Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Hub Centralis

Artemis flew at a reasonably high speed alongside Sarah, keeping pace as the crystal within her chest pulsed slowly with the mana she was using to speed her flight. Once she lands, she simply sits down on a floating cloud she'd conjured up.

"Well, guess we wait."

In case the giant fucking sign wasn't enough, Artemis was releasing a beacon of mana into the air as well- invisible to most, yes, but very obvious to those who could sense magic.

Eve's Hospital

Seeing a shadow like that subconsciously gives him a bit of a chill. But after a deep breath, he manages to snap back out of that.

The knocks startle him for a moment, but he then listens to the voice from the other side. He initially remains silent, but is then confused when the person on the other side of the door predicts there'll be lightning. How would anyone be able to predict-

Cue the thundering sound, startling Sunny a second time. How did...

...

"You can come in.", he says, deciding to answer. His voice isn't the loudest, but it's still loud enough for her to hear him.

Eve nods behind the door and open quietly, looking not to frighten Sunny. She doesn't exactly radiate intimidation by herself -especially with a clone-, but the profile made her think that Sunny wouldn't want a rapid introduction.

Hello, my name is Eve. I run this hospital. Eve says, putting an hand on her chest, not mentioning her clones yet since it was unneeded information. My duty is to help you fully heal. You've recovered well from what brought you here but if you need a drink, food, anything, then do tell me.

She smile, joining her hands behind her back.

The Gas Station

Icarus is writing a firmware update for a modified Explorer model with bigger guns, when he gets a notification from his satellite system. Pictures show... what appears to be another one of Sarah's messages.

Looks like the update will have to be postponed, at least the Explorer - or should it be called the Brawler at this point? - is currently in a manufacturable and usable state. Icarus orders one, and prepares to move out.

Hey Croque, gonna go take a stroll in Centralis to see what's going on. I think it's Sarah. Feel free to come along if you wanna

Over Centralis

A cargo ship flies by, and offloads a humanoid robot that, with all its bulk, barely fits the average human's size. It has a pair of strong hydraulic legs that can split, its arms are as thick as a fire hydrant, but on its top is still the familiar cube-shaped head of Icarus. The robot lands a safe distance away from Sarah, after counterthrusting to soften the fall.

"Heyo, what kinds of esoteric skills are you looking for, Sarah? And... oh." He notices Artemis. "Hi, I suppose."

No need to escalate anything here.

The Stone Fist

And it was in that moment, that one woman stood alone. In a sea of infinite, blood-stained darkness, Melia Antiqua faced Chaos Undivided.

The four voices crept over her; her flesh, her pain, her hope, and her rage all together. She felt her blood boil and her skin rot, her mind dancing with fancy and desire, with dreams and hopes. Yet, the sword in her hands responded, and reality fell into razor focus.

Chaos responded. Beyond beastly, skin swirling endless chaos hurricane of colors, delivering a chop that instead, struck wireframe, Raex's shield pushing It back with an explosion of light. Its body contorted, muscles rippling and folding in upon themselves until Malagor's spine snapped free of Its ghastly frame, monstrous insectoid form crawling on ribcage legs, a few of which had already snapped. The upper half of Chaos's body took Raex's attention, while its bones leaped at Melia, whose body glowed so strangely with a white light that defied all description.

Grabbing at Raex's shield, It's fingers grew in length around it like a fungus, while Its head stared one lifeless beady eye towards Azura, as its disembodied upper body froze with her's and Weather Report's elemental might. Yet, where Azura's blood could still spill, where her magic could run dry, It could do neither. What remained of It's blood no longer belonged to It. The vast, incomprehensible forces that sustained It, could no less run dry than human misery itself.

Within moments, It began to move again, solid-frozen skin and bones shattering apart to inch towards Melia Antiqua. Yet, as its spine leapt to deliver what could be a fatal blow, It was instead repelled by that white light, exoskeleton hissing and bubbling under its shine until it turned to burning multicolored dust.

It made a sound. A hateful sound. A burning sound. A garbled, rotten, lustful, fetid, siren of a sound.

And yet still, Murasa's anchor swung around Its limbs, chains yanking, hefty, upon its joints, holding it back. Still, It reached towards Melia. Still, It's body began to distort, bubbling and melting around Murasa's chains and Its frozen-solid limbs, until It had disembodied itself entirely. Malagor's bare-stripped bones and leathery flesh fell from its formless mass like the discarded pieces of a deboned chicken, and nothing remained of Its host. All that remained.

Was Chaos Incarnate.

And yet despite all that it had done, and despite the form it now took, time had passed it far along until the extent of their plan revealed itself plain to the eyes upon their iron thrones.

Yet, and despite their undivided attention, something else was watching them back.

Melia Antiqua, was watching them back.

The Church - Under the Milky Way

Her skin had seemed to cease to be, and beneath it, the light roared. What was left, a burning mass of ether and willpower, impossibly formless as TV static, golden and white.

Melia took a step, her gaze black and wretchedly finite. She was a burning bright star, a supernova, an instance of completely temporary and infinitely fleeting existence that could not compare to the life-age of the universe, and yet-

She took a second step, and the sword that she had been holding to keep herself from falling, was wretched from the stone fist. The sword of origin, too, had melted into static, held together by the barest inclination of form. The shape of a sword, the suggestion of a sword, was all that remained. It was a Monado, an instrument and a weapon, a sword and a tool, and upon its core was a symbol that blazed so brightly and cleanly that it seemed absolutely transcendent.

神

"God"

A symbol of purpose. A symbol of intent. A symbol that communicated in language lost to its precise and inexorable song. The sword had bathed in chaos, and it had fed on it, been transformed by it, and yet what remained was not twisted, nor was it foul, nor was it divine in any way.

Because the sword was Melia's soul itself.

The pedestal upon which this precise miscalculation had been made.

Not Melia's miscalculation. She had done nothing wrong.

It had been chaos itself, which had made the mistake in question.

And Melia raised the sword above her head. Nurgle's face contorted in pain, Slaanesh in pleasure, Tzeentch in shock, and Khorne in rage. The sword's electric form was shed to reveal its straight edge unfair.

The world wept. The world cried. Melia's sword shuddered with hope, and her stroke fell upon the stone in instantaneous silence.

Her sword fell upon the west, and the rot burned into dust and the dust into glitter that fled into the sky and met the newborn sun.

Her sword fell upon the east, and the maws belching colors melted into the stone of the earth, their rainbow aurorae standing still across the sky transformed.

Her sword fell upon the south, and the smog retreated into the overgrowth, which burst with it and vanished into starlight.

Her sword fell upon the north, and the pillars of obsidian cracked and fell, rivers of lava cooling and shattering into anemone.

Melia's stroke had fallen quickly upon their faces, so quickly. She had delivered a god-slaying strike, and her strike had been true.

Upon each was stained the light of her fleeting hope for all time, finite and eternal.

That within the garden of Nurgle, and upon what could be his very flesh, there will forever grow anemone from even the most fetid and rotten and gangrenous of necrosis and rot, no matter how many times their stems are snapped.

That within the divine beauty of Slaanesh, there will always be a single jagged scar, a single seed of disgust and putrescence that cannot ever be healed, and that every solitary thing that ever gazes upon it will know their desires tempered.

That within the endless, interwoven threads of fate composed by Tzeentch, there will ever be torsion, a subtlest of pull, until once in an eternity, a thread will snap and unravel and never again be understood, an unfixable flaw in his endless tapestry.

That Khorne's throne, sat upon its mountain of death, will always sit him crooked upon it, and all who catch glimpse of its wretched form will know of the defeat that he faced here, for now and on into eternity.

And Melia...

Stands, her form shattered into static, brilliant wings wrapped around the castle into a halo of golden light. She takes the sword, and holds it against her chest.

The light peels away from her, and disappears, her body made whole again. Re-made, in fact, with all its flaws and scars intact. The sword disappears again into her soul, its purpose done, for now.

She is unarmed and naked, but triumphant nonetheless.

Edited by Whoma on Mar 17th 2024 at 12:08:10 PM

"O-oh, um, thank you. My name is Sunny.", Sunny politely says. Eve may be surprised, depending on if she's assuming this is the same Sunny that was in her hospital before. Because despite him sounding a bit monotone in voice, he still sounds more lively than Fallen Sunny. Same for his eyes, which also look more lively.

He also looks like he appreciates Eve coming in slowly rather than rapidly.

Sunny then looks around for a moment.

"How... did I end up here? The last thing I remember is being in my bedroom at night."

After bidding farewell to Sora and Sephiroth, Thor walks over to Iris' side.

"If I'm being honest, this isn't exactly how I thought our plans would go. Perhaps if I hadn't lost my temper and just moved on, Sarah and the other Thor would have been none the wiser," he admits. "I suppose I can only hope she doesn't do anything brazen and he doesn't prove too obedient to Odin to betray us. The last thing we need is the treacherous bastard knowing that we're plotting against him."

He sighs and shakes his head.

"At least we managed to enlist Sephiroth's aid and gain a new ally."

Tropique

"... okay I didn't expect him to be able to fly.", Iris admits, then listens to what Thor says.

"I guess that's a risk now, yeah. But as loud as that other Thor was, he didn't strike me as the lying type. Feels more like he'd have shouted at us and took off if his intention was to rat us out. Maybe I'm wrong, hopefully not. In any case, I'll be off too then. Thor, if you go investigate the church, be thorough with it just in case Gor can't be trusted after all. Not that I doubt you, but the last thing I want to do is start throwing punches for the wrong person. I already have enough to make up for as it is... though I guess Odin deserves it regardless."

She smiles as she starts to fly, holding onto the Deliderp so that it doesn't fall.

"See you in probably a few days or so, Thor!"

With that, Iris flies off as well.

And whoever was stealthily (and invisibly) following them also takes off. However, they don't go after Iris, instead flying off in a different direction.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 16th 2024 at 1:15:08 PM

Saying goodbye to the departing Iris, Thor turns on his heel before flying off as well.

Onyxis, Esche, Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex

Gwen, wearing civilian attire◊ rather than her Spider-Woman costume, strolls across the Pizzaplex's Atrium with a box of freshly cooked pizza tucked under her arm. Having decided to treat Bailey to something fun, she figured her sidekick would have a blast in a place like this. One question was nagging at her, though: where were all of the animatronics?

There was supposed to be a whole band comprised of a bear, a chicken, a gator, a wolf, and a rabbit. Instead, all Gwen had found so far was a hippo who, while polite enough, seemed incapable of knowing when to shut up and stop talking. She could've sworn Bailey had actually started falling asleep not even halfway through said hippo's rambling tangent about whoever his "good friend Orville" was. What's more, certain robots seemed to have this bizarre obsession with nagging people about maps.

Still, she wasn't about to let these little things ruin their fun. Upon reaching her seating area, she plonks the pizza box down onto the table where Bailey is currently sitting.

"Pizza time," Gwen says, cracking a grin as she settles into the chair beside him.

Eve nods to Sunny, flipping through her memories to precisely remember his time, hour, minute of arrival and reason why.

You were unconscious when your friend brought you here. I can easily... contact her if you need. She says, refraining herself from making a pinching motion with her fingers. She had plenty of means to track someone down indeed. But she didn't want to make it sound suspicious.

Edited by Bolded1 on Mar 16th 2024 at 1:54:23 PM

Hub Centralis

Flandre was bored, flying through the city looking for something to do.

Then Sarah's lightning and light show happens.

"ESOTERIC SKILLS AND PURE POWER"... well that certainly describes her. She also can sense some magic source as she approaches. She soon lands with all the destructive subtlety of a meteor strike.

"Ah, hello there. It's you again. Sarah, right?" Flandre greets them, twirling her parasol idly. "We fought back in that arena I recall. You were quite the fun opponent."

She gives Artemis a brief look to acknowledge she exists before ignoring her again.

Eve's Hospital

"My... friend?"

He looks a little downcast.

"I don't have a female friend... anymore.", he mumbles. "Whatever happened, a good person must've found me and brought me here then. I have to thank her if I meet her again."

He slowly gets out of bed. His legs are a little wobbly, but he's able to stand.

"I must've been out cold for a while.", he observes. He looks up at Eve.

"I should probably call my mom, she may be worried. What town is your hospital in, miss Eve?"

Onyxis, Esche, Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex

Bailey, too, is wearing civilian attire right now◊. They're here to have fun, after all. Though he does have his costume (except his mask) on underneath his clothes, just in case. As Gwen's on her way back, he's looking around at everything, pretty awed.

"I still can't believe a place this big is thriving in an area so cold."

Cue the pizza, which immediately gets his attention.

"Oh, sweet!"

He's already grabbing a slice before Gwen's had a chance to properly sit down. He takes a bite out of it, showing a few fangs in the process (which is kinda unavoidable when he's eating). Gwen had probably seen at least these few fangs before, though he definitely had not shown her what he looks like when his fangs are fully out.

"Okay, this pizza is really good! It was worth sitting through that boring robot's stories."

Gwen can't help but giggle at how eagerly Bailey was scarfing down his pizza. While she was a little surprised to see his fangs completely out, she certainly wasn't unnerved. She had seen Miguel's own fangs, after all.

"I'll say. Forget supervillains, staying awake through his droning is the biggest challenge we've ever faced," she replies. "If I hear the words 'my friend Orville" one more time..."

She picks up a slice of own before chowing down.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Mar 16th 2024 at 6:14:04 AM

Sarah briefly size up the newcomers ahead of time thanks to her senses and vision. It might feel a bit intrusive but, ah, it's because she wanted to be able to recognize some of them. Luckily for her, she mostly does. Icarus and Flandre are good assets. Icarus bring in the technogical expertise they could use to peer past magic too complex/magicky even for Artemis and Flandre bring in much-appreciated raw power, with a good side dish of esoteric power along the way.

It was a good start. A very good start. Why, with THOR being guaranteed to be about, it was almost like back at Icarus's tournament.

Heyo! Good to see you two! Anything goes, Icarus. I'm gonna sound vague, but we're probably going to be up against weird magic stuff, so your technology will be an extra edge for us. Sarah points to the Church of Gor, she figured it'd make sense to start making her point. We're gonna investigate the Church of Gor. I don't think they've done anything bad yet but their god has apparently shown Thor -a smaller Thor, Flandre- something that has him all angsty about taking on Odin. I don't want him to do that.

Granted, that "Gor" may be a third party looking to cause some chaos, Sarah has to admit. But someone is manipulating Thor. And if the Church isn't behind that, then, well, their idol is being used so they might as well help us. But if the Church is behind that, we're going to need esoteric skills to see through their lies and a lot of strength to take down whatever they might sent at us.

But keep in mind, the church's in the middle of Hub Centralis. And it's full of innocent civilians. So we're going to be prudent, we won't act off hunches and if a fight happen, we might need to be careful about collateral damage. If you guys have anything useful with that - any weird info, any knowledge on the Church's elite members, anything like that, let's share it now.

...

Eve's eyes narrow in sympathy, then she glances at his woobly legs and briefly pout at the idea of him going out to call someone.

Hub Centralis. It... well, it's latin, I'd guess. And it's an important city. She says, inviting him to eye down the street down by the hospitals via her index. She does keep an eye on him at the same time, in case he slips.

It's a huge town. I think it'd be bad to let you out, at least not until your mother is there to pick you up.

Eve's Hospital

"Hub... what?"

Sunny goes to look through the window and his eyes widen at what he sees.

"Wait, I don't recognize this place.", he says, sounding a little uncertain. Who can blame him, being a kid in a strange city without knowledge of how he got there other than that someone he doesn't know brought him here.

"How far away is this place from New York?", he then asks. Oh, he doesn't know this isn't his world.

Pizzaplex

"Ah, I looked around a bit while I was waiting for you and I found some old comic books in the 'kids entertainment' section of the atrium. Turns out Orville is some old elephant animatronic that I don't think exists anymore.", Bailey says as he already finishes his slice.

"Oh, but get this: I also found out that this place has a daycare with two jungle gyms."

... a strange thing for a kid Bailey's age to get excited about. There's probably something more to it.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Mar 16th 2024 at 2:40:10 PM

Eve think about giving a Mathematician's Answer to the problem but decide that Sunny probably isn't in the mind for that.

Quite far. You're in the Arena - a world away from home. She says, sounding a bit sad about having to say it. I could transport you to New York City if you wish but allow me to warn you that it might not work. This place sometimes liked to anchor some people in, and she didn't know why.

Still, she doesn't add on to the exposition yet. One step at a time.

Eve's Hospital

"A... huh?"

Sunny pauses, then pinches his cheek, as if to check if he's dreaming. The wince he makes in response to the stinging pain immediately tells him that, no, he's not.

"I'm... not hallucinating, right? This is actually real?", he asks, looking concerned. Not in a 'will I be alright?' kind of way, but in a 'am I going insane' kind of way.

Eve wonder about what she could do to answer him in a way that won't shock him too much. She decide to hold her hand up and create a flame in the palm of her hand, letting its warmth briefly shine over Sunny before letting the flame fade on its own.

ELEMENTAL MAGIC : FIRE

I'm sorry.

The fire initially makes him worry even more, but when he actually feels its warmth, feels that the flame is real, that's when it sinks in that he's not going crazy. He's awake, he's really here.

"Oh..."

It's starting to come back to him a bit. A strange light had made him wake up that night, but before he was fully awake, he found himself falling through something, and he ended up in a forest. He'd gotten stuck in that forest for days and eventually fainted.

That must be where that person found him. He survived by pure luck.

Sunny walks back to his bed and sits on it.

"If this is a different world then... I probably can't call my mom, can I?", he asks.

Wolfing down the rest of her own slice, Gwen decides to see if she can't figure out why Bailey was seemingly interested in this daycare with two jungle gyms.

"You wanna see if we can't practice on these jungle gyms?" she guesses.

Eve sympathetically shake her head, putting her hands behind her back again.

No. Being honest, I could try to reach her or bring you back to your world but it could be complicated. Ne... Eve think he doesn't need the technobabbles. Worlds like the Arena can be difficult to leave.

It's a good thing you were brought here by someone else indeed. They deserve praise for that. Eve think she oughta give the woman a cookie or candy next... no, probably not. Sugar is bad for one's health. I do have wings of my hospital if you need a place to stay. This world has a lot of denizen from other worlds in it. It could be confusing to navigate for you and you're lost.

Eve ponders a little. She had a wing of her hospital for "stranded" people but the word could ring badly on him.

Sunny seems to be deep in thought. He hadn't been going outside again for all that long. He definitely hadn't gotten used again to going to places on his own, and now he's in a place completely unknown to him. He has no idea how safe it would be outside the hospital. Staying here would probably be the safest thing to do. However...

"I... don't have any money.", he says, letting Eve know that he does want to stay here, at least for the time being, but has no way of actually paying for his stay.

"Not just practice, but show off.", he smirks. "Imagine how mindblown those kids will be if they see us jumping around!"

He eats another slice before continuing.

"Apparently the daycare had been closed for a while because the robot that watches the kids was gone, but it was found last week, so now it's open again. Wanna go take a look when we're done eating?"

Hub Centralis

Artemis contemplates her words for a moment, before folding her legs on the cloud she's sitting on and sighing.

"I only know bits and pieces- not enough to really help much. What I do know would require a lengthy explanation. Most I can say is their head priest- Meteorika -isn't who she seems to be."

Not everyone is as well-traveled as her. The name Mahito probably wouldn't mean anything to anyone other than her... though she'd gladly explain if asked to elaborate.

Eve smiles, always appreciating it when she gets to drop that line. It's free! Free of charge. Entirely free of charge. You can stay here for as long as you want so long as you treat your fellow decently! Eve says, spreading her arms wide. I understand if you find this hard to believe, but I'm self-sufficient with my magic. I don't need money to fund my hospital.

Eve smiles, leaning her head back slightly. Knowing you're healthy and doing well is the only reward I need.

Then, she does get slightly more serious. I'd understand if you're in disbelief at that but rest assured - you can see the other wing of the hospital as an hotel of a sort. It's somewhere you can be safe and get your bearings for as long as you need. She only did this to people who were lost, mind you; As not to disturb business.

After all, she didn't condone money, but these people wanted to earn it. And while she'd be happy to make them forego the need for material rewards, that wouldn't be well met here.

You can stay in my hotel until you return to your world or find some place you feel comfortable in within Hub Centralis. You can also travel into the city if you want, my place is... hard to miss!

Gwen smiles. She wouldn't mind using her acrobatics to make a few kids' days.

"Sounds good to me."

She grabs a couple slices from the pizza box before dropping one into Bailey's hands.

"But first, this pizza isn't gonna finish itself. C'mon, eat up!"

With that, she starts munching on her own slice of pizza.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Mar 16th 2024 at 7:16:15 AM