Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

In the moment before Domon started yelling, Megan thought to herself, By Bahamut, this was a stupid way to block that strike... The scales along her forehead cracked, and her entire spine felt like it shifted the in just the wrong way. She then heard Domon charging up the Shining Finger, and moved to avoid it. It would be a narrow window, but she felt like she would make it. After than, she was going to dash to side by about ten feet, and prepare something with a bit more oomph behind it. That felt like a pretty big if right now, though...

She could swear she heard music playing somewhere, as well. Hammer of Gods by Freedom Call

Thor claps BE!Neuff on the shoulder before she departs, then heads into the tunnel and arrives on the lift, quietly waiting on the way down.

"Worry not, Ain, your stay in this wretched place is about to end... That, I can promise you."

Once they reach the hanger bay, he runs over to the closest ship and climbs in, then buckles up just as it takes off towards the base. After recovering from the initial suddenness, he begins carefully steering his craft in order to avoid the depth charges during the trip.

"Alright... I've not yet died in a fiery explosion, so I'd say the mission is going smoothly thus far."

Nicole accepts the map, then gives BE!Neuff a quick hug.

"Anytime, little sis. And if you ever change your mind on coming back here after Troa's been dealt with, well... you know where to find me."

After they finish the hug, she runs into the tunnel and onto the platform, taking a moment to study the aftermath of what Troa did to the lake during the descent.

"Yeesh... it'd probably take Frigidus' Ars Vivonis to clean all this shit up."

Once they reach the bay, she climbs into the nearest ship and straps herself in, then takes control once they're all launched towards the base, maneuvering to evade the depth charges as best she can.

"Okay... so far, so good. Wish Plat and Cinke were acting as our mission control, though..."

edited 31st Mar '18 1:45:22 PM by IchigoMontoya

Despite Lord Ninth's warning, Locke goes into the tunnel regardless. Lesovikk, while more hesitant, follows shortly after.

When they get to the platform and it starts descending, Locke looks around at the poisonous water outside their window. Lesovikk, however, doesn't, appearing somewhat nervous as he tries to calm himself.

This isn't like then. It will not be the same as then., he thinks to himself.

When they arrive in the room, Locke immediately looks at the ships.

"Small battleships, likely for a fast frontal assault...", he mutters, thinking about his own military forces he used to have, which included plenty of battleships. He boars one of them, and Lesovikk boards the other, the latter having experience with steering underwater vehicles, so he doesn't feel as uncertain about this as Locke is.

Lesovikk easily takes and keeps control over the ship once it launches into the water, dodging any obstacles with little problem, though he does almost slip up once by attempting to shoot some debris in front of him, his own ship having that option. Luckily though, he realizes in time that he has to dodge. Locke takes a little longer, but he manages to adapt in time to prevent anything disastrous from happening.

"Who is Azzam? If he is anything like Derak -" Terlette taps Marie's head, sending a telepathic signal that should show her Terlette's memories of the Land of Eternal Night and its god; his awakening by the accidental intrusion of a mortal strong enough to survive; Terlette's mental deterioration and subsequent Demonic Possession by him; his final form as a sun-sized, humanoid pocket dimension.

"-Then I am already looking back at those eyes. Derak has entered the Arena in person thanks to my own mistakes, and I will not allow him to make a single move without my watch."

Domon's Shining Finger misses. He grunts, turns to where Megan is, and draws his sword, waiting for her move.

Aeleris walks up to one of the submarines. He gives Kirby a glance and says, "Safety in numbers." Aeleris straps into the submarine he has chosen. As he focuses on the alien scripture of the Xir, his vision automatically distorts it into an English translation. Good thing, too, because he wouldn't have had the first clue how to man the sub otherwise.

Kirby jumps into Aeleris' lap.

"Try to use your powers to spare us from expending the ships' abilities, yellow one!" Aeleris commands as the ships begin to move. He weaves through the depth charges with surprising grace. He almost clips into one, but his eyes flash magenta and it floats just barely out of the way.

Kirby holds out his Mirror wand and casts a Reflect Force, trying to shield three of the ships - Aeleris', Locke's, and Thor's - from the next wave of explosives.

"Can't do more?!" Aeleris yells.

"No, it's too straining on me to make the shield larger or longer-lasting!" Kirby replies.

edited 31st Mar '18 1:55:15 PM by KiriK

She looks positively impressed for a while before breaking down in nervous laughter, attempting to seemingly hug her cloak in comfort.

"He's not like that ! He's a necromancer... some say that he's a corpse brought back to life by accident, or he made a deal with the devil, or he is the devil. He's not as powerful as that god but back home, he's unstoppable... he wants my eyes."

She points at her eyes.

"To know all the futures... if he succeed, this world will survive, but my world is doomed ! He's already very powerful by our standards, so with that boost, he'll know everything about the future !"

—

The ships make it through, some of the depths charges explode still but it seems unrelated to the event.

Soon, two figures appears. One is holding down some kind of large swimming device, the other is swinging with the forces of her legs. They're both clad in a black suit, with a mask and goggles over their eyes. The first one raise her thumb at the group as she goes towards a gate in the base, which soon opens up to let the torpedoes in.

Who are they ?

With his submarine protected from the explosion by Kirby's shield, Thor looks out the window at the two swimming figures.

"I can only assume they must be two of the other Sisters..."

He guides his craft into the open gate, which he guesses must lead to a docking bay.

Having narrowly evaded any explosions she needed to, Nicole raises an eyebrow upon noticing the two swimming figures.

"I'm guessing those two are... Izzie and Cinke? Neuff and Deez? Cabba and his mentor? Looks like I'll be finding out after I presumably dock this bad boy..."

She proceeds to pilot her submarine through the now-open gate.

edited 31st Mar '18 2:32:47 PM by IchigoMontoya

Locke, noticing the figures, is confused, but since there's no way of contacting them before they arrive, he keeps going.

Lesovikk, on the other hand, doesn't question it, but that's mostly due to not knowing how many people are involved in this mission. To him, these two are probably just two people who can somehow get through without a ship, which is all the better.

Both of their torpedo ships enter the base.

"Hey, slow down," Kirby says.

"Hm?" Aeleris notices the figures in swimming gear too late for the ship, which he had absent-mindedly pressed to full throttle, to stop normally. Aeleris' eyes glow magenta. The color instantly expands to an outline around his ship, and he simply wills the sub to stop moving just in front of the gate. With telepathy, Aeleris asks the figures, "Who are you?"

Terlette gasps upon hearing about Marie's eyes.

By the time Marie is done talking, Terlette is smirking deviously. "Well, if Azzam ever assumes physical form here in the Arena, perhaps we can lure him and Derak into an encounter. I'm sure Derak would love to take away all those futures Azzam wants to see with your eyes." There's a Beat as Terlette pops the last of her scone in her mouth. "I mean Derak would erase the lich, of course."

edited 31st Mar '18 2:36:23 PM by KiriK

"I'm sure that Azzam would die but what if they.. made a deal ? They're both bad guys..."

—

"Chill, we're friends." responds the mental voice of Neuff, with the swimmers getting in as the doors close. The docking room is very similar to the one from the smaller base, and the ships automatically arrive on their own docks, allowing them to get out.

The two swimmers arrive out of the water, revealing their figures to be feminine. The first one crumple her machine away while the other one use lightning to destroy the subsequent small wreck. They both take off their masks to reveal Neuff and Cinke.

"Indeed ! You might not recognize me because of the awfully tight sneaking suit (made by me) but this is Cinke Tripadora !"

"And Neuff." comments the Sister, drying her hair with her super-fast hand movements. "Looks like we're both in this at the same time, neat !"

edited 31st Mar '18 2:45:05 PM by Bolded1

Once his ship has docked, Thor climbs out of his ship and approaches the two newcomers, then grins when they turn out to be Neuff and Cinke.

"I thought you would've preferred to provide assistance from your laboratory, Cinke, but... it's just as much of a pleasure to have you with us in person. And Neuff, it's great to see you as always, even under these circumstances!"

After docking her craft, Nicole hops out of the cockpit, then walks over to Neuff and tousles her hair.

"Should've known you'd be joining this rescue op, Neuffie!"

She flashes a smile at Cinke.

"Nice to see ya again, too, Cinke."

Locke steps out first. As he gets out, he greets Neuff, recognizing her from in the base, though naturally doesn't recognize Cinke.

Lesovikk gets out as well and recognizes neither, though he approaches them and gets straight to the point.

"What do we do now that we're in?"

"Oh, hey, Neuff!" Kirby says, leaping all the way from inside the submarine to the floor on which the Sisters stand. "Thought I'd be seeing you sooner. I mean, technically we sorta did see you earlier, but that was a different you."

Aeleris clambers out of their ship and looks it over, inspecting it for damage as if it were his personal mount. Once his attention turns away from the ship, he quickly figures out that everyone else knows these women better than he does, and decides to remain silent until either he is addressed directly or a fight starts.

"Not quite." Terlette scoffs. "My suggestion seems so ridiculous in hindsight already, but... Derak wants to bring about the end of all existence. Based on what you've told me, I think Azzam wants to pick and choose the path that existence takes based on all the possible futures he will see. These two goals don't mesh together, so I think they'd come into conflict fairly quickly. And, well... not even the God of Creation Himself was able to stop Derak alone, so I doubt an undead mage in a dimension that actively weakens the strong would stand a chance against him."

"Hey there Kirb !" she says, going to hug him, and accepting the handshake. "Well you met another me ! And huh, of course I'd be there !" she says.

"Now, my friends, we are going to need to leave that room !" she says. Unlike the one at the base, the room is sealed off with a thick door, though Cinke is seemingly able to hack into it after a little while, opening it up to reveal an ascending corridor. Its size is very big, enough to make everyone else looks pretty tiny by comparison.

Cinke grab in a doll shaped after Troa and point at the corridor : a yellow white wall is sweeping through the corridor, teleporting up after making a successful sweep down.It's big enough to reach the ceiling.

"This is a annihilator mark 129091029102910. It can destroy or damage anything it touch ! If you get hit by it, you're going to need a new limb at the very least !" she says. "However, notices the little holes across the corridor !" she says, pointing to some holes on the floor or in the wall itself. "Those holes are safe ! If you get in there, you'll escape the sweeping. However, there is no holes past the mid-point, so you'll need to be quick after it sweeps over you. Don't battle for the holes, they can hold two persons at them."

She then points at a capsule of some sort, next to them.

"And don't take that. Its loaded with alarms that can only be disabled with a specific type of brainwaves or a device only owned by Troa. We'll need to take the dangerous way for this one !" says Cinke, with her and Neuff high-fiving at the occasion.

"Alright, wait for it to sweep... wait for it..."

They both wait, as the wall descends down and eventually teleport back up ! Cinke and Neuff both dash forward !

"Quick ! Find a hole to get in !" they yell, as they both get inside a specific hole on the ground.

—

"Hm.... but if it balances out the strong, maybe Nazzam could..."

She shakes her head.

"I'll see the future to see the winner, but whoever lose, we win, right ?"

"Right!"

Moments before the wall can come back down, Thor quickly flies into one of the holes, where he waits for further instruction from Cinke.

Without hesitation, Nicole dives into another hole, then gets back to her feet just as swiftly.

"Nailed it! Alright, what now, Cinke?"

edited 31st Mar '18 3:27:12 PM by IchigoMontoya

Locke doesn't appear to be very concerned.

"It won't be the end of the world if I lose a limb, even it it'd hurt a lot. I'll let all of you go first."

Lesovikk nods to Neuff, then charges for a hole once Neuff gives the signal to go, using his wind powers to accelerate and dive into one of the holes fast.

Once everyone else has begun to move, Locke also charges for a hole. He makes it, but not fully, and the heel of his right foot gets destroyed in the process. He hisses in pain, and tries to let his heel regenerate. Luckily, it does, and fast too since it's only a small part of his body.

"If only my powers blocked out the pain too...", he mutters.

Capital Wreckage, Cauldros

The Batter◊ walks around seemingly aimlessly, but much more focused than he appears to be, bat at the ready as always.

edited 31st Mar '18 3:39:56 PM by DevilPsyco

Terlette nods, grinning. She drinks the rest of her tea and sets down the cup with tactical precision. "Well, I have no more business at this cafe, but I also don't want to leave you unguarded now that I know your story. Shall we go sightseeing around this city?" She reaches out a hand to Marie.

Kirby stands just outside the corridor, watching the Annihilator. He holds out his mirror wand as if preparing to use Reflect Force on the moving wall of death, but Aeleris snatches him off the ground and does a Flash Step into the nearest hole in the wall before the Annihilator passes by them.

Aeleris mutters to the puffball, "If this thing has gone through literally more than a hundred trillion iterations, it's probably capable of destroying your gods-damned magic mirrors." He glances at Locke's little scraping. "The effect it has on flesh reminds me of Derak's nothingness blasts..."

Capital Wreckage, Cauldros

Meek footsteps rang out through the area, revealing the presence of the Knight, running around the place without any clear goal, as they tend to do.

"Yes, everybody, run to the end of the corridor, now !" she says, running through quickly, as the wall prepares to teleport back up. The two sister's speeds means that they soon reach a safe spot above, though they're apparently unable to help the others.

"Quick you guys !" yells a concerned Neuff.

—

Marie looks touched and reach for her hand.

"I'd be glad to !"

Thor swiftly flies to the end of the corridor.

"How much longer until we've reached Ain's cell, Cinke?"

Nicole sprints towards the end of the corridor, then stops once she's reached the safe zone.

"Okay... I'm ready to move on whenever you all are!"

Lesovikk once again uses his wind powers to accelerate his running, nearly to the point of flying, and easily makes it to the end.

Locke, meanwhile, has only barely recovered his heel once he has to start running, trying his best to ignore the pain of his foot's skinless flesh hitting the inside of his shoe.

Nevertheless, he makes it, but only barely, and immediately focuses on regenerating the rest of his heel.

The Batter stops at hearing the sound of running and slightly turns his head to look at the nearby Knight. He fully turns around when he sees them running around aimlessly.

   "... what are you doing?"   

edited 31st Mar '18 4:05:25 PM by DevilPsyco

Hearing the Batter, the Knight came to a stop, also turning to meet face to face.

"Running. Exploring. Looking for enemies. You?"

   "I'm looking for the Specters. Dark, damned spirits. I must purify them."   

edited 31st Mar '18 4:10:29 PM by DevilPsyco

Aeleris teleports right over to the Sisters, still holding Kirby. He sets the puffball down on the floor. "Hope I'm not treating you too roughly, little yellow one."

Then, Aeleris holds his hand in a claw shape in front of Locke, which is covered by a gauntlet styled after a dragon's talons - in other words, were Aeleris not disproportionately skinny for being two meters tall (think Slenderman with armor, an actual face, and a generally caustic disposition), having the gauntlet pointed at his face might be slightly intimidating to Locke.

"Quit your bitching." Aeleris projects a ray of light at Locke from his hand, which greatly accelerates Locke's regeneration. "I could lose a limb and not even yelp before moving on."

—

In one of the holes in the wall, a pair of glowing white ovoid eyes slowly slide open and glare at the rescue team from behind with a barely-concealed, burning desire for combat...

"Haven't seen any, lately. When you say purify, you mean kill, yes?"

"Hey, need any help ?" says Neuff, kneeling next to him as Cinke claps.

"Nice nice ! Very athletic ! And we'll need that !" she says, walking down a short corridor and thought a door to arrive to a weird room : there's a bottomless chasm at the end of it, with a black tar at the bottom. A lot of white devices can be seen poking out of the wall, probably to form into something like a road.

Cinke listens and points at the button.

"It reacts to Troa's fingerprint or even Lord Ninth's, but not ours. It'll cause a massive alarm if we trigger it." she says, before pointing at the tar. "This tar is straight out of Infernus X87980, its a giant volcano ! A planet-sized one even ! Its tar has engulfed everything else in it. We sisters could easily break out of it back home but here ? If you're caught in it, you're doomed to die slowly !" she laughs. "So we'll need to be agile !"

"See all the stuff poking out ? We'll need to form acrobaties to reach the end ! After that, reaching Ain will only take us minutes ! I propose a-"

Some parts poke out of the wall all of a sudden, forming a crude yet effective road ! Cinke blinks and stares at Neuff, who's holding her hand out.

"C'mon, walk down the road. My powers are made for this kind of stuff." she says, winking.