Missing Persons & Sparking Rivalries
Roughly a week before the events taking place with Tyrik's experiences among the Mythics, Amari Kage pulled up before The Redwoods Kings Canyon National Park of California. Stepping out of her red and black colored FJ Cruiser, a prized vehicle of hers, despite it being no longer produced by the Toyota company. It was a stroke of luck that Amari was able to purchase one with her fluctuating payments from those who hire her services. Even though Amari took more enjoyment in helping others. The USA, unfortunately, favors money above those who are in need, and she occasionally would need to charge high prices. Yet this was dependent on the client and/or the case that was the priority. This case was regarding an unusual 411 person, or in other words, a strange disappearance. The one who had vanished was Shadi Gonzales, a middle-aged Native American woman who had oddly vanished within the forest.
One would think that this kind of disappearance would not be common or at least normal like those that would occur within cities like Las Angeles or New York. This was not the case when it came to those who disappear within national parks like this one. The details of these kinds of disappearances can sometimes come across as borderline supernatural as well as unexplainable. Those who did come close to never being heard again and those who were found had stories with suspicious details. For example, within the documented accounts recorded by David Paulides, such as the accounts of a Park Ranger, who was left unnamed, working in The Smoky Mountains. From what was disclosed to the retired police officer, The Ranger was doing his run in the mil walks within the mountains and had encountered quite the most bizarre set of events. One day, as he took these routine walks, the surrounding area began to literally cease all sound. Not the kind of pleasant separation of being overwhelmed by the city racket minds you. This Silence mimicked the type of silence that lacked the presence of Life itself. Freaking out The Ranger as he believed that a predator was close by. For his protection, the Ranger sat down with his back against a tree. Though, when The Silence remained, he was frightened so much that he felt the urge to escape the area. And that is when it happened!
The Ranger came to notice that when he attempted to flee, his foot entirely vanished before him. It was as if an invisible portal was right in front of him. The Ranger then proceeded with more attempts to understand what was happening before his very eyes. Each attempt ended with the same result of his limbs vanishing once they were placed in the area before him. Thankfully, The Ranger had ultimately decided to wait out The Silence before continuing.
This forest was no different among the strange and superstitious tales that plague other national parks across the country. After all, folktales from Native Americans speak of the forest being inhabited by Evil Spirits. Though Amari took these tales a bit more seriously thanks to her knowledge about the existence of Mythics among humans as Tyrik's father had revealed this to her. After a calming breath, Amari began to venture into The Redwoods in her search of Shadi. She came equipped with two sets of items, one to assist with the investigation and the other being supplies to protect her from potential mythic entities that she could come across.
'So from what I can recall from the family's accounts about Shadi... Shadi had gone into hiding due to something that she came across while working for a Russian guy named Perov Fyodor...' Amari went over her thoughts about what she had learned. 'Something had clearly spooked her to make Shadi run out here. Especially with the stories about this place...' The PI put together as this detail had stood out. Lately, Amari had come across various odd details about an old connection between Mythics and the current day. Though, the details were far from in between to make sense of what was the common tie linking these together. Leaving her with only speculation of what these clues were trying to tell her. Amari just hoped that her son would not have to come face with these dreadful details. She only wanted Tyrik to just live a normal life and away from the complicated details of living among the world of The Divine and Mythics. Yet, part of her stated that it was a pointless endeavor to keep that away from her son due to his genetic connection to it anyway.
As Amari journeys toward the deeper depth of the towering red wooden pillars, the air slowly fills with a suffocating dark ambiance. The surroundings grow with tension as the presence of life slips away. Amari knew that she was on the right track as the investigator came across a set of footprints that matched the woman she was on the search for. Kneeling to examine the formation of these prints, attempting to gain some insight into what could have transpired regarding Shadi.
Yet, her examination was cut short as a monstrous roar rang out among the trees that were around Amari. Scaring her, Amari rushed to pull out her pistol and ready it for a possible confrontation soon to begin. Though, the scene cuts away as the sounds of gunshots and demonic growls are heard deep within the forest.
Returning to Tyrik and his growing new set of friends, the comic nerd was still in shock and definitely confused by the nature of the amulet he was adoring. It was the first time he ever saw this kind of reaction from the gemstone that had a set of runes engraved upon the surface. Esmeralda was the first to approach the conflicted and confused newbie among Mythics. "Doing alright? I know this is a lot to adjust and take in. I would understand that you may have some kind of crisis upon realizing that your grasp on reality has been completely ripped apart and thrown into a blender for good measure." The Elf Princess joked with a charming smile.
"Actually, I find this kind of cool." Tyrik admitted to the surprise of the Magician beside him, "Side Note: does this mean that my crush is some kind of real-life Scarlet Witch Norse Princess?" He remarked with a sly smile mixed with admiration. Esmeralda couldn't keep herself from blushing from the praise as she attempted to use her hair to hide this.
Ricky chuckled at the scene before remarking, "Do make sure that you don't overwhelm your Waifu too much with your flirting, Ty!" With that, Tyrik quickly became flustered as he panicked while waving his arms frantically and trying to deny that he was flirting. Esmeralda began to laugh aloud at this comedic exchange. Suddenly though, the side wall of the café was smashed apart by what seemed to be a Chinese pillar as it promptly receded into the form of a staff that was held by the White Star Agent, Lin Chao.
"Alrighty, fellas. Who wants to tangle in a brawl with yours truly first?" Challenged the monkey man as he twirled his staff while using a hand gesture for someone to come at him. The cocky brat was promptly met by Tyrik springing up before Lin as he took a fighting stance suited for a mixed martial artist. Almost on reflex against his own intimidated expression written on his face. The stance itself was a direct match to Goku's standard fighting stance, which was somewhat a loose form of mǎbù, also called the horse stance. Ensuring his torso faced to the side and his arms placed in a firm position to ready himself for the fight ahead.
Tyrik had taken fighting lessons due to his love of Dragon Ball and Marvel. The ones that he studied were aspects of Goku's fighting style of mixed forms of martial arts belonging to karate, wushu, and wing chun. As well as the ones that Black Widow was trained in were aikido, judo, savate, karate again, and boxing. There was one other that had intrigued him, which belonged to Resident Evil's Leon Kennedy, known as Systema. The Russian Martial Arts utilized pressure point combat to disarm the opponent to quickly pin them down. Amari, after all, wanted to make sure her son could defend himself if the time ever came. Yet the fact that Tyrik was the first to accept Lin's challenge came to the shock of everyone who saw this. Even Tyrik himself screamed within his thoughts as to why the flark he was doing was doing this. "So, the rookie came up first to get his ass whipped? Did not expect that at all..." The Monkey Fighter announced with visible confusion before swinging his staff at Tyrik.
Though, Tyrik quickly reacted as he deflected the staff as he struck Lin's chest. Knocking the wind out of him as Lin was quick to recover. Lin Chao retaliated with a swift kick to Tyrik's side, striking twice as hard. The impact resulted in Tyrik grunting in pain from the attack, though he responded by gripping Lin Chao's wrist, which held the advantage against him. Quickly forcing Lin to drop the staff as Tyrik made sure to pin the right pressure points within his wrist. This was greeted by Lin Chao throwing a left hook before Tyrik could react. Thankfully, Tyrik threw a kick against Lin's super-plexus to force Lin Chao backward. Between the two skill levels in combat, Tyrik was quick to figure out that Lin Chao had greater experience in fighting than he did. Lin Chao soon sprang towards his staff, Tyrik attempting to cut him off from it. As the two fighters continue to trade blows, both Esmeralda and Ricky were quite impressed by Tyrik's capabilities in his first real fight. However, Lin Chao grew frustrated by being held off by a mere human. The Monkey began to unleash his inner Arcane Power in rage. Unleashing torrents of flames from his strikes akin to Zuko's Firebending Martial Arts. Lin wasn't gonna let Tyrik show him up like this when the Monkey Warrior knew that he was better than the human. Tyrik was thankfully able to dodge the scorching blazes as he yelped in pure panic. It was clear that Lin was no longer going easy on him, forcing Tyrik to be on the defensive from here out. With that, Lin Chao made swift action to retrieve his staff and extended it to hit Tyrik.
Once again, Tyrik was able to dodge the attack, but barely as the staff slammed against Tyrik's gem amulet. The staff immediately smashed the gem into dust upon impact against the café coffee crafting station. Suddenly, a massive surge of energy uncontrollably forced itself throughout Tyrik's body as he began to experience dramatic changes to his body. Lightning sparked upon his body as his eyes began far more draconic as other features belonging to a dragon sprang out from his body. Lin Chao gulped in fright as he saw the human take the appearance of a blue humanoid dragon with powerful wings flaring upwards. A deadly glare as claws extended from Tyrik's hands and a tail slammed upon the ground. "Time for things to get serious, Stone Monkey!" Shouted The Dragon Fighter as the new rivals once again prepared themselves for combat.