his spirit complied. Fusing their minds was normal - two sides of the same coin, after all. She shared his pain, knowledge, and joy - and thus, also his feelings on what hell the Quincy had gone through thanks to individuals like him. For both of them, it was not a real personal hate. It was a hate for fate itself, and for those used by it to achieve the current state - maybe that was the reason why they had met this day. Why Radioactive would now fight Johnathan, and why Johnathan had so readily given in to rage - to rid himself from it?

The warrior had no time to question his own motives. His goal for now was simple - overwhelm with overwhelming speed and reaction time out of this world. Johnathans first Hirenkyaku had given him the split moment required to pull his three blades, and catapulted him right infront of the shark. Only a small distance seperated him. The first foot of Johnathan touched the air, like someone attempting to start sprinting right away.


An incantation of sorts? You bet your behind it was one. As the second foot touched the ground, it was both a jump and a dash towards the shark right infront of him. As the Quincy pulled back his right hand, two of the three silver handles span into the air, connected by a lone, almost invisible blue thread of energy. Then it happened - it was a 'passing slash' style move.


Now, it has to be cut into things happening all at once during the shout of the name of this technique. At first, of course, the slash downward at Radioactive. In itself, it was a long-ranged, strong vertical slash, but a single slash could be escaped. Tsubame Gaeshi was a technique not even a swallow could escape from, which was the origin of the name. Now, from right above in a slash that went down like the half of a cross - a second blade. The second Seele Schneider, having been controlled by the string attached to it. And now, with two slashes, a third one followed from the over side, to make escape finally completely impossible. Three arcs, three blades able to slice almost anything in their path. But still, it was only a human technique - was a human really able to harm a monster like Radioactive this easily? Or would this move fail completely? Whatever the case, this was nothing but the start of a battle neither would ever forget...

"Tch." This was going to be a tricky one at best. The sudden pollution of every single spiritual particle around him hit Johnathan like a hammer - of course, only figuratively speaking. While it should normally be hazardous or even suicidal to use any Quincy tools or his own ability to absorb energy here, he was no normal Quincy. Otherwise, he wouldn't still look young at 400 years of age, now would he? In order to combat this, he had to improvise with this special ability that made his body able to survive with this energy inside.
But the most imminent problem was the energy wave that had so easily blocked Tsubame Gaeshi, one of the fastest moves ever used by a Quincy. That was bad - to counter the counter, the hero quickly deactivated his energy blades. Evaporating into nothingness, the metal grips being flung back at him were a lot less threatening than vibrating super-sonic blades able to easily cleave his body into pieces - or anyone's body, if what they had done once to Zefonse Kaizme was any indication.
Catching his three blade handles out of their flight, Johnathan made a quick backwards-dash. And apparently, that was not a second to early, since the shark infront of him fired some sort of attack at him - and if he knew anything about volitale and dangerous energy, then it was NOT to get hit by a compressed mass of it fired from a beast that breathed the stuff.
//It's about time we got serious. Let him feel what we're feeling!//
"And I thought Espada were troublesome." Oddly enough, for someone boiling with the rage of his entire clan, Johnathan seemed to have a strange calmness around him. But one had only to open all senses to notice how this 'calm' mind was just a tranquil form of complete fury and hate. This man-shark-thing right infront of him was one of the reasons his people were as rare as black diamonds right now!

Quickly switching hands, the hero had thought of a way to defeat this attack made by the beast. But no, plan was the wrong word - there was no time for a real 'plan' in such a situation. It was thanks to his own knowledge of what he was able and not able to do - coupled with a suicidal amount of confidence, because his next move was simply crazy.
//Increase output... Maximum!//
With a flick of his wrists, they lit up again. Two blades in his right, one in his left this time - blue blades made out of countless spiritual particles, which would surely be contaminated now, and prove useless.
Just that, they weren't. For some reason, each blade was completely pure, and they seemed to increase in strength as per usual! But what had happened? One would need to pay VERY close attention to the Reiatsu in Johnathan to notice. Quincy normally didn't have too much of their own Reiatsu, but he was an exception thanks to his spirit, to the energy in the blades simply came from inside of him instead of the surroundings, letting them draw from his soul. But why wasn't he weakening? Well, he simply recharged it with outside spiritual particles. With contaminated, poisonous energy that would for sure rip his body apart...
If not for his spirit, once more. If one were to look at the Reiatsu alone, it could very well be described as this - the 'orange' radioactive energy entering his body and bloodstream, but only to flow against a white, glowing energy emitted from his chest and bloodstream itself, spreading through his entire body like that. The orange energy, unable to fight against this unknown force, was cleansed - turned into 'blue', normal spiritual energy that fuelled into the Reiatsu in Johnathans soul and body, restoring everything he lost instantly. This unknown factor was Johnathan's 'Anti-Poison' ability, an universal antidote that worked against natural and spiritual poisons alike. Only pure death energy was able to slow the process down, but using it excessively could tire out the body. At least for as long as Johnathans body could tire out, but that was a different topic alltogether.

This all seemed like a huge advantage - but really, it wasn't. All this meant was that Johnathan was not going to be instantly ripped to shreds by the three dozen attacks heading his way! Taking a defensive stance, the Quincy and his confidence would dance the deadly spectacle of death - with a sling of his left hand as the growing, blue blade was flung at the spike, now the vibrations did their magic.
These spikes had the goal of 'piercing' and 'explosion', while Seele Schneider worked with 'loosening' and 'division'. The high-speed vibrations, like an insane chainsaw, hit the volitale energy. Now naturally, the energy should 'explode'. However, the 'piercing' which was supposed to happen first, had no chance to occur, for before the real 'contact' was registered, the high vibrations and seperation occured. This was basicially a slowing of cause and effect - because the energy spike - which was now cleanly cleaved in two and passed right by Johnathan - needed time to 'tighten' it's spiritual bondings again, for them to clash against one another and finally - a small distance behind him - to explode violently in a wave of destruction.
//John, your body won't be able to handle much longer like this!//
//All right then...//
"I am thou..."
The next appeared. Slinging the left Seele Schneider around in the small hole meant for it to be hold as an arrow so fast that it seemed like a shield, it was flung forward again and again. Johnathans vision turned into a tunnel-like one - the eruptions and the heat from behind and in rare cases right infront of him whirled around sand and disorienting noises, so he simply focused on a small area.
"Thou art I."
Striking his right hand forward, Johnathan did the unthinkable. While his vision and hearing were blocked, his spiritual senses and the sense of the eruption coming from further infront of him reached. The two sword-like blades in his hands not only took care of the last of the spikes - but also broke the debris that Radioactive send with his first roar. Small stones hit Johnathans body all over, ripped his clothing in places, caused small amounts of pain - but didn't knock him off of his feet and back into the ground. As the large pieces arrived, the smoke cleared a bit. Behind Johnathan walker, the field was simply gone. A crater, that was still smoking with burning pieces of rock and debris. Needless to say, his own back was scorched in many a place, and bleeding, but there was no major injury to be found on it. The same infront - a smaller crater. The Quincy was literally standing on the only safe spot - which only his flawless technique had granted him.
Flinging all blades suddenly to the side, Johnathan threw them. Instead of using his bow directly, a blast of concentrated energy shot them outward, and in an iwards arc, they cut and blasted the other debris into fine dust. But of course, now the shark beast himself was heading right for Johnathan! A fight, fist-to-fist, was not one he could win. Not as a human, and maybe not even as an angel.
But he was for sure as hell going to try the latter.


The words he had muttered while blocking were not idle or crazy chatter of someone drunk on the battle. Each and every one held meaning, and molded the energies within the Quincy. The great power that was sleeping inside of him, the spirit that had saved his life and made him a hero. Shironeko, the ghost of pure light, was his other half. His true self only emerged whenever those words were muttered, and their hearts beat as one. And that time was now.
"From the sea of souls..."

He was almost upon them. Red eyes closed, and the body was seemingly at it's limit.

And then they were reborn.

A flash of light. Not blinding light, but pure, wonderful light. A complete antithesis to all energy relating to death, this energy spoke only of life. It came from the chest of Johnathan Walker - the red seal carved into it, to be exact. And this light was his true self. As if reverting to something, rather than evolving, the long, black hair of the Quincy retracted into shorter, wild white hair with only very few black streaks in-between. A bulge suddenly ripped apart the skin on his back - and flicking a bit of blood to the sides, majestic, beautiful wings emerged. A winged humanoid - an angel, for sure. That would be anyone's first guess. As a bit of red blood hit the ground from the wounds they created every time they sprouted - the scars on Johnathans back were NOT souveniers of previous fights - the rest of the energy also focused.
It wove into itself, and became something completely spiritual and wonderful. Still, from his skin, something in many colors, like stained glass, was seen blowing away first - this was how his Anti-Poison got rid of everything that it couldn't absorb and turn away, the absolute waste with no energy value in it.
The threads of spiritual energy formed themselves now. As if nature itself took care of how he should look, a mantle and other clothing formed - a white mantle, to be exact, with beautiful, black roses engraved onto it. The mantle was actually closed - but underneath, an also white shirt out of the same material had appeared, together with black pants and boots, replacing what he had worn before. For sure, this warrior-angel was the true form of Johnathan Walker, the last german Quincy.
Now, yellow cat-like eyes opened - slit pupils focusing onto Radioactive. The small trail of blood formerly seen besides his ears from the explosions were gone - healed by transforming spiritual particles into living tissue. Of course, this ability was very limited - but while this injury would've been very disabling, it was still only minor on the scale of hurt organic material. Grasping his hands tightly around cold steel, Johnathan was now holding weapons - guns, to be exact. While looking like incredible craftmanship, they were also made out of condensed energy - like a Zanpakuto. Damaging them was maybe a little easier than it was with the blades of souls, but these guns could also be repaired in a matter of half a second.

So, as the mind focused, and two opened the yellow eyes at once, Radioactive was no longer nearly at someone who had a spirit inside of them. He was headed for a 'perfect' unity of two souls.

"We emerge."

Ending their chant, the eruption of power was finally released, like a long, held-back breath. The motions were so fluid that they seemed to leave slight after-images, as Johnathan took a fighting stance - the wings spread behind him, a white light surrounded them. But it wasn't radiating this light - it was absorbing it. This white light was pure spiritual energy and particles - all contaminated, but also all flowing right into a center-piece of his angelic anti-poison powers. The radioactivity of this area slowed down his absorbtion of power, but was unable to stop it with such a 'simple' infection.

And on the dead-serious face of the angel...
A small smirk emerged.

"Let us have a bloody fucking battle, Little Quincy! You are
the last of your race! Sure, it may be a cowardly and pathetic race that
relies on other peoples powers and tools, but to last this long surely
does mean something! SO MAKE IT COUNT MAGGOT!"

"You tell us... if this counts. Rose Thorn Blast!"
The triggers were pulled as Radioactive was absolutely upon them. Releasing the collected energy so far at once, the right gun shot out a black, and the left a red blast - white handguns with red and black roses engraved into them. These blasts were a lot bigger than what would logically fit through the barrels, as the compressed energy of the blast simply only expanded after leaving the barrel, to form these two highly explosive and powerful blasts - any contact with a surface would result into a surging eruption of agressive spiritual energy, acting like a natural explosion - just that they were not dangerous for Johnathan himself.

But waiting if it hit him would be suicidal in this situation. Retreat for a little bit was possible - but the Quincy lacked information on the speed of his fated opponent. While Radioactive didn't seem like he was going to run laps against the flash goddess anytime soon, he could not yet be sure if the shark matched his Hirenkyaku or not. Taking to the skies would only make him a more open target right now, so it was time to man up, toughen up, and take this fight one on one. Angel versus shark, hero versus beast - survivor against calamity!
"Führe uns ins Morgenrot."
The guns lit up, listening to the words filled with power, spoken in perfect, accent-free german. Molding themselves, they now became long, insanely sharp claw gloves - solid enough to block a sword, sharp enough to cut through steel, fast enough to catch a fleeting sparrow. The stance Johnathan took was a different one as well - folding the white wings onto his back, he crouched down, one leg a bit farther behind, leaning forward - and he suddenly looked a lot like a winged cat with VERY dangerous claws and intelligent, if slightly menacing eyes.