Chun-Li was about to begin her battle when she was sent back to this hub. Looking at Grey, she looked angry.
"We will get back to your world, even if we have to dismantle this hub to do it," Chun-Li finally stated. After all, there was no reason why they should've been sent back when things weren't completed after all, and Aile needed them.
Wizard Needs Food BadlyThe barrage of flame and steel rained down. Link raised his shield, preparing himself for evasive action.
Like it's more down-to-earth cousin, the Mirror Shield sacrificed extensive protection for speed and mobility. Its strengths lay in deflecting lone arrows, turning blades and reflecting the occasional spell or two, and while it did have an impressive, nigh-unmatched resistance to both physical and magic-based attacks, it just didn't cover enough of his body to ward off a storm of projectiles like this.
Hence the backwards flip, executed with the grace of an acrobat. As the sole of his right boot touched the floor, Link readied himself, shifted his weight so that he would land with shield arm in front -
Then the world froze again, and everything turned to gray. The noises, the crackle of the flames, the thunderous roar of the winds - all of them dimmed and warped before winking out completely. Laid bare by that utter silence, the battlefield shimmered and then sloughed away like some transparent, glassy snakeskin, peeling back to reveal (once again, and almost with great reluctance, or so it seemed) that rolling sea of green outside the Crystal City.
It took him about half a minute to regain his bearings. The rest of his friends were talking around him as he stood stock-still, looking around in disorientated dullness - then he seemed to snap back into life.
"..."
Looking at the others with no small amount of concern (especially Gray and Rey), Link sheathed the Master Sword and put away his Shield with a sigh, before flopping down onto the grass in a sitting position. His eyes were both soulful and contemplative, as if something heavy was on his mind.
To tell the truth, he was almost as worried about Aile and the rest of Gray's world as the reploid was himself. But there were other matters, too.
"You must use your courage to seek power...and find it you must. Only then will you become the hero for whom this world despairs."
Before being plucked here, the pulsing golden light had only manifested itself once with such intensity - in the Twilight of Faron Woods, where it had saved his life by giving him the form of a sacred wolf.
Just now, it had caught him twice in the same hour, and it had brought visions, words, voices to his mind, things that had made absolutely no sense at all but had somehow struck him as being minutely, impossibly familiar...
Hero...?
Looking up for a moment and laying both his weapons and battered cap by his side, Link scanned the air, as if trying to ascertain the presence of some unseen thing.
"...Galen?" he called softly. The words were more of a whispered, tentative question than an outright summons.
edited 12th Apr '12 4:43:34 AM by troydenite
Rey sighed, looking over the others, then without a word, put his helmet back on, flicking down the visor to cover his face, and moving to be on his way, returning to the patrol he always put himself on whenever they came here...though now he was no longer staring at the sky...more glancing at it warily once in a while.
Easing back into life one step at a timeIf Rey kept his eyes on the sky, he might notice a blue dot of light appearing in a slight arc...
Like something that had been launched up and was now falling a terminal velocity.
The blue glow would get slightly large as the seconds went by...as if the projectile was on a course to smash into the spot he was standing...
INCOMING!
Rey tilted his head back, seeing the dot, and hesitated just a second, more from confusion than anything. "Oh. Shit." He turned and quickly started to back away at an angle opposite to what the incoming object was approaching. "Uh...you guys might want to scooch a bit if you can."
Easing back into life one step at a timeJack was about to answer the newcomer's question when the warning of a new threat rang out. Looking where everyone else was pointing, he spotted the incoming meteor at once. He first made sure everyone was aware of the threat and moving for cover before sprinting for the nearest sturdy shield he could find.
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao TzuGrey listened to Rey's explanation with more than a little bit of alarm. He hadn't checked himself, but he also wasn't going to doubt the wrestler without good reason. The idea made Grey feel slightly more guilty - would the people who disappeared still be there if they hadn't gone to his world? Where were they now?
Grey thanked Fluttershy and Chun-li for the reassurance*, and returned to his introspection. He jumped a little as Stranger made himself known, and jumped to his feet. He pointed his buster at the ground, but he had to admit the alien didn't look too friendly. "You're in the 'Crystal City'... and I'm Grey, a repl - "
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Rey gave his warning. Megamerging, Grey vaulted backwards, his twin busters aimed squarely at the mysterious object as he did so. Landing perfectly on his feet, he asked aloud, "What's that?!"
Locking you up on radar since '09Fluttershy looked at the incoming meteor that was heading straight for the group.....
"Oh my goodness!" she yelled. Immediately, without thinking, the pegasus tackled the nearest person to her, in this case Stranger, to the ground and then used her still armored wings as a shield*, protecting both herself and the newcomer.
Hope you don't mind Alleydodger
edited 12th Apr '12 2:52:56 PM by UdtheImp
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HITTING HELPY!!Link...
The robed visage of Galen Marek appeared behind Gunner's house. The Force Ghost sensed that the young Hylian was troubled and wanted to lessen his burden, for the sake of his long-dead friend. I sense that something burdens you, he continued. Do you need aid?
Mehir raised his Circle's shield a split-second before the battlefield froze. Before an oath could even form on the Summoner's lips, he — and, as he noticed, the rest of the group — were whisked back to the Crystal City.
Letting the Magic Arrows fizzle to nothingness, he walked to the nearest building and punched its wall.
"Nomolas's beard!" he swore. "To think that that world was left at that madman's mercy... Damn."
Turning around, he opened his mouth to answer Stranger, but then noticed Jack's warning. Shaking his head, he put his back on the building's wall and conjured the Circle's shield, hoping that no serious shrapnel from the meteorite's hit would fly in a arc and hit him anyway. On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.
The falling glowing object was actually a young woman who was pinwheeling through the air. Not that those on the ground would easily see that.
It can be said that one phrase was running through Subaru Nakajima's mind.
Oh crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!
She had been plucked away from a nice dinner with Teana and was now falling like an ICBM towards some very hard looking ground.
Mach Caliber, shield!
Yes. Replied the machine in her mind as she tumbled.
It was pure luck she didn't strike anyone on the ground when she impacted. She flew over the heads of everyone, missing the house and shield by mere inches and plowed into the ground on a side street. Dust flew up from the impact and as she skidded along the ground. Luckily, her barrier jacket and shield took the worst of the impact but she still dug a good fifty to sixty foot trench from the kinetic energy she had built up. She only came to a stop when she smashed into a large crystal formation, cracking it in several places. As the dust was clearing, she could finally be seen for what she was. She was lying upside down, feet almost vertical against the pillar, her blue haired head in the bottom of the trench. The wheels on Mach Caliber were still spinning...
The group would be able to hear a very clear,
“Owww...”
Mehir let the shield down as the dust cleared. Sneezing, he slowly walked toward Subaru, stopping a few metres away. Noting the girl's weird attire, he put a hand on the Mystical Scimitar's handle.
"Excuse me," he said, "but who are you, exactly? How come you were hurtling through the air like that?"
Rey had winced and shielding his face with his arms, though the armor made that whole thing more a reflex than anything actually useful, and when the sound and fury came to a stop, he peeked forward, blinking a bit, then moved forward, looking at it. It...appeared to be a person, though he couldn't quite make them out.
"Um...hello? You, uh...you okay there?" He watched the others moving to help the person, and sighed, starting to turn away, figuring they'd take care of things.
edited 12th Apr '12 3:13:30 PM by MystyGlyttyr
Easing back into life one step at a time

Stranger stopped his approach as one of the group called out to him, a strange blue creature that seemed far too friendly. Stranger grunted and spat off to the side.
"Where the hell am I? And what the, hell are all you?"