The meeting.

The next day forces converged. Either by machinations or chance.

The band led by The Muffin Man consisting of Muffin, Portnoy and Megan met with the band led by Ashen Phoenix consisting of Ashen, Mistress, Abby, Crucible, Echo and Deadman in a crowded park. The resulting civilian death toll left no unwitting spectators and very little in the way of bodies to be identified. Those few bodies left behind however led the police and the media to speculate about gang violence between some extremely strange gangs and promptly ignore the more troubling questions raised.

However for you people in the know about these events allow me to give you the details of what transpired.

The two groups seemingly by chance arrived at the park. Upon spotting each other Muffin's group attempted to flee and Ashen's to attack. Echo ran ahead and activated his headphones covering the area with soundwaves that promptly disintegrated most of the park and almost all of the civilian spectators. The sound made Muffin's group unable to flee or move and things would have likely ended there for them if suddenly echo's sonic attack hadn't stopped and his expression become blank. The sonic attack ended but it was enough for Ashen's group to press in and begin the attack properly. Megan ended up in a fight with Crucible and Deadman, Muffin squaring off with Abby and Mistress and Portnoy ended up pitted against Ashen. Deeply locked memories stirred in Ashen's consciousness as he faced Portnoy and he was consumed by a desire to kill. Portnoy had a machete and not much else to defend himself with but Ashen was not used to the weapon he was given and was clumsy with the scythe.

Megan fought as best she could but her ice attacks didn't effect Deadman and couldn't seem to reach anything inside of crucible's sealed suit.

Muffin tried to fight against Abby and Mistress but Abby's attack consisted of merely swinging the large pendulum blade around her like a whirlwind and Muffin couldn't get close and Mistress' tentacles further kept him at bay.

The heroes were losing.

At some point during Ashen's battle Portnoy got a good strike in slitting part of the cloak and releasing a burst of flame and Ashen tossed his scythe away in frustration and grabbed Portnoy yanking the machete from his hands. It's not entirely known if Ashen somehow remembered that he would be better with the machete, simply sought a more simple weapon or simply just thought to disarm his opponent but as the machete transferred to his grip the block on his memories disappeared. The Faceless bastard smiled behind his iron mask and then looked down at the boy in his grasp. "Hello, Portnoy... I've been meaning to repay you for a long time." Portnoy's face filled with fear. He still did not know the identity of his attacker but the idea of some personal vendetta being involved was enough to terrify him. Faceless tossed Portnoy to the ground and raised the machete to strike. At which point a bullet passed through his chest, exiting the other side as molten metal, and he staggered backwards. Another bullet hit him and he backed away more when finally a third bullet him in his mask without going through and knocked him onto his back. He lay there on the ground and his world went dark.

Clutching the note left by Jack in one hand and his gun in the other Harold advanced and checked on Portnoy. "You alright?" Portnoy took a deep breath and nodded, scrambling to his feet. Harold then went and checked on his opponent. As he examined the figure lying on the ground recognition hit him and he knew beyond a doubt that Jack had been telling the truth.

"We need to go help the others," Portnoy informed him and with a moment's hesitation Harold agreed. He would get his fight but not yet. With the addition of Portnoy and Harold the fight quickly began to turn. Harold took down Abby with a headshot and Portnoy distracted Mistress so Muffin was able knock her out with a punch to the head after which he ran to Megan's side where he quickly took out Deadman by crushing his skull even further with his fists and punched Crucible hard enough in the mask that it broke the seal. The seal broken a cloud of smoke erupted from Crucible and he seemed to deflate.

The battle was over and Muffin's group approached Echo curious as to what had happened. He still stood transfixed but then his hands moved gripping the headphones, taking them off and then dashing them against the ground. The group watched warily as he stared at the headphones, then with his face rueful he looked at them. "It's me guys. Dr. Malice."

Before he could explain further Harold spoke up. We should talk about things later. It's likely The Fears will send more servants and we should be well away before then. The rest agreed and they headed back to Muffin's home.