Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

"Okay. I'll see you around." Samus bows.

"I... don't know how I know him," Rin answers. "I know for a fact that we've never met, and yet I recognize his face as one I've seen before."

—

"Consider it our little secret, capisce?" Daroach makes the 'OK' gesture. "And also consider it incentive to not do more ransoming while you're still here. This was a special case."

Edited by KiriK on Jan 29th 2022 at 8:24:54 AM

"Yeah, I don't intend to kidnap people again. I don't want to have a giant laser fired at me again and I don't want to get locked away for months again either.", Tahn smirks. He then makes the same gesture.

"I won't tell a soul I got this from you. If my current associates ask, I'll just tell them I struck it big."

—

"Odd. But that is this realm in and of itself as well.", Locke says.

"Oh, since I did not immediately notice you, were you here when he told me how he got hurt? It would probably be wise for you to keep an eye out as well."

"Skehido dedoop." I mean, I guess I didn't MEET you any previous time I saw you.

In a surprisingly information-processing move, Boyfriend points out "Ska da di doo? Dadi dep." Do you know lemonhead? You reacted pretty strongly.

"O̴h̶,̷ ̶b̷u̸t̷ ̸I̶ ̶W̸I̴S̶H̵ ̸t̷o̵ ̴H̸E̵L̷P̶ ̴Y̶O̷U̷,̷," the Pokémon(?) intones.

The pendulum continues to swing.

"Ć̴̝Ȯ̴̮M̸͚͘E̶̘̽ T̷O̷ ̶H̶Y̶P̶N̷O̷."

This guy's really let his actual social skills deteriorate in favor of hypnosis, huh? If she's somehow able to resist the brainwashing technique, it should be pretty obvious that this motherfucker is bad news.

"Yeah, I heard alright. Why did you think I yelled?"

Rin sighs. "Beat up one of the lemon's goons. He then showed up, ganged up on me with a circle I already hated and a rat fairy, and they tried to kill me."

—

Smirking, Daroach swishes his cape and turns around to go get a drink from the bar.

Tahn goes in too, being successfully inconspicuous about it as he goes behind the bar, stashing the briefcase in there for now, planning to take it down to the base safely when the bar closes for a few hours.

—

"So he works with a group. That already makes him more dangerous. This is serious."

Locke gets up from his chair.

"I will inform Pseudo Porky about this, and he'll pass this information on to more people. This... erm... 'lemonhead' will have enemies coming for him from all sides soon enough. Stay safe, both of you."

He then leaves to go do exactly that. No way he can try to relax when this kind of information has to be forwarded.

Samsara laughs and hold her thumbs up. Well here goes! You're all Shepherds now!

Fort Dawnguard

Hunter Reyna comes hurtling down from the sky, landing on her feet right in front of the fort.

Gatekeeper is there, chipper as ever. "Greetings, Reyna! Nothing to report!"

"I have something to report," Reyna replies. "We're being invaded!"

"Wh-what?!"

"Quick!"

Gatekeeper blows his war horn, calling the Shepherds and their allies to arms.

Fort Dawnguard

Anna and Jake◊, hearing the warhorn signal, hurry over to a window.

"Oh no, what's attacking us this time?"

"Bop." Pog.

... I guess that's close enough to a beeping noise. Good tidings, Officer!

"Ska di da doo? Ski da. Beep." I might know those guys? Maybe. I've run into a lot of people. Bleh.

Oh, his Dr. Pepper is finished. In the trash it goes.

Dawnguard, Fort

There's an awkward tension in the rest of the fort. A bunch of Shepherds, like it or not, are currently sort of hovering above Kana and Beruka. Ever since The Reveal, the former is much more lively, though she seems to be ignoring her mother's conflicted facial cues at the time.

-And I told him "No, screw Y O U! And I kicked him off the cliff for the third and last time!

... How did you know it was for the last time? Asks Beruka, concerned.

Oh, I checked down there! Messy! Anyway- the war horn sounds, and Kana looks confused, then panicked as Beruka rises from her seat, immediately grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back in. The assassin winces, but doesn't show further sign of pain.

Your grip is strong.

Hm-hm, and it'll stay strong until whatever is causing chaos outside is gone! I'm not letting you fight the enemy alone! Kana announces, eyes set. Her mother sighs.

I am your mother, please get your arm off me so that I can help Lady Camilla and the rest of the Shepherds, thank you. Kana seems intent on not letting go, and Beruka's eyes narrow. Kana! Almost instinctively, Kana lets go and Beruka proceeds to walk off, rubbing her sore arm but preparing herself all the way. The young woman contemplates her for a while before also getting up.

Well, I'm going as well! she puts her hands on her hips, anticipating a conflict, but Beruka doesn't even bother looking at her.

Good, Beruka, done with the preparation, glances back at her daughter; ... I'm not going to coddle you. You've lived a long life and you've killed already. You are stronger than me, thus I don't need to protect you. Furthermore, you are a Nohrian. You have battle in you and need no to be hugged. Come. Let your sword be slick with their blood. She walks off the room as the Shepherds gathers, with Kana being speechless for a little while before following.

I thought you'd try to tell me off...

Edited by Bolded1 on Jan 29th 2022 at 4:33:24 PM

The Rift, near Fort Dawnguard

Loki and Nicole◊ are going for a walk in the Rift, the former wearing his recently-constructed Infinity Gauntlet.

"Nice glove. What's the occasion?"

"As luck would have it, an opportunity to claim unlimited power has arrived in this realm. Since only a fool would allow it to fall into the wrong hands, I took the liberty of having a gauntlet capable of harnessing that power forged, just in case."

Cue the horn going off near Fort Dawnguard and interrupting the pair mid-conversation, prompting them to make their way over to said fortress in order to investigate the commotion.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Jan 29th 2022 at 7:36:42 AM

Dawnguard Fort

From within their room, the Pica-Pica hear the war horns.

What's this sound?

Those are the war horns! It's our call to action!

Yay! We'll help them, and we'll get deserved our place as true Shepherds!

They run quickly to the gathering.

Edited by BombonBombin on Jan 29th 2022 at 9:39:36 AM

Fort Downgard, by the path

Mark and Nick were camping by, a smokeless bonfire lit as they gnaw on some leftover bread and other makeshift food.

"What the hell are we even doing here for? Let's get stealing to the fort already."

"Stealing food's a pain in the ass after that stupid sparring match for the knife, rather go in fighting anyway."

Nick twiddles the teleporting knife that Mark got from a certain fight

"Doesn't suit you anyway, I like this 'gift' you gave me."

"...You're using to peep women's bathrooms aren't you?"

"Aw you know me too we-"

Both of them hear the war horn, but not knowing what it really means, assumes that it's a town hall meeting and make their way to the fort. Mark extinguishing the fire with some snow.

"The fuck's going on over there?"

"A chance to steal food, lets go dumbass."

Their intentions aren't to purely steal food however, once inside they hear the gathering's discussions they get intrigued and collectively shift plans for now to eavesdrop while hidden to the best of their abilities.

Edited by BoniniBanana on Jan 30th 2022 at 12:06:39 AM

"And you're absolutely sure it's here?" Luin inquired, staring out over the vast expanse of this land.

"Yes."

"Then where the hell is it?"

"I do not know."

Luin glanced behind her at the figure, here in image only. She shook her head and, with an annoyed sigh, looked back over the edge of the mountain.

"You better be right about this. Already been ambushed by too many feral palamutes…or hairy jagrases. Doesn't matter."

"I may not be right about many things, young lady, but I am sure about this."

"Fine…And don't call me that please, for the love of Gog, anything but 'young lady'. You know my name."

"As you wish." The image reflected from an alternate realm chuckled, Luin still kneeling on the cliff's edge.

Normally, Luin would not take precious time out of her life to aid a random entity, no matter how old and immortal it claimed it was. But he had saved her, her Rathian, and the baby Nargacuga's life, and for that she was grateful.

And so, this was the first of her three favors, one for each life. And plus, she was benefitting from this as well. Only this object could nullify the Hatchling's power enough to cease the danger he presented by merely existing.

Luin had been told not to keep the Hatchling by the Guild, of course. Naturally, as you cannot allow a monster like that to bloom, let alone thrive. But what was Luin to do? She couldn't just end a young creature's life, no matter how many "prophecies" promised destruction if she kept it around.

And so, she had hidden it away in a house she had bought, back in the Arena, where she had spent a few months recovering from the second encounter with the Annihilation Nergigante while checking the progress of the Hatchling.

But now, she had been called to action by the man who had saved her life, being told she would have to travel to yet another realm, one the man could not go to himself for reasons he had still not disclosed. She had been searching for some kind of object, the "Darkheart", that could supposedly give or take power, at the cost of free will.

And that landed her here.

Lutemis lay besides her, her wing recovered yet with a major amount of scarring. The lightweight braces placed on it by the man had been the only thing preventing it from becoming permanently unusable, yet had given the left wing an almost mechanical appearance. Luin reached over, scritching the juvenile Flying Wyvern's chin.

That was when she heard it.

Faint, at first, but as she listened in, she knew exactly what it was and managed to pinpoint the general location with the senses of a trained Hunter. A war horn.

"Hey traveler-guy, is that it?"

"No…but they are in danger. Perhaps they could use your help."

The Rider sighed, standing as she climbed onto Lutemis's saddle, the monster spreading her wings.

"You're a cryptic old bastard, you know that?"

The man smiled in response, watching as Luin and the Rathian took off towards the sound, disappearing. But he was still with them, and such was the nature of Cross-Realm Projection.

——

Fort Dawnguard.

The large, green wyvern landed outside of the steel fort the horn had emanated from. Luin leapt off of her wyvern, the poisonous Princess Rapier in hand as she searched for context..

——

With a sick (or satisfying, depending on who you ask) crunch, Jenna's attack connected

Amelia was sent flying, a trail of stray limbs and blood and gore following.

She hit the ground, and anyone less annoying would have died immediately.

But Amelia was not anyone less annoying.

Rather, that same drone as earlier hovered, a green beam flowing from the head of the jet-shaped device to the Medic, her wounds closing as new limbs grew to replace her old ones. Eventually, the pile of flesh and bone on her face was reassembled into something at least vaguely resembling a mouth, and Amelia stood as soon as she had regained legs to stand on. She stumbled, picking up her right arm from the ground and holding it up to her shoulder so that the drone only had to reattach the arm rather than make a new one, something it absolutely did not have the battery for.

Speaking of battery, it dropped from the sky immediately afterwards, and had just enough battery to reassemble Amelia's body (with major scarring) while leaving a number of cuts and scratches on her. Amelia began monologuing as she limped towards Jenna.

"Oh, you poor fools. Both of you, tricked by that son of a bitch who calls himself a "soldier". A soldier unable of hurting me, a trait you share. I had truly hoped you, with that strength, could finally make me feel. But you can't. No, you hide behind that armor, those guns, like a coward. The same way a blubbering, stumbling little child hides behind her parent’s legs, because you know, like a baby without her parents, you are nothing without your technology." She snarled, hatred and contempt in her voice, before stopping and spreading her arms wide, a massive grin on her face, and with a scream, she dared Jenna to fulfill an old woman's wish.

"Come on! Take your best shot!!"

Flint's bug foe was, indeed, sent flying and spinning violently by his gauntlet attack.

But, instead of allowing it's foe to take advantage of an exposed back, it immediately righted itself very early in the spin by spewing a fountain of acid from it's back, being water-jetted directly downwards and towards Flint, the gun a sword once more. It thrust the sword forwards, a stream of acid following.

And yes, it's back was now bleeding. Profusely. But of course, that is what happens when you shoot a liquid that is normally confined to an orifice out of something that is clearly not an orifice. Could you imagine sneezing from your shoulder?

The insectoid clicked cheerfully, close-combat being the domain where it truly excelled. This was it's favorite part.

And Jenkyov was…doing Jenkyov things. He gave up on reading through the files for now after an especially catastrophic blow to his head left the holographic lens on his helmet from which he had been projecting destroyed. Not only that, but his entire HUD was fucked up after it, and he knew there was no more room for messing around-he'd have to give this his absolute all.

He dodged an attack by jumping over Karnege, turning around and flipping the screaming Scot off.

"Stand. Fucking. STILL!!'" The hammer-wielding bounty hunter screamed, to which Jenkyov replied:

"Calm. The fuck. DOWN!!"

Edited by ISZATSO on Jan 29th 2022 at 8:24:36 AM

Rin sighs. "So, the question of the hour... Where do I remember you from?"

Gremlin Chara jumps onto a stool and listens in.

—

Outside, Daroach is preparing to open the door when Rat God brushes past him. He grabs her by the shoulder. "Excuse you."

"... Oh heeeeey little mouse!"

Daroach's eyes narrow. "I already hate you." He throws Rat God into the street and pulls out his magic scepter.

Rat God whips up a battle song, only for Daroach to hijack it. "YOU'RE not the boss here, I am!"

Here Come the Squeaks!

"Oh hey! Luin!" Reyna waves and calls out to the Rider as her Rathian lands. "There's an army on its way here! I like the schmucks who live in this fort, so can I ask you to help us defend it?"

Loki will feel a tap on his shoulder, and if he turns around, he'll see FE!Loki smirking and waggling her fingers in his face, right before she vanishes and reappears on a cliff overlooking the Dayspring Canyon.

Meanwhile, an actual fucking army approaches the fort. Almost all of its forces are generic units with the same handful of faces, weapons and armors, but at its helm is a 10-foot-tall, dark red copy of warrior-hero Greil◊ wielding an axe made of the very souls that comprise his being. Pink Hitodama Lights float around him.

   "I live to fight. I live... to kill."   

He points his axe at the fort.    "I challenge you, Shepherds! Let the mightiest prevail!"   

Twilight of the Gods (GaMetal Remix) - Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Mordecai sits atop one of the circular turrets with a bottle of booze at his side, Talon on his shoulder, and Godfinger sniper rifle in hand.

Edited by KiriK on Jan 29th 2022 at 10:38:04 AM

Boyfriend puts a hand to his chin and thinks.

"..."

"Ba da di dedoda? Bidadebep." I remember seeing you from that time I battled Marija back home. But there's a lot of verse stuff here, right? That might not have been YOU you.

He finally notices Chara, and points at her in shock.

"Beep!" Wow, Chara Undertale?! ... Again? He squints. "Be deeda di doop?" Are you a fourth Chara or one I've met already?

"Hey, Reyna!" Seeing an ally of hers brought a previously absent smile to Luin's face, as well as the realization that she wasn't the only Hunter here. The multitasker listened to the situation at hand, thinking about what she could do for the fort. "An army? Never fought one of those before."

The noise of her Rathian grumbling uncomfortably got Luin's attention, and as she hopped onto the Wyvern and hovering a good bit in the air, the Rider saw the army approaching.

"Shit." She grumbled, still wary of the situation.

But, as those more technically advanced than her say…"YOLO".

Lutemis shot forwards with a beat of the wings, spitting fire at no real target, avoiding the ten foot man.

Loki wheels around just in time to notice FE!Loki teleporting onto a cliff. Not to be outdone, he summons an illusory projection of himself right beside her in a flash of holographic green light.

"I take it you're the one responsible for engineering this little attempted siege. Not going to witness your glorious invasion from the front lines, my dear?"

Nicole, meanwhile, cracks her neck and faces down the summoned army.

"Just another day in this friggin' place... Sam, Lucy, consider this my way of making up for not being there to help kill Grima's ass."

She transforms into her Draconic form, spreads her wings, and lets out a ferocious roar as she unleashes a sizable burst of Arcane Fire Breath at the horde.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Jan 30th 2022 at 7:31:27 AM

Wash

"Good grief is that acid bug pimples?"

Flint rolls out of the way of whatever acid wheel he's accidentally caused as his armor's creases began subsiding a mist, the air cooling slowly around a massive radius.

His shotgun now glowing a bright energy is morphed into a sawed-off double barrel and holstered in the meantime to focus on the bug, that mist disappearing for now.

"This may not be as potent as my adversary's variant, but it should still be enough."

A simultaneous punch with his gauntlets being done while he stood his ground to knock him and the bug off a distance, but as a result of getting far too close to the bug a spray of acid gets onto his armor.

Corroding the perfect polish it had, The mist returns around the creases again after for some mysterious reason.

Nick and Mark were done with their eavesdropping and got to thieving, not much found lest they wanna get in too deep since a battle is seeming highly likely.

Some food walking upright to the entrance till tattling back, noticing the army. Both of them taking note of the situation by now.

"Guess this'll be fun eh?" Mark grabs one of the apples and bites on them only to be kicked in the face by said apple, Nick laughs and disengages the familiar for consumption.

"It's too easy to dupe y-" The wine bottle whacks him under the groin and runs back where it came from, it doesn't like being Nick's familiar.

"That little shit's getting it after this."

"I hope a shard went in."

The duo make their way outside, and back to the path hidden within the forest, both of them nodding in agreement to a plan. Nick hopping and teleporting from tree to tree to scout out any soldiers with the blondie following suit. Both of them intending to remain hidden.

"God where's that shithead speedster when I need him"

"Quit fucking whining before I break one of those trees you're on."

"Betcha can't."

Seeing a few soldiers march down, Mark summons his chains around his arm and shatters a chunk of a trunk of the tree Nick was on. Knocking it down as it barrels to the frontline with a kick from Nick.

"Oh fuck you that didn't count 'cos I didn't expect it."

Nick teleports back to another one soon after, choking Mark a bit with hands coming out of his clothes. Mark coiling him in a chain afterwards, their bickering not ending any time soon till something interferes.

"It counts if I see you fucking whine about it- *chocked* I'm not gonna fight naked in the tundra asshole-"

Jenna observes the drone's fantastic healing abilities, and decide that she'll confiscate that. It'd be a great tool to reverse-engineer later! Imagine all the possibilities of it! But she has an owner to defeat first, so for that, she puts away the sledgehammer and get her laser gun back.

Then grab the fucking Laser Minigun

Eat lasers, you old bitch! Jenna yells, in a bout of undisciplined wrath, before letting loose a flurry of shots at the old woman, intending to rend her apart limb from limb. She doesn't quite consider herself stung in the pride by her speech: Amelia, from her perspective, is as reliant on fancy technology, if not moreso. She simply... Well, there's the idea of firing a laser minigun that would get anyone excited, isn't there?

...

ah crap Samsara swears silently, even if she notices help mounting up. Thanks to that tsunami sweeping the traps, we're going to need to fight it out... Mages and archers, stay on the back! Wyverns and flying units, provide support from above. Xander and Ryoma, you'll fight that guy. The rest of us will exploit Nicole's attack and I'll get her to redirect her attention at that guy. We-

Bah! Kana charges headlong into battle, flying over Greil on pirate wings. Her attention monopolized on the fight, she transforms into a mighty dragon and lands in the middle of the group, with three columns of water bursting forth around her once she does that, complete with a roar!

Taking her chance, Samsara has the mages and archers (Takumi, Emmeryn, etc) attack Greil and his squad with arrows and spells. Beruka, however, also take off flying to assist her daughter, coming over hard at the army and sweeping over their heads with axe blows. She prioritizes archers and the likes, as Samsara and the rest of the ground fighter leave the fort to begin running at Greil and his army.

"I know what you're doing"

The hypnosis did seem to be working, that or she was just curious, because she did walk toward the hypno

"Please just leave me alone"

Dawnguard Fort

The Pica-Pica look at the army approaching them... And then at the huge axe guy holding a rose challenging them!

He could be one of the Enrerere?

Maybe... Hey, big guy! We accept your challenge!

They do their classic starting move: "Tutira mai nga iwi", peppered with a haka-like dance, to buff all of their allies stats, and raising their chances for a critical hit for all of the battle!

"By the gods!", Anna gasps upon seeing the incoming army.

"I'm getting the Ballista.", Jake immediately decides, running back to go get it. Anna's eyes wander to the strange, Greil-shaped warrior.

"I've never seen a warrior like that before...", she mutters to herself as she gets a staff ready.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Jan 30th 2022 at 9:16:35 PM

Seliana Gathering Hub

Previous Post

Sofia sighed as she slowly came to terms with her fate.

   "   By the Five, there's two of them...   "   

The Huntress, conversely, reclined back in her seat, raising her mug in a toast to Kaido and his incredible drunken vigor.

   "Ha, skål! We'll get along just fine, big guy! Quest details aren't up yet, unfortunately, but keep we'll let you know when they are. In the meantime, tell me a bit about yourself, eh? What's brings you all the way out to Seliana, friend?"   

   "Well, I wanted to get around to it, but I didn't get the chance, so I guess that makes me number four."    Gremlin Chara shrugs.

Rin smacks the side of her own head as if trying to jog her memory.

"My, my," says FE!Loki, not even turning to look at first when MCU!Loki appears beside her. "It seems we really are one and the same, you and I." She turns her head to look over. "Hello, Loki. I'm Loki."

She turns back to the army. "Now, who said my aim was to invade and conquer? I'm simply giving these lost, fallen souls a chance to get the glorious final battle they've earned. Who wins, who loses, it's all the same to me. And that's why I remain outside of the fight itself. I merely set things in motion, and now I'll just sit back and see what happens."

—

Røkkr Greil is knocked back a little by Kana's strike, but otherwise unmoved. He responds by bringing his axe down on her, hard. He tanks through the other Shepherds' attacks, retaliating from afar with a beam of crescent energy projected from his axe.

"That thing's definitely not an Einherjar if it can take that many attacks and keep trucking," Reyna notes.

Gatekeeper exposits, "That's a Røkkr. It's an amalgamation of lost souls in the shape of a Hero."

Røkkr Greil makes his own move, lunging to bring his axe crashing down on Kana a second time!

Edited by KiriK on Jan 30th 2022 at 4:08:15 AM