The Ghostly Knights at the Witch's Castle

"What in the world is this place meant for? It looks more like an indoor park than anything. King Enterprises really owns this?"

You and Demon One--she insisted on the callsign, despite your near slip-ups on occasion--quietly stepped through the large and open building. The outer ring of the three-story structure contained a variety of smaller closed facilities arranged much like a multi-level mall would be, with a long balcony on the second and third floor that overlooked the center of the building, where indeed a variety of plant life grew under the massive skylights of the building. Part mall, part library, part greenhouse, the fact that an area like this seemed abandoned instead of sharing this peaceful sanctum with the good citizens of Spiral City felt like a missed opportunity. Had Demon One not used Tex's synthesis abilities to create a working key, you'd have missed out on the rather wonderful design of the tidy yet chaotic interspersed fauna among the clean, bright colors on the walls of the modern facility's interior.

"To the best of my knowledge, yeah. Rich people do this all the time for stuff like tax evasion or whatever. Do you know there's a whole row of apartment buildings downtown that nobody lives in? Nearly sixteen hundred units total, owned by the big names. King and Hasegawa are both on that list, probably Yabusa and Shaw if I had to guess, too." Demon One and you walked out toward the center of the expansive first-floor area, where a massive oak tree sat at the center of a sort of island, with walkways from four directions dividing a large reflecting pool to allow access to the tree. It looked like a very relaxing place, which only slightly tempered your worries about sticking around too long. "There's no cameras here though, we could walk around for quite a while to find the signal again and nobody will--"

A loud thud resonated behind you, as you both turned around in unison, looking at... a very old-looking suit of armor! The silvery metal looked ancient in design, but at the seams, ghostly wisps of ethereal blue light escaped, lighting up the joints and in particular the visor, where two black holes in place of eyes glared out at you, the wisps of light pouring from the corners of the visor to give you the impression of a specter haunting the armor. At the core of the chestplate sat a small jewel, which on the hulking frame you'd almost not even noticed.

"What's this?" boomed the low voice from the suit of armor, echoing in unearthly tones. "A...Templar and a Demon, hmm? You look a little lost, my friends! Sadly, I cannot let you merely go with a warning, despite my admiration of these armors of yours. Sad for you, at least. I've been bored waiting for something to finally smash into tiny pieces...!"

You glanced to your partner, who already had the same idea as you. "Go!" You both turned away from the ghostly armor, and took off in a sprint! You barely made it three steps before both of you screeched to a halt, however, as a second armor dropped from above, landing before you. It had the same eerie design, still tall and imposing although this feminine form didn't seem like as much of a wall. A long, loose braid hung from the back of her helmet.

"Running from Jupiter really was your best play," the knightly woman said as she pounded her fists against each other. "But you're not going to run from two Geistknights. We've been itching for something to come along and provide our fine selves with a challenge, so what say you two? Are you going to be worthy opponents and put up a fight? It doesn't matter either way, as the punishment for trespassing is that we break every bone in your body."

"That's my Freyja!" the other Geistknight said in delight.

You stood still for a moment, turning slightly again to Demon One. "Are they really a threat, or is this just where they keep the renaissance fair in the off-season?"

"They look tough, but you've got Meteor strength and I have plenty of other options," Demon One said in the private communications between you two. "We just need to get beyond them, then I'll get into bike mode and we'll be gone. So let's knock this one down and keep going!"

Synchronized, you both decided to charge at the one called Freyja, hurtling shoulder-first toward her, thinking this would be a quick maneuver to escape--right until she sidestepped Demon One at an impressive speed and launched her fist into your chest, sending you flying perpendicular to your running path, tumbling head over feet until you came to a stop at the wall. Demon One didn't fare much better, as the frighteningly fast Jupiter managed to somehow catch up, grabbing her by one of the cowlings and hurling her in the opposite direction!

"Damn it, they're strong..!" you said, getting back to your feet. You couldn't get very far before Freyja stood before you again, a second punch inbound! This time, you engaged your Yabusa-built machinery stored within you, as well as everything extra built into your latest armor upgrade, to block the punch and counter with a swipe of your own! Freyja hadn't been quite expecting that, and you did manage to knock her back a few steps.

The Geistknight shrugged off the blow, and put her hands back up. "Good, good! That was a nice punch, Templar. In centuries, only Jupiter has hit me as hard when we're doing our light sparring warmups!" Freyja, this ancient-sounding avatar with the name of a Norse goddess, seemed plenty thrilled that you were fighting back, not wanting to let this opportunity go to waste as she stretched out a little more, doing a little shadowboxing to warm up for a more prolonged fight. She wasn't going to let you go so easily...

You took a moment to look at Demon One, seeing her dealing with what looked like a real powerhouse in Jupiter, but she was handling it surprisingly well. The big cowlings acted as shields against Jupiter's own punches, but with essentially six limbs to work with, she seemed to always find a way to strike at Jupiter in retaliation! Her impacts didn't quite send him flying, but it was clear that she could at least get him off-balance. Freyja glanced over at the other two, to see what you saw, and her shoulder slumped in slight disappointment. "He always gets the fun ones, even in these modern times..."

"That's a hell of a fighting technique," you said to Demon One. "If I can get past this one, together we could probably knock him back enough to escape. She's pretty evenly matched with me right now strength-wise..."

"They're way stronger than I'd have expected. Good thing I'm full of surprises, right?" Demon One seemed fairly excited herself that she had some trick up her sleeve, hidden in phased space. She nearly cackled at the thought of the look on these knights' faces as she prepared something for both of you! "Activating Silverback augments. Make it count, these are the big guns."

You and Demon One staggered backward slightly at the sudden weight of growing appendages on your armor, which felt heavy--and massive! Again in an orange metallic hue, two massive arms grew outward from both of you, attached at the back and shoulders, in addition to your regular arms. The Yabusa Silverback design, one of the earlier Yabusa modules made available for phasebinding, had been a favorite of the construction industry for some time for the ability to carry massive amounts of heavy material with no strain to the user. And now, they would be properly tested on the battlefield too!

"Ah, a shapeshifter! That's more like--" Freyja couldn't finish as your massive Silverback exoskeletal arm crushed into her, denting her armor in a few places and sending her splashing into the reflecting pool! The unexpected display of power from you startled Jupiter enough that in the midst of fighting Demon One's eight limbs that he turned away for the briefest of moment--and took both Silverback fists to his chest while Demon One braced the cowling into the ground to anchor herself for delivering the full force of the impact.

With both Geistknights suddenly down, you turned to run toward Demon One. "It's been fun, but time to go! Let's go!"

Demon One sprinted towards you as well, after pushing off the wall with the Silverback arms to get a boost of speed, leaving a dent in the shiny plastic structure. She glanced up and paused when she saw something out of your line of sight. "Wait, stop!"

Too late. You felt the impact before you could even register Demon One's words, feeling this massive bolt of metal knock you forward from behind, embedding into your back--and then protruding out your stomach... it looked like a massive metal arrow!

As you skid along the ground, in agonizing pain, you glanced up at the second story balcony where Demon One had been looking. A third Geistknight, holding a massive longbow with her helmet removed for ease of vision, stared down at you and Demon One, her next spear-like arrow already nocked and ready to fire at her target, her short boyish brown hair swept back to not impede her vision. She stood next to a very voluptuous woman in impeccable business attire, with tanned skin and reddish-brown hair nearly down to the ground, adjusting her gold-rimmed glasses.

"Am I clear to take the shot?" you heard her say, in your daze. You were having trouble staying focused as you felt yourself going into shock, though in your horror you realized the shock was as much for Angel Seven as yourself--the arrow pierced you both, through the back hatch to hit both of you.

"Only if the one with wings moves, Artemis. I'd like to know who they are before you dispose of them."

"Understood, Safiya."

Artemis, the third knight, jumped down from the second story ledge after relaxing the bow, while Jupiter and Freyja climbed back to their feet, shaking off their impacts and somehow repairing the dents in their armor within moments. This exceptionally beautiful woman, Safiya, herself drifted down from the second story ledge, though her descent was more like a controlled float, gently landing on her heeled shoes with barely as much as a click. Who were these people?!

Demon One knelt down to you, touching at your wound, slightly trembling. "It's... oh my god, I'm so sorry, this is... it's m-my... stay with me..!" She didn't know what to say, overwhelmed with emotion as you struggled just to stay conscious. She looked up at the others, and then back down at yourself, an idea coming to her mind as she regained some confidence

"I'll fix this, I promise. I have an idea that's so crazy, it has to work. Just hang on a little longer, I can't lose you..."