"Taking out its eyes should give an advantage, but for a killing blow, I think getting on its back and destroying its heart" Brother Marcus answered Kouta as they ran after Vendral on the ground, heading towards the library.

Up in the air, Ben was able to just barely reach and grapple back onto Vendral, latching on and stabbing into him just behind his right wing. Lune also managed to stab him, but the sword from the beanstalk did not inflict any sort of killing blow; it was only for getting rid of his magic shield, it seemed, and was otherwise more or less a normal sword. Out ahead of Vendral, Twilight was able to keep her laser on one of Vendral's heads, but all this together was not stopping or even really slowing down Vendral yet, and he was closing the distance with Twilight fast.

Meanwhile, Miss Tairee shook her head and tried to answer Twilight. "Look as long as yer' holdin' me he's just gonna come after and kill ya'; better to just let him take me and worry about that after- wait are ya' watching where yer' going?" Miss Tairee said, and looked around to where they were flying towards, muttering a quick, "ah shit."

One side of the library exploded inwards, bookshelves and pieces of the upper floors scattering towards the other side as Vendral slammed into it. Amid the chaos, Twilight and her charge were sent tumbling through the air, Twilight's telekinetic hold on Miss Tairee being lost; the librarian fell away from her to Vendral's outreaching right head, which caught her firmly yet safely. Also sent flying was Lune's head and Lune's body, thrown off Vendral's back by the sudden change in momentum; Diamondhead managed to stay on through the grip of the grapple vine, but only just.

Battered but not yet beaten, and with his hostage re-captured, Vendral roared out in triumph. Somewhere in the city, a clock tower let out a loud, slow chime, followed a moment after by another. Twelve chimes there would be, after which it would be midnight; they had mere moments to finally kill off this dragon, or fail trying. Sensing victory near, Vendral started to thrash about in the wrecked half of the library; his wings flapped madly, his head holding Miss Tairee swung around like a scaled wrecking ball, and his free head started shooting out a constant torrent of flame as it turned this way and that, all with the intent of making the area around him a very dangerous place to be. His tail would also have been thrashing around, stabbing with the two points it had, if not for Brother Marcus leaping to it and stabbing his sword into it; the space marine did his best to try and wrestle the dragon into holding still, but the size and strength difference was too much even for him, and the best he could do was keep the tail relatively still as the rest of the dragon kept thrashing around wildly. Miss Tairee was screaming for somebody to kill him already, but it was lost among the chaos.

This was their last chance.

edited 14th Feb '16 12:38:04 AM by FirockFinion

Diamondhead yelled as the dragon tried to shake him off, and he just barely hung on even with the grappling hook still attached to the dragon's body. He decided he had to act quickly. He had an idea. It was a barbaric idea that he really hoped he would never have to use again, but if it meant saving the minds of all those who had died yesterday, he had to do it.

He grappled the vine towards the head that was holding Miss Tairee. If he could just get to the head, he could hopefully end this. If he managed to reach the back of the dragon's head, he would turn his free hand into a diamond spike... and stab it right into Vendral's head. Nothing should be able to survive a diamond spike being shoved into its brain.

Grimlock; Dragon form

Base of the Plant Thing -> Library

The sky was on fire. The sky was on fire. Or at least he thought it was, seeing as there was a very, very, big burst of fire that was so big, that it looked very near despite it being far. As soon as that happened, he heard Morty shout and head straight to the library. He looked at the building's entrance, then back at the flames. He was so tempted to just go rush and see if he could help, 'cause that had to be that dragon. But he knew he'd be more hindering than helpful.

With a sigh, he went inside to the library along with others who went inside. Morty closed the door after he was sure no one else was coming in. Then a chicken was talking about the sky falling. Morty threw a book at it. He missed, but the chicken ran nonetheless.

Grimlock went near the window near the door. He frowned. He just realized something. Lune, clown guy, Ben, and sword girl were fighting the dragon...now, he was worried for them, but he was sure they could take care of themselves since they had superpowers, but...

"Hey, uh... Morty? Wasn't Rick fightin' the dragon?" he said with worry.

Then the suddenly a part of the library was blasted. Instinctively, he used his body shield Morty, and anyone who might've been near him. After a moment, he looked back and saw a large dragon was thrashing about. It was the dragon the others were after. He gritted. At this rate, he might destroy the entire library, and kill most of the people in it. He growled.

He had to help.

He gave a roar and charged forward, ignoring the pain in his leg. He opened his maw and intended to clamp his jaw on the neck of left head with all his Cybertronian might.

Cole flinched when the fear spiked yet again in the direction of the library, and yet at the same time there was a crashing, explosions, as though something massive had just hit. He winced, grabbing at his daggers and breaking into a sprint for the library, calling out to groups of people as he passed them.

"Stay away from the library, and do not challenge the dragon! It won't hurt you if you don't try to hurt it! Just stay clear! Let me handle it!"

Big words considering how well the last attempt at handling a dragon had gone for him, but what other option was there? He'd probably get killed again...that made him falter in his run for an instant before he was picking up the pace once more. He didn't matter. Keeping others safe, trying to protect the helpless, heal the hurt, that was his purpose, the whole of why he existed.

He beelined for the doors of the library as quickly as he could, still shouting to wave everyone clear as he did. Even if it just got him burned yet again, he couldn't stay away and let others risk pain without him. He had to try to help.

Ah, morning already came. Koishi was always a slow starter; she never had the need to be anywhere, so she was loathe to take anything less than the maximum amount of time to get up. Surely, her sister would come in minute now and tell her to wake up and...

Smell the ashes?

She bolted upright, her sense of smell giving the opposite impression of what she imagined. She was, in fact, not in bed. She was still in this bizarre fantasy land. The horrible dream she had was real. She had just died.

The gravity of that last bit got to her. She had just been burnt alive, and though she was sitting there fine in all but the head, she had never imagined she would have to experience that. She sat there for a bit, piecing together what had happened and letting it soak in. Maybe if she had made the connection between paper and fire sooner than later she and her comrades wouldn't of...

Oh yeah, her comrades. Where happened to them? She got up to her feet a bit shakily, and then cleared the trees to overlook the rest of the city. Her first instinct was to call for them, "Rex! Lune! Uh..." She wasn't sure about the last one. She looked to the clouds, the fire having spread a lot farther than she imagined. Even if they were up there right now, she doubted they were doing fine. She didn't want to really be anywhere near fire in general right now, either.

The building in the center, much closer than the clouds, gave the best candidate for where they were, mostly because she could see a dragon's rear poking out of a gaping hole one of the upper floors. If they were there, what was happening to them? Koishi wanted to find out, but at the same time she didn't want to get killed in the same fashion any more times than one. She wanted to go back down, and she really wanted to go home more than she had all day.

...But, she wanted to make sure that they were alright, as well. She couldn't just abandon them to die like she did, even if she had just met them. No one should have to. She could just sneak in and spirit them away, after all, and have someone else kill the dragon instead. They had tried enough.

She started to warily make her way towards the Library as the echo of an alarm clock, the significance lost on her, rang the first of twelve strokes.

edited 14th Feb '16 9:35:55 AM by wikkit

Mary - Carpentry Shop Crashers

Mary could only reply with a nod to Sadness' suggestion. What words could she say in such a situation? She was too scared, and it wasn't hard to tell that Sadness was very nervous as well. But she had no idea what to do about it. "How To Make Friends" didn't have any advice for people who were horribly frightened by a dragon.

"Pinocchio?" a voice suddenly called from somewhere. "Is that you, my boy?"

A door at the back of the shop opened, and from it came an old man in pajamas, holding a lit candle. Upon seeing the girls, his wrinkled face showed an odd mix of surprise, concern and a bit of disappointment.

"Are you two okay?" the carpenter asked calmly as he approached and knelt in front of the unusual duo. "Why you look like you have been through a lot lately. Are you tired? Would you like something to drink or eat? Come on in now, there is no need to be afraid."

With that said, he simply headed back through the door, leaving it open for Mary and Sadness to go through as well if they pleased. In all honesty, it did sound like a very generous offer for the fabricated girl, but it felt rude to head there without asking the emotion for her opinion. Plus, she didn't fully trust that candle.

"Hmmm... should we follow him?"

Twilight recovered from the Dragon's attack on he ground.

She had had enough. This dragon needed to go down.

If what Miss Tairee said about midnight was true, this was their last chance.

Twilight probably couldn't muster the magic power to make any meaningful attacks against the dragon, but maybe she could make things easier for the others.

Time to see if that little trick she used on the Hooffields and Mc Colts would work.

Using every single ounce of stamina and energy she had left, Twilight attempted to use her magic to hold the dragon in place, immobile and helpless against attacks.

Fire Velocity Zone/ Act 1

Sonic ran towards the library, but then, he saw the beanstalk, and upon seeing it, Sonic had a idea.

He charged a spin dash, and like last time, ran up the side of the beanstalk. After running up for a bit, he jumped pushing Sonic off the side of the beanstalk. As he fell to the ground, he tried to get closer to the dragon, trying to reach it's wing.

Knowing that if he missed, he would fall to the ground, and he could't run back up before midnight, Sonic closed his eyes, hoping that he would hit the wing or at least something else.

edited 14th Feb '16 2:55:37 PM by DGAMER

Lune can't give up! Everything was on the line here! Although her head was separated from her body yet again, Lune got her body to stand up and rush over to wherever the dragon is located. It seemed the two heads were being attacked by Grimlock and a diamond-like troll, and Twilight Sparkle was attempting to hold down the body with her magic. The blue creature was even attempting to do a kamikaze divebomb attack on the dragon.

The headless body moved away from the others before thinking of a strong enough finishing move. It was time for something Lune had never thought of before: combining two of her techniques and ripping off Sanger Zanvolt, the German Samurai of the Steel Dragons, in the process. If Sanger were here, Lune's head wondered how he may react. Will he be proud of her?

The headless body pulled out the Divine Blade and dramatically unsheathed it. Then she did something really unexpected. Both of her arms and the Divine Blade got infused with lot of dark energy. If one looks real closely, the Divine Blade is completely enveloped by a pair of Cross Smasher beams. And then she put all of her might into the blade, causing the Cross Smasher beams to grow to about 3 to 4 Lunes in height.

"Cross Smasher Slash!" After Lune's head yelled that, the headless body dramatically jumped into the air and attempted to cleave the dragon's body in two with the Cross Smasher-imbued sword. "Chesto!"

edited 14th Feb '16 8:10:23 PM by josh6243

"Even you should know that such a distance across this body of water would be impossible to traverse," the fox said.

"Hey man, I'm da mudda fukin' Gingerbread Man yo," the sentient cookie said. "This here creek ain't got nuthin' on my sweet ass!"

"Then why do you not cross is yourself?" the fox slyly said.

"W-W-Well, its cuz I'mma......'llerigic ta water, bro!" the cookie responded, clearly hiding behind his ego. "Jus' gotta make myself a boat to dodge dem scrubs who wanna bite me."

"Actually, I have a better solution," the fox said. "Mayhaps you can ride atop my back, and I can carry you across the water to safety."

"Foxes don't swim bro, you'd sink like a rock! And I dun wan no skanky ass fox hair all over mah tasty pecs!" the cookie said, flexing.

"Now, where did you here that information from?" the fox said. "In actuality, us foxes are excellent swimmers. Whom told you otherwise......?"

"I....uh.......dat's classified info yo, dun need to tell you where I get mah protips!" the cookie responded, clearly hiding the fact he completely made up his previous statement on the fly.

"Well, since you seems so fully informed of the world, I shall leave you to your devices," the fox said, starting to walk away. "Surely you are competent enough to throw off your pursuers when they eventually come here......"

At this, the gingerbread man's bravado started to quickly crumble. After a moment's delibration, he came to a decision.

"Yo man, wait up - "

*FWOOSH SPLASH*

Plague Knight ran across the creek, splashing water as he reached the shore all over the fox and the gingerbread man. The fox merely shook himself dry. The gingerbread man -

"OH GOD, THIS HURTS SO MUCH, MAH SKIN'S BURNING MAN, IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HUR-UR-UR-URTS!!....."

As fox had not eaten in at least a day, he shrugged and walked up to the prone, water soaked cookie.

"SOMEBODY PLEASE KILL ME, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE - " *chomp* "I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BAAAAACK!!!"

Meanwhile, Plague Knight found himself returning the library as he pursued the dragon. When he came within range, he ran into a nearby wall to cancel the effects of the Fleet Flask. He expertly rolled to his feet after recoiling, a result from repeated uses of the arcana, and looked up at the dragon. Already most of the others and Marcus were assaulting the dragon, keeping it down and trying to kill it. He switched to his Big Boom arcana, tightly grabbed the neck of the massive flask, and spun around, gaining momentum to toss the volatile, wall destroying concoction at the dragon.

With a final heave, Plague Knight chucked the flask high into the air, straight for the dragon. The flask would no doubt hit and cause a gigantic explosion. Only question was whether any of the others would be caught in the blast and, most importantly, whether the dragon would be damaged by it.....

Strangely enough, the name Pinocchio seemed familiar...Sadness could easily remember the name if she took a second to think about it, but she wasn't in the mood. She wearily looked around the homey room and decided it was probably okay. Better than any alternatives, at least.

Plus, food. Sadness hadn't even figured out whether eating was a hundred percent necessary for her here, but it sure seemed like a good idea.

"He's probably fine, let's go," she mumbled.

Base of the Beanstalk

"Whatever the case, it's far too late for us to help," Specter Knight replied, "And even if they died they'll come back."

In truth, he could easily teleport to the Library. Given the destruction the dragon had already caused, however, he decided that doing so would be quite foolish.

Morty did his best to calm his jangled nerves as he hunched under the table. Everything was fine- the other people had it under control, honestly, they did... they'd fought Marcus and won, hadn't they? Everything was fine, everything was going to be alright... it had to be.

Then, approximately six nanoseconds after Morty had started to soothe his nerves, the dragon exploded through the library wall, setting everything ablaze. Approximately three seconds later ,everything started to explode again... although he was shielded from the worst of the blast by Grimlock's massive frame, he could still feel his hair start to singe. Too tired to even scream, the teenager just stared blankly ahead, silently willing all of this to just stop.

Also, for some reason Morty could smell cooked chicken off in the distance.

It was probably best to take his grandfather's advice and not think about it.

The library

Rex couldn't even take a break from dying because the dragon bursted through the library's wall a few seconds after he had sit on a chair.

It was a fight or fly situation and Rex wasn't going to escape from the guy that had killed him. This wasn't just to win some points with Tairee and try to convince to free them, this was personal and it was payback time.

To his surprise, Brother Marcus was there actually helping them. Then again, like Rex, his job involved dealing with monsters. He used the opportunity to jump with his metal feet a few meters in the air and then turn his arm into a giant sword, aiming at one of the heads.

Lune would find the hard way that attempting to do something she'd never done before without any practice was not the best idea in the middle of a hectic fight; especially not when she'd literally lost her head. Not only did her attack fail to go off as intended, her body hadn't even fired it in the right direction, and what did go off only clipped part of Vendral's right wing. Thankfully though, everyone else was on point, including Sonic slamming into the left wing, which combined made both wings go limp for the moment.

Twilight was finding that trying to hold all of Vendral with her telekinesis was too much of a strain, but if she focused on one particular part, she could hold it steady. From Vendral's back, Ben's first swing of the vine hook missed Vendral's head because it was thrashing about too wildly. A quick second try with Twilight stopping the head in place got the ticket, and Ben slammed into the back of the head and stabbed in deep just between the horns. The eyes on that head dilated and the jaw went limp, letting Miss Tairee fall to the floor.

The other head, still shooting flames, was suddenly yanked down and stopped in place by Grimlock's weight as the transformer bit down on it. He was only barely starting to break through the scales and wouldn't be able to tear the neck in time before midnight even with his strength, but the head being still gave the perfect opportunity for Rex to leap in with his sword attack. The stab went right into the eye and didn't stop until the hilt, making the head roar out with pain as its other eye dilated. Vendral was so close to death, they just needed a little more to tip the balance.

What they got was instead a lot more as a large explosion went off on Vendral's back, throwing the dragon to the floor and scattering everyone who'd attached to him out in front of the dragon. Now with a big hole in his back, Vendral reared back up one last time, his screeching death cry echoing across the city as his whole body engulfed in flames, twisted about, then fell to the floor as a headstone made from his two skulls.

As the last two chimes of the bell rang in the distance, Miss Tairee grabbed the nearest person and embraced them in a hug, which happened to be Rex. "Thank yi-ya'll so m-much!" Miss Tairee blubbered out through sobs of joy and relief, which cut out as the twelve chime rang out, and everything went blurry...

Suddenly without Rex to lean on, Miss Tairee fell to the floor with a slight yelp. Once she realized where she was, she sat up on he knees and looked around with an angry glare, even as her eyes were still watering. "T-that was, too cruel!" Miss Tairee objected loudly. As usual, the sound of a pen scribbling on paper shortly followed.

"Too cruel to give them a chance to help others? You're letting your emotions drive you too much."

"But ya' could've just fixed those people anytime!" Miss Tairee said, staying on her knees but starting to regain her composure. "Instead ya' tied it into the stupid fight and forced them to work for it" she continued, folding her arms. The scribbling sounded out again.

"Yes, but it would've been even easier for me to do nothing about the people who had frozen over and over. Besides, that wouldn't have been the only chance I gave them; and the battle became so much more interesting with some actual stakes to it."

Miss Tairee sighed and put her hands on her knees, and glanced to one side. "That still don't make it right..." Miss Tairee muttered. There was no response to that, and about a minute of silence followed until Miss Tairee finally got to her feet and looked forward again. "... So... The next day then?" she asked with a complete lack of enthusiasm. The scribbling sounded out once more.

"Yes yes, I think you're going to like this one."

A piece of paper floated over to Miss Tairee, and she took it to read, her face slowly scrunching up as she did. "Turned into... Wait a minute, this is because of what I said before, isn't it?" Miss Tairee stated with a dull expression, before sighing again, "your sense of humor is... Really tiring." And like clockwork, there was the sound of a pen scribbling on paper.

"Come now Miss Tairee, I thought you would like this one... But yes, it is because of what you said before."

Miss Tairee was silent for a moment, then looked back at the paper again. Slowly, one side of her mouth did curl up into a small smile. "Well... I guess it could be fun, for a day" Miss Tairee admitted. The sound of scribbling quickly responded.

"See, that's the spirit! Now, let us begin..."

Day five, A child at heart

Unlike the previous days, vision didn't immediately return as normal. Instead, everyone would find themselves awaking on a bed in one of the random apartments, hotels, or houses throughout the city, feeling as if they'd just gotten a full night's rest. It was also already morning instead of still midnight. The city seemed back to its normal self, for the most part, and the library in the center was fully intact again. Of course, what everyone would probably notice first was the changes to themselves.

In the streets, a number of people were already getting up and about, and most of them appeared to be children...

Also, wherever Plague Knight happened to be, the nearest electronic devices to him that had a screen suddenly turned on and displayed a message. The message was addressed to him and informing him that he had a pending message available at the library.

edited 15th Feb '16 7:14:45 PM by FirockFinion

Asgore soon reappeared in the same place he was before ending up in the city, he began looking around, surprised that he had already been sent back home. He soon began hearing a voice coming from somewhere else in the house

"W-Well, everything is neat and clean, n-now let's just hope he comes back soon..." said a familiar voice, one that was getting closer

As he looked at the direction of the voice, soon a familiar figure came by, a small corpulent reptile of yellow scales wearing a lab coat. Upon noticing each other, they just stared for a few seconds

"Dr.Alphys, hello!" said Asgore, sounding quite relieved to see her, but then looking a little sheepish "I suppose I have a lot to explain."

Alphys smiled as she saw her old boss standing in front of her, being the same as ever "A-Actually, Undyne provided us with some explanation already, both of you were gone for two days each so now I wonder if anybody else has been taken now..." she said, letting out a sigh

Asgore nodded "That is a good question, we should go see if there is anyone missing."

"R-Right!"

The two of them then proceeded to walk out of the house and go look for their friends

Two figures were standing in front of each other, one being a human child with a dark expression on their face with a knife in hand and the other being a skeleton in a blue coat, black shorts and wearing pink slippers. The skeleton was looking very tired, indeed, the two of them had been fighting for a while and now he had just reached his limit while the child was still holding on, it looked like he had lost.

"i know your type. you're, uh, very determined, aren't you? you'll never give up, even if there's, uh... absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever. if i can make that clear. no matter what, you'll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil... but just because you think you can. and because you 'can'... ... you 'have to'." he told the child as he panted, not getting any reaction from them whatsoever "but now, you've reached the end. there is nothing left for you now. so, uh, in my personal opinion... the most "determined" thing you can do here? is to, uh, completely give up. and..." he then yawned "do literally anything else."

At this point his exhaustion began getting the best out of him, his vision slowly started to blur and he began closing his eyes, even though he was standing right in front of a relentless killer, he just had no energy left in himself to keep going. Soon, he had completely shut his eyes down and began dozing off, although he managed to retain enough conscience to be able to pay attention to his surroundings, he was expecting that soon the kid was going to take the opportunity to finally get rid of him, just reading their expression made it clear that he had given them a lot of trouble and they must've been itching for payback.

However, it never happened, there were no footsteps, nothing. Had they finally decided to give up? Did they finally grow enough of a conscience? There was only one way to find out...

He opened his eyes to find himself in a very... different place. Looking at his surroundings, it looked like some sort of city floating in the middle of a void, something that looked a lot like something he would see in a movie.

"where am i? did the kid screw up a reset or something? im pretty sure i haven't died yet and this doesn't look like the sort of place you'd go to after dying" he thought.

He then remembered something, he dug into his coat's pocket and took out his cellphone and looked through his contacts, sure enough, they were all still there and even the stuff he had left in the dimensional boxes was untouched. However, the most important thing there was that there was no signal.

"no signal, of course..." he then put his hands inside the pockets alongside the phone "welp, guess i have to take a look around."

He started walking further into the city, curious about what waited for him there, although at the same time he just wanted to find a good place to take a nap in, after all, he didn't get much rest after his earlier fight.

edited 15th Feb '16 2:47:24 AM by FullMoon

[[center:The City, near balconies ]]

"Demand: Hold it right there, Meatbag!"

Sans would hear a robotic voice coming from behind him, and if he turned arond, he would see...a small orange-colored robot that was aiming a NERF gun at him.

"Angry Explanation: I was killing some meatbags for my master when all of a sudden my photoreceptors shorted out, I feared I was deactivated but instead I found myself on a unknown planet."

The small Droid then lopked at the ground...and sighed.

"Disappointment: I really wanted to see how the head of that Meatbag blew up.."

It then returned it's attention to Sans.

"Confusion: Not only that, but my photoreceptors seems to be bugged, as you do not appear to have any flesh in you, and this unit is...quite smaller than normal. Demand: What do you have to say for yourself?!"

edited 15th Feb '16 5:38:28 AM by Darkomega245

The museum's opulent halls were quiet, only occasionally echoing with the clang of a patrolling guard's armor or a distant sneeze. Briskly yet cautiously, Garrett moved down an empty lamp-lit corridor hung with paintings in gold-gilt frames. He remained focused, listening for any sounds of incoming guards. This hallway was too well lit for his taste; the faster he gets out, the better.

He passed through a doorway into a room lit only by a small candle upon the table; at the other end the room opened into another well-illuminated corridor. Garrett immediately doused the candle's flame with his fingertips, then took a furtive glance into the next hallway, and smiled when he saw that it had no electric lights — only a crackling torch with an open flame. There were footsteps of an incoming guard somewhere around the corner, but they weren't too close; it'd take the watchman some time to get here. The thief weighed the risks in his mind for a split-second, then reached for his bow and grabbed one of his arrows — it was a water arrow, with an elongated blue crystal affixed to its tip. The shot was easy. The arrow sailed across the corridor in an arc and hit the torch, the crystal splashing into a glob of water which quenched the torch, plunging a good portion of the hall into safe, homely darkness.

Garrett glided into the hall and immediately flattened himself against the wall, becoming nearly invisible in the shade. Not a moment too soon; the guard passed the corner a few seconds later, letting out an annoyed grunt as he noticed the extinguished torch, but failing to see the thief right in front of his eyes. Grumbling under his breath — something about cheap torches and drafty hallways, and how he's not paid extra for fetching tinderboxes from halfway across the building — the guard paused for a moment before finally shrugging and moving on. But just as he passed the hidden thief, Garrett leaped out with his blackjack raised and delivered a single well-aimed blow to the guard's head. The watchman barely managed to register his assailant's presence before he went down, out cold.

Garrett took a moment moving the guard into a dark, out-of-the-way corner — no need to get the alarm raised by someone coming across an unconscious clod — and then moved on further down the hallway. At the end ahead, between two large flights of stairs leading up, there was his prize. One of the pieces of loot he came for: the infamous ruby known as "Burrick's Heart", displayed prominently for all museum visitors to see. Now, after closing hours, the ruby was shielded by the museum's finest security system, which emitted a crackling net of lightning that enveloped the prize like a rapidly vibrating spider-web. Garrett smiled. This might look daunting at first glance, but a certain simple trick he knew would render this technological marvel moot. One more artifact, one step further to thwart the Hag's schemes.

There was a guard standing watch near the ruby, but he was no problem. Still hidden in darkness, Garrett drew his bow and shot a single noisemaker arrow way up above, onto a staircase's higher landing. The arrow made it over the railing and landed at the top of the stairway, then began popping and sputtering madly like out-of-control fireworks, making a racket loud enough to draw the guard's attention. Sure enough, the watchman shouted in surprise and ran up the stairs after whatever phantom opponent he imagined. With him distracted, Garrett set off down the hall, aiming to hide in another convenient patch of shadow near the stairway, from which to execute his next move—

And then he stopped. Everything stopped.

He couldn't move a limb, couldn't even breathe or blink, couldn't feel his body... The vibrating electric net in front of him froze in place. All sounds ceased. And yet he was still conscious. It was as if he was staring, immobile, at a still picture.

What the?!— What is this? One of the Hag's tricks?

A wave of sheer terror flooded him. An image from two days prior came back to his mind. That victim of the Hag's spell... The petrified body... And now he... he felt... immobile, like a statue... No... No! Not like this!!

Then that frozen image — that last remnant of the world — began to vanish in a swarm of shadowy curlicues—

The City

It took Garrett a moment to realize that he was mobile again.

He looked around, his fear fading away, replaced by confusion. The first thing that caught his eye was the morning; it was night just a moment ago when he was sneaking around the museum. And then there were the buildings ahead of him, which didn't seem to correspond to any part of the City he knew... and last time he checked, the City wasn't located above an endless void.

Who brought him here? How?

"Just when the job's been going so well, too. Well, if someone's brought me here for their own purposes, I guess they'll show up soon..."

However, no welcoming committee seemed to be forthcoming, and Garrett stepped off the balcony he was on in order to explore the area.

edited 15th Feb '16 8:05:45 AM by Korodzik

Turning back he saw what seemed to be some kind of small orange robot equipped with a toy gun, things were getting interesting already. Furthermore, the robot didn't seem familiar with the concept of a skeleton and demanded to have an explanation for his lack of flesh

"well, i guess you could say that my body is bone dry" he "explained", with a wink and a shrug.

City Hotel, A New Day

Sawyer couldn't say she remembered the previous day ending. As far as she knew, she just kind of blacked out at some point.

Oh well. This bed here was plenty comfortable to wake up in. Slowly, the cleaner cracked her eyes open, glancing around. It seemed to be some sort of hotel? Who carried her here?

Well, it didn't matter. She groggily sat up, then stretched out her arms, yawning. Strangely, it felt way better than how she usually felt.

...something was odd. Well, that was to be found out in a while. No doubt Miss Tairee's boss has planned something nefarious. Her clothes - her proper, usual clothes; not the executioner garb from yesterday - were folded neatly on the chair next to her, and there even was a chainsaw of hers, too.

...wait.

Sawyer frowned and reached for the weapon. It was... oddly light. It definitely was not made of metal and it... was...

...a plastic toy, 1-to-1.

She put it away on the clothes' pile and picked herself off the bed, in a long pale red nightgown she could not say she remembered ever owning. Oh well. It felt nice, but she had to figure out what was the gimmick this time. Glancing out of the window, it seemed that there was quite a lot of kids outside...

...oh no. Led by an impulse, Sawyer's hand traced her neck. No feeling of a scar underneath.

"... holy shit." Normally not the one to curse, she could hear her voice previously; it was kind of high-pitched and not really matching her usual demeanor, but... "Holy shit." Yup, that was her voice alright.

Suffice to say, there was a rather loud scream coming from her room, echoing outside; a scream both horrified and excited.

"Realization: Did you just...."

The droid simply stared at Sans for a moment, as if it was left speechless.

"Statement: I acknowledge your sense of humor. I simply just don't find it funny...hold on a second, I need to find a name for you.....would bag of bones suffice?"

"nah, that name is just too bare bones" he let out a chuckle, although he still kept the same grin on his face ""i am sans, sans the skeleton, what about you, buddy? do you have a name or do you just go by your serial number?"

'"Answer: I am known as HK-47, which is both the model and name my original master gave me. I admit that I never seen an alien species that was completely skeletal. It feels nice not to hear the water slushing of an Meatbag's body for once."

HK lowered his toy weapon, and then glanced around the area.

"Observation: It appears you do not know of our situation. Perhaphs we should explore and seek an meatbag to explain our situation?"

edited 15th Feb '16 7:27:27 AM by Darkomega245

Diamondhead's eyes widened as, right as planned, he stabbed the dragon right in the head. He head fell limp. The other attacks made their mark, and when Vendral reared up, Diamondhead was tossed off of the dragon's back as it vanished. As soon as he hit the ground, the Omnitrix began to chime again. Then a red flash.

Ben shot up from a bed, breathing heavily and in a cold sweat. A dream? No, it had been much too real, all of that happening. "At least that's—" he started to say. Then he realized how deep his voice was. His eyes widened, then he felt his neck. An Adam's apple.

He leapt from bed, grabbing some clothes that had been sitting on a nearby chair and pulling them on in a hurry. He noticed a dresser with a mirror attached, and looked into the mirror. His jaw dropped and he gasped in confusion.

"I'm a grown-up?!" Ben shouted suddenly, his breathing quickening. However, then he realized the implications and his worried look turned into one of Ben's trademark grins. "Awesome! People aren't gonna tell me I'm just a kid anymore! Now I can be the hero I always wanted to be and no one's gonna say anything about it!"

He turned and rushed out the door of the apartment, down the stairs, and out the front door. At least it was a city now. But something seemed wrong. There were barely any adults that he could see. Instead, the vast majority of the people running around the city were....

"Kids," Ben simply stated. "They're all kids. Except me. But why?" he asked, going to investigate one of the nearby balconies, where he saw two individuals that didn't look like kids.

edited 15th Feb '16 7:50:54 AM by AllHailThrall

Aliens huh? So the robot kid thought he was an alien? That was pretty funny. It made Sans question if that robot was from another planet or something, considering the place they were in, it was as good of a guess as any.

"that was what i was gonna do before you stopped me" Sans shrugged "but hey, some company is nice. by the way, nice to meet ya, HK."

Sans then resumed walking further into the city. HK had mentioned meatbags a few times now, was he talking about humans? If that city was populated by humans, then Sans would probably need any help he could, considering just how much damage a single human child managed to do to the entire Underground. Granted, a robokid equipped with a toy gun wasn't what he would call an ideal partner for fighting off enemies, but it was better than nothing, at least.