CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Darturien's armor and magical protection kept the bullets from being lethal to him, but he still yelled out in pain as a couple of them hit him. The lich turned to the Trickster briefly, the undead shaking his head. "Would have, already..." the lich said in response, before deciding to at least focus on his own particular opponent before their likely demise. Thus the lich advanced on Darturien, hands enveloping in more of that purple mist as the cleric barely rolled himself over on his back. Then however, the cleric raised one free hand up, and a short blast of bright energy erupted from him; though it did nothing to the Trickster, the lich was forced back as his body smoked and burned, screaming in agony.

"Hold your charge Tristen! Amelia, barrage now!" Valentina commanded from her position, then started charging red energy to her free hand again. Sir Tristen forced himself to a stop, and Ameila charged magic into her crossbow again, before firing another volley of three bolts. All three of them shattered in mid air shortly before impact, spraying the area where the lich and trickster were standing with shreds of wood. This along with Darturien's attack, and its previous wounds, proved too much for the lich to take, and his robes collapsed down as his body disintegrated into ash.

Edited by FirockFinion on Jun 13th 2019 at 3:53:17 AM

Street battle || Using the Secret Trickstar Technique

The Trickster instinctively shielded himself from Amelia's attack with his arms. Several flying splinters of wood lodged themselves in his left arm, further weakening it. He snarled in pain and rage.

Grimacing furiously, he opened his hand to reveal two frogbeasts. One of the frog-sized creatures would rush at Amelia, the other at Valentina—exploding if they somehow managed to get near.

The Trickster, meanwhile... turned tail and ran away towards the nearest street, trying to get away from the heroes.

Street Battle

Freckles wiring must have been damaged a bit from all the fire earlier. That was the only way Caboose could think of for his dependable weapon to allow any shots to hit the human shield. Still, it probably helped somewhat... no one died, anyways.

The sim trooper turned his head a bit and saw that Rean was in similarly bad shape to himself. Looked like they both had it rough... but Zero didn't look too put together herself, either. Caboose slotted in some more ammo, his face screwed up in uncharacteristic concentration.

If his pal Rean was gonna go throw himself right back into the fray, he'd provide some support at the very least. The intoner wouldn't get any time to peacefully regenerate before Caboose pointed his weapon right at her and pulled down on the trigger from his prone position. Despite the fact that Freckles wasn't directing his shots much anymore, he still had incredible accuracy. Going right for her head.

Arcade Battle

Meta knew he was nearing the end. Vilgax was dead now, which made killing Ben pointless. Was everyone here already able to respawn? This was ridiculous. While the soldier was barely winded by Riptide charging him like a torrent, there was little he could do to harm water.

Exhausted from blood loss though he was, there was no way someone as average as Lewis would be able to knock the bruteshot out of the Meta's grasp. Still, he didn't like it when people tried to disarm him. He almost lazily swung the blade of the weapon at Lewis, putting so little effort into a blow strong enough to bisect an unarmored man that it would be hard to believe he felt weak right now.

So many people charging him. The protagonist of a Disney movie he had watched long ago, a crazed berserker, the Tennyson boy... he'd weather the storm of the first couple of hits dealt his way, though he lacked the energy to block or dodge them, by dint of his overshield absorbing most of the impact. But it was clear that he couldn't do much else to retaliate.

Almost in resignation, the monster formerly known as Maine pointed his bruteshot straight down at the ground and fired six grenades right at his feet, hoping to at least hurt everyone around him. The impact, despite not killing him due to his shield, knocked him back onto the ground.

His helmet was knocked off, revealing a normal looking man's head. Completely bald with a bizarre tattoo displayed on the back of his head, and an incredibly scarred throat which was leaking a lot of blood through the wound Redring had inflicted. He let out a guttural growl, clashingly bestial coming from a human, and simply lay there as blood continued leaking out.

There was no way he could fight back against anyone who tried finishing him off now.

Two, X_X

Well, it seemed Vilgax was repe-oh, it was way too bright here.

Two slumped in a puddle of her own blood and went still.

"Alright, you piece of shit. I guess we'll be doing it the hard w-" The shot rung out and Zero suddenly came to a stop. The bullet went right through her good eye and left a nasty hole in her head. Normally, that kind of attack would be agonizing even if not lethal, but this time it seemed she just didn't have it in her to react to extreme pain, merely slowly raising her hand up to feel at the wound and confirm that yes, she was de-eyed.

As if the sudden lack of vision didn't be enough. "Well... that smarts." She muttered before dropping onto her knees and face-first into the ground, motionless.

Riptide splattered as soon as the explosions landed, sending water in all directions. He reformed himself, looking ragged, before he let out a green flash and now looked very much like Vilgax, except not nearly as burly and more normally-humanoid.

"Whoa, is this the Vilgax alien?" Ben asked. "I'll have to think of something later, right now's not the time!" he exclaimed, raising his arms to try and pummel Meta into submission. He fought hard to try and break through the Meta's overshield, but soon he was pounding his fists into the Meta's face.

"You're! One! Ugly! Freak! Y'know! That?!" he shouted, punctuating his strikes between his words.

Lady Amelia was quick to load in a new bolt, then power it and fire, hitting the frog beast that was coming for herself; in what some would incorrectly call irony, the bolt exploded on impact, taking out that frog. Since she didn't know that the frogs would explode, the ranger stayed near Lady Valentina, only to yelp in surprise and jump aside when it jumped on the shield and did explode.

Lady Valentina hadn't bothered about the other frog, because she had her shield up. The shield did get broken, but absorbed plenty of the blast before it did, leaving Lady Valentina only somewhat scratched by the attack, so to speak. "Darturien, heal that red armored knight" Lady Valentina said as one more instructions to her comrades, as her spell finished charging. She then thrust her glowing hand forward, and fired another destructive beam at the Trickster's retreating back.

Brother Darturien, who had only just gotten to his feet, glanced around and then raised his mace; both the mace and Caboose glowed for a moment, healing up some of Caboose's wounds.

"The fuck are you doing?!" Kelsey yelled, barely reaching in time to swing one chainaxe into the path of the Meta's bruteshot, keeping it from bisecting Lewis; the chainaxe was broken in the process though. Kelsey put her now free hand on Lewis' chest and pushed hard enough to basically toss Lewis away from the melee- maybe also break a rib or two as well, but that was better than being caught in the sudden grenade explosions that followed, which took Kelsey by surprise.

Of course, she was in full armor, so she survived the blasts, but the armor looked much the worse for wear, and there was some blood coming out of a few holes in the armor. "Shit, damn" Kelsey swore in pain, and it seemed from her voice that her teeth were clenched together. "Is that the last of it?" she then asked, glancing at Ben clobbering the Meta and the rest of the scene.

Edited by FirockFinion on Jun 15th 2019 at 11:28:58 AM

It seemed lady fortune decided to favor Rex for now since all the cultists were too focused... controlling the dragon to notice him. Maybe. Who even knew at this point? Rex didn't get it but he wasn't going to waste an opportunity like this one to end the fight for good. The dragon was still completely focused on him, after all.

Taking advantage of his momentum, he switched into his sword to slash the tablet.

"I was hoping for a tiebreaker" he said to himself.

Not far from there (or was it?) several vines sprouted once again from the ground into the shape of a man. This time though, Van Kleiss didn't plan to entrap or attack anyone. If anything, he was curious. Makoto had just appeared and considered her options. It was too tempting an opportunity to pass up. She was someone he could use as leverage or simply to gain information. Attacking a well prepared group earlier this day had gone less than ideally but waiting to pick interesting people off one by one was proving to be more successful after just a little bit of waiting.

"You must be Makoto, isn't that right?" he sounded unnervingly relaxed. As if he wasn't aware of any imminent danger or that he didn't bother taking it it seriously. " I believe we haven't been formally introduced"

It wasn't the easiest, but Rex's sword cleaved through the large tablet, and there was a burst of energy outward. The remaining duplicates of the cultist, the dragon, and the rest of his magic all vanished as the wave washed over them, ridding the cultist of everything except whatever he used to float in the air. He seemed quite surprised by this. "No! Impossible!" the cultist finally said in a deep voice.

"That's enough out of you. You're finished" Thomas said, bringing his broom to a stop and floating Silanea up a bit closer; not too close to Rex though, given the magic and tech issue.

Then, the cultist... Started laughing. A deep, unnaturally reverberating laugh. "You fools! If you strike me down, then the celestial pillars will descend upon this city!" the cultist boasted madly.

"Huh?" Thomas responded simply, sounding a bit skeptical.

"You will become trapped by the vortex! Overrun by the stardust swarms! Snuffed out by the nebula! And incinerated in the solar fires!" the cultist boasted, then brought his hands together, and added in a low, more sinister tone, "then even if you defeat them all... Your doom will approach... Mwuha, hahaha! AHAHAHAHAA!"

Silanea had her shield up at the ready, though glanced aside at Rex with one eyebrow raised in a somewhat incredulous expression.

City Streets

Makoto didn't notice the EVO's appearance until he spoke, and then she was quick to turn in his direction, instinctively getting into a fighting stance. This was pretty bad, being out here by herself with no idea where the Library was. But maybe she could outrun him?

"I think I know more than enough about you, Van Kleiss," she said, glaring at him. "You tried to kill Rex, and that's all the information I need." But for some reason, he wasn't even attempting to attack her. What was his game here? "...What do you want with me?" Maybe he'd take the bait and explain his plan without having to fight him.

I'd been about to try and essentially fall away from the swing, only to be unceremoniously pushed away instead by the axe lady. It had the nice side effect of also keeping me from subsequently being blown up, but...getting bailed out again? "I can handle myself..." I mumbled, looking up to ascertain how the pokémon were.

At first the mist seemed to chase them upward, before its green color began to pulse away. Could it...starve? No sooner than that did it cease its pursuit and sharply turned back toward the much nearer ground where we were.

"Actually, that mist—" I began to correct, starting to reach in my bag for the phaser before it pounced directly onto her.^note Upon its strike, Kelsey might feel the entity reaching within her for buried pains and resentments, trying to draw from them cause to end the man on the ground before her. The more she gave in, if she did at all, the more clouded her thoughts would feel, as though in a dream, and the more a very faint green shade seem to crawl up the hand holding her remaining chainaxe (not that it could really be seen under her armor). Depending on her resistance, that same hand might then try to slash Lewis as he was trying to escape. Quickly, I took a shot, hoping to make an opening for me to roll to the side and not die.

Edited by Oceanstuck on Jun 16th 2019 at 11:51:58 AM

Gon and Chaoz, seeing Brother Marcus

"Who the fuck are you suppose to be?" Chaoz stared at him... If it can classified at a him in his view. "Can't you see I got a lot of catching up to go with my buddy Gon?"

"Bullshit." Gon gritted his teeth as he tried to get up. "You killed her!"

The Trickster | A hasty retreat

The Trickster was focused on getting away, but did peek back over his shoulder—and saw Valentina pointing a glowing hand at him. He realized what was happening, but it was too late to dodge out of the way. Valentina's beam slammed him in the back, causing Trickster to yell in pain. He staggered, and almost fell. Groaning painfully and limping, he focused on getting just far enough to get teleported away from the heroes.

Arcade Battle

As Ben kept attacking the dying Meta, the brute was only able to offer a token resistance. His arms struggled to block the blows, but there just wasn't enough energy for that to work. When the transformed kid broke through his overshield, he completely gave up on fighting back.

It just wasn't worth the effort anymore.

Despite the strength of each of Ben's blows, it would still take an unlikely amount of punches to do Meta in. His body had inhuman resilience. Despite the doubtlessly great pain each hit caused in him, the super soldier's face betrayed no discomfort even as it was deformed into a bruised and bleeding mess. Just a calm stare of rage and hatred.

There was no grand death for him. The brute's body simply fell limp after a great deal of punishing blows, though his eyes still stared up defiantly. A dead gaze of hatred.

Street Battle

Though his body was good at keeping the pain minimized, Caboose immediately noticed the burns dotting his body being cured slightly. It still hurt to exist, but not to an extent that he could barely even stand up. "Oh, that feels better," he said in light confusion, not making the connections necessary to realize why he had been healed. Clearly burns just healed faster than he remembered!

Not dwelling on it any longer because he didn't understand it, the red soldier quickly got to his feet and slapped some more ammo into Freckles. He was actually starting to run out, though it was a miracle it hadn't been depleted completely earlier.

Never one to hesitate, he raised up his gun towards the fleeing Trickster and just fired at him. It didn't need to be anymore complicated than a bunch of bullets. "Oh, Rean, can you go and make sure Zero doesn't get up? I think I'm done with her sword anyways so I just want her and everything with her to go away now," he asked his friend.

Edited by pillowmantis on Jun 15th 2019 at 1:32:20 PM

"Thanks, I get that a lot" Rex answered, holding his wrist that had been his sword just a second ago. It hurt a little and maybe he was getting a bit tired at this point. But doing the impossible was just routine for him "Rex: 2, dragons... let's say 0.5"

The cultist was still shocked but he had one last trick up his sleeve. He brought up a lot of confusing terms related to stars as he promised the total destruction of the city if he was killed.

The rest of the group was equally as confused and they seemed to be just a little scared about the possibility of his crazy rambling not being just that. or that's what Rex thought.

"Relax, he's bluffing" he winked at Silanea, with a confident smile.

Naturally, he wasn't sure if that was the case. The day had to be beatable but maybe this one was one of those instant-death conditions he had accidentally triggered.

"You should be more careful with who's approaching who!" he said shooting one of the bolas the cultist. Hopefully it would just shut up already.

Van Kleiss chuckled as Makoto practically change into a fighting stance and seemed laser-focused on wanting to take revenge in the name of her boyfriend. He hadn't expected anything else from someone Rex kept close to him.

"Of course. That scuffle near the library probably didn't convince you that I can be reasonable and I'm sure Rex wasted no time painting me in a very negative light. But you seem smart, Makoto, do you honestly think you can trust any of his words?"

but he to her own. What she had asked was very interesting for once. Definitely not something Rex would have done in her place. recalling what howing his back at her.

"What I want? It's very simple. The world can't go on like it does, full of incompetency and shortsightedness that causes so much unnecessary suffering. It's time for a change in direction and a firm leader is required. I was very close to achieving the means that would allow me to be exactly in that position. But as usual, someone got in the way" He stopped for a moment to look at his gauntlet. He should have predicted the other members of the project wouldn't sit back and let him do what had to be done. It must have run in the Salazar family, he supposed. And they had another thing in common, they couldn't keep him away from his destiny forever. "But your existence proves something I frankly already suspected a long time ago. There are other worlds out there. Worlds were the plight of EVOs is unheard of, and home to unique abilities"

He turned back again, with a more serious expression. The face of a man that had a very clear plan in mind.

"As what I want from you specifically... I have an offer. This place is a prison but it can easily be turned into an opportunity to learn some vital information. I can't possibly carry out my plans alone, but you could be of great help. All the knowledge in the multiverse is right under our noses and it's wasted decorating a library. Imagine it, your entire world's problems could disappear without a trace with you ruling on top of everyone for the rest of your very long life, if it only were applied effectively. No more wars, no more hunger, simply justice. The only thing I ask for is that you help me crush my enemies"

Edited by DeisTheAlcano on Jun 15th 2019 at 2:44:15 PM

And then Zero got shot in the good eye by Caboose's haphazard firing, collapsing to the ground face first. Rean quietly walked over to the Intoner, staring down at her prone body. Was she dead? Caboose didn't seem to think so, since he wanted Rean to 'make sure she didn't get up again.'

"Ah...Yeah." Rean murmured. In the end, it was kind of unfortunate that things went the way they did for her, but if she got up again, there'd be no telling what she'd do this time.

"...." Rean took a deep breath, and then brought his sword down towards Zero's neck.

Once the deed was done, he looked around, looking to see where the girl they were escorting wound up.

Crow turned around, hearing Hades' verbal eruption behind him. "You too, huh?" He says, approaching the god of the underworld. He looked him over for a second, before taking out his ARCUS. "Sorry if this puts out your 'do." Crow says, casting Teara on him.

It was intended to heal him, but given how it was a water element spell, who knows how that interacted with Hades' hotheadedness.

Bengax stopped punching as soon as the Meta stopped moving, staring up with his hateful, ugly face.

Bengax grabbed Meta's arm and pulled it over to block his face.

"You really are ugly. It's creeping me out," Bengax muttered, before Lewis pointed out the... weird green cloud floating down towards the group.

"...Is that some kinda poison gas?" he asked, before the watch flashed green again and Ben transformed into Cybersaur.

"Well! Good thing I don't need to breathe anymore!" he said, trying to swat the mist away with a wave of his hand.

City Streets—-How Many Times Does She Have To Tell You People This

Makoto continued to glare, but didn't interrupt as Van Kleiss spoke. She wasn't about to take the words of someone that tried to drain the life out of Rex at face value. If he thought that she was going to trust him just because he could act polite and used big words, then he was deeply underestimating her. Or he was just that arrogant when it came to his intelligence. Probably a little of both. She was getting the impression that van Kleiss was a man that wanted control above everything else. The quickest way to attain that control was through superior power.

"So you want me to betray Rex...so you can create a world that is ruled by justice?" she asked. As much as she'd like a world where suffering wasn't a thing, his plan didn't feel right. Gaining peace through subjugating others was just suppressing their will, wasn't it? That was orderly, but it was through oppression. Makoto wasn't very interested in forcing everyone in her world to do as she said as if she knew what was "right" for them. That's what someone's warped Shadow would do. The Phantom Thieves freed people from being manipulated by others. This was the exact opposite.

"You know...I don't think I like your justice very much. And I'm certainly not letting you hurt Rex again." Makoto's clothes switched to her leather and metal uniform in a flash of blue flames, her mask forming over her eyes. "Maybe you think you're doing something good, but I'm not helping you take over your world. I'm sure Providence can stop the EV Os without that kind of twisted leadership!"

"'Up?' The gas? What about it?" Kelsey said, confused since Lewis had basically been about as vague as he possibly could have been. "Well, I think my helmet has a filter" she added, though her tone made it clear she wasn't actually certain, but also didn't sound like she actually cared that much. As if the idea of choking on poisonous gas just didn't seem to faze her.

Kelsey then went stiff suddenly as the mist hit, her hand clenching tightly around the chainaxe's handle. Lewis' shot did nothing against her armor; she didn't even seem to notice. She was too busy having her resentments and guilt dragged up to the surface of her consciousness, and being amplified by the entity. It didn't make her want to attack Lewis though; she didn't even really know who he was, and thus, didn't care. However, there was one person in the city she felt the most anger towards, that she carried the most resentment for. Slowly, she lifted the chainaxe up near her shoulder, ready to strike, because (un)luckily for the entity, that person was right in range.

Herself.

The chainaxe spun to life again and not a moment later was spraying blood around as it chewed through Kelsey's neck from the side, her body suddenly lurching before hitting the ground heavily in response.

Up on the nearby rooftop, Nimbus chirped in surprise and alarm in a general pokemon yell of, 'what in the fuck'.

"That is not explaining yourself" Brother Marcus stated flatly as he marched up to Chaoz, still in his deep, modulated tone. With a calm though swift motion, the space marine grabbed Chaoz's rifle by the barrel guard, and then crushed and bent it along with the barrel underneath, rendering the rifle incapable of firing without exploding. "I am battle brother Marcus of the Ultramarines chapter, of the mighty Emperor's adeptus astartes" the space marine said, turning off his helmet modulation. As he grabbed his chainsword from his hip and pointed it at Chaoz's throat, the astartes added, "this is your last opportunity. Explain yourself, now."

Lady Valentina scoffed as the Trickster survived her attack, then raised her staff and fired a new spell in his direction. The pair of blue rings shot forth, and would zip around the Trickster's sides to clamp onto his wrists, then seemingly root themselves in place in mid air, trying to keep him bound there.

Lady Amelia loaded in a new bolt to her crossbow, and empowered it before firing at the Trickster's back as well; it was another faster, piercing style bolt.

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, Sir Tristen and Brother Darturien held back. Cleyo was once again seemingly nowhere to be seen.

The bolas bound around the cultist, pinning his arms to his body. He let out a sort of forced cough as it also compressed his lungs slightly... Then he just kept floating there, wheezing slightly as he breathed a bit difficultly.

"... So... Now what, Rex?" Silanea asked.

"Well, the prison's right there" Thomas reminded them, motioning down.

Edited by FirockFinion on Jun 17th 2019 at 1:06:16 PM

As soon as Cybersaur saw the gas lunge towards the group, he leaped in the way, but it bent around him and jumped straight into Kelsey. He turned, but before he could react and try to grab Kelsey, she reached out and sliced at... herself.

"WHAT?! Whoa! Whoa! What the— GEEZ!" he shouted in shock and horror as Kelsey's body slumped to the ground. "Kelsey?! Kelsey!!" he shouted, to no avail. He looked around, a green flash filling the air as Ben transformed to Wildvine. He kept looking around but his singular eye made things difficult.

"You've gotta be—" he started to say, when he flashed again and transformed into Cannonbolt.

"—kidding me!" he said, sounding upset, angry and hurt. "Is that thing still around?! Cause if it is—" he again started to say, before he again transformed, this time into Morph.

"—I'm gonna give it a knuckle sandwich!" he shouted, looking down at his gelatinous Changeling hands. "And this is getting really annoying really fast! Let's get to the library pronto, it's not safe out here..."

Trickster | Getting away

The Trickster was about to disappear between the buildings when Caboose's volley caught him in the leg. He howled, like a stricken wolf, but kept limping onwards with his leg bleeding. Escape was so close...

Just a few steps more, and he'd be safe. Then, find someone to heal him... and then... and then... he'd gather all the other nemeses, extract Garrett from the damned library, like a walnut from a shell...

Blue rings shot by from behind and clamped themselves on his wrists, stopping the Trickster cold. "No!" he yelled. He thrashed about, shouting profane Pagan curses, when Amelia's bolt caught him in the back. The Trickster's body convulsed and a stream of blood oozed from the wound. Yet still, though battered, he clung to life.

He tried one final, desperate gambit: he summoned two frogbeasts, one from each hand, and bid them to immediately explode—with enough strength to rip off his manacled hands. It would really hurt, and render him nearly helpless and close to death... but escape was so close, and he just needed a moment of mobility, just a few steps more...

...As she fell to the ground with a fount of blood, a large number of green wisps appeared only to dissipate just as quickly.

I'd preemptively begun to roll to the side before realizing I wasn't being attacked, and watched for a moment in shock before having the thought that maybe I shouldn't have just been sitting there. Immediately following that, I raised my arm to try and finagle with the healing watch thing I'd gotten earlier, only to register that wait she was already dead. Also, the thing looked bugged anyway.

...

"...I think the thing's dead too, at least..." I added, though I certainly didn't sound enthused at all about that fact. I stared for several moments at the lady's remains before standing weakly, idly wiping a bit of blood that'd splashed on me.

Swishee finally came gliding down to the ground gently in a circle, before depositing Lil' Sunny to the ground, who was crying again. Nimbus also floated down from the rooftop, chirping a bit to Lil' Sunny that they should get moving.

"Hey! Everything alright over there!?" a man's voice called after he walked out of a nearby alley. Something small and four legged with him let out a sort of sharp bark before hurrying over towards the scene. Lil' Sunny perked up, then finally looked relieved, as here came Pecha the trapinch. The man following after was Nails from the militia, though he didn't have his badge, phaser, or any other weapons, aside from a metal baseball bat, which was slightly bent near the top, with some dried blood on it. "Tennyson?" the militia member asked after realizing who the repeatedly shifting person probably was; Nails glanced around, then added, "Jesus, what happened here?"

Edited by FirockFinion on Jun 18th 2019 at 10:18:44 AM

Morph looked towards the approaching Nails, nodding as he approached.

"Hey, aren't you from the Militia?" he asked, before a green light enveloped him and transformed him into Upgrade.

"It was crazy. A bunch of our bad guys ambushed us," he told the Militia man. He gestured towards the dead bodies of Vilgax, the Meta, and the other nemeses. "They jumped us. We've gotta get back to the Library, pronto. I'd take us there but—" he started to say, when he transformed again, this time into Heatblast. Then Stinkfly. Then Grey Matter. Then the watch flashed brightly red and beeped before unceremoniously dumping him back into human form.

"Is it finally done?!" Ben asked, wincing and looking at his wrist in confusion. Sure enough the watch was back on cooldown. "Thank goodness. That was messed up," he murmured angrily. "Anyway. we should get going." With that, he gestured for Lewis and Nails to follow, moving in the direction of the Library in the distance. He pulled out his phaser, looking around for anyone about to jump them.

Edited by AllHailThrall on Jun 18th 2019 at 2:19:48 PM

The scene was left in silence as the team tried to figure out what to do next.

"...prison it is then" Rex said after Thomas brought up how close they were to it.

He decided to land while still holding the cultist with his wings, although Rex didn't really bother slowing down to stop the cultist from hitting the floor.

"I hope you learned your lesson and stuff" he stretched his neck after having done such a great job. "Man, it feels like I've been fighting for weeks, do you guys ever get that?"

"Betrayal is such an ugly word. Think of it as comeuppance" Van Kleiss explained. After so many times foiling his plans and the simply prolonging the inevitable, it was only fitting this new world would be built over Rex's grave.

Genuine shock appeared on his face before it disappeared in favor of disappointment. It was such a shame really. Getting Rex to fight someone he had clearly lied to would have been entertaining. And while Van Kleiss didn't feel the need to share his success with anyone else, the idea of a powerful lackey was always tempting. Oh well, there could be dozens of people that could fit that role without having such a hard time following orders.

"Providence? Oh my, and here I thought you could think for yourself. You trust the words of an amnesiac boy and a military organization hellbent on cleaning up a disaster their bosses created? And I suppose you know how Rex is connected to it all, isn't that right? Have you even looked at the situation from an unbiased source? Wait, don't tell me... you know what he does to his friends, don't you?"

City Streets

"I can think for myself just fine, but it's not difficult to tell that you're not exactly the hero back home," Makoto said to him. She wasn't going to forget the things she saw Van Keiss do anytime soon. Not even his EVO lackeys seemed to like him. She was momentarily confused about what he was trying to hint at before it clicked for her. Rex said he betrayed his old gang a long time ago, before he lost his memory. "You think you can manipulate me that easily? I already know what happened, he told me himself. Maybe he did abandon them, but that's not the kind of person he is now." She smiled and touched her mask.

"And since you're so curious about other worlds and their powers, how about I give you a test drive of mine?" She tore off the mask, summoning her persona to ride. "It's just you and us here, no distractions to stop me from kicking your ass this time!" Anat's engine growled as she revved the bike up.