The Tower
Reimu entered the Tower behind the others, eager to keep going. Once the initial confusion started to calm down, the Locksmith started to answer the newcomers' questions.
"I am afraid the Ruler's motivations are entirely unknown to me," he replied to Danny. "For what purpose the Tower exists, why the Challenges have the content they do, or why the Climbers are taken here against their will; I have been here for centuries, and all this is unknown to me."
"Nomad?"
The old man hesitated for a moment before answering Medusa, thinking carefully.
"That is a term I have heard only a few times since becoming a guide of the Tower. The Nomads, the multiversal conceptual godkings, and their Games of Gods...but I am afraid I do not know if the Ruler or the Tower are related to them in any way."
Last was 2B.
"The number of floors a group of Climbers must ascend before reaching the top varies," the Locksmith said. "I have experienced everything between less than a dozen and close to a hundred. As for the Ruler, they usually do not act upon anything outside of the Tower, besides from bringing in new Climbers. Whenever you reenter the Tower, however, minor wounds suffered during the Challenge will be healed and all ammunition and supplies will be replenished. No persons that are not Climbers can find the Tower without help either, so this is a safe space should you require it."
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Danny Phantom-Tower
"Great," Danny said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly not meaning what he said. Well, nothing left for it but to ascend this tower and give this 'Ruler' a piece of his mind. Hopefully these supposed riches were worth it...
Turning to his fellow Climbers, Danny watched as one of his fellow arrivals met with someone they apparently already knew. "Huh. Small Multiverse," he said.
Then something she said caught him of guard. Floating closer to Weiss and Yang, Danny asked "Wait, you were sent to kill this guy? That's the kind of challenges we can expect? Oh no. I do not kill. No way, no how. I'll punch, kick, blast, freeze or maim any enemy sent my way, no problem. But death? That's a line I don't cross," he sad, turning to the Locksmith. "And given that I'm already dead, that should be saying something."
He wasn't going to start killing people because some Inter-dimensional jerk told him to. Killing...that was a slippery slope. That would most-likely end up sending him off a dark path, that might ultimately end up with Danny turning into...Him.
Guts, The Tower
("What the hell...?!")
The laboratory had no more to offer him. The job was done, and he barely managed the chance to flex his muscles. The old man coming along for the ride didn't garner any reaction, but on his return to the god-forsaken tower, the back of his neck bled.
Danny looked like an ordinary kid, one in clothing that seemed completely foreign, but the Brand wouldn't lie. This kid wasn't human... he was one of them.
Yet here he was, attacking no one and acting all civil like. Even professing his disgust at the prospect of killing! Imagine that, an Apostle who refused to kill.
As his eye wandered, he caught sight of more. Beside the boy was some sort of bipedal lizard-man, dressed in a white coat not unlike that of old man Einstein. Another 'scientist'? Definitely would've triggered the Brand, at the very least he would've made it ache. The other newcomers seemed human enough, but with his Brand bleeding anyway he couldn't be sure. It was probably just the lizard thing, but the bastards always preferred human form in their downtime.
Guts stared at the newcomers with a dark look in his eye, scanning all of them. His hand reached behind him, fingers curled and nearly brushing the handle of his sheathed sword, then relenting and placing its palm on the back of his neck, staining it with the fresh red leaking out of the Brand.
"So, besides the lizard, which one of you is it?"
edited 7th May '17 6:42:53 AM by LatverianBadger
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani2B - Tower
So, no interference, no concrete objective, and little support beyond resupply. I suppose it could be worse.
"Understood." 2B's reply to the Locksmith was curt, her blindfolded face turning slightly to glance at Danny and his outburst. He'd been the one to ask about the Ruler's motives, which didn't strike her as priority information. Knowing why this was happening wouldn't help them escape.
"Then don't kill." She told the white-haired boy, voice dispassionate. "If it means completing our objectives and going home, someone else will do it instead."
She could understand the dedication to such an ideal. She just didn't think it was entirely practical given the circumstances.
One of the newly-arriving climbers challenged the group clustered around the Locksmith, and 2B tensed as the huge man reached for the weapon on his back, only letting her sword hand relax when he seemed to change his mind. Her Pod drifted slightly closer, mechanical claws flexing slightly as it replied.
"Insufficient data to answer query. Proposal: Unit should clarify the classification 'it' to enable a more meaningful response."
edited 7th May '17 6:44:08 AM by LittleMako
I emerged from the gate to find a group of newcomers had arrived. I had no particular wish to explain things, and so I stepped to the side as my fellow "Teammates" emerged and engaged them in conversation. One young looking boy foolishly proclaimed his desire to not kill. Well, he was going to be disappointed in a few minutes then. I made a mental note to make sure he did not do anything particularly foolish. But first, I had something else to address, as the man I had spoken to before asked a question that caused my opinion of his intelligence to drop sharply. Perhaps this was not the best of ideas, given the confrontation we had not long ago, but I could not remain silent in the face of such stupidity.
"What does it matter?" I said as I strode to a stop behind the man known as Guts, firmly planting the blunt end of my scythe into the ground. "There is an exceedingly likely chance that those who may look human possess powers that we would not think humans in our own world could wield. It is an infinite multiverse, after all. those rules that we see as immutable may well not apply to other universes. Nether of these two, additionally, seem to be hostile, if anything, the boy seeks to avoid conflict. I fail to see, then, what purpose there is in picking fights with those who have hardly reached maturity."
With a happy squee, Gaige grabbed the old scientist by the hand and led him into the portal. "Oh, this is going to be cool! First thing, you tots have to see my robot! I don't know if you guys got to the point where robots are a thing yet or not, but prepare to be blown away!"
Coming to a halt just outside the tower end of the portal, Gaige lifted her metal arm, and her robot Deathtrap was summoned from inside, appearing in a blue light as random boxes appeared, before uniting to form the robot. Gaige hopped on top of the floating robot.
"Say hi, Deathtrap!" The robot lifted his energy claw to wave. "What do you think, Eienstin? Pretty cool, huh? I built him myself!"
Medusa - Tower
Well, the old man was at least familiar with who the Nomads were, but other than that he had nothing concrete to tell her. The witch was a little annoyed, but not too surprised. If it turned out this was just another one of their games, she knew that these supposed gods could be killed in the end. She simply inclined her head in the direction of the Locksmith as an acknowledgement of thanks before stepping back to let anyone else have his attention. Any further questions from her would probably just be met with further non-committal answers.
One by one the previously mentioned 'climbers' began returning to this room, fresh from their finished mission. As expected, they were a group of mismatched, colorful individuals. One of them, a gloomy looking man in black with a sword as big as himself. He shot accusatory glares towards everyone he was not familiar with, apparently set off by something about them. His accusation that one of them wasn't human was met with a quiet chuckle from Medusa, who crossed her arms as she leaned on a wall. "I would wager that there are many in this group who aren't human, boy. Is not being human going to be a problem for you?" she asked the Black Swordsman.
Guts, The Tower - The Brand doesn't lie
Dark skinned man with scythe spoke up again. Guts almost drew his sword.
"You really don't know anything, do you baldie?"
The Brand itches again, more blood pouring out of it, as Zasalamel almost seemed to exacerbate it.
Another woman speaks, one he hadn't noticed before. Her presence added a tiny itch to the Brand, but the amount of pain he was feeling was still moderate, this woman likely wasn't one of them. Guts rubs his neck in a vain attempt to alleviate the pain, though the blood continued to leak out. He tries to calm himself, but is finding that harder by the second.
"Just tell me which one of you it is. You oughta know who you are."
"Shake the dust." - Anis MojganiMore people seemed to be arriving, some were even addressing her in particular, or at least she supposed it could only be her since they were talking about a lizard. However, Alphys was barely registering what they were saying or doing, instead she just buried her face onto her hands and began talking to herself.
"Oh god no why did I get brought into this I wasn't made for this I have no chance I'm going to die and nobody will ever know what happened to me what is Undyne even going to think of all this everything was going so well I had so many things I had to do so many things to create so much anime to see and manga to read just why did this have to happen," she ranted to herself while standing near one of the walls.
At the same time, Asgore took notice of all the new people in the tower as he made his way back, but obviously Alphys was the one that surprised him the most. He walked over to her almost immediately upon noticing her presence.
"Howdy, Dr.Alphys!" He greeted her, smiling widely.
Hearing the familiar voice was enough to make Alphys look at the now-human monster king, although in the process she revealed that there were some tears coming out of her eyes.
"A-Asgore...?! You're... human...?" She asked him, looking very confused.
"Oh, this is just a disguise," he explained and then proceeded to remove the disguise by essentially ripping his human face off like it was a mask, revealing his usual appearance underneath it "see?"
Alphys just stared at him with her mouth open, saying nothing and only occasionally blinking, her arms hanging limply as she looked rather horrified by what she just saw.
"Hm, maybe it was a bit too sudden..." said Asgore, looking a little embarrassed as he took notice of Alphys' shock, but then he also took notice of her tears, "have you been crying?" He asked, concerned evident in his voice.
That was enough to snap Alphys out of it as she quickly tried to wipe her tears off. "O-Oh... It's nothing..." She let out a sigh that seemed a little relieved, mostly because now she at least had a friend with her, which made things look a little better than they were mere moments ago.
Yang - Tower
"Ha, don't you know it," Yang said confidently, pulling back from Weiss and pumping the fist on her mechanical arm with a bit more flair than necessary. "I'm armed and ready, the White Fang won't know what hit them when I rip them apart.""Hey thanks, talking cat guy, but don't call me lass. Name's Yang," she added to Claw since he commented on what Weiss was saying, before returning her attention. She frowned slightly in thought as she looked at the Kid carrying the frozen guy that Weiss had pointed at. "So this Ruler guy's making us his henchmen and we're stuck doing this sort of stuff for him? Maybe it's better they're not trapped here too... no matter hooooow much you miss my baby sister." She gave a nudge with her elbow.
"Still, Qrow's here, huh? Hopefully that old pervert hasn't given you too much trouble," Yang added conspiratorially to the heiress with a mischievous grin. "Just tell me if I need to knock some manners into him."
"You got a problem there, buddy?" she added to a big loud guy who also seemed to be missing his arm.
Lusamine - Lab
As the Climbers began to move out, Lusamine had a grimace on her face as she understood what was going to come next with Kane and the portal. She just hoped she could avoid Lillie realizing the same, or at the very least find something to take her mind off of it.She held out her hand and offered it to Lillie, giving a warm smile to her daughter. "Shall we?" she asked the girl.
Einstein - Germany -> Tower
Being an old man, there wasn't much the professor could do to resist the force of nature known as Gaige from dragging him along. When she finally stopped on the other side and summoned a robot he rubbed his eyes with his hand to wipe the vestiges of tiredness from them, and then looked up at it for a better view. "Yes, we have robots, but not quite the same. Hmmm, digital storage medium that allows for physical decompression or reconstruction... propulsion system... asymmetrically-constructed extremities for alternative specializations....""Although," he said with an embarrassed grin, interrupting his own train of thought. "All of my tools are back there...." He pointed his thumb at the portal they had come from.
edited 7th May '17 3:24:39 PM by nman
Scaramouche - Brother From Another Motherboard
The robot had turned his attention to the feminine man from the large mech, "Hey, baby, I was built for greatness. I mean, could you name any machines that could bring out the music like I do?" Then, he turned his attention to the gilded pimp, "A little bit of both. I ain't Aku's favorite assassin for nothing, babe."
From a stark contrast from the extravagant pimp, he took notice of the Black Swordsman in his anger and drabness. He approached him with a grin, "Ain't nothing to get yourself worked up over. Someone would have to be an idiot to start a fight right away."
"I treasure every day with you, darling." "No need to be so sappy, love." "You know that's how she is, Nia." - AU!Pyra, Nia, MythraDanny-The Tower
Looking at the black clad lady, Danny answered "Wasn't planning on it." It was obvious that the people here had differing morals. The robot's introduction clearly established as much. He'd have to find some way to salvage this whole thing.
Danny tensed a bit as an intense looking bleeding man with a huge sword came up to him and the other teens and asked who was it. After some further clarification, it was apparent he was asking who wasn't human among them.
"That would be me," he answered, preparing to either fight or flee if things went south. While Danny was confident in his abilities, he had no idea what Guts and his massive sword brought to the table. Different worlds, and all that. "I'm a ghost. Name's Danny. Danny Phantom. And you would be...?"
edited 7th May '17 12:31:08 PM by Dezmo
Baron
"Ya gotta excuse our ol' Gutsman, playas. He's kind of a stick in da mud." The Blacker Baron grinned at the people within Guts' suspicion (and Scaramouche, since he went over to talk to the Black Swordsman in the first place). "An' pretty fuckin' vague."
"Anyway, Scaraman, I guess I can't expect anythin' else from a guy on a payroll of muddafucka literally called Evil in da manga language." He mused idly to the musical robot before turning his attention to the ice cube of Kane. "Anyway, time's a-wastin'. Let's pop da sucka in da hole."
Claw
"Yang it is. Nathaniel Claw. Charmed." He replied to the blonde's request. "As for Mr. Qrow, he hasn't been much of a bother, though he hasn't returned from the realm we've been in yet."
Guts was being Guts again. There was some blood on his neck, but it didn't seem like it was doing nothing but irritate him, so it was probably better to leave the matter to the golden idiot and his newfound friend. Instead, he turned to the newcomer Asgore seemed to be familiar with. "A friend of yours, Mr. Asgore?"
The cat the Black Swordsman was looking for was out of the bag anyway. Here was hoping that Scaramouche was right.
edited 7th May '17 12:32:21 PM by FergardStratoavis
"Stand down, soldier." My rifle was leveled towards the black swordsman's direction, aimed not at the center of mass but at the legs in question. A fraction of a second and the twitching of a finger would be all it took to send a three round burst at his lower body, though that in and of itself was not something I want to do as of this moment in time. Violence against one's own comrades without due reason would cause rationality to go down and instinctual impulses to skyrocket, hatred foremost being the feeling that would be the most troublesome to erase.
"Like these good men and women have stated, the multiverse has various beings. Who is not to say that somewhere out there are people who are similar but not quite the very targets you are looking for. Would you cut down those who you suspect to be your hated targets only to find out they have done no wrong? Actions are quick, but the consequences of such can last for a long while and one can never take back what they have committed." Please let sense and logic burrow into the thick skull of this belligerent mercenary for the good of everyone and myself... Already I can feel a headache coming up.
"Mmm yes, you are definitely a symphony of music and mechanical engineering." All but drooling as of this point in time, the boy's attention abruptly jerked on over to the floating box-like mechanical being with the crane like arms. "Oh my gosh, how old school!" And then a heavily armed miniature mecha appeared out of nowhere! "My lord, such pleasant surprises! So much robots! So wonderful!~" Caught in a haze of adoration for the robotic arts, Eru completely let the incoming confrontation go straight over his head as he wiggled around and gave off a string of spine tingling chuckles.
Qrow - Lab to Tower
Her scroll was picking up another aura? Qrow raised her eyebrow at that. Unless the Schnee had set her scroll to alert her to any aura within range, which would get pretty annoying as it pinged every fifteen minutes, then it would only activate for-
Someone she'd programmed into it already. More than likely, a teammate.
Qrow turned sharply and followed Weiss in, before looking over the room to find any familiar sight. He guessed he'd see the red cape, maybe the bow disguising cat ears. Hell, he was even looking out for the pink-and-grey warhammer, the white armour, or even that ridiculous mane of hair the other boy had produced from that ponytail.
He didn't expect his favourite biological relative.
He stood back for a while, expecting the usual "haven't seen my teammates in months" spiel (as much as he'd loved her, Summer got really saccharine about that), even ignoring the new teenager (another Schnee?) proclaiming his unwillingness to kill.
The jab at him, though? Couldn't stand.
"Like you could touch me, Firecracker." He joked, before his face turned grave. "Sorry you got wrapped into this too, kid."
"What's up with that, anyway?" Qrow asked of the Locksmith. "You gonna drop a Beacon student on us every time we beat a floor?"
Calmed down by Asgore's presence, Alphys began paying more attention to what was going on, but the thing that caught her attention the most was a girl who was currently on top of a floating robot. She was fascinated by the sight and wanted to know more about it, but at the same time she was afraid, she didn't know any of these people and a lot of them seemed dangerous, so staying with Asgore for now was safer.
"This is Dr.Alphys, she's the brightest mind among us monster and used to be my Royal Scientist," Asgore explained to Claw, gesturing to Alphys as talked, then looking at the shy scientist, "Doctor, this is Claw, he's one of the many people we will be working with during this adventure,"
Alphys' attention snapped back to the cat monster that was talking to Asgore, out of everyone there, he looked the most like one of them, so that was a little comforting, even if he probably wasn't really a monster.
"H-Hi, um... N-Nice to meet you!" Alphys greeted Claw, waving at him and having a rather nervous smile on her face that quite showed how uncomfortable she was in that place.
Sabrina, Lab to Tower
Soon enough, Sabrina followed Lusamine and Lillie back out of Einstein's Lab and into the Tower again.
"We should dump the supplies out when we get to the next floor," Sabrina suggested to Momiji as her familiar Kumagai was still holding the supplies within himself.
Wizard Needs Food BadlyGuts, Tower
As Scaramouche talked up a storm, Guts clicked his tongue in disgust.
Pushing the musical assassin aside with his shoulder, he focused all his attention on Danny. He took a step closer to the boy, and sure enough, the Brand reacted, sending fresh waves of pain through him. Once he was right in front of the boy and staring down at him, the ache grew more intense and more blood leaked out.
Even Guts would have the courtesy of giving his name to the rest of the Climbers. Not so for this boy. For most ghosts he hadn't any name other than 'body', 'fresh meat' and 'sacrifice', so why bother with this one?
But he looked so much like a boy that it tore at his thought process. His skin was a light, healthy peach and his eyes bright and wide. As far as looks were concerned, this boy was alive. And yet not, a normal boy wouldn't give him this feeling.
The multiverse argument didn't do anything for him. He'd been to another world before, and now dealt with its inhabitants every day. And it was this fact that made him trust these 'Climbers' less.
The blonde with the metal right hand got a smirk from him, but not much else. His own metal hand twitched slightly, but was otherwise relaxed.
The brunette kid with the projectile weapon trained for his legs brought up the point of innocence, that standards were different in other worlds, that maybe ghosts and demons weren't so bad.
The prospect sounded like such bullshit that Guts almost turned sick.
A memory nagged at his ear, however, perhaps aiming to persuade him to reason. Indeed, he'd met a benevolent spirit. Once. To this day he wasn't sure if she was a hallucination or not, but with all he'd seen after he would no longer doubt that she was very real.
Chitch was long dead, as much as spirits could die.
Back to Danny though, he was still apprehensive. He always was when his Brand bled, and he still wordlessly refused to give the boy his name.
When he finally spoke, his growling throat sang displeasure and uneasiness, and the glare hadn't left his sole eye.
"Seems the rest of them trust you. Don't prove them wrong."
Stepping around Danny, Guts left to find the door to the next floor. Someone had better drag Kain over there and get it over with quick, he thought.
If anyone looked at his retreating back, they'd see him wipe the blood of of his neck with his flesh hand. At once, the bleeding had receded.
"Shake the dust." - Anis MojganiYang - Tower
"Claw, huh? Sharp-sounding name," Yang replied to Claw."Is that so?" she added deviously to Qrow. She bent her knees slightly as she prepared to spring. She hadn't seen him in months, only to be reunited in a big-ass tower at the center of every universe or whatever the hell this place was, and he thought he could get away with acting so casually? Not on her watch. She may not have been as enthusiastic as Ruby, who would have already thrown herself at her uncle with the force of a stampeding Goliath, but neither was she as frigid as Wei- some people. "Not even with a... Xiao Long hug?"
She took off running at the older huntsman, arms outstretched, and a glint in her eyes shining through her aviators, daring him to try and excuse his way out of this one.
Einstein's Lab
After some more chatter, it looked like it was really over. Everyone was moving out, taking the supposedly evil man in a large ice cube with them. Even the professor himself was going with them, even.
Yet, Lillie couldn't bring herself to actually follow them. She just stared after them with a worried expression on her face, occasionally focusing on the doomed man in particular. She continued to stand there up until Mother asked if they should leave. She looked up at her, then back down at the ground, and then sighed.
"...Maybe...maybe we should wait until after...."
In her worry, she didn't notice that Nebby had once again gone missing....
Tower
Nebby, on the other hand, had happily followed everyone else back out into the tower. It glanced around, with a small look of recognition as it realized where it was.
That thought didn't last long as it set its eyes on the first interesting happening that caught its attentionnote and wandered off after it.
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!Claw
Almost reflexively, the pirate's hand was on the gun when Guts approached Danny. Thankfully it seemed like there would be no violence this time, though the golden idiot was already going after that harbinger of trouble.
No thinking about him. For now there were other matters to attend to, such as the small lizard scientist. A nervous wreck she seemed to be. "Pleasure is all mine, Miss Alphys." Claw offered a smile and a bow.
Then Yang did a thing. Admittedly, he had to think about it for a bit before it hit him. "Did you just...?" She most definitely did.
Baron, Chase Grump
"Ya playas take care of dat Kane. Dis here Baron must abscond with Da Mission." Da Mission being, of course, getting Guts to stop being Guts and lighten up a little bit.
Unfortunately, it was going to be an uphill battle, if only because Guts was Guts and Baron was Baron. "C'mon, Gutsman, wait up!" That was mostly a rhetoric figure of speech, seeing as the Black Swordsman wasn't going particularily fast up the tower. Neither was Baron, for that matter; a simple trot was enough to catch up to him "Brudda, dat dere's exactly da problem. Ya ain't climbin' dat Tower on ya own, ya know."
"What got ya so tilted against dem ghosts and goblins anyway?"
Guts, Tower - Not this again
At this point, he shouldn't have been surprised.
The Baron was one for incessant questions and appeals, and was quite persistent in gunning for him the first chance he got. Might as well try to tolerate his nonsense if he wasn't ever going to stop.
Climb the tower on his own? Yes, actually, that would've been his preference. No one owned him. No one would cage him. Why would the Ruler be so stubborn as to attach him to these ignorant souls? To torture him? To dangle the carrot of companionship in front of him and expect him to follow like a good horsie?
He already knew where following that carrot went. He wasn't interested in going through that again.
At the Baron's question, Guts balked at the thought that he wouldn't know why he had such harsh feelings for demonkind. Shouldn't the missing arm, eye and Brand be a hint? Didn't he go through this with him just before this mission?
Without any words, he just stared at the court jester like he was missing his head.
"Shake the dust." - Anis MojganiDanny-The Tower
Danny eased up as Guts walked away. Nice to see there would be no fighting-for now anyways.
"Well, at least he's willing to give me a chance. That's more than I can say for some," Danny said with a sigh. Turning to those who had defended him, Danny gave a hesitant smile. "Thanks. That means a lot."
"So," Danny said, looking after Guts, "what's his deal?"
edited 8th May '17 1:26:44 AM by Dezmo
2B - Tower
The black-clad woman had watched on as several of the others jumped to intervene in whatever the huge swordsman had planned to do. One went so far as to train their weapons on him. How often did he do this sort of thing? And what about the rest of them?
Pod 042 echoed her thoughts as it turned to face her.
"Hypothesis: This group suffers from poor discipline."
2B shrugged and looked at the group, putting one hand on her hip. "Are things always so volatile around here?"
edited 8th May '17 2:21:12 AM by LittleMako

Weiss Schnee— tower-let's break the ice!
Weiss took the hug from Yang with her eyes wide open. At first she struggled; the warm and overwhelming super strength. Yang's bear hug almost crushed her spine. The heiress grunted a little. But at the very end she relented and embraced Yang. She smiled ever so slightly and even closed her eyes. The best thing about a hug is that the person that is hugging you can't see your face.
"Yes, I've been stuck here for a day so far, she sighed deeply. "But at least I don't have to see Whitely anymore. Weiss nodded to Claw when the not-faunus confirmed the situation. "They even sent us to kill that man," she pointed at the frozen Kane that the kid was carrying.
Then when Yang asked about the others, Weiss replied "No, but I wish they were here. I still don't understand why Blake would just ran away like that... and Ruby, I'm even starting to miss her childish antics."
She looked back at the tower's portal. " But your uncle is here. You know how he likes to act all deep and mysterious. "
"...And Yang, I knew you were too tough to go down that easily. When we get back home we will make everything right. "
edited 7th May '17 2:01:47 AM by FallenLegend
Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.