*The Crystal Castle, Crystal Empire, Equestria; December 21, 2019; 12:00 AM*

Alex was thrown into a crystal, gasping in shock as he dodged a shadowy fist.

"Don't try to run.." A voice called to him.

Alex was suddenly overtaken by a hard hit to the chest, blown into another crystal as he struggled to force himself up.

"It's no use trying to hide..."

A smoky blade struck Alex in the back, blowing him into a fist...

Looking up, Alex saw a shadowy version of Yang, glaring down at him with a sadistic smile.

"You worthless piece of shit. Why didn't I kill you when I first saw you?" The apparition demanded in Yang's voice before punching him in the face.

Alex slammed up against the door, completely exhausted and defenseless.

"That's it... Just feel the blood seeping from your wounds.. You're dying right now... Just hurry it up, already.." Another apparition spoke, this time resembling Raven.

Using his last burst of strength, Alex opened the door, crawled out, and closed it.

As soon as Alex closed the door, his strength began to slowly return, but that didn't change the fact that he was purely exhausted.

"Gah... D-Dammit... At this rate, I won't stand a chance..." Alex puffed.

Pulling the lever on his suit sharply, the 12 weights slammed against the ground, providing his body with some relief.

"Eheheh... I.. Haha... Won't sta-hahaha-nd a chance..!" Alex laughed to himself.

As Alex pulled himself up, tears began streaming down his face as he continued to laugh.

His laughter continued for several minutes until he had pulled himself together. Shrugging off that slight moment, he dragged his body to the bench press.

These spells of laughter and tears happened more and more often these days. Sometimes, these laughing spells happened more if he stayed in the chamber for longer than he should have, or if he hadn't slept or eaten in a long while.

His eating habits became less like consistent meals and more like short, sporadic pig-outs followed by long, long periods of fasting. Alex scarcely even slept, spending hours, even days awake before passing out for some unknown amount of time.

Hell, the past month barely even felt like a month. Alex just wasn't aware of how much time he passed. One day seemed to melt into next.

Suddenly, Alex was curious. He wondered how much stronger he'd gotten since he started this new regiment.

Pushing the weight off of him, he raised one hand and launched a ball of lightning into the wall, completely incinerating several rooms ahead of him! Out of the corner of his eye, he even spotted the Crystal Heart.

Alex was surprised. Usually, a small attack like that would ruin a table, but that blew through entire walls! Even though, he tried to hide his excitement. He tried to act indifferent...

Some days. He tried to act.

He would act out conversations between him and someone else. He challenged himself to try and at least act sane. It was good practice for when he would speak to Skirmish, or Cadence, or Shining. Of course, that didn't change the fact that they were still relatively concerned for his well-being.

He remembered once when Cadence invited him upstairs for dinner between him and the couple.

"I'm fine." Alex assured.

"Are you sure? You've spent your entire stay in that little room. Doesn't it seem cramped?" Cadence had asked of him.

"Don't worry about me."

"But.."

"Cadence, I'm fine. Alex had stated again.

Alex went back to lifting weights. Suddenly bored by his memories.

One.. Two... Three.. He forced each weight up and down, up and down..

Suddenly, Alex felt tired again.

"Welp... Time for bed.." Alex muttered, passing out and falling asleep.

*10 Miles north of Ponyville, Equestria; December 21, 2019; 9:01 PM*

Raven charged right at Yang, who blocked her mother's blade with her gauntlet before launching a blast at Raven.

Raven flew out of the way, sending wave after wave of energy blasts against Yang, who blocked them all, sending them past her and destroying the landscape.

Yang fired a torrent of shots at Raven, who immediately took to blocking all of them before Yang leaped in for a full-powered shot.

Yang punched her mother in the chest, launching her towards a distant mountain.

Raven stopped herself in mid-air, barreling down towards Yang and planting the pommel of her sword sharply into Yang's side.

Yang responded her mother's attack accordingly, punching her in the face and slamming her into the ground.

Instantly, Raven transformed, four auras, Purple, blue, green, and orange, all blended together to form a dark violet color.

"Most impressive, my daughter. I feel my powers growing each time we spar. You will be much stronger than Alex could ever hope to achieve, so long as you follow my instructions." Raven grinned.

"I understand, mother.." Yang bowed.

"I already know you've grown stronger thanks to our training sessions. Show me your power." Raven commanded.

Yang grinned sinisterly, raising to her Inflamed Warrior form in an instant.

Raven backed away one step, proud of what Yang has achieved thus far. She's far surpassed the abilities she's displayed in Fiore.

Yang roared loudly as her bright red Aura began to darken. The whites of her eyes faded into a black color as her hair stood on end, darkening several shades. However, her skin returned to it's natural tone, leaving behind a new level of Enlightened Warrior.

"I expected no less, daughter. Are you aware of your skin tone?" Raven asked.

"It's normal..? Usually, my skin changes color along with everything else." Yang noticed.

"Precisely. The glowing that usually accompanies your Enlightened Transformations is pure, raw energy leaving your body through your skin. The transformation does this anyways, with hair, but energy leaving through the skin is merely wasted potential. It is something I learned whilst speaking to the Mercenary, Primis." Raven explained.

"And Alex has yet to figure this out?" Yang asked.

"Most likely. You are ready to face him, my daughter. I will leave him to you." Raven promised.

"And what will you do?" Yang questioned.

"I have my mission. You have yours. Now go. You should be able to sense his energy. He was always woefully bad at hiding it." Raven commanded.

"I'll do what I have to, mom." Yang promised.

*Los Santos, San Andreas; December 21, 2019; 9:10 PM*

Vanoss stood on top of a building, overlooking the city of Los Santos with a proud expression, and black tactical gear followed by a yellow parchute/'utility belt'.

Ever since the death of most of his friends, Vanoss decided he should probably avoid dealing with Alex, at least until he gets his shit together and calms the fuck down. But either way, he still found himself bored.

So he and his friends, thanks to having unlocked their Auras, decided to use their newfound abilities as superpowers, and become... Well...

"My name is Bat Owl, and I must defend this city."

H20 Delirious walked next to him, wearing a raccoon mask and a Party City Batman costume.

"And I am the Batcoon!"

Lui himself walked out of the shadows, wearing his monkey mask and red sweatshirt.

"I am Mega Monkey!" Lui introduced in his squeaker voice.

Then, Terroriser stepped out next to Delirious, or 'Batcoon', I guess..

"And I am the key to your liberation." Terroriser raised his hand, while holding a Pringles can in the other.

"Aren't you a villain, though?" Lui asked in his normal voice.

Most of the group started laughing right afterwards.

"And I am Early Bir- OH SHIT!!" Moo shouted, jumping off of a helicopter before promptly slamming against the edge and falling off the building.

"You're late again, Early Bird!" Delirious laughed.

The remaining four jumped off the building, parachuting to another building before running off and leaping for the next.

"ALRIGHT! Grappling hooks ready!" Vanoss ordered, firing a grappling hook at a light post and swinging to the ground.

The others did a similar tactic, rolling onto the ground as they detached.

"Alright! So I heard that the evil Green Goblin gang has taken over the construction site, and it's up to us to take out the trash!" Delirious stated.

"And how far away is it?" Lui asked.

".. It's near the Maze Bank, dipshit. We're at LS Customs right now." Terroriser replied.

"So we'll need to barge in.. With finess." Vanoss figured.

"SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS!!"

Moo Snuckel and Vanoss plowed into the construction site in an armored car with a top-mounted .50 Cal machine gun, ripping apart several members as Terroriser drifted into another group with his car, a heavily modified sedan with machine guns, missiles, hydraulics that actually caused the car to jump, and a Parachute for when he needed to fly in.

Lui and Delirious piloted a Valkyrie helicopter, with Lui as the pilot and Delirious as the gunner, of course.

"DIE DIE DIE!!! AHAHAHAHA!!!!" Delirious cackled as his 'gifts' all but decimated several outlying groups at the site.

"How many more?! How many more?!" Lui demanded.

"There's, like, a hundred of these bitches!!" Terroriser replied.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!" Vanoss yelled as his machine gun blew a bunch of the 'Green Goblins' to pieces.

"Hop!" Terroriser's car jumped on top of a condensed group and blew apart another in mere moments.

"And we're good!" Moo announced, using his Mini SMG to finish off the last one.

"Yeah..! Show me the money!!" Vanoss cheered as he grabbed a briefcase full of cash.

"Fuck yeah, bois! That's how we do it!" Delirious cheered, grabbing fistfuls of cash and stuffing them inside of his pockets.

"Ah, yes. These criminals had my permission to die." Terroriser stated.

"Wait, what's that?" Lui asked.

Vanoss heard quite a lot of gunfire, and the lights in the city were suddenly flizzling and sparking out of control.

"Oh, god dammit. Are Alex and Yang playing the fields again?" Terroriser groaned.

"Actually, I don't know what the fuck is up with them nowadays." Delirious added.

"Whatever. I hear the shooting that way." Vanoss rolled his eyes, getting back in the gunner seat.

In less than a moment, the Vanoss Superhero Crew drove/flew towards the LS Airport, watching as a portal started spewing out what appeared to be Grimm, but they were... Glowing orange?

Sure enough, the monsters charging out of the portal looked like Grimm, but were much, much different. Their fangs were way more pronounced, their eyes were beady red, and their claws left scorch marks on the concrete. The Police nearby scrambled to fight them off, but were quickly, and quite literally, being eaten alive.

"What the fuck are those things?!" Vanoss gaped.

"They look like The crawlie things from Gorev!!" Lui screamed.

"Take 'em out!!" Terroriser screamed.

Torrents of gunfire ripped at the monsters spewing out of the portal, but were still pouring out in large numbers before the portal finally closed.

Eventually, they leaped up, taking out Lui's and Delirious' Valkyrie, forcing them to jump out.

Vanoss and Moo, by this point, ran out of the car and shot at the monsters with miniguns, to shockingly little effect.

Terroriser even charged out, unloading shot after shot at the monsters until he turned tail and ran.

The five superheroes ran to the nearby highway to try and gain a better vantage point, but it seemed the monsters were everywhere.

"Oh, crap..!" Vanoss braced himself for a sure to be grisly death.

Until, suddenly, Vanoss heard a blade swinging through the air.

Ruby rolled into a dive, hacking and slashing until she had taken out an entire group of them.

Sun Wukong eventually landed at the other side. Helping three children clear out another group.

"Hey, guys!" Ruby greeted.

"The hell are you doing here?" Delirious asked.

"These things, the Furies, they're literally everywhere. We have no idea what's going on!" Sun replied.

Suddenly, the crew heard a loud roar.

"What was that..?" Lui hesitantly asked.

"Oh, shit..." The younger girl, Illiya, muttered.

"That better not be what I think it is.." The younger of the two boys, Julius, gasped.

"What?! What could possibly be worse than..?" Terroriser demanded.

Out from the ocean, a large, lizard-like monster crawled out of the depths, looking like the Furies they had just fought, as it let out a giant shriek.

"The Fury Komodo.." The elder of the two, Spyden, gasped.

A silhouette of a man leaped at the monster, wreathed in aqua-colored light as he blew part of the Komodo's face off with similarly hued lightning.

"Is that Ulti-whoever?" Delirious gasped.

Ultimus, wearing a full suit of armor, glared at the group.

"I would highly suggest you either leave, or help." Ultimus ordered.

Vanoss pulled out an RPG, glaring at the wounded monster.

"Fuck it. Why not?"

Author's Notes:

So, Alex's training is driving him kinda insane, Yang's training might mean bad news for Alex, and Vanoss has rejoined the fight... Sort of.

What will happen when these two immensely strong ex-lovers finally meet again, on the battlefield? Will Vanoss and his remaining friends survive their new battle? Where are Cade, Oreonna, Auburn, and the rest of Fairy Tail? How will Sunset and Starlight further change the playing field?

Find out next chapter of Blood Red Shadows 2!

-The Destoyer