Lucha Libre goddess
Teen Titans -Hill—- Unofficial Battleworld Alumni reunion
——————
It was indeed Robin the one who took Reisen’s card.
"I appreciate the thought, but nobody is "assassinating" anyone, alright?” The boy wonder would frown to Reisen once he had finished reading her card .”Whatever happens, we do it by the book. We, the Teen Titans, are first and foremost heroes. “
Robin then smirked at Reisen once she started to show off her power of flight.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Reisen. I am really, just a regular human. But you would be surprised what we mere mortals can do. “
After Beast boy antics were sadly ignored, another target quickly got his attention. A certain bunny-eared woman!
“Sweet! You are also part animal?” Beast boy would ask the Gensyoko resident. He easily managed to also shapeshift a pair of rabbit ears just like her. “ So, Miss Reisen, do you like eating carrots I am a vege—Suddenly Beast bout would start rubbing his stomach in pain. —Ouch what did I say?”
It had been Raven who had hit him with her elbow after his blatant flirting.
Star fire on her part would start to fly just in front of Reisen.
“Your ears are most adorable indeed. Hehehehe. We shall be gravity-defying air-floating companions!”
That had been Raven, who had elbow-punched Beast Boy to interrupt his blatant flirting.
Meanwhile, Once Link had claimed down, Robin would give him a snug smile."
"I’m afraid you are not my type.” He shakes his head its amusement. “I was thinking something more along the lines of a team-up. We might hadn’t shared any adventures together in Battleworld, but we did hear about your adventure in Themsyra, so we know you are hero material. Let’s just say The princess you saved is very famous where we come from.”
Robin would offer Link a teen titans communicator 
“What would you say of becoming an honorary Titan? Think of this as a magic device that will let us keep in touch, and talk, no matter the distance.
The construct sisters would get a brief reply from Raven
"Works for me," Raven would shrug at Alpha's suggestion. It's not like we have anything better to do."
As for Seven’s comments, it was Cyborg who was eager to reply to him first regarding The Teen Titans' vehicle.
“You like it? I am the one that’s in charge of this baby. I clean it and polish it myself!” He would pint himself with pride. “I maybe take you for a ride if we get some spare time,”
The badass-looking warrior would get a giggle and wave from Star Fire who only stopped herself from outright trying to hug seven because Raven frowned at her just in time.
“You too are one most adorable fur ball, my new friend. May I have permission to do the petting on you?” She says to him.
In contrast, Robin doesn’t even register the fact that Seven is a short furry creature, so he replies to him with a serious demeanor. He has seen it all by himself his point.
“The five of us, hopefully soon six, we all have communicators to keep in touch no matter the distance. We can share a communication channel just in case we might need backup. We might not know anything about each other yet, but that doesn’t matter. The Teen Titans will never deny or ignore a call for help. “
Cyborg would share their particular frequency with them so they might keep in touch, should seven want it.
Edited by FallenLegend on Dec 14th 2022 at 9:51:04 AM
Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.
Midbus
Castlevania
Raven Beak listened to Dracula and Ganondorf and thought a bit more before nodding.
"Indeed... Perhaps it is best to not engage the hostilities. At least not yet. Knowing who sent it is all we need to know. If this strategy worked for you before, I trust that those witches shall do as they bid. But just in case..." Raven Beak said.
Just in the nick of time, the Chozo commander came back, with Majora and Goht in tow. Given his stern face, he hadn't been impressed by Majora's antics earlier.
Seeing his people turned into mindless, horrifically mutated zombies by the X parasites was "surprisingly" more impressive than just a human child tearing his ears off in a tantrum.
"My Lords. The imp and his pet are here." he said, kneeling.
"Good. I trust they did not give you much trouble." Raven Beak asked.
"Barely. Merely magic idiocies. I presume one must have great patience to deal with those animals."
"Animals that have their uses for now. Do not forget this, commander." Raven Beak coldly pointed out. The Mawkin lowered his head in answer. Raven Beak then pointed at him.
"Rise, and leave us. You will leave with Lady Bartley and make sure she accomplishes her mission safely. Do not let others see you."
The Chozo soldier turned towards Barley and nodded, silently leaving with her.
Raven Beak turned back to Dracula as he showed Ganondorf his wish tablet. The prospect of having one for himself in time without the Cure's interference seemed like an excellent prospect.
But all the more reasons to let the witches find out about the droids. Perhaps those "Belmonts" were behind it.
"I see... If that is the case, it is safe to assume that Ridley is here somewhere as well... I doubt the dragon should be a threat, however. That beast is only good at murdering people for his own amusement." he said, before frowning under his helmet.
If that green boy was here, and if Dracula had his nemesis too, then perhaps someone that could oppose him was here in this land, somewhere.
And only one person potentially could.
"If you insist that those interlopers shall be eliminated, we shall see it through, Lord Dracula. However, if they are here, it is possible Aran may be here as well... I discussed her with King Ganondorf earlier, but that woman cannot be underestimated, should she become an enemy."
Edited by Scipion3 on Dec 16th 2022 at 10:47:29 AM
"Now it is time! Now we will fight! Then you will lose! And you will cry!"
Dracula's Castle, Entrance Hall: Better Safe Than Sorry
For a moment, Ganondorf's eyes seemed to reflect the tablet's ruby shine. Freed from his eternal prison and with another piece of his prize just a wish away? It seemed too good to be true!
But it was that very thought that compelled the Gerudo King to close his eyes for a moment, and blot the luster out. Yes, it did seem too good to be true.
"Your Grace is wise to exercise caution with these...gestures of compensation. As far as I am aware, we know nought of our new host, let alone their intentions. These tablets may very well be a trap, targeting the leaders of Battleworld rather than aiding them."
That said, Ganondorf could not help but smile at the proposal. Deal with the Count's nemesis as well as his own? Was that all? To think he had feared he may need to negotiate terms, lest he fall into indentured servitude.
The Gerudo King bowed to his new benefactor.
"A fair arrangement, my lord." he said with a smirk. "Have you a preference for my proof that these two have been 'dealt with?' I have a means of demonstrating that the boy's fate has been sealed—he will not relinquish what he has taken from me without drawing his final breath—but what of the Belmont?"
A hand, a head, the entire wretched corpse? It was all up to the Count. Ganondorf was feeling rather generous at the moment; after all, he was practically robbing the Count with these terms!
...of course, Ganondorf's mood darkened half a shade as the masked "children" were escorted to the entrance hall. This was no place for their antics, and this Mawkin soldier (skilled in combat or not) was only encouraging the imp to misbehave. One mention of the word "animal," and Majora was raking its nails across its palms. The Gerudo King began calculating the distance between himself, the Mawkin, and the imp; chances were high that he would need to intervene once the imp decided to throw a fit.
Fortunately, it seemed that he and Raven Beak were of a similar mind. Chastising and deploying the Mawkin soldier was the right move—instead of lashing out at the Chozo grunt, Majora just stuck both thumbs on the side of its head and made a raspberry noise as the soldier departed. A minor nuisance, but at least it was one that was easy to ignore.
"This 'Aran' is the human female with Chozo DNA, correct?" Ganondorf asked Raven Beak, in-part to draw attention away from the mask and its antics. "Your previous summary was enlightening, yet I do not fully comprehend the scope of this potential threat. Is she dangerous for the DNA implanted within her, or for some other reason?"
Anor Londo, Chamber of the Princess: Taking A Closer Look
Ornstein heard the smaller lift to the Princess' chamber lower behind him. Perhaps it was his old instincts itching him, but he couldn't help but turn towards the noise—even if he already knew who was going down. In strict contrast, his fellow protector Smough stood idly by, staring straight towards the cathedral hall ahead of them. Such militaristic stoicism seemed ill-suited for a former cannibal and executioner; at times, Ornstein wondered if Smough just had a talent for sleeping on his feet.
When Lord Gwyndolin finally reached the ground floor, the Dark Sun and Dragonslayer locked eyes for a single tense moment, before the protector remembered his place and looked away.
"What news, Your Grace?"
"Nought of your concern, Captain." Gwyndolin replied, almost with a sigh. "Thou knowest the counsel of Her Highness is a private matter." The click click click of heels echoed through the sacred space.
"Of course, Your Grace." Ornstein replied with a bow. "Her Highness deserves her privacy. Yet with these recent events—"
The Dark Sun whirled to face Ornstein. "And what be 'these recent events,' Captain?" they snapped. "A light tremor rousing thee and thine compatriot from slumber? While on duty protecting mine sister, no less? Father forbid someone nefarious hath infiltrated the cathedral—the death shriek of Her Highness may hath disturbed thine rest even sooner!"
Smough's shoulders slouched at the retort. "Sorry M'lord. I di'nt mean to." Even through the Executioner's helmet and his own, Ornstein could hear the quiver in the massive man's voice. Poor pup.
"With all due respect, Your Grace, the fact we slumbered is indeed a sign that something is amiss. Thou knowest our post, and our routines to ensure Her Highness' safety. Does such blundering negligence demonstrate the charge Your Grace hath given us? To which we have dedicated our lives to upholding?"
"Prestige and reputation are not impenetrable shields."
"Your Grace." Ornstein replied, a hint of force seeping into his tone. "I know we are not in Lordran."
The mask shielded Gwyndolin's expression, but even so: the Dragonslayer knew he had hit the mark. "A bold statement, Captain; one which many would claim impossible. And what evidence dost thou possess to defend thine words?"
"My words are my evidence, Your Grace." Ornstein replied in the new world's universal tongue. As Smough jumped at the sudden comprehension, the Dragonslayer turned his gaze towards the cathedral window above them. "But aside from that, the air is different here. It feels more...spry. There is an energy to it. I know not by what means we are here, but I know we have left Lordran behind. I feel it in my bones."
Gwyndolin fell silent, perhaps mulling over how long to leave the guards in the dark. With a small smile, Ornstein knew he would be enlightened.
"Observant as always, Captain Ornsetin. Thou hast the right of it: Anor Londo hath been seized by an unknown force, and placed on a new world with extravagant gods and mortals alike. I have secured an agreement with our Southern neighbors, and just received permission from Her Highness to pursue a more official alliance with the city of Castelia. An envoy shall be departing shortly to arrange a meeting between their 'Prime Minister' and mineself."
"Your Grace," the Dragonslayer saluted, "With thine permission, it would be an honor to join this envoy and—"
"No."
The word was loosed like an arrow, piercing Ornstein's hopes through the heart. "...Your Grace?"
"Thy place is here, Captain: standing between mine sister and all who would wish her harm. The world beyond the city's gates is entirely unknown. We may be encircled by foes in all directions but the South, and even if this be not so, we have far more to fear than a few misguided Undead. Tis Her Highness' wish and mine own for thee to stay at thine post."
Ornstein gripped his spear tight, but ultimately said nothing. A bow was all he could give for acceptance, to which Gwyndolin's smile softened.
"This is no punishment, Captain Ornstein. Thou served mine father dutifully and righteously—as did thee, Smough. I could think of no better protectors for Her Highness; none are more worthy of the honor."
The Dragonslayer said nothing.
With the matter sorted (at least to their satisfaction), Gwyndolin turned from the honored protectors and departed.
"I shall return to counsel Her Highness this evening." the Dark Sun announced over a shoulder.
"...Your Grace."
Ordon Village
"Surtr, of Terra"
While she wasn't too trusting of people who asked _too_ many questions, a simple name and origin seemed reasonable enough for the villager. For now. Her handshake is as warm physically as Rusl's is figuratively, compared to her cold and quick nod.
Her eyes dart aside, reaching for her sword for a tense moment... before letting out the smallest half-sigh, half-snort as they focus on Qilby's stomach.
Surtr raises an eyebrow, and looks back towards Rusl.
"While hunger can claim a man's life as well as any creature, those of a more physical nature are a more pressing concern. What manner of monsters do you speak of, Guardian Rusl?"
Vampire Hunter
Athena, Mai, and Yuri, The Hill
"Oh, are you a hungry wolf?" Mai chuckled as she gave the wolf headpats when it came up to her, laughing at a joke that only Athena and Yuri would get.
Meanwhile, Athena and Yuri were thankful to the wolf for distracting Mai from hearing words like 'proposal' and 'engaged.' They felt sorry for the poor elf boy and wondered if that was how Andy reacted to Mai when they were both kids.
"Darn it," Mai crossed her arms when Seven answered that they didn't know and that they were taken mere moments ago themselves. "I could be with Andy right now."
Yuri rolled her eyes, "Mai, no one here but us know who Andy is."
"We have bigger problems to worry about," Athena added, also annoyed with Mai. "Like food and shelter."
"...Right," Mai nodded as if that snapped her out of the funk. "Well, we should probably stick with the others here for now."
Elizabeth Bartley, Main Hall to Gardens, Castlevania
"Unfortunately, we may have to trust in Salome's witches," Elizabeth Bartley sighed, feeling like she was stuck with the job of babysitting. "That is to say, unless you know how to fly... no offense."
After all, she was talking with a bird person. It might seem disrespectful to imply that Chozo could fly.
Speaking of flying, it wasn't that far from the Main Hall that the two first reached the Garden area of the castle where a number of Witches
◊ & Aliorumnases
◊ have gathered around a pegasus that was currently grazing.
"You really do have a pegasus!" An Aliorumnas stated.
"Yep!" One of the witches grinned, petting the pegasus on its mane. "We met some actual amazons and they gave him to us!"
"We've gotten some gifts from bordering lands when we were on Battleworld," Bartley explained to the Chozo. "Salome! The Lord of Castle has a mission for your witches."
After which, Elizabeth Bartley would tell the entire group what Dracula had told her.
"Hmm," Salome who had apparently been the witch petting the pegasus' mane, nodded, turning to the Aliorumnases. "I think it might be better if two of you go."
"This is a longer trip than just going to the next land over and we have no clue what to expect from lands we fly over," Salome explained. "If our brooms break, we are stuck walking, but... your group can fly without any equipment."
"That is true," Another Aliorumnas stated before choosing to levitate in the air without anything obvious keeping her afloat. "I guess two of us could do that, yes."
"Right..." Bartley nodded before turning to the Chozo Soldier, wanting to hear his comments.
Dracula, Main Hall, Castlevania
Dracula's eyes were narrowed as he observed the situation between the Mawkin Commander and Majora... It seemed like Dracula was about to speak up, but... it seemed Raven Beak had dealt with the situation amicably. As childish as Majora's reaction was, it was better than a fight breaking out in the main hall.
Dracula turned to Majora and Goht. "I apologize that I've interrupted what you were doing, but I wanted a headcount of who was in the castle."
"It seems we are in a new land with new toys for you to have fun with," Dracula gave Majora a truncated explanation of what he gave Raven Beak and Ganondorf. "I suspect this land also allows for wishes and that the boy in green you are so familar with is somewhere on this planet, but these are merely guesses."
"Belmont has a weapon that he always carries... It is in the form of either a chainlink weapon or a leather whip," Dracula explained to Ganondorf, turning to him. "It is known as the Vampire Killer... naturally, it kills vampires such as myself."
"It is a creation of alchemy empowered by the soul of a vampire, willingly given." Dracula continued. "As such, it is a holy weapon designed to kill vampires which can only be wielded safely by the direct descendants of the one who empowered it, Leon Belmont."
Dracula seemed to look wistfully off to the side, sighing as memories of the human he had once been came to the surface.
"You may also bring me his head if you so choose, and that will also be proof enough," Dracula added. "His allies include a pirate, a witch, and... someone who resembles me calling himself Alucard. I don't give a shit about the pirate, but I might be able to convince the witch and Alucard to join me given the former's history and the latter being my own son."
"With my wife back, I now only truly want Belmont dead, but I understand that accidents will happen," Dracula turned away from Ganondorf. "I can still use the corpses of the pirate and the witch and well, any human, so long as they are fresh and whole enough."
"Ridley... I understand how troublesome dragons can be." Dracula was reminded of Galamoth, a particularly troublesome draconic rival of his for the title of Dark Lord. However, it seems like he was now out of the loop this time. "Aran... A human with your blood. How... intriguing."
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Seven - The Hill
Seven nods at Cyborg's reply. "If we get the time, sure. Glad to know it's in good hands considering we've a lot of ground to cover right now."
And then came Starfire with her request for... Petting? This caused them to freeze as they look at her, not in fear or shock, but pure confusion. A few seconds and a blink later, they finally reply "... Why?"
While Seven is preoccupied processing this, a small mechanical grasshoper
◊ crawls out of Seven's collar, hopping on their shoulder, its eyes swiveling towards Cyborg and Robin as they talk about their shared frequency. The automaton's wings flutter a bit with the faint hiss of static as it tunes itself to that frequency, before emitting a few beeps that would echo through the Titans' communicators should everything be in working order.
Edited by FokiasTheJester on Dec 24th 2022 at 11:47:45 AM
Cool Dude
Domino City, Kaiba Corp HQ
The young corporate presence, Mokuba Kaiba, raises an eyebrow while looking skeptical at the police officer and his "hunter" friends. He glances at one of the goons hovering near his considerably shorter boss."Hey, Roland?"
The goon straightens up to listen to his boss's request as he gives a prompt "Mr. Kaiba?"
The young CEO(-ish) person points at one of the big television screens displayed in the lobby currently tuned to the news, which is playing a repeat of the same press conference from earlier.
"Please change the channel to the training video we give to all the new employees, will you? I have a feeling our guests are going to have a lot more questions if I tell them we're just your average gaming company."
The goon bows very low, responding with a "At once, Mr. Kaiba" before snapping back up and grabbing a remote to change the channel...while a couple of the other goons start going to the vending machines nearby to get some snacks, hopefully for Krillin, Ashe, and/or Grey.
We Are Our Avatars Forever (Now on Discord by invitation, PM)
she/her friend to the hooved
Hewkii, The Hill.
Getting little useful information from continued examination of the tracks, Hewkii instead looks off in the direction they seemed to be headed—the bridge and the unfamiliar ruins beyond—and squints hard at what he sees in the overgrown skyline. Is that... smoke? Middle of the day, fat chance that's a campfire.
"Yeah, we definitely weren't the first ones to show up. Recent, too, from the looks of things." the Toa deduces before pointing in the direction of some thin wisps of smoke that he's not even fully certain anyone else present can see. No other signs of a struggle, but attention-grabbing all the same to an adventurer. "Now, I don't have an Akaku with a scope, but I think they already got themselves into a bit of a situation."
He looks across the loosely-assembled group and mentally sizes them up. Most look plenty adventure-worthy, however strange and fleshy they might otherwise be, and whatever powers they might possess are still an open question. "Wanna bet they've got a handle on things, or do we rush over to help?" he thinks aloud. "Because the only other solid lead we've got right now is that parchment. Think this 'Igno' guy is involved?"
"Ooor," he ponders as his gaze wanders toward the far more intact and populous-looking regions sitting to the west and southeast—both of which rather remind him of Metru-Nui, but what he can make out of the architecture from this distance dashes any hope of familiarity. Some of the tracks seem to branch off there, too. "you know, could always ask the locals. Maybe split up, if we think we can handle ourselves. One of you said you had a way to... communicate?"
Edited by Chortleous on Jan 9th 2023 at 3:13:16 AM
Domino City, Kaiba Corp HQ: Krillin the Boomer
As the Reploid adventurer finished her summary, a frown creased on Krillin's face. "Well that's just it, Ashe: I don't know. I've never heard of a Reploid, and I don't know what these Mavericks are in this context. Never heard of any government called Legion either, or know anything about a Hunter's Guild."
The officer flipped his frown just as easily as it appeared. "But we'll get back to all that. Thanks for helping me test this theory out."
Turning his attention over to the pint-sized executive, Krillin raised an eyebrow as Mokuba gave Kaiba Corp a (supposedly poor) five-word summary. "Just Your Average Gaming Company?" Judging by the architecture and the prominence of this one building, Krillin could've made a hundred guesses as to what Kaiba Corp sold—he probably wouldn't have ever guessed it sold games. What kind of games, anyways? Like dice and shogi, or was this one of those fancy computer games Trunks and Goten liked to talk about?
Thanks to the training video it didn't take Krillin long to figure out what kind of games the kids around here were crazy about. Colorful characters summoned from trading cards and...fighting each other in the real world...almost? Yeesh, and he thought that Spinner's world sounded weirdly juvenile. Least the target audience seems more like what he'd expect.
No, wait. Nope. Full grown adults play this game too. And are highly-paid professionals at it. Aaaaaaand there's an entire school for kids to become professional players, too. Amusement parks, public works, R&D, and...transportation and infrastructure?! This company's all over the place!
Krillin felt the sudden chill that he was suddenly, terribly out-of-place. It was a sensation that rivaled his first clear thoughts back on the hill, only this time instead of staring down a man dressed in skulls and demons scouting the skies, he found himself in a city captivated by a children's card game...and it was obvious that everyone was far too invested in that captivation for it to be called "silly" or "ridiculous."
The chill soon passed, leaving Krillin with an ache like he'd just aged 50 years. A significant part of his mind pictured that his hair would be growing out gray from here on out. Nevertheless, the martial artist remained as stoic as he could—which, given the introduction he was receiving, involved a lot of confused faces.
"Uh, okay. Right." the police officer cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "Thank you for sharing that, Mr. Kaiba. Given the evident wealth of this company, I take you'd have to have been living under a rock to not know a single thing about Kaiba Corp, correct?"
He waited for some sign of affirmation from Mokuba (or Roland, if the little guy wanted to try to save Krillin some face) before turning towards Ashe and Grey: "Just like you'd have to have been living under a rock to not know what a Reploid or a Maverick is?"
Again, he waited for some affirmation before reaching into the pouch attached to his belt, and retrieving a small pill-like device with a small pin at the top of it.
Krillin displayed the handheld device to the group.
"Where I come from, you'd have to have been living under a rock to not know what one of these are." A quick glance for recognition showed Krillin exactly what he wanted to see. They had no clue what the hell he was holding!
"It's a Capsule made by Capsule Corp—where I come from, they're one of the biggest companies in the world thanks to the tech in these little guys. They were invented by a genius named Dr. Brief, and they can condense large things into a handheld capsule like this one. Click the pin once and throw it on the ground, and boom: the big thing's big again! This one here stores the hoverbike I use for work; saves me from getting a ticket from a fellow cop, y'know?"
Krillin nervously chuckled at his own joke. While he wasn't against proving that the capsule worked as advertised, he was also super aware that he had just made a claim that might come across as a threat. Apart from Capsules, he couldn't think of many handheld devices with a pin in them that weren't...you know. Weapons.
So he would offer the capsule to anyone who would gesture to take it, even to Roland or one of the other security officers—assuming that they would eventually give it back when they left the premises, of course. Should anyone motion to test the Capsule out themselves Krillin would advise that they:
A.) Toss is a safe three feet away from anyone in the area. The hoverbike was much taller than it was long or wide, so no real fears of hurting anyone's feet unless it was tossed at them.
And
B.) They they do not throw it at all in the very big, very open lobby area where many many MANY people were watching them from just outside the front windows and doors.
Ivalice Scouting Party (Mountain Pass)
As the Channeler introduced himself, the party soon had their wits gathered about them once more, and were able to stand up and breathe easier, with the female Knight continuing to take point for the conversation. As she heard him mention the 'man-sized poultry', she reflected that to someone who'd never seen a Chocobo before, it would be rather odd, so she didn't fault him for finding the concept ridiculous.
"We come from the land of Ivalice." She said, giving the name of their land as he had given his. "Would this 'Seathe the Scaleless' be open to envoys? Or is he someone who keeps foreign company at arm's length?"
Ashe & Grey (Kaiba Corp HQ)
Needless to say, the duo of Hunters found themselves impressed and concerned in equal measure at just how big and influential Kaiba Corp was, to the point where both of them found themselves thinking that if it really wanted to, it could probably be its own world power, and no one would suspect them of such until they were already starting a coup.
Of course, once Krillin outed the fact that where he came from, there was a similar company of prestige, the pieces started falling into place for both human and Reploid. The fact that all these facts being stated out in the open were legitimate news to all parties concerned except for the ones dropping them hinted that there was something bigger than merely strangersr meeting.
"This is going to be a long day..." Grey muttered, and the fact that Ashe didn't contradict him or tell him to stop whining was telling in its own way.
Proud member of the AGOG community.
Girls’ Dorms, Fuuka Academy
Mai looked around nervously as a couple of soldiers ordered the line of girls she was sitting in to stand up, along with the lines on either side of her — for what reason, they didn’t say. “Three lines at a time,” Chie whispered as they both got to their feet.
“What?”
“Been watching what these guys have been doing. Calling up lines of girls and have them going around the corner one at a time”
“You think they’re…” Mai trailed off with a bit of a shudder at the thought.
Chie shook her head. “They’re moving too fast for anything like that. It’s more like they’re looking for someone in particular.” Mai didn’t realize she was subconsciously holding her arms across her chest until she had walked several steps following Chie and the lines called up were being merged into a single file. Mai’s eyes kept glancing around looking for either Mikoto or a way out, though she tried not to make it obvious. They couldn’t be looking for the HiME, right? That whole thing was supposed to be a secret. But then again, she knew there were secret groups like the First District that were involved in that stuff — Natsuki seemed to know a lot about that. These guys didn’t seem like them, though. First District was the shadowy quiet type, not the kind to announce their presence with loud banging. Could that mean there were others besides First District that know about this whole thing as well?
Eastern Fuuka
For a few minutes, there wouldn’t be any visible movement to the offer of a game, before two soldiers emerged from behind the other checkpoint, walking side by side towards them. Though normally decked out in some serious-looking outfits,
◊ one of the two approaching men had taken his headgear off and was carrying it in his hand against his side. Both were carrying firearms, though neither in a position ready to fire. When they got close enough, the unhelmeted one would continue forward with a friendly smile on: “I don’t have much, but maybe I could play a few hands to try my luck? Name’s Fernandez. Behind me’s Pennington — he’s just here because SOP’s never to go off by oneself.”
Velvet Room
"Oh." That was easier than Mami expected it to be. So long as they kept in the good graces of Philemon they should be fine, which judging from the kind of company SEES kept seemed to be simply a matter of not offending them. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?
A quick look around told Homura how things were shaking out on the “in a mindset to explore and gather intelligence” front: Kyoko was already making a beeline to the buffet table, Sayaka seemed to prefer sticking around her for the time being, Madoka was taking the chance to talk with Hitomi to get her up to speed on what had really happened the past seven days beyond whatever City Hall and the USFJ had put out (Homura wasn’t really happy about it, but the situation at this point was so tenuous it was probably impossible to keep a lid on everything anyway — may as well let the girl into it through someone she already knew), and Kyubey was coming along whether any of them wanted him to or not.
Alleyway Door, ???
That left Homura, Mami, and Oriko to follow the human-sized buglike creature whom Minako was apparently on good terms with to the door to see what was on the other side. Mami’s eyes went to the splatter on the wall, Oriko’s peered down the alley to see more of where they were, and Homura’s narrowed as they went to the bum in front of them: “What are you looking at?” she said in her normal cold voice. Maybe he might be scared off and any ramblings dismissed as some crazy guy so that they could game plan without eavesdroppers.
“I…take it we are not on BattleWorld anymore, Minako-chan.” Mami glanced over at Minako. "Unless The Cure has suddenly decided to resign his position.“
“Either way, it seems prudent to at least understand our immediate surroundings,” the ashen-gray-haired girl followed up. “Perhaps in small groups so that no one gets lost. Ah, where are my manners? My apologies — I am Oriko Mikuni.”
“Ah, mm. Mami Tomoe. Nice to meet you.”
"A map would be useful to find," Homura mused.
Vampire Hunter
Athena, Mai, and Yuri, The Hill
Athena looked over in the direction Hewkii was pointing, squinting to try to see what was happening over there. She failed at this, so she looked over at Mai and Yuri who had also been squinting for their opinions. Both of them shrugged, not seeing whatever Hewkii was seeing.
"You know, why hasn't anyone here pointed out the cities yet?" Athena asked pointing the direction of Domino City, Castelia City, and Anor Londo, the last of which she kept pointing at. "That one over there looks medieval, but the other two are practically modern!"
Athena seemed to be in thought for a while. She had an idea, but she needed to sell the plan to the Teen Titans given they were the ones with the communicators. She approached Cyborg as he might be the one here who will best understand what she is talking about.
"If I head off to one of the modern cities, I can find out what they know about this planet and Igno," Athena told Cyborg, explaining her idea to him. "I'm not a hacker or anything like that, but I do know my way around the Internet a lot better than the average person."
"I will need a way to contact you, so I'll need one of those communicators," Athena added, hoping they'd be okay with giving her one.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Eternal Princess
Kat and Raven's gaze shifted from the Kaiba to the animatronic she deferred to. To their surprise it spoke.
"W-what!? Is this thing alive?"
Kat picked the thing up and began inspecting it, as if trying to discover the secret behind this little magic trick. They had some familiarity with robots, but the ones they knew were, well, robotic. The way this one spoke betrayed far greater intelligence then the simple design would suggest. Heck, it seemed more self aware then those creepy cyborg twins at Neu Hiraleon. The girl seemed so distracted by the little spokesperson themselves that a lot of what the thing said didn't seem to register with her. Luckily Raven was there to bring her friends attention back to what was important.
"Tch. So no food court."
Kat put the machine back down, her shoulders slumping and looking dejected with the news. She was hoping she could spend the day scouting all the attractions at the theme park. But no food was a hard sell, especially when she missed breakfast. She let out a disappointed sigh.
"I guess we will just have to go else where."
After mulling it over for a moment she added a little addendum with smile.
"After we check out the roller coaster. Got to make sure its safe and fun for the kids back at Banga Village."
The two took the offered flowers. The dark skinned blonde seemed particularly touched by the gesture. A smile formed on her face as she admired the gift. No one has ever given her flowers before. She gave the little robot a big "Thank you". Raven for her part seemed to consider tossing the thing away as soon as she got it, but after a moment of hesitation, she reconsidered and tucked it away.
Still, for all the pleasantries, there was a little misconception they had to clear. Kat gave an embarrassed smile.
"Um...you know we aren't androids right. We're humans, even if we are Gravity Shifters. Look, see?"
Kat began poking her cheeks to show how squishy and fleshy they are, as if that would prove her point. Her little demonstration reminded the girl that she and Raven weren't the only humans. She quickly turned to the CEO.
"Oh, thanks for the help. I'm Kat by the way."
Raven seemed tight lipped, instead looking toward Kaiba with suspicion. While she didn't dress as ostentatious as some of the rich in Heckseville or Jirga Para Lhao, it was hard to mistake that self important attitude.
Her question about flying was quickly answered by none other then Tatl. Given how irked the other flyer was, she guessed it was a sore spot for some one who had to limit their movements so close to the ground on account of their partner.
"I thought we just got a bad batch. The first round we got the witch and..."
Was there really no one else!? Rather then reflect on her mistake, she looked at the others as if the fault clearly lied with them. Flying should be a given, especially if you wanted to get into spell card fights.
Before she could dwell on it too much, the Teen Titans were quick to greet her. It was almost overwhelming the attention she was getting. First was the human. He made some comment about no assassinations and doing things by the book. Reisen nodded with a straight face, even if what the teen hero said seemed to confuse the lunarian. Wait, wasn't killing each other the human modus operendi? Guess she shouldn't be surprised, he was from another world. But that did mean some of the modern humans might act differently from how she had come to expect. It certainly didn't help that much of her preconception was coming from Santa Destroy and old prejudices formed when the humans invaded the moon.
Then the shape shifter came over and started getting friendly. It was hardly the first time she met a transforming hengeyokai like Beast Boy, tanuki are particularly notorious for the trick. But something puzzled her about the green superhero. She couldn't tell what animal he was supposed to be normally. If she had to guess, maybe a green monkey? But then where was his tail? She had only managed a single "Yes" to the questions when the conversation was cut short due to a elbow to the young hero's gut.
Finally it seemed a fellow alien came along. Starfire's friendly demeanor was infectious, and Reisen could not help but smile and thank girl for the compliment. However as soon as Starfire turned her back, infatuated as she was with Seven, Reisen would lock eyes with Tatl while pointing at the Tamaranean princess. See, others could fly! Humans were just quitters who let gravity dominate them.
Talk of the communicators had been going on through out. She wasn't sure what the future held, but it was important to network. For her part, Reisen would point to her ears.
"You use radio waves right? As long as I know what frequency you guys are communicating at, I should be able to tune in."
Usually lunar rabbit esp was a closed circuit useable only with other lunar rabbits. But when your ability is the manipulation of waves, making some alterations to be useable with other technology should be simple enough.
Oh that's right, there was those three new girls too. In all the chaos she almost forgot to greet them. She couldn't help but hear one of them was pointing out the cities, to which Reisen could only shake her head. It wasn't that no one noticed, it was just a bad idea. She pointed toward the sky scrapers in the distance.
"See those towers of glass and concrete. That means those are human cities. Not the cozy little human villages either, but the big civilized ones. The last time I entered one of those, they fired a laser from orbit at me."
She waved her hand as if to say no thanks, not for me. She let out a sigh. She suppose maybe like Robin, these other universe cities weren't violent hell holes like Santa Destroy. But with her luck, both cities would have also based their entire society around 1 on 1 duels.
"Then the one to the north, you don't build walls that high if you are looking to invite people in. Oh, I'm Reisen by the way."
She moved to hand the trio a business card, but froze when getting a good look at Mai. The bunny girl's red eyes locked on the woman's figure. It was a look of equal measures disgust and envy. A look the ninja probably had seen before from other women. A look that said you are the enemy of all modest figured single women. With a wide eye glare, the bunny girl stared down the ninja before letting out in a monotone oozing with undertones.
"Must be nice."
How do you kill that which has no life?
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
In Orbit, The Bunker
"Of course we'd be happy to help as well!" Shion immediately offered once Samus had noted her intent to aid the androids with their war effort.
"If you're certain..." White said, clearly hesitant. Meanwhile, the male android sealed the Metroid baby in the tube and handed it to Samus.
"We are," Jin assured with a nod. "Your fight is our fight as well, as representatives of the humanity of our own universe. Please, allow us to assist you."
"Very well." The Commander nodded. "In that case, please head planetside and rendezvous with the android Resistance living and fighting on the surface. They should be able to provide a better summary of the situation on the ground and the needs of the current war effort than we can necessarily evaluate from up here, with our suddenly limited personnel. 9S, you and 2B are hereby assigned to accompany them. 6O, 21O, your duties will now include providing operational support to these humans as well as your usual assignments."
"Yes, Ma'am!" the androids in question chorused, saluting.
"Good. Then you are dismissed to go about your duties, though of course our human guests may stay longer if they wish to talk or ask more questions."
The Not-So-Cozy Little Human Village
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" one of the Shocktroopers screamed as he was enveloped in flames, dropping to the floor and rolling, which only had the effect of spreading the flames to a rug and the hardwood. However, this was the obviously creepy one, so his comrades didn't seem particularly perturbed by his difficulty.
In response, the other two leveled their machineguns at Sypha's cover and began firing a thunderous symphony of RATTA-TAT-TATs, just barely missing her through the wall. As they were focused on the witch, however, they didn't expect the vampiress to sneak up on their flank, and another of them fell to her dark mist, choking agonizingly and falling to the floor just like his burning ally.
Manhattan, Church
"What looked like a man with red hair and dark skin dropped all the way from the ramparts to the ground near Dracula!" Father Frost explained, shaking his head in wonderment. "He didn't seem harmed at all, but... Ah well. I suppose we might as well keep watching to find out what's to the West."
Soon enough, the stream displayed an aerial view of the partially ruined and smoldering hamlet that Sypha and Carmilla had disappeared into...
Manhattan, Skyscraper
"Yeah, you're on top of a police department building in Manhattan," Spidey replied dryly, verbally rolling his eyes. "If you mean, what the hell this planet is that we're all on, though, I have no idea. See, me and the rest of Manhattan got yoinked into this interdimensional mish-mash of universes called 'Battleworld' a few days ago by this nigh-omnipotent demon guy who called himself 'The Cure'. Then he gave up and said we were all gonna be sent home. Except instead of arriving back where we're supposed to be, we're now here, so he's either incompetent or he was lying his ass off. So, you all experience anything like that?"
Southern Forest, with Igno
"Androids be the robotic soldiers of yon humans whomst resideth upon the Moon," the armored Machine explained. "Thou resembleth them not, so mayhap thou art not an enemy... but why wilt thou not answereth mine question with frankness rather than vague queries of canines and velocities? I warn thee, if thou doth not identifieth what thou art... Well, I may needs drive thee off by force of mine spear." He waved his weapon for emphasis.
Eastern Ruins, North
Interestingly enough, as Ramza and Alma proceeded, they ran across Chocobos, as well as some kind of goat-antelopes, both of which quickly fled from their path. Soon enough, however, they might feel the hairs on the backs of their necks raise as a monstrous roar rang out from their South. Not only that, but in the shadows of some of the foliage and ruined buildings, wolven eyes were following them closely. It was only a matter of time before the beasts decided to go on the hunt...
That said, as they neared what looked like a large mansion, they might note that the entire area surrounding it was devoid of even plant life, merely dirt, brick, and concrete. Any suspicions of this location being unusual would be confirmed as an idiot squirrel ran across their path into the apparent dead zone, and immediately disintegrated with an agonized squeak.
Eastern Ruins, Northwest
"Nice to meet you as well, Makura and Kongara and Seitaka! My name is Neliel, but you can just call me Nel, if you want," the woman with the horned skull atop her head replied warmly. "As for why it's off-limits, well... Long story short, there was something extremely dangerous sealed in the area below the center of this place a long while back, and my friends and I are guarding it to make sure nobody unseals it. It's also hazardous to even be near, since any living thing that gets close disintegrates, which is an effect that even reaches up above ground level. Thankfully, my friends should be able to make sure both your friends and the source of that roar don't get near it."
"Anyway," she continued amicably as she began picking fruit and setting it in her basket, "you all must have shown up recently on the hill to the West, right? Have you been in any other direction yet? What made you want to come toward these ruins in particular?"
Eastern Ruins, with Elaine & Co.
"No," the mechanical canine said curtly in response to Conan, stepping back into the shadowed interior of the building and hiding himself behind the remainder of the wall. "Well, here comes another intruder now. Go ahead. Prove yourselves."
Ears pinned to her head, Amako growled at the weird, ugly monster coming toward their position, and summoned a stone disc engraved with the image of the sun, which seemed to be enveloped in rainbow-colored flames around the edges. That said, she didn't attack. Maybe she was trying to intimidate it?
Hyrule, Hyrule Field South
"Hmph! Me no lie before, either!" the monster Zelda had been conversing with turned his nose up at her, but answered even more thoroughly than she asked nonetheless, pointing to each direction and noting what location was there:
"Here Hyrule Field. South Faron, Ordon after. West Gerudo Desert. Northwest Hylia Lake. North Castle Town. Northeast Eldin, Kakiriko, Gorons."
"...Let go now?" he finished hopefully.
Hyrule, Ordon Village
"Oh, certainly, you're welcome to enter or pass by as you like!" Rusl agreed quickly, stepping aside. "And I haven't eaten yet this morning, myself! I'd wager my wife's about done with breakfast, since I was about done with my first set of rounds, anyway, so why don't I host you at my house for a first meal of the day? Come, my new friends, follow me!"
He led them down the path and across a pair of small footbridges to reach his abode, opening the door and calling inside, "Uli! We have guests! Travelers from afar, it seems!"
"Oh! Guests?!" his visibly pregnant wife exclaimed, briefly turning from the hot, wood-fired stove. "Well, hello there, travelers! Pleased to meet you; I'm Uli. I expect you'll want breakfast?"
"Yes, indeed!" Rusl confirmed, resting his sword against the wall and taking a seat at the kitchen table after retrieving a couple more chairs from pegs on the wall. "Give one of them my portion first, if you would, Dear, but make sure you eat before me! You need it more than I do!" He beamed lovingly at her.
"Oh, alright, if you say so..." she smiled gently back and resumed stirring the pot, evidently some sort of bubbling stew.
"Please, my guests, have a seat!" Rusl offered, gesturing to the open chairs. "While we wait for the food, please, tell me a bit of your travels! I'm sure tales of foreign lands will be absolutely fascinating!"
He didn't seem to notice the sudden absence of Surtr at this point.
Manhattan, City Hall
"Ah, welcome, Prime Minister..." a balding man said nervously, looking up at the pair of giant women as he opened the door for them. "Mayor Osborn will see you now. Please follow me."
He led them down a couple refined-looking and carpeted halls to arrive at the Mayoral Office, and ushered them inside. Waiting within the spacious room, behind a magnificent-looking wooden desk, was Norman Osborn. The redheaded man quickly got up as they entered and strode over to the women, offering them each a handshake, and although he looked up to meet their eyes, he didn't show any evident signs of feeling intimidated by their size.
"Prime Minister Ray, Sea Guardian Lucia, a pleasure to meet you both!" he said with a smile that creased the lines in his somewhat wrinkled face. "I'm Norman Osborn, Mayor of New York City, of which Manhattan here is a part. Please, have a seat! I'm certain we have a lot to discuss!" He gestured to the chairs and couches
◊ around a coffee table in one corner of the room, then added to his aide:
"Ronald, get me some coffee, will you? Would you ladies like anything? I'm afraid we can only offer you water, tea, or coffee at the moment..."
Castelia City, Pokemon Stadium
"HELL YEAH!" Brobot roared in reply to both Charlie and the spectacle of the Garchomp and Mienshao kicking the stuffing out of each other. "FIGHT! CRUSH! DESTROY THE ENEMY!"
Fuuka/Manhattan Border
"Hey, welcome, Fernandez and Pennington! Good to meet you! I'm Howard!" the buzzcut Sable trooper who'd been waving over at the opposite line greeted with a grin, then frowned. "Aw shit, I guess we don't have enough chairs. Whatever, I'll stand. You two take a seat and we'll deal Fernandez into the new round! But if you run outta money to put in the pot, maybe we can play for questions?"
?????, Alleyway
"Oh, don't mind me, Hallucination-tan!" the bum scoffed at Homura. "Jus' finally losin' my fuckin' marbles, s'all!" He huddled deeper into his coat and scooted a little further away, shivering at her icy glare. Well, at least that indicated they were in Japan... probably.
"Oh, I'm Arisato Minako! Nice ta meetcha, Oriko-chan~!" Minako said as introductions were exchanged, bowing a little at the new acquaintance. "And maps sure would be useful, yep!" she added to Homu.
"Now my new imaginary friends want maps," the bum muttered to himself with a snort. "Why don't they just use their phones like normal people?"
"Hey, that's a good point, Oji-san!" Minako chirped turning to the bum, who flinched. "D'ya know where we are?"
"Japan, duh!" he answered, and then a gleam of greed entered his eyes. "...That one's free. If ya ain't imaginary, any other info's gonna cost ya in cold, hard yen. I tell ya, I know a lotta stuff, including where to find maps..."
"Alright!" The Fool agreed without a hint of hesitation. "Actually... do you take cash?"
"Cash?! Hell no! Who uses cash anymore?!" The bum looked scandalized, as much from the insinuation of using cash as the fact that the rest of SEES were now emerging from what from his perspective looked like a blank piece of concrete wall. "Everything's electronic! Just use LINE Pay like a normal person!"
"What's LINE Pay?" Minako cocked her head in confusion.
"You don't know wha— alright, fine, you walked outta the wall, I can accept you don't know that. Okay, so you go to line.me and download the app, right? And then you take a few seconds to make a username and connect your bank card, and the app does the rest. Badda-boo, badda-bing!"
"Okay, gimme a minute..." Minako said, navigating through her phone. "Alright, well, while I set this up, my first question is: what city are we in?"
"That'll be 500 yen, Ojou-chan," the bum said, suddenly all businesslike as he straightened up against the wall and folded one leg over the other. "How about the rest of ya? Gimme a question, I'll give ya a quote!"
Edited by darksidevoid on Jan 20th 2023 at 2:06:48 PM
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
she/her friend to the hooved
Elaine, Eastern Ruins, Center
Wulfrik's "I accept" stands out to her like a gunshot, her head snapping in his direction in a glare that by her estimation would have killed the human right then and there if she had line-of-sight. Yyyyep. Another ass to beat.
Negotiations with the metal wolf thing apparently successful, Elaine turns her attention back to the matter at hand and gives the smarmiest smirk she can manage, having done a fistpump were she bipedal. "Alright, we can work with this." she says quietly to Amako and Yoriichi with barely-contained excitement and then, in the interests of not giving away the plan to anyone who might be listening, she nods to the two of them and indicates the location of the beast lumbering toward their hiding spot. "You handle the fat one," she whispers, "and I'll circle around and take the flyer. Chainsaw here... does whatever."
Then, the vaporeon follows the steel-type's example and slinks into the overgrown rubble. With the sound of ongoing events guiding her, she deftly maneuvers under brush, into broken windows and through decaying rooms before a few hops and a leap take her up through gaps in the floorboards and into the third story of a ruined building. From here and through the cover of a windowsill, she acquires her target at a hundred or so feet away.
Her earlier assumption turns out to be correct; the apparent leader of the group pillaging this place is indeed winged and reptilian, resembling... an Aerodactyl? Man, did you fall out of the ugly tree. Regardless, she has a clear shot at the thing's back and, most importantly, its impressive wings and what she hopes are comparatively fragile membranes—even a glancing hit from Ice Beam should cripple it assuming she has the rock/flying type advantage.
If not, then... Elaine doesn't honestly have a workable plan yet, but nobody ever won a battle by doubting themselves.
Without further ado and while she still has a shot, she opens her mouth and a pale blue light appears in the back of her throat, growing in intensity while moisture in the air congeals and forms waves of small ice crystals in her fur and on her immediate surroundings, producing a faint crackling noise that she hopes is only barely audible. After about three seconds of this, the light reaches its apex and a thin white beam of piercingly cold energy lances out from her mouth and directly at the point where the beast's wings connect to its body, in a focused variant of the attack that freezes targets solid should it hit, at least in part.
After this, she only peers out long enough to make sure her attack connects before ducking back behind cover.
Edited by Chortleous on Jan 19th 2023 at 10:22:20 AM
Midbus
Castlevania
Raven Beak stoically turned to Dracula as he explained who his Belmont nemesis was and his allies.
Pathetic as they sounded to the Mawkin chieftain, he understood why a creature of the night such as Dracula feared them. However, one detail caught his interest.
"Your son...? My apologies, Lord Dracula, but I do find it strange that your son would side with this vampire hunter. May I ask why he chose to leave your side?" he dryly remarked before scoffing.
"No matter I do understand that this "holy" weapon you mentioned mainly works on creatures of the night and dark. I do not believe it shall work against me. If the need arises too, I will see this Belmont eliminated, and your son disciplined personally." he offered.
Then, everyone wanted to know details about Raven Beak's "daughter". The Chozo warlord smirked under his helmet.
"I know she is a determined one, utterly merciless to her ennemies, battling even when the odds are against her. With Chozo DNA in her, she possesses strength and agility far above that of a normal human."
Raven Beak then raised his cannon.
"But most importantly, she has her Power Suit, a powerful Chozo artifact. An armor similar to mine with abilities such as beams of different elements, enhanced speed, radars, missiles, protection against all kinds of environments, and more."
"To give you an account on how powerful she is, she defeated the Space Pirates on Zebes, as they tried to control the Metroids on her own. She then defeated them on Tallon IV as they tried to master a deadly substance known as Phazon. She exterminated the dark race of creatures known as the Ing, capable of possessing living beings and machines alike. And she destroyed the sentient planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon, alongside a creature known as Dark Samus, an amalgamation of the deceased Metroid Prime she vanquished on Tallon IV and the DNA it took for her, hellbent on corrupting the whole galaxy with it. Lastly, she exterminated the Metroid race on SR388 on her own, and brought a definitive end to the Space Pirates on Zebes, until the Cure intervened." he explained.
The Chozo soldier stared down at Bartley.
"None taken. You clearly do not know us. Only Lord Raven Beak managed to keep his wings. The rest of my species lost theirs a long time ago."
The Mawkin commander simply scoffed at the pegasus's sight, with the witches playing with it. He understood quickly what the countess meant by "babysitting".
Eventually, it was decided that two Aliorumnases would be sent to investigate.
"I assume they will fly using their magic then? Very well." he said before frowning.
"Allow me to insist that the Lord of the castle insisted that none of those women must be seen. It could be a simple coincidence, but I doubt whoever sent this droid did it by accident. He mentioned the possibility of a... Belmont in this world, whoever that primitive is. I trust you are acquainted with him." he sternly warned.
Eastern Ruins
While he failed to see the dog-robot, who hid in time, Kraid came face to face with Amako and Yoriichi. Seeing the former's hostile stance, the beast roared, catching the Pirates' attention.
"Well, well! Did you bring friends with you? You shouldn't have!" Ridley said to Wulfrik. He then turned to his men.
"Boys! Get the-"
SCRACH!!
From the third story of a ruined building, an Ice Beam was fired, hitting one of Ridley wing's joint, freezing it, and seemingly preventing the beast to use one of his wings.
"WHAT??" he roared in rage, mistaking it for an Ice Beam from his hated nemesis. The dragon furiously turned around and had time to see Elaine before she hid behind the windowsill.
That wasn't Aran. But she still tried to attack him in the back.
Ridley stared at the building, then at his frozen joint. The Space Pirate simply started to chuckle. Then he burst out laughing.
A deranged cackle. That dragon wasn't just a pirate. He was a borderline psychopath.
"Boys? I leave you, Wulfrik, and Kraid to clean up the mess here. You will have a new crewmate." he said.
"But sir!! What about your wing??" the Zebesian cried out. Ridley didn't answer as the beast ominously walked towards the building, staring at the window where Elaine was.
Wisely opting to attack from afar, the pirate mooks all started to focus their fire on Amako and Yoriichi with energy projectiles as soon as Kraid gave the command, the beast firing his big spikes at them as he got closer. Being able to fly, the Kihunter started to fly around, and the insectoid started to bombard them with acidic spit. None of them spotted Conan yet.
Once close enough, Kraid started to brutally swipe at the duo with his long arms.
As for Ridley, he stared out the window as he approached his target.
Fire steaming from his mouth, he visibly breathed a bit of fire on his frozen joint, thawing it. Using Ice attacks against Ridley to freeze him wasn't an option.
"I'll have some use for you little dog. I just have to make sure you're not a waste of time. Let's play..." the Space Dragon cackled to himself with a cruel grin.
With a hideous screech, and once more showing just how little he cared about the ruins, Ridley fired a big Plasma beam at the building's basis, in a clear attempt to have it collapse on itself, possibly trapping Elaine underneath the ruins if she did not escape fast.
Bunker
Samus wordlessly nodded at the Commander, she had no question.
And she now had a new mission. Perhaps she will have the opportunity to learn more about her surrounding on the ground.
Wordlessly, holding the hatchling's tube, the bounty hunter then followed the androids to their destination.
Edited by Scipion3 on Jan 20th 2023 at 11:58:12 AM
"Now it is time! Now we will fight! Then you will lose! And you will cry!"
Southern Forest - Igno
"Okay, yeah, I get your point, that's understandable...!" Igno replies, putting his question about moon robots aside to focus on the more immediate issues. "I'd like to give you a straight answer, I really do, but Iiiiiii don't have one." He shrugs apologetically before continuing, "I mean, where I'm from, we've got at least four races of humans," He starts enumerating, showing his fingers to keep count, "Four races of elves, plus two more that are now extinct, and two different kinds of beastmen." He finishes, growing two extra fingers on his second hand just to to be able to visibly account for all twelve.
"And that's only the quote-unquote 'civilized' species that the Divines have deigned to consider sapient and worthy of looking after! And only on the continent of Tamriel!" He stops to take a breath, realizing he's been talking faster and faster as he explained all of this, before continuing at a more moderate pace. "... Anyways, my point is, I'm pretty much a bit of all of these and then some; an absolute mongrel, a mixed-breed the gods would never have allowed if they caught wind of, with a genetic makeup about as messy as a Skyrim tavern after a nord boy's sixteenth birthday."
"So, uh, yeah, it's a bit of a tangle in there, and at this point you know about as much as I do. Sorry 'bout that."
"We have no experience with that," Zhang responded. "Back where we are from, an Alien invasion was overtaking the planet, and we were attempting to hold it back. Abducting people for some nefarious purpose."
"They were experimenting on us, something about psionics" Annette said. "All it did was give me the power to break out and resist them."
Zhang ignored that and continued. "Our commander is safe back at HQ, though he's following us via drone."
"We are probably dealing with other alien powers here," Annette added.
Breath of the Sun
Eastern Ruins, Northwest
"Yeah, we did. Did you show up on the hill too, then?" Makura confirms. She tilts her head curiously. "I was just following my companions here, honestly. We probably should have gone towards civilization first, but a couple of them seemed to be the, uh, uncivilized types."
Conan and Wulfrik, in particular. She doubted the two would last a day in modern society.
As Kongara sniffed at the woman's fruit basket curiously, Makura pondered something.
"If this thing you're guarding disintegrates people who get close, it seems like you don't need to guard it." Makura mused. "Even if they get past your defenses, they'd just die, right?"
Eastern Ruins, Center
Yoriichi tensed at the approach of the giant monster. It was not a demon - it did not burn in the sun - but it was still clearly a vile creature.
Still, he did not move, standing steadfastly by Amako's side. He debated trying to reason with them, but the decision was made for him when Elaine attacked and the enemy opened fire.
11th Form: Fake Rainbow
The weapons were different than the rifles he was used to, and he did not have much experience fighting riflemen regardless, but Yoriichi's speed more than sufficed. He seemed to blur into a haze, illusory images of himself appearing in multiple spots as he twisted around the energy shots.
His blade glowed red, and as he moved it seemed to trail crimson fire, blazing through the air like a spiraling dragon. The area slightly heated up.
Kraid's spike split into pieces as he passed, shredded in an instant, and then suddenly Yoriichi was between two of the lesser space pirates.
2nd Form: Clear Blue Sky
One spinning slash aimed to decapitate them both. His attacks would leave no blood - the heat of Yoriichi's blade did not merely aid in cleaving through enemies, it cauterized the wounds he made instantly.
He moved on to Kraid, continuing to leave disorienting afterimages as he did.
7th Form: Beneficent Radiance
Sheer speed propelled him up Kraid's stomach, slashing in an upwards spiral as he went, deflecting Kraid's swiping arms and possibly even cutting them off. It was partially a test of Kraid's durability, and partially to propel himself towards Kraid's head for a finishing strike.
If Kraid did not find a way to dislodge the errant swordsman, he would most certainly be killed.
Edited by kagescorpionakki on Jan 20th 2023 at 2:16:45 PM
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Conan - Ruins, Centaur
Seeing the obese dragon approach his current companion and showing a most gruesome ability as it did so, Conan knew that combat had to be imminent. But the experienced Cimmerian also knew that cutting off the head was the swiftest end to any conflicts, and so he would attempt to remain hidden while going around the monstrous soldiers attack, to approach the skeletal creature obviously serving at their leader. Taking advantage of Elaine's freeing to slay it should at least shock the others while his own allies distracted them, as well as the mercenary-minded Vanir.
And so, when he was close enough to the purple monster, Conan would come jumping from behind a ruined wall to pounce on Ridley, trying to stab the space dragon's back! Go down, you damned lizard!
Edited by Alecoene on Jan 20th 2023 at 7:50:39 PM
An Ordinary Oddball
Kayne & Moko—Hyrule, Ordon Village
Upon meeting Rusl and Uli, Kayne would grasp a fold of her skirts and dip into a graceful curtsy while sweeping Moko off of her head in one elegant motion. "Hello, Sir Rusl and Miss Uli! My name is Kayne, and this is my friend Moko!" she said cheerfully, as Moko opened his singular charming eye and waved a hatband-arm at at the couple. "Thank you both for your kind hospitality. If there's anything I can do as a guest, please don't hesitate to ask!"
"We are most grateful to tarry a while under your roof, sir and madam," Moko said in that cultured manner of his. "And while my physical faculties are quite limited, I do so swear to make it up with gentlemanliness. Should you require anything of me, I will endeavor to aid you."
"Please, may I offer some spices as a gift?" Kayne asked, presenting the bundles of herbs that she had picked as the party had traversed the Last Outpost. "It's the very least I can do."
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.
The Hill: When There's Evil On the Attack, You can Rest Knowing They've got Your Back!
Since he didn't have enough time—or maybe even enough reachable space—to write out the history of his engagement to Princess Ruto, Link was left rubbing the nape of his neck, turning his eyes bashfully towards the ground. The awkward fidgeting only ceased once the Boy Wonder confirmed this was just a big misunderstanding, to which the little hero let out a big sigh of relief.
He didn't want to leave someone heartbroken.
Link listened to the actual proposal and accepted the small circular device with blinking curiosity. The magic rectangles could come in other shapes, too? How does it work? And what's a Honorarity Titan, anyways? He liked the word, whatever it meant. It had the word "honor" in it, which felt really knightly.
Robin's mention of Themyscrya brought a smile to the little hero's face; one he quickly shifted to mimic the Titan's smug smirk. Then he crossed his arms too, and nodded his head a little. Oh, that little thing? Donna was just the fourth princess he'd ever rescued. Did it in record time, too. No big deal. All in a day's work for someone who's an Honorarity Titan, right?
"The Amazons were nice enough, even though this little twerp had to go around pretending to be a girl the whole time. Isn't that right, Zelda?"
Link's cheeks flared red as he shot the fairy a great big frown. Didn't she see he was trying to look cool in front of these guys?!
As the Titans turned their attention towards the two-legged talking kitty, Link's ears twitched at Hewkii's (arguably rhetorical) question: "do we rush over to help?" By the time the Toa was considering other options, the little hero was already by his steed's side, ready to mount up.
"Hey, y'know what else that smoke could mean?" Tatl called out to her partner. "It could mean a whole lotta nothing! For all we know, somebody's just cooking their breakfast. No reason to rush off like a whole town's on fire!"
Now mounted bareback on his foal, Link gave the fairy a look; staring back into those unwavering blue eyes, Tatl knew that she might as well be talking to the lone tree on this hill. However lightly, the idea had been raised that someone, somewhere, was in need of help. Link wasn't about to just ignore that possibility, and he certainly wasn't going to assume that these someones (however skilled they may or may not be) "got a handle on things."
That's not what heroes do.
"...do you know how annoyingly stubborn you are?" the fairy groaned, but flew towards her partner for the ride.
"We'll go check things out, and tell you what we find." she relayed to the others with an overly-reluctant sigh, "Get ready for the riveting tale of this idiot charging into a campsite or something!"
Linked waved goodbye to the others, and made sure to display the communicator to the Titans with a promising nod. With a light kick and a "Hyah!", the little hero and his fairy were off.
The wolf followed.
Eastern Ruins, Center: An Unfortunate Reunion
Link was on the edge of the meadow leading to the Hill when his dagger-like ears picked up a noise: a hellish screech that made his heart skip a beat. He signaled for Epona to gallop and steered his steed towards the noise, his mind running through possibilities as he reached for his bow and arrows.
Another noise: this time the sound of stone crumbling. A rockslide? No, he didn't see any cliffs around. So probably a building falling apart. Maybe a building with people in it. After all, it's not like that screech came from a Terminan.
By the time that he'd reached the scene of the battle, the little hero had dismissed his steed and notched an arrow in his bow. The fight was hard to make sense of, but he didn't need to know everything—he'd already found who needed to be stopped.
Well...You must be one of the very few brats who ever tried standing up against me.
Ridley hadn't made the biggest of splashes on Battleworld, though if the Cure were to account for the Space Pirate's brief history on the planet, it was not for lack of trying. Soon after arrival, the dragon decided to carve out a slice of the conquered Koopa Kingdom, slaughtering its inhabitants for sport and dining on...let's just call it "Turtle Soup." But the kingdom was effectively headless after the death of Bowser and the Koopa Kids, so it didn't take long for Ridley to grow bored.
When he returned to the Common Room, he crossed paths with a certain pointy-eared little boy and his fairy companion. The child immediately pegged Ridley as "A Bad Guy," which the Space Pirate didn't even pretend to deny. Some sabers were rattled, but ultimately the enforced tranquility of the Common Room prevented the two figures from actually coming to blows.
Until now.
Pouring holy magic into the tip of the arrow, Link released the projectile from his partial cover behind a piece of the ruins. His target: the left side of Ridley's long pterodactyl-like head. Perhaps the arrow would miss its mark; perhaps a puny piece of steel wouldn't even scratch the dragon's scales; perhaps being struck with holy magic would be ineffective against a creature who wasn't born of Malice—not in a literal sense, at least.
But that was all secondary to Link. He didn't want to kill this monster with a single blow, and with a surprise attack no less. He wanted its attention. He wanted it to know that he was here, and that he wasn't going to let it go around hurting people.
"I'd go with Darmani for this one." Tatl murmured to her misguidedly noble and very very stupid partner. "The only thing we know about this guy's that he has sharp teeth and claws, and his breath stinks. The tougher your hide, the less he can do."
Link nodded without taking his eyes off his foe, and—assuming that the stinky lizard caught sight of him—the little hero would reach into his utility belt and retrieve a round coffee-colored mask
and place it over his face. The boy disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by a big-bellied, 7-foot tall figure of living rock.
With a determined frown, the Goron took a defensive stance and waited—dared, even—for the Space Pirate to make the first move.
Hyrule, Southern Field: If Only There Were A Sheikah Tower Nearby...
Zelda's emerald eyes sharpened at the familiar geographical terms. She knew all of them quite well...except for "Ordon," and the fact that Faron Woods was actually to the East of Lake Hylia, not Southwest. Which should've meant that the lake would be to their South as well, if they truly were in the Southern edge of Hyrule Field. Curious that there was no sign of the Great Plateau, either.
Hmmm.
"Very well, then." The princess replied with stoic sigh, and turned to her Champion. "Would you kindly warm these creatures?"
Link nodded, and tossed a few logs near the frozen Bulblins' feet. Then, with a sliver of delight at the task, he set the logs aflame with a fire arrow.
"You should thaw out soon, but I would recommend changing into dry garments when you return to your camp; otherwise you may catch cold. Your weapons, unfortunately, will be staying with us. Can't have you harming any more passersby. Farewell."
And with that, the Champion collected the Bulblin's bows and returned to his chestnut mare. Zelda mounted her pure white stallion as well, and directed her companion to follow her towards the forest to the South.
Sensing the confusion in her knight's expression, Zelda shook her head at the thought of heading for Castle Town. "We need to get our bearings a little more before heading for the castle. If the Dark Lord those monsters spoke of is who I suspect, then the castle is where he would most likely reside. We need to know more before we are ready to confront him."
She focused on the red shade in her peripheral vision, and for the first time since obtaining it, Zelda considered putting the tablet's promise to the test. But she decided now was not the time; this Hyrule was far too foreign for her to spend her solitary wish right now.
"One more thing, Link." she added, albeit with some doubt behind her eyes. "For the time being, I would prefer that you...do not address me as a princess. In fact, we should probably not use our true names until we've secured trusted allies in this kingdom. It's an ancient family tradition to name any first born princess 'Zelda,' after all. Best not to arouse any unnecessary suspicion, or even worse: have locals assume that I'm some kind of imposter. I'll go by Purah for now."
She chuckled. "You can be Robbie."
Link chuckled at the aliases as well, and the duo passed the threshold into the Faron Woods.
Ordon Village, Roads: Your Hometown—10,000 Years Ago
The journey through the forest was quiet, and fortunately uneventful. The occasional fauna got a little too curious for their own good, but a few shots from a bow that were dangerously close to hitting their mark was enough for most of the forest predators to get the message. After crossing a ravine on a large sturdy bridge, the Hylians found themselves beside the entrance to a village, and a downright massive spring to the right; the second kind they passed on their way here.
Further down the path, and they finally reached a village: Ordon, the princess presumed. While she urged her stallion to continue down the path to the village proper, her companion paused on the outskirts of town. The lone house carved into a tree caught his attention.
He smiled. A literal tree house; what a neat idea!
Once inside the village, Zelda started to look around for some signs of a shop or inn. The village was maybe half the size of Hateno so she wasn't holding out hope for an inn, but a general store wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Unless this village was completely isolated from the rest of the kingdom, there had to be some form of trade, right?
Fortunately, the villagers had a habit of placing signs outside of their residences; not unlike a certain knight she knew. Studying the wooden post hugged by two massive horns, Zelda was able to make out that the house to the left of the village entrance was a sundries shop—and she found out so much more from that sign than just the shop's name.
"These letters..." she murmured after dismounting to study the sign. "It's part of the ancient Hylian alphabet. Like the scripts we found etched on the Sheikah Shrines!"
Zelda felt a heat boil and grow within her chest. "Damn you, The Cure." she muttered through gritted teeth. "You send us back home, only to drop us in the wrong era!"
Turning towards her companion, she asked Link to stay with the horses while she went inside to try and purchase something of use. Then, with her cheeks still flushed with anger, she went inside.
"Hello." she smiled meekly to the portly woman
behind the front desk. "I was wondering if I could purchase a map from here?"
Edited by TheodoreHastings on Jan 21st 2023 at 6:51:34 AM
Vampire Hunter
Dracula, Castlevania
Dracula actually didn't answer Raven Beak right away, instead letting him finish explaining who Aran was first. While the account of her activities didn't make sense as Dracula had no real context for what Metroids and Phazon were, it sounded like Aran was a powerful warrior, and it sounded like she has trouble with doppelgangers.
"As you have told us about Aran, it is only fair to answer your question about my son," Dracula nodded. "While my wife and my son had accepted the realities of me feeding on blood as a vampire, my son did not accept the lengths I wanted to go through to exterminate the humans who murdered my wife."
"One could say that Aran has succeeded against the Ing, Phazon, and the Metroids where I had failed with the humans," Dracula smirked. "The Cure brought my wife back to me, which is why I consider him a god worthy of respect."
"With my wife back, I've lost the desire to exterminate humanity," Dracula explained. Perhaps he might try conquering humanity instead starting with that village in the northeast.
Bartley, Castlevania
"I know of the Belmont Clan, though I've never met them in person, fortunately," Elizabeth Bartley explained to the Mawkin Commander, nodding. "So you think this Belmont might have had a hand in sending out that drone?"
"That has... unfortunate implications," Bartley frowned. "It means that Belmont knows we are here and spotted your leader and possibly Ganondorf outside. We may need to prepare for a battle with him."
"But it also means Belmont is looking for something," Bartley then smirked. "I want a third Aliorumnas on this mission. I think Dracula would like to know what Belmont might be looking for."
After choosing a third Aliorumnas, she then turned to the three, "Wear Capes of Invisibility on this mission. Those should keep you three invisible unless you choose to attack."
The three Aliorumnases nodded and left, obviously getting the Capes of Invisibility and flying off through their own magic.
Sypha & Carmilla, That Village In The Northeast
Alright, Sypha knew she needed to get out of this village immediately. Carmilla seemed to come to the same conclusion as she took this opportunity to make her exit from the building.
Sypha meanwhile had to think up an escape route on her own... She threw her Holy Flame at her own cover and then used one of her icicles to shatter one of the windows and jumped out of the window. Not the cleanest escape, but it was an escape.
Both Sypha and Carmilla seemed to be running towards the nearby forest, hoping that these soldiers wouldn't follow.
Meanwhile, the three Aliorumnases, currently wearing Capes of Invisibility and sent here to follow the drone, saw Sypha jump out of one of the burning buildings, trying to flee into the nearby forest. It seems like they found what Belmont was looking for, but now the question is what do they do about it?
Trevor, Alucard, & Grant, Church, Manhattan
"That sounds like Ganondorf!" Trevor stood up like he was about to leave to fight Dracula.
"Sit down, we still gotta find Sypha first!" Grant told Trevor, pushing him back into his seat.
"Look at the screen," Alucard pointed at the screen and... there Sypha was, having escaped one of the burning buildings.
"She's in trouble!" Grant said they all were thinking, as all three stood up.
"Wait..." Trevor held up a finger and pulled out a glass bottle of water from his coat, handing it to the priest. "This is... err, genuine holy water. If you find yourself being threatened by... err, a creature of the night, throw this at them and try to get out of there."
Trevor did find it a bit ironic that he, a vampire hunter, was giving a priest holy water. Unless stopped, the three would then leave the Church to save Sypha.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Eternal Princess
The advertisement ships were only the vanguard of the commercial invasion. On their heels were fleets of civilian ships. Busses so crowded that passengers rode on the top and hung out out the sides. Taxis pretending to be busses doing much the same, while charging an exorbitant fare for the privilege. Ships with painted signs and playing music would float about lazily, doing a little of their own advertisement. And food trucks, oh so many food trucks. Each and every one of them was looking to take advantage of the new market that just presented itself.
Radio calls went out, asking permission to land. Hell, asking where to land. For such a big city, it was poorly thought out. The only docks were almost submerged with water, hardly a great parking space for an air ship. Other ships simply looked for an opening and took it. Laws were only as valid to the extent they were enforced after all. Besides, passenger vessels needed to unload so they could pick up more fares, hovering around like that was not doing wonders for their turn over rate.
Most of those who made land fall were food trucks. The irresistible smell of spiced meats would fill the air while colorful signs promising delectable desserts were displayed. However a wide variety of professions would try to ply their trade. Musicians would play jazz for tips, fortune tellers would put a crystal ball on a folded out table, while hawkers touted their goods displayed on sprawled out cloths. Some were instead looking for work, offering able bodied labor for a fraction of the pay.
Not all entrepreneurs were running a legal game however. Gang members or thieves would take the opportunity to do a little scouting, getting familiar with escape routes or looking for some easy marks. A number of these tough looking customers would proudly display a similar tattoo, linking them to Angry Centipedes. Ladies of the night would also take advantage of the day light hours to find places they could ply their trade, maybe even catch a lonely salary man before he has to go back to work. Con artists would get a feel for the locals, see how gullible they could be and what they would be willing to part with.
Among those seeking entrance would be what could be described as a flying golden yacht
, though perhaps brass would be more accurate. They were particularly insistent on being given permission to land. They would take on an indignant tone at any delay and kept throwing around the name Sun Shipping as if that was meant to mean something. Specifically, it seemed this trading group wanted to meet with Kaiba Corp. Even from this distance they could see all the logos this company had in the city. If Sun wanted to get good with the trade of their new neighbors, this was to group to partner up with.
Dracula, Main Hall, Castlevania
"Indeed, fortune has smiled upon you, Raven Beak!" Dracula nodded to him, as he spawned a ruby tablet from thin air. "As it seemingly has for me."
"Raven Beak has already seen this, but this does concern you, Ganondorf," Dracula allowed Ganondorf a good look at the tablet. "From what I can tell, this is one of the Cure's wishes... It seems to have taken on the form of a ruby tablet in this new land."
"There are interesting implications that are implied by this tablet's existence, since I would have to ask the Cure directly to grant one of my wishes on Battleworld, but this just says to break it to grant a wish without obviously invoking the Cure's power" Dracula explained to the two of them. "Does the existence of this tablet mean that this new land gives out wishes as well, but in tablet form and without the obvious interference by a being like the Cure? Would both Raven Beak and Majora in time also get tablets to grant wishes themselves despite being in a new land away from the Cure?"
"I am tempted to test to see if my theories about the tablet are correct... but I have promised you a wish, Ganondorf, and I won't break that promise so long as I am able."
"That said," Dracula dispelled the ruby tablet from whence it came. "I have not even decided what I personally would even use future wishes for even as a test."
"Since I can seemingly still grant a wish to you, Ganondorf, our deal is still on," Dracula concluded to him. "Deal with Belmont and the boy, and the wish is yours."
"I do not know for certain if either Belmont or the boy are still around, but..." Dracula frowned as he thought to himself. "But if you are here and Majora is here, then the boy should also be here. Same with myself in regards to Belmont."
Clearly, this was the reason why Dracula wanted to confirm whether Ganondorf and Majora came with them. Dracula's reasoning about Link and Trevor also being in this new would imply to those who've met him on Battleworld that Ridley was also in this new land, though Dracula himself had no knowledge of Ridley's existence.
Wizard Needs Food Badly