Innocent, right?
Subaru was the next of the captured people to wake up as a result of her natural energy and drive. Like the robot, she didn't remember what had happened. Instead, she remembered stretching and getting ready for the B-rank mage exam with her best friend and work partner, Teana Lanster. She still had her barrier jacket and roller blades on and Revolver Knuckle on her hand, so she guessed that it couldn't have happened too long ago.
"Hi!" Subaru said and hopping to her feet. Even in a strange city, since Mid-Childa did not have any tower like that, she remained undaunted despite being a little worried, "Do you know where we are?"
Just another girl
One of the people groaned, and rolled onto his side. He was a less than attractive young man,
who wore a t-shirt, shorts and jacket in varying shades of blue. Murmuring and blinking, he rubbed the side of his face, and reached for his glasses. Once he'd put them on, the young man looked about at the snow in the air, the waves at the shore, and the sprawling schizophrenic architecture stretched out before them. Then Dexter Douglas came to a very profound conclusion.
"...This isn't my room," he said. "Mom? Dad? Duncan?" He clambered to his feet, fear starting to take hold. "Steph, Roddy, Cosgrove, anybody?!" He looked wildly about, before noticing the strange people scattered about. He slowly turned, taking in each unconscious form, then cried out in alarm when he suddenly noticed the little boy in blue armour, and the young lady with blue hair. "Who are you? What are all these bodies? Where is this place?!"
edited 16th Nov '12 2:08:50 PM by LizardOfAus
...
It was always fun duelling these four heroic warriors, Gilgamesh had felt. Four humans wielding the power of the crystals - though one of said warriors had been replaced, thanks to Exdeath - that were able to not only keep up, but surpass the skill of the mightiest swordsman! It was exhilarating!
Well, up until he was banished by that armoured tyrant, anyway.
But when Gilgamesh woke up, he saw... a sky. Huh. Quite sure he wasn't supposed to be seeing that. Why, the masked warrior wasn't too sure. He was supposed to be... somewhere, that much was clear. Here? No... wasn't horrible enough. How did he get there again? Did it have something to do with Bartz...? No, neither Bartz nor those ladies had the capability to warp him to some weird place.
Sitting up, the red-clad warrior saw a few others were here too. Presumably in the same situation. And a tad panicked. Or cheerful Huh. Well, no use sitting around...
Gilgamesh clambered to his feet, clearing his throat.
"Greetings, fellow confused beings! I am Gilgamesh, renowned warrior and weapons collector. And I would like an explanation as to where I am! If you could oblige, that'd be nice!"
Let's dance, boys!
"Ooooohhhhh!!!", one person groaned as she stretched her limbs in the air, then immediately set them down. Haruko then sat up and shook her head, in hopes of clearing the cobwebs from her head. Once she regained her composure, she looked around at the unfamiliar architecture of the city, then to the other people that have woken up before her, and stares at them, just as confused as they are.
"...What is this?" she muttered to herself as she got up and brushed herself. "Who are you people?" Haruko asked.
edited 16th Nov '12 2:25:24 PM by nigelstack345
Vote. .#Bayonetta 4 Smash
The first thing Riku noticed as consciousness slowly returned to him was the cold. Omnipresent and all-pervasive, it assailed him in numerous forms from all directions: tiny grains pressing into his back, powdery flakes of snow landing on his exposed arms and face, the gelid waves lapping softly at his shoes like the tongue of some frozen dog, seeping into his pants. He was no stranger to such low temperatures, having endured the frozen peaks of the Land Of Dragons, but the last time he had been there he’d had the protection of a Black Coat—and he certainly hadn’t been lying in the snow.
The young man sat up with a groan, brushing silver bangs from his eyes as he looked around. “Where…am I?” he asked slowly, the question aimed at no one in particular. This strange beach vaguely reminded him of the dark shoreline, where he and Sora had briefly been stranded after defeating Xemnas—not as dark, perhaps, and definitely colder, but the similarities were there.
Of course, there was one other key difference—unlike this place, the Dark Margin hadn’t run along the edge of a city.
Riku rose to his feet, his movements sluggish and lethargic from the all-pervasive chill, his breath leaving his mouth and nostrils in visible jets of steam. The city was like nothing he’d ever seen, and yet the same time its strange mishmash of buildings and styles brought to mind some of the many worlds he had been to over the last two years. He frowned, finding himself unpleasantly reminded of The World That Never Was and the events which had taken place there not so long ago; was this place connected to them in some way? Had they brought him here?
The sound of voices broke his train of thought, bringing Riku’s attention back to the beach. For the first time, he noticed that he was not alone; other people lay scattered across the sands, most of them unconscious. A few of them were starting to come around, however, and five others—a brown-haired teen with thick glasses, an athletic-looking girl with blue hair, a very tall (and very loud) man dressed in flamboyant red clothes, a pink-haired woman who looked slightly older than he was, and a kid dressed head to toe in blue armour—were asking the same sort of questions that he had ust been pondering.
“Looks like I’m not the only one that was taken,” he said to himself.
He did not approach the others, but made no attempt to conceal his presence; if they were in the same boat as he was, he didn’t intend them any harm—and besides, where could he possibly hide if he had wanted to?
edited 16th Nov '12 2:31:33 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre Codex
The Plum and Only
"Ah, man." Tanner began to find his senses. The first thing he felt was a sharp pain in his left hand side. Sitting up, he looked around to find he'd somehow managed to fall asleep in his car. But wherever he was... to say he didn't recognise it was to put it neatly. "Like Freaky Tuesday all over again."
Coming around a bit further, Tanner tried to think back. The mysterious pain could easilybe attributed to the gearstick he had been slumped over. Thinking back, the last thing he remembered was being on patrol with Jones. Jones... where was Jones? "Jones? Okay, this is really starting to get weird. If I start posessing people again, I'm slapping myself in the face."
It was only now that the cop looked outside the windows of his Charger... and there looked to be bodies strewn across the floor. Tanner snatched up his radio and leapt out of the door of his car, trying to check on the condition of the people around him. He spoke into the radio as he went. "Control, this is 40-Adam-30. I need immediate medical assistance, multiple persons unconscious, cause unknown." No response. Whatever was going on, he looked to be in this one on his own. He asked, to just about anyone who was standing who could provide an answer... "What's going on here?"
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.
BWAH-HA-HA!
"BWAAHHHHHHH!"
It'd gone over the same way it always had. Bowse, King of all Koopas, was close, so very close to smashing that obstinate red plumber. That Mario, who once again, had wrought utter havoc on his army. For as supposedly brave as he was, the little coward had chosen to scuttle under him and break the bridge, instead of fight. Again! The lava, after so many times, the lava......
"What?" he growled. "Why aren't I burning?" The creature, a massive, anthropomorphic hybrid of a dragon, a turtle, and an ox, had shot his head around, regaining his bearings. To say the least, what he saw and felt was a definite improvement from being submerged in molten rock. It wasn't nearly enough to improve his mood.
"Where the heck am I?" he roared out."I know every last inch of my castles, and I'm darned sure I didn't make all of this!"
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.
Master Saboteur
Slowly, Ghi opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in the sand. Lying there, he tried to remember what had last transcribed in the scape of his mind. There was... ruins.
Two blades connected, a longsword and a katana. Sparks flew from the blades, and the sound of clashing steel rang throughout the ruins. The man and the woman exchanged blow after blow, their movements almost reaching a synchronicity.
Ghi got to his feet. He remembered it clearly now. He gave his life to duel Frimelda, and this... must be the afterlife. He held out his hand to capture the snowflakes, feeling the cold in his palm. Death was certainly not what he had imagined.
Scattered about were folk who seemed to be equally confused. Ghi could tell from their clothing that they were not of Ivalice. In fact, some were of an entirely different species than those of Ivalice.
His gaze turned to the city beyond the beach. The city was strange, but what stood out most of all was the tower that impales the skies. The sight gave Ghi a chill. This place... just where were they?
"Why does everything have to loop back to YGO?" -Guy who ruined YGO
An enormous armored man
◊ pulled himself into a sitting position, groaning and rubbing at his eyes as though from a bad hangover. The man who called himself the Kurgan was sure of one thing; he had definitely woken up in worse places than this. However, he usually had some idea of how he ended up in them. The last thing he remembered was being in New York, hunting down his last few rivals once and for all.
This place was a mystery to him, as were the strange people around him. At least, they seemed to be people. Well, most of them. This place seemed... different from anywhere he'd been before, and he'd visited more of the world than most men. He put a hand to his side. His sword was still there, that was a start...
The Kurgan rose to his feet, stretching and yawning leisurely. He was here now, the rest could be figured out later.
-Khimari of the Ronso looked out over the frozen slopes of Mount Gagazet. For longer than any but the Fayth could remember, the mountain was one of the trials faced by the would-be Summoners before they took their place in the unending cylcle of banishment. But now, with Sin's final death, and the complete collapse of the Yevon church, the mountain was no longer a sacred site, and the Ronso were left without purpose.-
-He closed his eyes. Somehow, he was sure of it, he would help his tribe recover and fit into Spira's- Something was wrong. In the split second he had closed his eyes, the falling snow was no longer that of Mount Gagazet, the winds had stopped howling, and the temperature had risen.-
-Eyes now wide open, gripping his spear, the Ronso chieftain stands up and takes in his surroundings, as well as the other lost-looking people.-
Snow. Just like that Christmas morning ten years ago. The day they'd sealed Rein away. That's what ran through Vita's mind as she lay on the ground.
But that's wrong... this isn't where I'm meant to be...
The petite red-head in the brown suit sat up on the beach. Obviously someone had hit her with a Dimensional Transfer since this clearly wasn't the RF 6 barracks back on Mid-Childa. But then the urban sprawl behind her could just as easily have been Cranagan if she squinted a bit. Except for the tower. The huge tower stretching up into the clouds and beyond.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
The darkness that surrounded his consciousness lifted. Slowly energy returned to the teenager's lifeless body. First his fingers move. Second, his legs. Finally he is able to see everything that's going on around him.
What is this? he pulls himself upright. It wasn't as if he wasn't caught in these situations before. Far from that, it was just that instead of knowing what caused it, his memory was blank this time. No perpetrator came to mind. The Heartless? The Nobodies? It seemed more like the former than the latter. As Sora pulled himself to his feet his eyes fell upon the other people lying about. So he wasn't the only victim? There were more? His eyes couldn't discern the figure of anyone that he recognized until then — just then — he found him.
"Riku?" his old friend from childhood. The one who he had worked so hard to find. They had been reunited after countless battles. "RIKU!" he yelled his voice in excitement once more. Sora began a powerful sprint through the sand to draw closer to him. "How have you been?!" Sora didn't lower his voice. Not at all. How could he? Seeing his friend like this nearly made him forget about the predicament he was so suddenly thrust into. It was a welcome change at least.
edited 16th Nov '12 3:05:10 PM by RagnaTheSaviour
Vampire Hunter
A purple-haired Chinese girl in a strange outfit
◊ shivered, sleeping in the cold. Waking up gently and looking at the beach. This wasn't where she remember being... She was on a delivery run for the Cat Cafe and then... And then... She didn't remember, instead waking up here. Sitting up and looking around, she saw mostly humans, and there was a city off in the distance... mostly teenagers like her even. The oddest looking of those awake was what looked to be a turtle demon or someone unlucky enough to fall into the Spring of Drowned Yeti-Bull-Dragon-Turtle... She knew about Pantyhose Taro so it wouldn't be the oddest Jusenkyo Curse.
"Where is this?" the purple-haired girl asked, narrowing her eyes and focusing on the Turtle Demon in particular since she figured the creature brought them here.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Wild Horse
The air had a cold edge to it, remarked the young lord. Glancing about the rather uneven horizon of mismatched architecture, Chung felt around. He still had proof of his existence, the white armor Freiturnier. On his back was strapped the familiar feel of his cannon, Destroyer. He knew not where he was, but the rather imposing heirlooms helped the boy remain calm in the face of the strange, new environment. The weight of his arms reassured the boy, helping to ground him during the sudden change.
What perplexed him the most was a span of his memories were gone. He remembered past events lividly, but not how he was brought to the strange "city". Peering about, his line of sight immediately settled upon an inordinately large tower. The feel of the structure could simply be put as "off" to the upturned knight. Noting its presence for later, Chung let his eyes return back down and took in the group of beings that were vocally asking about their surroundings. "Perhaps I'm in a dungeon of some kind?" Being an adventurer, the knight was used to being in inexplicable environs such as this.
Seeing that his breath was visible and snow was falling, Chung drew his overcloak together. As pretty as the weather was, it was still cold- and had potential to become more hazardous to one's health. "We might need to get out of the open area..." Murmuring half to himself and half to the group, Chung looked ahead to to regard the city, thinking of shelter.
edited 16th Nov '12 3:14:52 PM by GreyStar
Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.
Domon had wanted to be in top shape for the Gundam Fight Finals, so he had spent all day and nite training as hard as he could. But maybe he had trained too hard, as soon afterwards he fell into a deep sleep.
"...Rain?" His eyes opened as he felt something cold brush against his cheeks. The dazed Gundam Fighter soon realised that his partner was nowhere to be found. "Snow? Why is it snowing?"
Domon sprung to his feet, and glared at the people surrounding him. "Where am I!? This isn't Neo-Hong Kong! Who brought me here!? Are you all servants of the Devil Gundam!?"
Innocent, right?
Subaru was puzzle by all the people waking up and not knowing where they were. Some, like the horned turtle thing, did not seem like anything that could have existed in her experience. If Subaru had been taken a few weeks or months later, she would have linked Bowser to Voltaire and Caro but at this point in time her experience with giant reptiles was limited. The cyborg accepted Megaman as plausible; her own bones and muscles were made of metal rather than flesh.
Because her barrier jacket amounted to shorts and a t-shirt, no amount of shifting and rubbing her arms was going to warm her up. Even if she didn't know these people, hey would want to find somewhere warm to stay as much as she did and as there was a whole city...
The mage cupped her hands around her mouth to make sure she was heard and shouted, "Who wants to come with me to find shelter?"
Just another girl
There was a long haired armoured man.
"Ah?!"
There was an indigo lion man.
"Aah!"
There was a ginormous dragon turtle.
"AAAAAAAH!" Dexter scrambled across the shoreline, falling down at Subaru's feet. "...s-s-shelter might be nice..."
Guan Yu was used to the cold. The winters of China could get rather chilly. However, he was certain that he had been in his room at the fort, which meant that the freezing sensation shouldn't be quite this intense.
With a speed born of decades of fending off assassins, Guan Yu shot up at the sound of voices, the Green Dragon in his hands pointing in the general direction of the noise. The group he saw was by far the strangest that he had ever seen in his life. He then saw that there was an unmistakable Chinese young woman amongst the...unique group. Putting his weapon down and walking up to her cautiously, he said "Greetings Miss. I am Guan Yu of Shu. It is an honor to make your acquaintance. Would you happen to know where we are?" Lost in a land that he didn't recognize, Guan Yu decided that the most important thing at this point was to gain allies.
Dreams of Revenge
Taken off-guard by the blue haired girl's exuberance (and the fact that she woke up without warning), Megaman fell flat on his backside, staring in amazement - and confusion - at the people around him. Some - such as a lion-man and a turtle... dragon... creature - were absolutely unheard of in his world, while others looked as though they had come from ages gone by.
One of the most jarring sights on the beach was an American muscle car, whose owner got out and radioed for assistance. Was he a police officer, perhaps? The radio, however, prompted Megaman to try his own internal radio. Nothing. Just the static of his radio. At least some of the people seemed to recognise each other, right? Putting on a braver face, Megaman cleared his throat and - in what he thought was an authoritative voice - said, "Excuse me, there is no need to panic. My name is Megaman, though you can call me 'Rock' instead. I don't know where we are, but the blue haired girl's right - we aren't going to find what we want here."
It was fairly obvious how concerned he was, though, as he looked with barely contained uncertainty at everyone else.
Locking you up on radar since '09
Michal's last memory before he was taken away from his home was him talking with an old man. He was showing him some strange coins in a navy circular case. He called them... Medals, was it? Whatever they were, they'd help him preform better as a Kamen Rider, and hopefully save everyone from those monsters.
But of course, fate had something else in mind for the timid Rider. Just as he was about to accept the medals, he was taken away to some place else.
Swooosh...
Michal woke up to the sound of a strange swishing. It felt... strange. He felt cold. Well, just his front, and every so often, he'd get more cold. He opened his eyes as his face was literally onto the wet sand of the beach. It took a few seconds for Michal to realize what the swishing noise was, and why he was getting cold.
"GAAAAAH!" He screamed in terror as he got up and ran from the water receding from the shoreline. He made a mad dash away from the thing he is afraid of the most: Water. The scream may have attracted the people who were still at the beach. As soon as Michal calmed down, he noticed the sky piercing tower. The city... It reminded him of his home... Without the fifty or so monsters hording up the city and murdering people in the dozens.
Speaking of dozens, he noticed a crowd of people. He could see that, for the most part, they're human. Michal felt like he could trust this group, and so he came to them, though without making a peep. He came in time to hear one kid, some kid in blue armor, refer to himself as... Rock? Who names their kid Rock?
edited 16th Nov '12 3:39:45 PM by Psyga315
More of them were starting to wake up now, and though he didn't let it show, some of these people made Riku feel a little on-edge. The big tortoise stood out in particular; Riku's time travelling the universe had taught him not to judge books by their covers, but even so he found it hard to believe that this giant, hulking, spike-covered creature might contain even a sliver of the Beast's nobility and kind heart.
Riku started then as a voice he recognized all too well reached his ears, shouting his name loud and clear for all to hear. He spun towards the sound, and sure enough, a familiar figure in a familiar black outfit with an unmistakable mop of spikey brown hair was sprinting towards him.
"Sora?!" he exclaimed, his confusion plain as day. "How did you get here?"
Not that he wasn't glad to see his friend—quite the opposite, in fact—but it had been a while since Riku had last seen him. Sora had left Yen Sid's Tower after the Mark of Mastery exam to go on another journey; they'd had no contact since then, and after the harrowing events that Xehanort had put them through during the exam, Riku had been a little worried when his friend decided to leave on his own.
The silver-haired young man allowed himself a smile. Well, at least he's all right...
At that moment, the little kid in armour started trying to get everyone's attention. Riku glanced at him in silence, raising an eyebrow. Megaman, huh? That was definitely an odd name...though to be fair, he'd heard stranger ones before.
"That kid Rock's got a point," he mused. "I doubt we'll learn anything about what's going on if we just stay here on the beach."
Then he gave Sora a serious look. "You think Xehanort could be behind this?"
The Danse Macabre Codex
BWAH-HA-HA!
"Not a bad idea, little blue man.", Bowser chuckled out, flames shooting out from in-between his teeth. The moment he'd regained his bearings, the old Devil King's usual thoughts came back to light. This was an entirely new world he was in, and now that he though of it, that wasn't a bad thing. No Mario, no Luigi, no Yoshi? There wasn't much more he could ask for!
"I'll be making my way over there." He pointed towards the castle-like portion of the city, sticking to territory that was the most familiar. "It looks like my kind of place. As far as I'm concerned, it is my place!" He let out another laugh, much more boisterous, and then cracked his knuckles.
"Anyone else?"
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.
Let's dance, boys!
Still looking around at the scene around her and the people that have woken up, Haruko began to to rub her chin, thinking about where they were.
"Hm. I'm not in Mabase. Then this place must be in the future. But wait, there is some medieval castles in the area. Oh... this place must be in a time paradox between the past and future. Oh...!"
All the while she was doing this she was bouncing around the shoreline in an exaggerated manner.
Vote. .#Bayonetta 4 Smash
...
Well, the cast of characters was incredibly varied, Gilgamesh thought. Quite a bit more than he initially thought. There was even a monster! He looked like his level must be somewhat decent, and it was intelligent enough to speak! Not something the mighty swordsman recognised from back home, though.
Hm... what a strange predicament. Who would bring I, Gilgamesh, here with these people? Is it a tournament? An afterlife? Well, I suppose there's only one way to find o-
Before Gilgamesh could suddenly declare a challenge to the little ensemble, the suggestion was made to find shelter. Come to think of it... the weather wasn't all great. Some people looked freezing. Well, it would be quite dishonourable to attack those that clearly weren't ready to battle, and may not even be combatants in the first place!
"Little Rick is right!" Gilgamesh announced loudly, strutting over to Megaman. "And little missy over there has a good suggestion! I say we find a nice castle devoid of trees, that should be suitable! Then we can discuss to our hearts content!"
Snow cascaded down to earth from slate grey skies. The chill in the air seemed to infiltrate everything, until it was all that could be felt. Silver waves rolled on to the shore, gently lapping at the supine figures that lay there. These people were interlopers among interlopers, and they were just as incongruous as the Frankenstein city that lay beyond the beach. But we will get to that in a moment. The first among the figures to awaken was a diminutive robot dressed in blue; it was obvious from his face that he was a child. Megaman blinked as he took in the tiny ice crystals that made up the beach underneath him; each one sparkled with reflected light, becoming almost blinding to his still-adjusting eyes. Pillars of cold crept up his arms, forcing the Robot Master to recoil and shiver.
His mind, however, was still in overdrive trying to figure out what happened and where he was. The last thing he remembered was being in happier surroundings, celebrating his latest victory over the nefarious Dr. Wily with Dr. Light, Roll, Rush, and Auto. Protoman had, for his part, been out again; he never seemed to stick around once the day had been saved. Megaman still didn’t understand that about him. However, there was a conspicuous blank spot in his memory; specifically, the moments leading up to him being whisked away from Light Labs and ending up here. He hadn’t just forgotten, it was gone, wiped from his memory as surely as though his hard drive had been reformatted. That worried him a little, to say the least.
He stared at the city ahead; it was a paradoxical mongrel, with ancient castles rubbing shoulders with hyper futuristic skyscrapers. This amalgamation of different ages seemed to stretch off into the horizon, but one building in particular seemed to dominate the skyline. Impaling the sky was a truly immense tower
◊, which seemed to hang the heavens above itself like a column even as it pricked a hole through the cloud layer. Strange “ribbons” twisted and turned down its’ sides in the shape of a double helix, and the building was suffused with a light teal glow. What it actually was Megaman couldn’t say, but it looked ominous.
The Robot Master finally looked around himself and had to bite his tongue to suppress the urge to gasp in surprise. These people – or Robot Masters, it was hard to tell in some cases – were like none he had ever seen. They wore strange clothes and had even stranger items in their possession. Feeling very alone despite the company, Megaman hesitantly crawled over to the nearest person and shook them gently. “Um... hello?”
Meanwhile, the others were starting to stir...
Meanwhile...
The room was pitch black, the panoramic window somehow failing to illuminate all but the nearest reaches. The only other concession to light was a medium sized holographic display that was wrapped around part of the window at head height. Three individuals stood nearby, surveying the city far below, occasionally stopping to observe the display. They studied it as scientists might study an ant farm.
“The latest guests have arrived...” The voice was feminine, and sounded faintly intrigued, yet bored. “Do you think we should...?”
This voice didn’t seem to carry any particular qualities; it just was, a sound that provided information and nothing more."So you say,” murmured another voice – this time definitely masculine. The speaker sounded rather frustrated. “You’ve seen how this goes down before. We let them come to terms with what’s happened, get used to this place, and what happens? They try to stir up trouble. Nothing good can come of this.”
“Quit whining. We’ve got a job to do here, and right now that job is to let the visitors catch their breath. I’m sure it must have been tiring...” Despite the affectation of concern, the woman sounded as though she only added the last comment as an after-thought.
The man and the woman stopped bickering as the voice cut through the still air like a knife.“Yes.”
“You got it, boss man.”
edited 16th Nov '12 2:03:22 PM by Flanker66
Locking you up on radar since '09