Rayman

“All right then, here we go!” With that, Rayman leapt through the portal and into the unknown.

Donnie

“Oh! Those are good ideas!” Donnie said to Mordin, grounding his bike before taking out a notepad and writing everything Mordin had said down. After writing it all down, he let out a sigh. “If only I had more time. Three days really wasn’t enough time to work on everything I wanted …” Donnie muttered.

“Don’t worry, Sokka. This is nothing like my spirit storage unit. There’s a much lesser chance that this’ll end up blowing up in our faces. Only 31%,” Donnie said, trying his best (and presumably failing) to be reassuring.

It was then that the portal appeared before the seekers, and Donnie stuffed the bike back into his satchel.

Having done all he could, Donnie moved through the portal.

edited 8th Jul '15 10:06:13 PM by Dezmo

Urza listened to their captor's little speech with his usual lack of reaction. Everything that the entity told them could not be proven, thus, it was highly suspect at best. He could use the information as a baseline to compare to once they arrived. And when the portal opened, he said nothing, but walked into it at an unhurried pace.

Chaika Trabant

It was only after Moja's voice faded that Chaika finally realized what was going on. She hurriedly put all the crafted fuel in her ammo pouch, and stored it inside the coffin, along with her Gandr, her spellbook, and a few things Armani and her had agreed on taking. Once everything was in place, she lifted it, strapped it to her shoulders and headed towards the portal.

It was time to go.

However, she stopped a few feet away from it, and took a little time to merely look at it. She knew that was the point of no return. No one was really forcing her to walk through it. She had all the right in the world to step back and remain in the safety of the base. But she had made up her mind earlier, and she was not going to back down after she trained so hard to improve.

So, with a determined expression and the willpower to back it up, she stepped into the portal.

Raven

Raven did not need to think much to know what Mbili meant by "the most obvious method". He was entirely sure that the entirety of the group had gotten that right.

They were not meant to kill the enemies.

Of course, some of his new teammates would find that guideline easier to follow than others. While some of the Seekers were probably not planning on doing that either way, others were basically murder enthusiasts.

As for Raven himself... it made his job as a soldier more difficult, but it was the way it was meant to be done. He had experienced both sides first hand, and he knew that whoever they were going to face would not merely sit around in a cell, but they had to try and contain them if they had the possibility.

However, Raven would not hesitate to get rid of the threat once and for all should all other options be ruled out.

He did not say a single word as he stepped into the portal, ready for whatever was awaiting on the other side, but he did signal everyone still there to be cautious when stepping in.

—Armani and Chaika: Serious talk, shooting the breeze, and training in that order—

“Blow, powerful gale! The Heavy Wind!”

The large magic circle on the tip of the Gandr coiled back like a spring, and short forward at a great speed, before suddenly stopping right in front of the orange she was using as a target. But while the fruit was blown away by the wind, the table it had been resting on stood firm, unaffected by the spell.

“Success!” the girl cheered, turning towards the demigod with a cheerful smile on her face. “Advice, helpful!” Chaika didn’t quite know why Armani had offered to help her out with her training, but she was glad to welcome any and all help. The results were now speaking for themselves.

"The table's still there, so I'd indeed say it was!" Armani realized he was beaming back and he hurriedly turned his gaze away towards the rest of the targets. Gah, this girl was infectious. Her smile was so bright it almost hurt. Not because it was burning his eyes or anything, but because of the people he once knew who’s smiles were also always reminding him of the sun…

His grin dropped a few degrees. Hopefully she didn't notice

"Wasn't so hard after all, huh?"

"Not hard," the white-haired girl replied, still smiling warmly. "Thankful, Armani."

"I need to pull my own weight, right? Don't mention it."

Armani nodded his head towards their distant targets. "Another spell, I can see?" He channeled his inner yoda for the occasion, making his voice exaggeratedly old and master-jedi-ish.

“Yes!”

The girl quickly loaded more fuel into the chamber of her Gandr, and began chanting her next spell almost instantly, adopting a serious expression in the process. She paid careful attention to where she was aiming, as each spell had different effects, and thus had to be aimed differently if she wanted to miss the table but hit the apple resting on it.

“Fly, blade! The Ripper!”

The magic circle shot out again, and this time stopped around the fruit, remaining perfectly still for a second before it started spinning and closed around it. In the blink of an eye, both halves of the apple were falling from opposite ends of the table, and juice covered most of its surface.

Once more unable to suppress a smile, she turned her gaze back towards Armani, waiting for any comments that he might have.

Armani was rubbing his chin as she smiled over, his gaze having not left the table yet. "You know, I bet this could save a lot of time with preparing sliced fruit, couldn't it..." His voice wasn't entirely there. "Your arsenal is pretty amazing Chaika." For whatever reason, he sounded reserved as he said this, impressed but with something tugging at him beneath it.

He glanced back at her randomly, and her sunny face broke him out of whatever stupor he had. "Ah, anyway", he rubbed the back of his neck, "That was five for five. You sure you actually needed me for anything?" He chuckled then brought his own hand forward, and a ball of white moonlight coursed into existence above his open palm. It snapped outward and solidified, becoming his own silver hunting bow.

"My turn?"

Before he stepped up to the line they had put down for where they should shoot at, though, Armani noticed that the girl was openly gaping at his bow.

He blinked then wryly giggled. "You like it?" It WAS a very pretty bow; it was originally made for a goddess in fact. On top of being a literally godly work of crasftmanship, it was sleek and elegant, with intricate carvings of vinery and nature weaving into it and greek symbols being interlayed throughout, and it faintly glowed on its own.

"Have a look if you want", he said affectionately and tossed it over to her.

Chaika was slightly surprised when Armani tossed the bow at her, and she couldn’t help fumbling a bit once it reached her hands, but she finally managed to grab it, and started to admire it. It truly was a really pretty bow, something unlike anything she had ever seen. It was even… glowing.

“Bow, beautiful,” the girl noted, handing it back to Armani as if it was made out of glass. “Magic?”

Armani warped it back into his hands instead of simply grabbing it. He might have been showing off. He might also have had a bit of a smug expression on his face.

Just maybe.

"Divinely so." He casually balanced it on his finger. "It was made by hephastaus himself...well, it's a copy of the original bow made by him at least. It's been my constant companion for so many years..." He trailed off before glancing at her thoughtfully. "Ah, hephastaus is the god of smithing where I come from. He made the original for my mother, and when I was born hers spawned this one, for me. Not entirely too sure how..." He shrugged.

"Divine olympian magic I guess."

"Wouldn't be the first time divine magic created something out of the blue, really. ", he muttered somewhat to himself.

Chaika listened to the bow’s history with interest, but also with a slightly puzzled expression. So the original bow belonged to her mother, and it had somehow made another one for him… her mother was probably someone very important, if a god had made a bow especially for her. Needless to say, Chaika was quite curious.

"Mother, who?"

"Hmm? Oh, my mother was —" he paused and frowned slightly into the air. This was SUPPOSED to be about finding out about her, not the other way around. He didn't want to derail the conversation too badly.

Man, she really reminded him of an Apollo demigod’s disposition way too much — he had gotten distracted by her and had let himself start to ramble about home. Never a good sign.

"Tell you what Chaika", he noted after a moment as he stepped up next to her, giving her a smile before turning his attention downrange. "I'll tell you more about me if you tell me more about you, sound good?"

“…yes.”

The observant eye might have noticed a brief moment of hesitation in Chaika’s eyes before she answered. But deep down she knew they would ask sooner or later, and there was no point in hiding considering that she wasn’t in her own world anymore.

Having a rather observant eye, Armani raised his brows in sudden trepidation; he could tell immediately things were about to go in a direction he didn't intend for it to go.

"H-hey wai—" he turned around and held up his hands. Too late, the girl was spilling it out.

“Father, Arthur Gaz,” the girl began, finally resolved to let it all out. “Great wizard. Called Forbidden Emperor. Five years ago, father killed. Remains scattered. Empire gone.”

"ah...", he intoned uncertainly with a grimace before going silent.

It could be told from her tone that she was still heavily affected by her father’s death. And the fact that she had seen it happen right in front of her did not make it any better.

“Name, Chaika Gaz,” she stated, with her hand touching the coffin that rested on the floor, and a sudden determined look in her eyes. “Objective: gather remains. Give father funeral.”

Armani chewed on a knuckle and gave her a coffin a worried look, wondering exactly what that thing was for, now. "Wow chaika, that's certainly a bomb to drop..." He didn't say he was sorry for asking though — she had decided on her own to tell him all of that, a thought he took comfort in.

"So, that's why you learned how to use all of these spells, huh. To get through the people who get in your way? Try to hurt you like they hurt your father?"

This had been the information he had certainly wanted. He wasn't particularly liking how it was revealed.

"Yes," Chaika admitted, looking down. "Even now, Gaz name hated. Chaika Trabant, needed alias."

"Magic, important," the girl stated. "Only good ability. Everything else, poor. Without, weak traveller. With, skilled wizard, like father."

"...I see." He glanced down at the blitzed fruit, expression neutral and stoic. "So, I guess you've had some experience with this kind of thing, then. Danger, fighting, people trying to...kill you?"

"Yes," Chaika repeated, still not fully able to look up. "Not wanted, but reality."

However, a soft smile appeared on her lips as she glanced at her coffin once more.

"However, not stopping," she stated, running her hand down the wooden lid. "Deep down, know goal right. Difficulties, unimportant. I no give up. Goal fulfilled, no matter cost."

Armani's lips quirked, looking to the side as well. "Keeping that attitude after all that's happened...you're a lot stronger than you look, ki—um, Chaika." He paused, thinking. "I hope you don't lose it..."

Internally, Armani struggled. In reality, she wasn't much younger than he was — and she had seen more than enough death to where he couldn't fairly say she wasn't fit for this. Yet...she was just so danged innocent! It wasn't fair for her to be put through all of this — it wasn't right that that sunny disposition of hers was always under threat.

Yet, here they were. Armani decided that, no matter how distasteful it was, she wasn't someone who he needed to walk on eggshells with. She could fight like the rest of them.

"Because you're going to need it, Chaika", Armani's smile faded and he gave the girl a serious look, nudging her shoulder to get her to look back at him. "In a few days, we're going to a place we don't know, to fight people that are incredibly powerful and will genuinely try to kill all of us. Who knows, they might even try and do worse. It's true that we're going there to help whatever world is in danger, but that just means we'll be the ones on the front lines getting shot at."

He cocked his head at her. "Earlier, you looked like you might break down when you realized you were trapped here. Things won't be getting any easier. Chaika, if you could barely handle that, do you think you can you handle what's to come for us? Can you truly?" He bit his lip. "If you can't, you could stay behind if you really needed to, and wait your time out here peacefully. If anyone tried to blame you, others would shut them up — I know we're here to save the universe, but you know what? No one deserves to force you or anyone else to go anywhere, not when you were kidnapped in the first place."

"So...will you go out with us? Can you weather it? And don't you say you can if you really can't, because that will only get others hurt alongside you."

His gaze was harsh, controlling — he wasn't letting her back out. Perhaps he was being too hard, but it was better to ensure things now. If she wasn't tough enough for this, she wouldn't be tough enough for the fights ahead

Chaika pondered her options for a while. On one hand, Armani was completely right. She did not have to fight if she did not want to, and no one had the right to make her do it. She could just wait there until the rest came back.

But on the other hand… it wasn’t fair to the others.

She was training just like everybody else, and she was sure none of the other Seekers liked the situation they were in. But no one had talked about refusing to go, and everyone was already getting prepared to face the powerful foes that were awaiting them. It just wasn’t fair to let them face all the danger while she just hid and waited it out.

But would she truly be able to cope with it? Or would she just become a hindrance for the whole team? What if everyone died because of her? She did not want to be another obstacle. And what if she died? The promise she’d made…

The promise…

"Decision, made," the girl finally announced, looking at Armani with stern determination. "I go. Fight. Even if fail, need try."

She couldn’t back down now. Not after the promise she had made. She couldn’t turn her back on it. She couldn’t turn her back on her friends.

Armani slowly nodded. He knew that was going to be her answer from the moment she had told him about her past. He still didn't like that kids were being thrown into the fight — something that still continually bothered him about toph, even knowing that she was extremely used to questing — but who was he to deny them the decision when they clearly knew how to handle themselves? He'd just have to suck it up.

"No worry," she assured the demigod, now with a softer look in her eyes. "Will endure. Because... not alone."

Armani chuckled softly at that. "Isn't that just the saving grace for we seekers."

"Very well, I won't say anything more on it", he gave an assuring smile of his own. "Keep that determination up and we'll get through whatever the universe has in store."

He then gave her a wry look and gently pushed her back from the shooting line. "My turn then", he glanced back at the distant targets. "Let's see how hard I can make farmers everywhere weep for the destruction of this fruit, shall we?"

Chaika merely nodded and stepped away, giving Armani space to shoot, and her eyes started to shift between him and the target. She really wanted to see what would happen.

Armani whistled — down at the other end of the track, one of his ethereal wolves pulled the string on the contraption he had set up for just the occasion, and 3 fruits went flying through the air in wildly different directions.

Armani tapped his leg, taking a moment to note their trajectories and mapping it out in his brain. Then, in the space of time to where someone could barely stand to blink, he flashed his bow into existence, appeared 3 arrows into existence and sent them flying before that blink could have been completed.

The silvery projectiles slammed into their targets far down range momentarily, spilling juice over the trees below.

"Hmm", he scratched the back of his head with a free hand. "...You know, I think that was too easy." He tried to play it off cool, but it was obvious thanks to his body language that he was gloating to a humongous degree — you'd almost expect him to turn around and perform a song and dance routine to top it off.

Chaika's eyes widened when she saw Armani fire so fast she could barely see it happen, and when she saw all three arrows hit their targets, she couldn't help but clap in amazement, nodding strongly when he asked if he should try something more difficult.

Armani was extremely happy with her reaction.

"Thought that might be the case”, he wagged his brows. He took a few seconds to create a few dozen arrows and slide them into his three quivers.

This time when he whistled again, dozens upon dozens of fruit all shot through the air at once. Armani sucked in a breath and tensed, then repeated his earlier showing a dozen times over, twisting this way and that and trying to accurately shoot all of them before they could fall while not allowing himself to shoot singular arrows.

It didn't turn out quite as well as last time; for the first half Armani was spot on, but he slowed noticeably in his aim as the fruits spiraled away from one another. By the end, a few had managed to escape from him and had fallen back below the trees.

Armani finished letting the breath out in a somewhat frustrated huff and wiped down his brow. "Speed and accuracy over a longer period? I can handle that. Speed and accuracy AND splitting my attention among each shot with multiple trajectories over a longer period of time? Kind of stressful." He could only think so fast, it seemed. He stuck the end of the bow into the ground and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

Even though some of the targets had fallen to the ground without getting hit by the arrows, Chaika was still very impressed by Armani's display, and this was evident in the way she looked at him.

"Armani, great archer!" she exclaimed after clapping once more. "Where learn?"

"Hmm?" Armani paused, glancing to the side for a moment.

He DID promise to reveal to her his own past if she did hers. He hadn't really planned on revealing many details as some parts were kind of a downer, but then she went and dropped her own dark past onto him and now it felt kind of unfair to leave similar parts out of his own.

But on the other hand, why not try and keep this more light atmosphere they had achieved? There was no reason to make the girl feel sorry for him. She didn't have to know EVERYTHING in order to get the picture after all. The whole ‘nearly cast into oblivion, always a depressed and entrapped demigod the world never wanted’ thing was going to get the chopping block. Anyway fair was fair.

"It's a bit complicated." He twirled one of his bangs in his finger. "Remember when you were asking me about my family?"

Chaika nodded.

"Well, for one thing it's because of my uncle Apollo, who I was under the charge of — Apollo, you see, where I come from is the god of archery and several other domains — so most of my childhood was spent with him drilling bowmanship into me. He was quite serious about it; whenever I'd fail or slack off he'd..._sing_ to me." Armani shuddered.

"I developed my skills pretty quickly under his duress, and he showed me everything there is to know about the craft." He left out for now the fact that his uncle had never literally let him out of the house for the vast majority of his childhood and that archery was one of the few things he had ever gotten to do that involved being outside.

Chaika nodded once more in sign of understanding, although she didn't quite get why or how someone would torture others through singing.

A beat passed

Wait.

His uncle was what?

"God...?”

Armani paused; he didn't really dwell on the fact that his mother was a goddess most of the time; it was a much less glamorous position than it sounded — all it really meant was that you were the ones expected to clean up Olympus's many many messes. So normally he'd just tell it like it was and try not to roll his eyes at the usually extravagent reactions it garnered him.

...But it was beginning to get fun, watching her face light up.

—Mwahahaha!—

An impish smile crawled over his face. "Yes? That's what I said? Something wrong, Chaika? You look rather confused."

"Uncle, god?" Chaika asked, still not sure if she had understood that correctly. "Really?"

"Well, you wouldn't know it by how he acts, that's for sure — he's like a scatterbrained teenage boy most of the time. But yes, he is indeed an olympian god. The power of archery, the sun, healing, the arts, and a few other things as well — he is all of those metaphorical concepts incarnated into physical form. He's not the only one; there are other gods I'm related to as well."

Chaika's eyes were wide open. ”Shocking truth!” Armani was related to gods? That was really amazing. But then... if he was related to gods, then...

"...Armani, god?" she asked with baited breath.

Armani blinked at her. Then again.

Then again.

Then he threw back his head and he laughed harder than he had in weeks.

He leaned down and put his hands on his knees as he tried and failed to hold it in, and a bit of moonlight escaped from his body to float in the air around him. It had been far too long since someone had made him laugh like this, a feeling he had missed. It was pleasant, sweetly — the trees around them seemed to sway to the tune of his shaking body, and if the seekers were to come back to this spot a couple of days later they'd find that a small garden of various flowers and shrubs would have sprung up around where they had practiced.

Naturally, Chaika was not pleased that Armani was laughing right after she asked him a serious question. And she showed her annoyance in the only way she knew.

She frowned and puffed her cheeks.

"Armani, mean!" she pouted while the demigod continued to laugh. "Serious question!"

"N-N-n-no, nonono", he gasped and managed to finally speak. "I think I would die of shame if I ever joined they olympian ranks — do you have any idea how utterly childish most of them act? Heh, no I guess you wouldn't."

He sighed and chuckled again, looking up at her. "No I'm not a god." He smiled slyly. "My mother IS, though — specifically the goddess of hunting, the forest and wild nature and animals, virginity, fertility, the moon, childbirth, and hills". He paused. "That last one is odd, I know. So anyway that's why I can do a lot of the things I do — bowmanship and combat are literally built into my soul."

Her face softened up once more. Apparently, he was related to gods, and his mother was a goddess, but that did not quite make him a god, although he did have special powers because of it.

Godhood was complicated.

Armani giggled again at her face. "My apologies."

He continued to mess with a bang, while looking more thoughtful again. "I'm what's called a half blood, or a demigod. My mother was a goddess but my father was a mortal — it takes two godly parents to create another god, as it turns out. Basically I have a lesser copy of most of her abilities, and I can exert some influence over her domains even here, but I don't get the full set of powers and I'm perfectly killable."

He shrugged. "It's not nearly as cool as it sounds, trust me. Demigods are expected to play clean up duty to the god's antics most of the time, which can mean anything from killing monsters to fighting off armys that come for them. Never had to do most of that myself, but I'm a..." he paused. "In a very unique situation, as far as demigods go."

Chaika pondered what Armani said for a few seconds. His mother was a goddess, but his father was a normal man, which made him a demigod. Things like that made her wonder what her mother had been like, where she could be, or even if she was alive...

She quickly shook her head to clear those thoughts away, and looked back at Armani.

"Situation?" the girl asked, tilting her head. "What mean?"

Armani cocked his head slightly when he noted that she was deep in thought about something, but figured he had just confused her again with this talk of gods.

"As I said a bit ago, my mother is - among other things - the goddess of virginity."

He lightly pointed a finger at himself. "Isn't it strange that an eternally virgin goddess would wind up having me?"

Chaika didn't need to think much to know what Armani meant. If a woman who had never... well, done /that/... having a child could be seen as something particularly strange in other situations, then what could be said about the very goddess of virginity? She could feel herself flustering a bit upon thinking of... well, /that/.

However, she did have somewhat of an answer. She wasn't sure if it made sense or not, but... she didn't have much else.

"Mother, goddess of childbirth," the girl replied, trying to take her mind off /that/. "Not so strange."

Armani blinked. "Well, you know, childbirth or not, to have a son she'd have to get pregnant which means..." he trailed off, suddenly not so sure as to the direction of this conversation

The course the conversation was taking definitely did not help the white-haired girl take her mind off /that/, which in return made her fluster even more. However, her confusion was far greater, given that Armani had made a very good point. But if that wasn't it, then just /what/ had his father done?

No. No. She didn't need nor want to go down that road.

"Strange," she managed to say, evidently not very comfortable with where the conversation was going. "Definite strange."

"WHAT are you blushing about?" Armani halfheartedly snapped, his own face beginning to turn red as well. "Why does it have to be such a...nevermind. Point is I came about in a different way."

He sighed and pinched his forehead, recollecting his thoughts. "I came about because someone directly took from my father's life essence with magic, and then took that and forced it into my mother's essence — I was made from that union of souls."

He snorted, having calmed down by now. "Mother didn't even know I existed until I was 16 — Apollo took me and hid me from her after the incident. I was forbidden, after all; the goddess of virginity was to never have a child. He was afraid of what...others might do to me and her. Also, I was..." He paused, chewing his lip.

"I was a very sick boy", he noted with some reservation, glancing to the side. "So I was kept in our condo as much as Apollo possibly could — I snuck out as much as I could, but that wasn't very often. So the world at large had no clue I existed. After I turned sixteen, to make a long story short, my mother discovered me and word got out." He snorted softly.

"Boy, were there ever some arguments had over me. I can't count the number of plots I've been involved in or the number of times people have tried to manipulate me or get me killed — chaos had a habit of following me wherever I went. I actually was literally ripped from the universe once. That was fun..."

He figured that was good enough to match what she had told him. His story obviously had holes, but it was enough on a broad scale. "Anyway, it all eventually sorted itself out. But yeah, I've had an extremely surreal existence."

Chaika spent the following seconds listening intently to Armani's explanation. His story was by no means a happy one, with all the debating and plotting around him and whatnot, and even with the fact that he was constantly inside, and was hardly ever able to sneak out. Apparently they were quite similar in that regard, although for different reasons.

While he hardly ever left because he was a sick boy, she had been born in the middle of a war that had been going on for centuries, and her father had insisted to keep her around him as much as possible, specially considering that venturing outside during war was always very dangerous. Maybe it was because of that that she could relate to Armani's story, even if their pasts were so different.

"Understand," the girl stated. "All okay now?"

Armani nodded, smiling. Then gave her a playful look. "Well, you know, except for the whole 'kidnapped by space gods' thing. That put a bit of a twist into things."

"True," Chaika admitted, slowly starting to smile once more. "Not convenient."

Armani rolled his eyes. "Could be worse though — at least there's all these interesting people we meet. Plus, when we're not busy being in mortal peril, it's kind of fun to go visiting other universes. We make it through this, and we'll have so many stories under our belts that no bard in any universe will be able to match us."

Armani waited a beat after that, then pulled aside. "I believe I've distracted you for long enough. Time to get back to work, young lady", he gave her a wry smile then whistled for his wolves to put more fruit onto the table — more than before.

"Alright, this time we won't be moving on until you can get ten for ten. And then we'll move on to having you shoot at moving targets. Most enemies aren't going to simply be sitting still patiently waiting for a bullet to the head after all."

That part, she could definitely agree with. If there was a good side about their abduction, it was meeting plenty of new people, and going to many new places. It was a really refreshing experience, now that she thought about it.

Either way, they had to continue training.

"Yes!" the girl exclaimed, getting back in position full of enthusiasm. "Ready!"

—You know, I'd say so too; I had quite the list of reservations, but you'll do fine, kiddo.—

"Very well then, show me what you're going to do to the enemies we meet in this mission!"

Armani nodded as Chaika finally put a fruit down out of the sky. "Congrats; I do dub thee a sharpshooter junior."

"Your technique is better — all you need now is repetition. Keep at it and soon you'll be nary missing a shot."

Armani then glanced around. He had accomplished what he came here to do some time ago now, having cleared out his doubts — the girl would be fine. He should probably resume his own training now.

"I need to be getting started on my own training soon. Think you can take things from here?"

"Yes!" Chaika exclaimed, smiling brightly. "Thankful! Very thankful!"

She had every reason in the world to thank Armani. His advice had been extremely helpful, and with him aiding her training, she had been able to improve a lot in a very short time. So thanking him was the least she could do. Unless...

"Want help?"

Armani winced jokingly. "Mmm, perhaps you could stop burning me with that apollo demigod-esque grin of yours, to start with". He wasn't be serious of course.

Armani opened his mouth to tell her no, then paused as something seemed to occur to him; he closed it and looked downrange once more at their targets, staring in thought.

"Actually, if you're up for it, there's one last thing I could show you." He cupped his chin and gave her an interested look, some scheme hiding behind his eyes. "I could show you how to line up your shots like a real hunter, rather than being a mere magical sniper. Want me to show you what I mean?"

Chaika nodded repeatedly as a response. All of Armani's advice had been extremely helpful, so she figured that very last piece of advice would be just as useful to her as the rest had been. So she decided to put her full focus on her instructor.

Not much she could do about the smile though, even though she knew by that point that he hadn't actually been serious about it.

Armani rolled his eyes at her enthusiastic nodding. "Alrighty then sunny, so we're actually going to have to go back to the main archery range for what I have in mind. I need to go summon a couple things for this — meet me at the shooting range?"

"Yes!"

With that said, the girl turned around and quickly skipped back to the shooting range, looking very overjoyed. Once there, she set up her stuff once more and just waited for Armani to come.

By the time she had made her way over there, Armani — being the speedster he was — had already seemed to set up a variety of targets ranging from the expected to the rather odd — there were normal targeting reticules set up on wooden stands, figurines, a few unknown targets that had tapestries set up over them, and a couple of figurines set up in armor.

Armani himself seemed nowhere to be —

"Boo!" He suddenly yelled in her ear out of nowhere.

"Ahh!"

The sudden startle made Chaika jump and turn around at once, but upon realizing it was Armani who was standing there, she let out a sigh, frowned and puffed her cheeks once more, albeit less seriously than the previous time.

Armani gave her an innocent look. "Oops, did I scare you? Silly me, I'll have to be more careful." His own training, he planned, would be improving his stealth capabilities, so this was his way of multitasking.

"Anyway, when your heart stops frantically beating we can start." He pointed at the first target — an average archery target on a wooden stand. "Now I want you to kill that target. Oh, and let's presume that explosives won't do the work — let's restrict it to spells with penetrating power for now." There was a sly glint to his eye as he said so. He retreated to the side of her gun after point it out.

After calming down, Chaika took her place behind the Gandr, and aimed at her objective. Apparently she needed to shoot something that could pierce through things, so she settled for a spell and began the incantation. After a few seconds, the magic circle was fully formed on the tip of the Gandr.

"Come, to pierce and destroy! The Annihilator!"

The light blue circle shrunk, and began to glow brighter and brighter, until finally a thin stream of pure magical energy shot out from the middle, piercing straight through the middle of the reticule.

Armani waited a couple seconds until after the laser faded, then pursed his lips and lightly folded his arms. "Hmmm...well, would you look at that." He walked up to the side of her and glanced exaggeratively between her and the target multiple times. The sly look in his eye deepened.

"Well, you put a hole straight through the middle of the reticule...but that target is still standing tall and proud, isn't it? Why, I daresay it's still alive!" He smiled mischievously, then pointed at the standing contraption once more. "So chaika, kill the target."

Chaika nodded, and reloaded the chamber. If she was meant to just get rid of the target, maybe she'd have to use something a bit bigger. So she chanted a different spell, and the magic circle appeared once more.

"Come, to overwhelm and defeat! The Meraviglios!"

Like before, the circle began glowing brighter, but it barely shrunk in that ocassion, releasing a stream of energy far bigger than the previous one straight towards the still standing target, wide enough to hit everything but the outermost part of it.

The reticule was blasted into smithereens — Armani raised an eyebrow. "Nice...But there's still a problem here."

Indeed; the reticule was mostly gone, but the structure itself remained standing. The target had been sitting balanced — she could now see due to the target itself being mostly gone — on a stand held up by four support beams that the laser has passed in between.

"You've wounded it pretty darn heavily, I'll give you that...but I fear it's still standing." Armani's eyes twinkled as he looked over at her. "The reticule is there to help guide your acccuracy — but there's more to downing your prey than simply being accurate, Chaika. A hunter must not only be accurate, but a hunter must also ensure that they have chosen the right spot to aim at — otherwise all you'll do is inflict a flesh wound."

"Allow me to demonstrate", he nodded towards another copy of the same target to the side of the one they were shooting at. He flashed his bow into existence, pulled out an arrow, and squinted down at the target, his eyes roaming over it until they locked onto a spot just on the top-left edge of the target.

He released the arrow, and the projectile passed through the spot he had been glaring at. The structure creaked, and then suddenly the whole thing ruptured and caved into itself — if she looked, she would see that he had broken the support beam that had tied all four of the wooden beams together that the target had been standing on, previously having been hidden by the edge of the reticule.

"The reticule is mostly unharmed — I wouldn't be getting any points if this was an archery contest, that's for sure. But..." he twirled his bow. "The reticule was never the fatal spot in the first place. When you shoot and you mean business, before you ever line up the shot, you first pick out where it is you must strike in order to down your quarry." He smiled softly then shrugged over at the mostly demolished target still standing nearby. "Think you can kill it this time?"

Chaika glared at the target when Armani pointed out that it was still standing, but it seemed to be so that he could teach her something important. He then proceeded to shoot an arrow... which made the entire target collapse to the ground.

At that point she understood. That lesson wasn't about aiming at the middle of the target. It was about finding a weak spot, and taking it out to bring down the whole structure.

She knew what she had to do.

"Yes," the girl replied, nodding with a serious expression. "Can kill."

She reloaded the Gandr, and looked through the scope, looking for a weak spot. She focused on the target's wooden structure, trying to remember where Armani had shot his arrow.

After she chose that new spot, she chanted the spell.

"Come, to pierce and destroy! The Annihilator!"

The magic beam shot forward, aimed at a spot Chaika chose based on what she had seen, on the top edge of the reticle.

Naturally, the entire structure collapsed as Chaika's laser spell chopped through the supports, just as it had with the other one.

"And now the target's dead." Armani nodded. "Well hunted, Chaika."

His eyes flicked towards the other statues and targets. Some would require her to pinpoint a weakpoint. The carpeted ones would require her to memorize the structures beneath so that she would remember where to shoot it once he replaced the tarp. Finally the sturdy armors at the end were sets that Armani had had particular fun choosing out; they would require her to choose the right spell as well as a weak area. "Seems you've got a lot of challengers of all shapes and sizes lined up. Ready to hunt them down?"

"Yes!" Chaika replied, loading her Gandr once more. "Ready!"

—about an hour later—

The last pile of armor collapsed in on itself finally, after Chaika's last round founds its hidden weakspot

"And that would be that", Armani gave her a look of pride; she came quite far in a short amount of time. "Someone's a proper little miss huntress".

"Thankful!" the white-haired girl exclaimed, with a radiant smile on her face. "Armani, nice! Great teacher!"

Armani scratched his chin and was bashful for a moment. "If you're not careful this is going to start going to my head...oh, too late. Oh well."

He got over it pretty fast. "So, I guess I'm going to get started on my own problems now. What will you do now?"

"Need replenish ammo," the girl stated, looking at the Gandr. "Then, try shorten incantation time. Later... unsure."

Armani nodded, wrapping a bang around his finger idly.

"If you get free time later, I actually have an idea for something. I don't think any of us have gotten used to fighting with one another, you know? Gods know I've never really learned to fight in a group, so that's something I'm going to try and work on as much as I can when I'm not doing anything else. It would be good if we all knew how to coordinate our powers together, you know what I mean?"

Chaika nodded softly. She knew what Armani meant. Most of the people she'd seen trained individually or sparring against others. Sure, they knew what the rest could do, but they didn't really do much when it came to teamwork. Armani was planning to work on that. And of course, she was fully willing to lend him a hand.

"Know," the girl stated. "Will get time. "

Armani nodded, smiling back. "Did you know that most snipers are taught to work in pairs in the military? I've never tried it myself. Never had a reason to, really...but special circumstances and all of that. You think we could pull it off?"

"Not known! Interesting!"

What Armani said sounded like a very good idea. Even though she was a good wizard, she wasn't very capable of fighting on her own. But if she had someone to cover her back, she'd be far more effective; and maybe Armani would benefit from it as well. But would they be able to pull it off?

"...Can," the girl assured, nodding with determination. "Definite can. Only need try."

"As usual, your outlook on matters is simple yet is spot on for it."

Armani glanced at her, then the targets, then away into the distance, then back as a knowing look crept onto his face. "Great. Just yell for me when you have the time, I've already got a few ideas..." He gave her a coy grin, and in the back of his eyes a predatorial light was ignited. "Alright, let's rain destruction till these new foes are dizzy from the sight. We'll take them and send them charging right back to whatever planet their patron called them out from."

She gave him her usual sunny grin back.

edited 7th Jul '15 3:32:26 AM by tvtropesnoob

Team Magic

This was it. This was what Estelle had been training so hard for. Beyond that portal lied enemies that could frighten even Moja. Though Estelle was scared she knew she had trusted companions by her side. They could do this, they could return alive, and probably one step closer to finishing this race for Sifuri. Or so she told herself. She took a deep breath, to calm her nerves and stepped through the portal.

Team Magic

Big day wooooo, Joseph thought to himself, not too eager. But this was the way to Sifuri, and hopefully the way out of this mess. So he checked his clackers, adjusted his scarf to a more comfortable position, and stepped through the portal.

"Whatever you say, Donnie." Sokka chuckled, watching as all the others stepped through the portal, one by one. He watched, and watched... as he was the only one left. Standing completely still on the grass, the portal swirling in front of him. There it was. The mission he had trained three days for. The last time he went through this...

Forget last time. Only one thing mattered right now: fighting the enemy. Putting on the Hakoda's helmet, Sokka took a deep breath, hand clenching his sword with confidence. "Let's do this." He muttered to himself, before stepping through the portal...

Team Magic

It was time?

Hol stood from his resting place and stretched a little, then yawned loudly.

"About time. Let's go see what's so special about these opponents of ours."

("And hopefully...I won't die fighting them.")

He could hide it all he wanted, but some part of Hol was nervous, frightened over the prospect of facing opponents that Moja claimed were otherwordly powerful.

But who knows, Moja could've been bullshitting them all. Right?

Right?

Hol adjusted his hat, shook the dust off his boots and entered the portal.

Team Science

Examining Donatello's work would have to wait it seemed.

At the very least, Glacius hoped he'd be able to see them in action later.

He stepped through the portal as well.

Atrocitus knew what Moba meant by "most obvious answer." Honestly, not killing the opponents that were yet to come would be very hard for the Red Lantern to abide, depending on how heinous they were. Hopefully he was allowed to cripple them at the least. Steeling himself, he went through the portal, awaiting what may come.....

Jack smiled in gleeful anticipation. Finally he was getting back to the action. He did not care that Mbili basically told everyone not to kill their targets, but the Chaser was already thinking of loopholes around that request. Never said anything about crippling, maiming, or having something else kill them.......

He ran over to grab his bike. The machine roared to life, and Jack rode up to the portal. "Let's tear those mothers a new one! WOO!!" He then drove in a wheelie right into the portal, ready to take on whatever was on the other side.....

edited 17th Jul '15 11:32:13 AM by UdtheImp