Light Vs. Darkness: The Hero's Return

• The end of the Mexican standoff
• Xross

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  Two more people had joined in on the Mexican standoff, bringing them now to a solid five people and one giant stingray. It was probably the most interesting Mexican standoff that anyone has ever seen, not that anyone was watching this. Soon enough time had passed so that even a tumble weed had gone by between the two groups. It was then that the sting ray had made the first attack, which was unexpected. The attack was aimed at the ground just in front of their feet instead of actually harming them. The attack was followed up by Ohm firing off an attack of its own. It was fairly clear that the standoff had come to an end.
  
  That became even more clear when Eins had attempted to attack the sting ray. The two guys on its back had gotten off while one of them had actually left the area while the other once seemed to just take cover somewhere that was close. Guess he didn't want to fight which, given how the odds were kinda stacked against him, who could blame him. So now it was them vs the giant sting ray who was still shooting lasers at them. This was going to be a interesting fight for sure. A ball of fire had appeared at the time of Zephyr's keyblade as it was pointed towards the creature. "Fire!" He shouted, not at all referring to the spell that he'd just cast as it flew towards the sting ray.
  
  So what's your exit strategy? Lucrix asked. The group of people may have been currently focusing on the sting ray that was sent to scare them off, but it that was defeated then there wasn't much stopping them from turning their attention towards him. Avi was definitely trying to thin of a way out, but was coming up short. Lucrix on the other hand waited for a bit before speaking again. Hey genius, why not use the mirror. Upon mention of it, Avi dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a slightly above average sized mirror. In the heat of the situation he'd completely forgotten about this and how he could use this as a means to escaping. He placed the mirror down in front of him and poured some magic into it. The magic had caused it to reflect an image of Sapphire's throne room where both her and Phantom were at. While the magic was still in the mirror, he placed his hand on it which caused the image to ripple slightest before he eventually entered it. In the throne a random mirror had appeared floating in the air before Avi flopped out of it. Landing after using the mirror was still something that he needed to work on.
• 
  
  ​
  When Xross had arrived his attention was turned towards the guy dead on the ground then he glanced over to the crying Alisa. She had been his slave was what could have been less than an hour and she was already crying against a wall. "Sucks to be her and well, him too." That was basically the only thing that Xross could think to say. He barely knew the dead guy and he defiantly wasn't bother by him being dead and he wasn't the guy to go all heroic and attempt to aid Alisa. He wanted to see if Xander could actually do that or would he just jail in the end. Still he shrugged his shoulders before speaking again. "Might as well, unless there's anything else you want to do first. Whether it be killing someone else or whatever else floats your fancy." Xross may not have had very much interest in looking for the hero himself, he was still curious as to just who this hero was and if anyone else had found something out, that just made things easier for him.

 

• Anadi
• Inquisition

• 
  Looking at the others, Anadi nodded in agreement to going back. If what this man called Bartholomew said was true, then they were much better off going back to the castle and looking through the library. Anadi only knew so much about the other world's, the library in Court of Crystal on Crystallis had taught her that much. Though there was that one room Anadi was told she couldn't go into until she was much older. In any case, she shook her head and followed along with Jackie and Blanc through the dimensional rift that Blanc spawned. While they passed through, Anadi though back to memories of her world. Days spent wandering the streets as a teenager who was learning to become a Sage with her brother being her protector. There were many people that she had cared for. Every single person she met and any others she would meet, Anadi had cared for them a lot. She wanted to protect the entire world. But now that Crystallis was gone, now that Anadi is alone, she was stuck wandering between worlds. The pain of remembering them was almost too much to bear.
  
  Her thoughts were broken when she heard the familiar clacking of her boots on the floor of the library. Shaking her head, Anadi looked up to see Lucien in the middle of a bunch of books. Anadi knelt down beside him and rummaged through the books he had gathered. "What's with all of these? Why're you reading them, Skittles?" she asked, awaiting his reply. Listening to him, she waited for him to finish before standing back up and straightening her skirt. "Well, I'll leave you to this, then. Don't wanna disturb...whatever you're doing." she said, walking over to Blanc.
  
  "I don't think I'll be needing you to teach me space time things." Anadi said to him. "I've found something far more interesting." she continued, a sinister smirk on her face.
• 
  Far above those on the ground, a keyglider could be seen. Upon it stood a woman clad in armor, staring down at the ones below her. Gexln had left, but there were many others that were still around. Tapping her keyglider, the woman dropped down beside Xero softly. Looking at her, the armored woman put a hand on Xero's shoulder. "Xero, I must ask. Why are all of you here?" she said, putting her hands on her helmet. It disappeared and allowed long, minty hair to flow behind the armored woman. Of course, the hair was kept in a large braid, just barely above the ground. It was revealed that this was Ananta, who looked just the same as she was nearly 300 years ago.
  
  "I'd gotten reports of a disturbance...so I ordered everyone to leave the area or stay in their homes...I didn't realize I'd find at least six people dead and their crystals stolen." she said, crossing her arms. "I need an explanation. Now." she said, obvious anger in her voice. She faced Xero, who seemed to be the one who'd know the most. "I'm asking you as a friend, Xero. I need to know why your husband decided that killing innocent people was such a good idea. I mean, he'd never came here before and done that, so why now?" she asked yet again.
  
  For all Ananta cared, she'd kick everyone off this world as soon as she had the chance. Or throw them in jail. It all depended on what the ones here now did and said.

 

Upon seeing Renna appearing, Hunter wasn't too shocked. Her face was nothing special, and he was used to women being around him all the time. Maybe it was because he had a habit of pissing them off, but hey it didn't matter what the reason was. "Shut up Ginger, I'm trying to help you" he hissed. However, then he looked down from Renna's face and saw the anime-style chest that she had. "Fine, down you go" he said quickly, before letting go of Gwen and stepping just a little closer to Renna. "No, I haven't seen someone like that, but do you really need them anyway? You've got one sexy hunk of man right here to have fun with all you like, if you catch my drift" Hunter said, not caring that the woman he'd been hitting on for some time had just been abandoned on the ground.

However, then Ananta had to come down and ruin everything. She was forgiven shortly when she took off the armour. She wasn't much to look at in his opinion, but if she'd kept that look for 300 years then she was sitting on a goldmine. Anti-ageing cream would be the bestselling thing since sliced bread. But first, she had to be broken down mentally, and if he was to do that he would need to be brutally honest with her about how inferior she was. He hated honesty, but he loved bringing people down, he lived a tough life.

"We're here because the plot demanded....I mean filler!" Hunter declared, explaining perfectly the reason they were there. "Maybe the reason they all died is because your people are piss weak and can't fight back, or because you couldn't promote them from commons to elites! Or hell, maybe Atlanteans just have a really short life span and the true story of your birth wasn't revealed properly in your bio!"​

 

"People are piss-weak?" came a voice from the heavens right above Ananta and Hunter. Down descended another in Keyblade armor, fresh off of his keyglider. His blue armor peeled off, revealing piercing red eyes and white hair with a healthy fair complexion. His glare was firm and his key glider disappeared into the quirky Odin keyblade that he possessed. shards of his armor were still flaking off of him in bright white light."I could BLINK and you'd be dead, youngster." came the voice. He backed up beside Ananta and stared Hunter down, silently scrutinizing him before he turned his gaze to Xero."Get your husband, your friends and get out of our home." He said in an angry tone, though not full blown rage, it was heavily suppressed."And you.."He turned his gaze to Hunter."Don't you dare taunt my wife. I don't care about your plot, your filler or your damn fourth wall, I had to deal with Beuce for that annoying habit, I will not have it in my home."

 

A voice began to speak behind Hunter and Kross and those around them. "The crystals are missing? I'm so glad that those idiots finally lost site of what they were for!" A being of light stood behind him, his lifeless eyes starin at the people of Crystallis. "That *******, Antanes managed to find a way to seal me away from purifying the world from any tainted form." Within an instant his fingered snapped and a random citizen exploded.

He looked at two more that were staring at him in fear. He manipulated their magnetism and forced them into each other, the magnetism going down to their bones and snapping to connect with the other bodies. His attention then moved to Hunter.

"You are not full of light. You are of know use in my perfect world." He snapped his fingers again to blow up Hunter. He began to laugh until his eyes noticed Hunter coming out of a manhole. His expression was confused. "Perhaps I missed." He blew him up again. quickly after, just a hand appeared, only a hand. He stared at it for a second in confusion. He blew off the hand.

 

Alright, so, first try didn't go so great. But she was just playing hard to get. He would've continued along the path to scoring with her, but another girl walked up. She asked if they'd seen anyone tall, dark, and handsome with spiky white hair. Immediately. Beuce spiked up his hair in a fashion that cast a shadow over his face, making him appear slightly more menacing. "Why yes, yes i have." He said, walking over to the girl, full of confidence. "So, what brings a talking pair of boobs to a place like this?" A talking pair of boobs...Evidently he hadn't actually seen any of the rest of her yet. He was snapped out of his trance like state by the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Or at least something equally as annoying.

From above descended a familiar green haired woman. Christ, he thought he was rid of her in LvD1. Given what she did to his future self, Beuce REALLY didn't like Ananta. "Heeeey. Ananta. How you been?" Beuce said with a smile about as real as the female orgasm. She seemed ore or less ignore him and just talk to Xero. Next up on the list of arrivals was Kross who had apparently grown something of an ego. "Had to 'deal with me' did ya? Him yeah you could probably kill just by blinking." He looked over to see Hunter explode into a fair bit of gore in a violent display of shiny power which happened to coincide with Kross blinking. "Yeah, like that." He said with no alarm in his voice whatsoever, turning back to Kross and continuing to speak. "But ME, now that's a different story. Last time i checked, i beat you with an umbrella, dude."

As Hunter began to respawn through a hole in the fourth wall, some dillhole just blew his arm off before he was even finished being written back into the story. Like, what the actual fuck. "Dude. I get the appeal of killing him, trust me i've done it, but camping him is just a dick move." Beuce said, a bit irritated at the sheer BM presented before him. Surprisingly enough, he was coming to Hunter's defense. Who did this guy think he was, light Xindai? He was sure enough of a ******.


Zavion honestly didn't know what to make of the voice of his mother resonating in his head. He hadn't heard in so long...but he remembered like it was yesterday. She asked why they fought against her. They weren't part of the rebellion, only with them for fear of being discovered until they could leave. The pain of hearing her voice again was immense. He honestly just didn't know what to do. Looking over to Freya, he could see that it had shaken her as well. He didn't know if her words were true, but no matter what the case, this creature had to be dealt with. They couldn't be discovered yet. Spreading his wings, Zavion took flight right alongside Charlotte.

Approach right now wasn't an option, else they'd be hit by the lasers. Out of the people here, Zavion was most likely the only one who could do much about that. Summoning up a force from within himself, darkness spread itself along the ground in front of them. with a wave of his hand in an upward motion, it grew to form a wall. He raised it off the ground and placed it directly in front of Charlotte. "Alright, i've got you covered. It won't hold, but it should give you enough of a shot to get a hit in!" He called to the woman. He would fly right beside her and put in his own strike. He wasn't about to simply provide support for her when he could do far more. ​

 

Xero could only rub her temples as a bunch if people suddenly approached her and kept asking questions that involved Gexln. "I don't know!" She shouted as she continued to rub her temples, "I don't know why he's doing this!" Xero didn't even pay attention to the girl asking about someone she's looking for. That was when some guy suddenly appeared and began to blow up Hunter into bits for the sake of blowing up Hunter. She looked around and could almost feel an aneurysm begin to form as utter nonsense was beginning to happen, "Beuce... Why can't anything NORMAL happen around you? Just... For the love of God... Can. We. FOCUS?! "​

Renna just made a disgusted look as Beuce approached her and basically called out her breasts. She was about to slap him until she heard multiple explosions and looked over to see a boy blowing up another man that seemed to keep... Reforming? "You people are insane..." She said as she looked around, "Then again I've dealt with much worse. Though it was more... Civilized insanity." She said, thinking back to her friend that she was searching for. Civilized insanity... Was that even a term? Renna shook her head and returned to reality, "So I guess none of you have seem him then..." ​

Lexcifur immediately jumped to the side ad the lazer suddenly shot toward the group. He then jumped in front of Freya as she fell, quickly grabbed her waist and began to run away from the incoming lazer that almost caught up to Lexcifur. He set Freya down and then glared up at the stingray, "Not here to hurt us huh?" He then glared at Freya, "Somehow that seems a lot stronger than you thought it'd be." Lexcifur then looked at the demon hand he had and exhaled before reaching into his own chest.

For some reason it was painful for him, but not for others. He reached further in and grabbed a hilt, then he pulled it out with a cry if pain. The object was covered in a tar like substance and then it began to fade away into a dark mist, revealing a bladed staff. He panted as he felt the pain of basically pulling out his own heart, but not as much as he did with the others he's used as weapons. That was why he was still conscious, however his weapon wasn't as powerful due to this. But still powerful enough to be useful in battle. Lexcifur looked back at Freya again, "Stay near me and Zavion." He said as he then began running over to Zavion, "Zavion! What do you need me to do?"

Spoiler: Lexcifur's Staff

 

• Juliet
• Hunter
• Dane, Caleb, Gexln

• 
  
  
  Juliet stood there, surprised by the appearance of the stingray and the disappearance of those that had stood before them. Was this stingray a creation of Sapphire's? Why had it been sent? She remembered the conversation with Freya, and the doubts that were beginning to form vanished. She trusted Freya to an extent, so she would help them do what they can, even if it meant destroying Sapphire's creation. Sorry Sapphire, but if you want to deter this rebellion, you're going to need more than a stingray, she thought to herself. Tossing her keyblade up into the air, it turned into its glider form and Juliet leaped up onto it. "Keep it busy, I'll take this thing down real quick" the woman said as she flew towards the Stingray and slashed at it with her keyblade. ​
• 
  
  
  At Kross' threat, Hunter just smirked. "You can blink as many times as you like, but you ain't gonna kill me unless you get perm-" he started, but the man was cut off before he could finish by a beam of vaporization, which is completely a thing. He found himself at Disney Castle, and immediately used another hole to make his way back to Crystallis. "Now, that was bloody rude, I don't know who did it bu-" was as far as he got, clambering out of the hole before he was again vaporized. Respawning once more in Disney Castle, the hole hadn't even closed due to how long he'd survived. But if he went back immediately, he would surely be killed immediately. Or...maybe he'd gotten bored and started killing other people! And Hunter was missing out on it! Climbing into the hole once more, he stretched out his hand outside of it slowly, cautiously, only for him to hear the sound of a laser. "Oh come on!" he exclaimed, before his hand and the rest of him vanished immediately.
  
  No sooner had he spawned once more than Gwen climbed through the hole. "Okay, even I'm getting tired of this. Moving on would probably help a bit with that. Before we do though, you should climb back through and get yourself vaporised. You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes? They're right. It does. I got to relive the moment I lost my v-card several times, its awesome!" he said joyfully, no doubt confusing any onlookers who may be there. ​
• 
  
  
  "Oh come on, we have too many people looking as is. If I start killing people, people will start panicking, and they'll work harder to find the hero. It's called inspiration, maybe you have heard of it. Besides, I have my own personal doom machine, even if she is a little weak-stomached, so what is the point of having the ability to outright murder people and not use it? That's called wasting potential. Did you even go to school?" Dane asked.
  
  "Murdering an ally, and then trying to justify it? You sicken me. You just killed an innocent man that was helping us to find the one person that can fix everything. You know what that's called? Betrayal" Caleb said, entering the room only to see a girl being sick, a man laying dead at Dane's feet, and another of their allies looking as though he wanted to start a fight. "And you know what we call the people that commit betrayal? Maybe the goddess isn't the one we have to stop, maybe it's you" he growled, clearly not seeing the humour in Dane's accomplishment.
  
  "Lighten up, this is funny. That slave there throwing up her guts? Sick, but funny. The corpse? Hilarious. The slave's guard that wants to murder me? Amusing that he thinks he can, and you...the guy that looks as though someone pissed in his cereal several times over? Best joke of the night. You wanna start something? Go ahead and try, maybe we'll end up with a few more corpses here. Last I checked, you wanted the hero, so lets find him and we'll sort out personal issues later, where I would be more than happy to cut you to pieces" Dane responded, a little irritated with Caleb's entry.
  
  Caleb bit his tongue. If he started a fight, they'd probably come out on top with numbers, but he had Audrey with him. Audrey was only young, and he had no doubt that from the way Dane was talking that the murderer would have no objections to using her as a hostage if he had to. It was a terrible situation to be in, but Caleb would have to bide his time and wait. For the moment.
  
  "I'll stop the rebellion, Sapphire. I made a promise, and I'll keep it. There's someone with them, someone that I've tangled with in the past, and I don't know if I can take him by myself, so I went to Crystallis. The people there wouldn't give me their stupid crystals, so I took them. I'll stop this rebellion, but I'm doing it my way, if you don't like it then maybe you can ask my son that you killed if he can stop them. Maybe he'll care- oh wait, you took his heart, he can't care!" Gexln exclaimed, obviously bitter in how he spoke. As he arrived back in Beast's Castle, he passed a creation of Sapphire's. A wolf made of pure darkness.
  
  The scene he saw when he entered was one he hadn't expected. It almost looked like they were doing his job for him, what with the corpse on the ground and all. "If any of you want to live, turn around and abandon this rebellion crap right now. I've had one hell of a day, and apparently I'm not allowed to kill innocent people. But hey, you're not innocent, apparently you guys are committing a crime. I don't think its a crime, but Sapphire sure does. So, will you be running or dying?" Gexln asked. He was more than a little pissed off, but that wasn't clouding his judgement. He had both the crystals with him and Sapphire's creature, so he could probably handle the group.
  
  Upon seeing Gexln, a wicked smile appeared on Dane's face. "Oh slave? Don't doom this one, this guy's mine to kill" he said simply.​

 

Kross heard another male and turned his head to regard him. The white hair and weird attitude gave the man away quite quickly. His expression didn't even shift as the man commented on their little scuffle that happened over three centuries ago."My copy."He corrected pointedly. Ignoring the exploding Hunter and the culprit behind the overkill, he turned to Beuce fully, looking him up and down before looking over at Xero."Sorry Xero, guy talk."He said and went closer to Beuce and looked at him."Despite the unpleasant welcoming committee, it's good to see you again, Beuce."He said in a calm, much softer voice."And don't fake your emotions towards Ananta, dishonesty is unlike you."He said. "You are the man I wanted to see, however..call it a favor from an old friend..you don't have to do this if you do not want to but..you're the only friend I can trust."He said."I have a daughter who's run away from home and a son I have sent to find her. I have a bad feeling about what they may have gotten themselves into. Ohm has a one-track mind but Anadi..she'll do anything for a thrill."He said, so much like his wife."If anything happens as I feel it may, I would like you to at least keep an eye on them."He said. He put a hand on Beuce's shoulder."Can I trust you to do that?"

Ohm grit his teeth, it looked like the attack hit but the stingray was still up and kicking, and now it flew out of range of close attacks. He wasn't much good at long range fighting as he was at close range. He would have to use that rune to even try to get a hit off, it wasn't even guaranteed to be very accurate either. His eyes glowed red, the fire rune replacing his pupils as he brandished his sword in a fluid, repeating motion. Orangish red light flew out of the sword's edge and flew in a stream towards the distanced stingray.​

 

Crossing her arms, Ananta watched everything unfold around her. Of course, she simply ignored Beuce and the exploding Hunter. Those were things Ananta had not a single care for. Kross appeared next to her and she smiled at him, but shook her head as Xero spoke up about them all focusing. Ananta awaited everyone to at least calm down first. Of course, Kross had to go and ask Beuce to do something. That had to do with Anadi and Ohm. That was not something she wanted to be done. Kross was interfering with Ananta's plans for Anadi and it was getting a little annoying. She even told him that she was going to use Anadi's running away to be her test. The same test that Ananta had to go on over 300 years ago. She stepped forward and put a hand on Kross' shoulder. "Kross, dear, I already told you. We don't want Anadi knowing that Crystallis isn't destroyed. I mean, that's why I put that spell over Ohm's body. Anadi's body sucks in magic and converts it into mana, so naturally she'd absorb my memory magic." she shook her head. "And Ohm himself knows that I do not want Anadi knowing the world is still here. Believe me, I've prepared for everything. Ohm was reluctant...but he went with it anyway. He probably just wanted to be there to protect her anyway." Ananta shrugged.

"As for the rest of you." she said, turning around. "I don't want any of you telling my daughter, Anadi, that this world is still here. It's part of her own test. I had to go through it, so I already know it's going to be hard. If she were to find out that Crystallis was still here...well, she'd probably be heartbroken. That's why I ask all of you not to say anything. At least...not yet, okay?" she asked all of them. "Oh, Anadi should be pretty easy to find. Her hair is the same color as mine. Ohm has navy blue hair and doesn't speak much, if at all." she said. That was all she needed to say on that matter. In fact, she was sure at least Beuce wouldn't tell Anadi. He may be an asshole, but he wouldn't blurt out about such a thing after being asked not to. At least, Ananta hoped so.

"Now, onto the real situation at hand here. Xero, Gexln killed people and stole their crystals. That's a crime punishable by death on this world. A crystal is sacred and belongs to the family. Why would he steal the crystals? Do you know, dear?" she asked Xero, stepping towards her. "And I know I may not be in the right, but you look as if something happened between you and Gexln." she said softer, not really wanting to sound loud or angry. She was trying to comfort Xero now. "If there's anything you need, just ask me, alright?" she said, smiling at Xero.

 

• Library
• JUSTICE
• Stratos

• 
  As Lucien had continued reading his book it had seemed that Anadi had brought up a question as to what he was doing."Well Seafoam, these are all books. As for why I'm reading these books, it's because I'm completely bored and trying to burn time while we wait for Team mostly Glen and Team Steve Irwin Avengers to get back here...and I guess my team as well."As he continued to read on, he threw the book back into the pile and picked up another one as he continued reading on. "However, I'm also looking for the next part of the legend for us to follow on this wild goose chase. After all, maybe this time we can narrow the searchable locations down from three dimensions to one." After she left, he just gave an acknowledging nod.
  
  As Anadi walked over to Blanc, he listened to her speak about how he didn't need to teach her anymore, and so he just sort of shrugged at it. With a simple "okay," and not taking her facial expression into consideration in the slightest, he went to go look at the books as well. Only to realize that he had no idea why Lucien would think any of these would lead him to finding the hero in the first place.
  
  Meanwhile, Lucien had looked up from his book for a second and saw that Anadi had a pretty weird smile on her face and just mumbled, "oh great, she's evil now." As he was still reading, suddenly Gwen had appeared out of rift in the fabric of reality and commented on how they could get moving, only for him to say, "I wouldn't count on that just yet." Soon after Hunter had appeared again and again and again, only to be...well Hunter. However, with the two of them back he said in a monotone, "well, it appears that the both of you didn't get thrown in prison. Nice nice." As his attention was still drawn towards the literature he said, "so what happened to the guy with the weird arm and the two other girls?"
  
  
  
  Meanwhile, Jackie was actually pretty happy about how they were the first whole group back. That clearly meant that they were the awesomest team to have come out of this hero searching brigade. It was then that Jackie realized that she had completely overlooked something. "Right, everyone, we got a newcomer to our brigade." Point over to Bartholomew she said, "his name is...uh, Mr. Halloween Town!" And she had completely forgotten his name. Lucien looked up to the guy and gave him a simple wave, before going back to reading. Realizing that there wasn't anything to be doing, Jackie now felt impatient with waiting for the adventure to continue. And so what does an adventurer do in down time? Converse with the other party members, that's what! First and foremost, Jackie was curious about the magic that her party members had done. While she would ask Blanc about his own weird space magic thing, he was...sleeping. Well then.
  
  So there were two other party members that she had seen used magic, and they were Ghost, the really edgy guy, and Anadi, the equally as curious about things girl. Walking over to the both of them she said, "so, let's talk about ourselves! Like for instance, neither of you really seem like the type that would be a super awesome fighter." Not even paying attention to either of their reactions to that part, she said, "so I was wondering where you all learned to do what you do. Like you with your awesome lightning katanary," she pointed to Ghost, "and you and your whole keyblade and whatever kind of magical thing you do," she pointed to Anadi.
• 
  
  ​
  As Ein had been hovering in the air, waiting for an opportunity to strike, she was considering just firing off various light magics at the being though she held off for the moment. She would look for the right moment to go in, however these thoughts were soon cut off as Zavion had seemed to fly in and tell her about his plan. She was a bit wary of the boy, as his large darkness wings and his ability to just mass produce constructs of darkness at a moments notice was not something that she was particularly fond of, though his intentions only seemed to be that of someone trying to help, and so she went along with it. With the plan to fly in and rush it down, she gave him a nod and said, "understood." As everyone had gotten together it was now the time to charge, as this was their greatest opportunity to bring the sting ray down.
  
  With the wall of darkness in front of her, she turned to Zavion and said, "let's move." And with that, took off tanking the laser shots with the massive wall of darkness that the boy had constructed. While it had held up fairly well, it eventually dissipated to the barrage of lasers, she brought her sword up and charged it with light. With it, she went forward charging at much faster speeds then she normally would be able to use by using her skill Light Ray. As she charged through it, the Stingray took a bit cut on its back, only to get cut on its stomach by Juliet's follow up keyblade strike. The next blow dealt to it was the large death beam that Ohm had fired straight at it, melting off part of its tail causing it to fall in the pit below. The ray was on its last legs here.
  
• 
  Stratos was just sort of awkwardly standing there on Crystallis, watching everything just sort of...happening. He couldn't make heads or tails of what was actually going on as both Lucien and Gwen had just sort of vanished into thin air and hole in space time respectively. Then there was Ananata and Kross, who he hadn't actually seen since the days of the whole SOS shenanigans, but they seemed to be way older. Huh, so people do age. Well that was interesting thought. However, then Hunter just sort of exploded into thin air...apparently the culprit was someone who had just sort of appeared out of nowhere and was vaporizing people. Man what a dick. Nevertheless, everyone was just sort of getting talked to in a one on one conversation except for the one person who wasn't with them initially.
  
  Not really sure what to talk about he was like, "so, who exactly is this person you're looking for and uh, what makes you think he'd be on this world? Did he come from this world?" He was kind of not entirely sure what to do in this situation as he felt entirely out of place.
  

 

Ghost stood in the castle courtyard along with the rest of the group from the realm of darkness. They seemed to be waiting on some of the others to get back. Meanwhile, the rather enthusiastic girl that had been in his group ran up and asked him and Anadi where they'd learned to fight. He could hardly just say he'd spent the last 300 years working as the shadowy hand of the goddess and killing off those who defied the law she set. Damn...He didn't talk to people. He killed people. How would Phantom handle the situation? ...Suddenly an image of Phantom pondering how he would handle the situation and arriving at the conclusion he would just kill Jackie appeared in his mind. Well, that did a lot of good...Maybe he should work on his people skills a tad...

"I suppose you could say i'm self taught. Most of my technique is of my own invention. As far the magic imbued into my weapon and armor...The weapon was my father's before mine, and his father before him. It was passed down through the generations. One day i too will pass it on." Ghost told her, giving a brief explanation about Narukami. One day he would pass it on...Death was like the wind, always by his side. It was a danger he faced. One day, the sword he held would belong to Phantom, likely along with his armor. "My armor...it was a gift from an old ally. something to help me let go of my past." Ghost turned around and began to walk off. "I'll be back momentarily." Disappearing behind the corner, out of sight, Ghost melted into the shadows. The darkness behind Sapphire's throne was the outlet for the assassin. "My lady." He said to the goddess, stepping out from behind her. His voice was the only sound he made, as his footsteps were silent as ever. He looked over to see his apprentice and an unfamiliar face.

"I have returned as you requested. From what i have been able to ascertain, their base of operations is what was at one point Disney Castle. While their combat abilities seem to be varying, they are disorganized. It's unlikely they will find the hero even without interference. There are some among them which seem to encompass a large portion of the resistance's power. However...There is something odd about them. A few of them...i don't believe even wish you any ill will. They seem to be in it for the sport, or have ulterior motives for finding the hero. I cannot be sure what they may be though." Ghost stood, finishing his report to the goddess. He turned toward his apprentice, apparently having business with him as well.

"Phantom...Among the resistance, there is a man by the name of Bartholomew Blackstone. He evidently hails from Halloween Town. I want you to keep a watchful eye on him. Find out everything you can about his origins, his personality, his habits. Any information you can find. I've taught you how to size up a mark before. Then, keep your sights aimed at his head. Be ready for him. I get a vibe of evil from him. I don't yet know his motives, and i want you to find out." His apprentice now given a task from him, he was now finished with his business on Riel. Walking over toward the shadows behind Sapphire's thrown once more, he was prepared to leave.


Beuce was waiting for Kross' answer when most of the other fourth wall breakers just up and left, back to base. He wasn't quite done here though. Kross approached him with a serious look, saying he was the man he wanted to see. A favor. He asked Beuce to keep an eye on his kids, Ohm and Anadi. Smiling, Beuce accepted the task. "You got it! Have i ever given you a reason not to trust me? ...Don't answer that. I got it." Then, Ananta spoke up. God, talk about worst mother of the year. Seriously. He would've expanded upon this, but he realized that some serious shit was going down in another world. Gexln was about to like 1v5 some of the most overpowered fuckers in the RP. "Damnit we gotta go! Gexln's in some serious trouble. My plot senses are tingling."

He turned to the others there. They needed to get to Beast's castle fast. "Xero, open a dark corridor to beast's castle, quick! Stratos, when we get in there, we're going to have a serious brawl. You know what to do." There was a keyword in that statement. In a certain mindset, that guy was unstoppable. It just took a certain...setting to get him into it. "You...uh...chick. Come with us. You never know, you might end up finding your guy. Important stuff has a habit of happening around us."


His wall had proven useful, and allowed Charlotte to get in a pretty strong hit. If that weren't bad enough, Juliet and Ohm followed up with strikes of their own. It hadn't been a long fight, but the beast was already on its last leg. All that was left was to finish it off. "Lexcifur! Lets do it!" He flew above the creature, ready to perform his part of the fight. Meanwhile, Lexcifur knew what to do. Mirroring Zavion's position, he ran directly beneath it. Zavion summoned up dark energy in two places. One in a spiral around his right tonfa, and one in a spiral around The Devil's Lance, Zavion's spear. From above, Zavion stabbed the blade directly into the dark being's back, driving it down toward the ground.

Meanwhile, from below, Lexcifur leaped into the air and thrust his spear up at the stomach, as though to drive it into the air. Combined, these two forces created a devastating combination for the creature. Being crushed by darkness empowered attacks from either side, especially given the injuries it had already sustained, it couldn't hold on. Eventually, the blades of their two weapons touched, and the darkness in them took a new form. With a hole driven completely through, it expanded. It was like an explosion, ripping the creature entirely in half from the inside out. There was no way it would survive such an attack. It faded away, defeated. Landing on the ground, Zavion looked up at the sky where the creature had been moments before. "Good work." He said simply. ​

 

Xero frowned at Ananta as she once again asked the same question as to why Gexln stole the crystals, "I told you I don't know!" She looked to the ground and tried to calm down. All the questions and people angry at her for Gexln's actions were beginning to get to her, "I know I may not be in the right, but you look as if something happened between you and Gexln." Xero looked back up at Ananta but then turned away, "We had an argument... It doesn't concern any of you..." She looked back to Ananta, "I just--"

"Damnit we gotta go! Gexln's in some serious trouble. My plot senses are tingling." Xero whipped her head over to face Beuce with wide eyes, "What? What's happening?"

"Xero, open a dark corridor to beast's castle, quick!" Beuce shouted at her and she quickly created a corridor and ran through. She was now in the plaza in front of a castle, frantically looking around the dark area, "Gexln!" She called out trying to find him, "Beuce hurry up!" She shouted into the corridor. Renna came through and looked rather confused with the place.


"I don't even know why I'm coming with you. But your... delusional friend made a point about me possibly finding who I'm looking for here." Renna spoke as she then looked around at the place not sure what to think of it. "Well, doesn't this place look... Depressing." She said as she began to walk around. ​

 

• Anadi
• Ananta

• 
  Well, that was pretty straight forward. Anadi wasn't sure how to answer Jackie. She wasn't even sure about her own keyblade much less this new magic she's got. Listening to Ghost, she crossed her arms and grumbled to herself. What and why does she even have the keyblade? She can't remember. She swears her parents told her why, but as of now, she cannot remember. Closing her eyes, Anadi began to think of what she could tell Jackie. "Well...I can't remember when or where I got my keyblade. My parents both had keyblades. Ohm never got one for whatever reason..." she said, scratching her cheek. "But for as long as I can remember, I was taught how to fight and use my magic. Of course, my physical abilities were far better than my parents, so they let me and Ohm train together. But...I couldn't take it much longer...then my world was destroyed by heartless." she frowned.
  
  "As for that dark magic, it's something I just started using...maybe a few months ago? One day during training, I got way angry at Ohm and I shot some dark ball at him. My dad immediately rushed forward and repelled it, calming me down. That's all I remember. The fire that I used against that horse was something new I just learned to do. It was pretty cool." Anadi said. She really wanted to experiment or maybe find somebody else that could use the darkness. It was scary, but cool. Anadi was overcoming her fear of it and she was sure she'd eventually be able to use it effectively. "What about you and Blanc? How'd you guys meet and stuff?" she asked. "Oh yeah, and that hero thing. Why do we need the hero again? What's he gonna do?"
• While Ananta still had questions for everyone, she saw how hurried they were with leaving. "It's okay, please be careful. Come see me later, alright?" she called to Xero through her dark corridor. Turning back to Kross, Ananta crossed her arms. "Things are getting fickle. We need to clean this up, make a story, and try to make people forget about this whole mess." Ananta nodded at him. Turning back around, Ananta stood by all the bodies. She lifted her arms up and moved her fingers, causing each body to float and lay on the grass in front of a house. One by one, they laid next to each other. Reaching into her pocket, Ananta pulled out a small device and pressed a button, causing a holographic screen to appear. Tapping it a few times, Ananta spoke to the screen. "Send me two vans that fit about 4 bodies each. A clean up crew is also needed. Tell them that it was a huge murder spree, the suspect killed himself." she nodded at the screen and put the device away.
  
  "Once they're here and gone, we need to get back home. The twins are a handful and I'm sure the babysitter wants to get home and deal with her loss." she said.

 

• Death or rather dead Sting Ray
• Even more Confrontation

• 
  
  ​
  Through the more or less combined efforts of everyone, the sting ray made of darkness was defeated, leaving everyone alone at the very top of the castle. Aside from Zavion and Freya, no one else had said anything. Though the only thing that Zavion said was a word of congrats, Freya on the other hand had suggested that they group up with the others. It wasn't a bad idea since there was probably nothing else for them to do here, since they had gone all the way up to the top of the castle and all that was waiting for them were two guys, who quickly left moments before the fight had started, and a sting ray, which was now defeated and gone with the wind. "We might as well. I think we've seen everything that this castle has to offer."
• 
  
  ​
  Xross had just stood there and done nothing as another person had appeared and started to pick a fight with Dane. Counting the guy dead on the ground and Alisa, that was the fourth person to do that. The man sure knew how to attracted conflict, that was for certain. The white haired man sighed as another voice was heard, this one catching his interest. The man's words were clearly a threat for them, which was all the more reason to see the end result of this hero searching that they were doing. It had to be worth it if people were threatening them to stop."How bout option C, neither." Xross then begun to stretch his arms before proceeding to popping his neck. Other than the mass murder that he'd did prior to joining up with this group, he hadn't done much physical for a long time. Now would be a good time to see how well he does against someone actually trying to fight back.

 

• Ice with the Burn
• Jackie
• World that Never Was
• Phantom

• 
  Lucien had continued to read his book quietly and casually as he had been waiting. He didn't look up nor did his expression change when Gwen asked about the next part of the hero legend and then proceeded to take an attempt at Lucien's sex life or something of that nature. He wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to accomplish with that, and it only made him come to the conclusion that she had the mentality of a prepubescent teenage girl. Regardless, he answered her first question by saying "I more or less have this legend thing down. Just waiting for the others to get back so that it doesn't have to be explained twice. I have neither the time nor the patience for that. Mostly the patience." After that, he closed the book, put it on the table and picked up another one, trying to alleviate his boredom as they waited. However, with a monotone voice he simply retorted back at her "also Gingersnap, I know you're just asking to see if you can take a gander at it. After all, your panties seem to come flying off your body whenever you decide to talk to Nero or Sir DiesaLot over there, and yet you still haven't seemed to score at all. A tragedy, really."
  
• 
  
  
  Jackie had been listening intently as Ghost went on his whole story. With a look of awe on her face as he told her about his generational magic blade, his own self taught style of fighting and apparently his shadowy armor thing also being a gift from someone. She wondered what sort of dark or tragic backstory it all had, but decided not to pry as any good mystery would be revealed in time and having all the exposition from the get go left no sort of surprise for later on. And that was just a big no no. However, he seemed to need to excuse himself, probably to have some sort of sorrowful flashback given the history of both of his armaments, leaving Jackie with Anadi.
  
  Next was Anadi's story. Apparently she had absolutely no idea how she got the ability to make the magical sword lock pick appear. But apparently it ran in the family and also managed to skip a generation - er,- someone of them same generation. Interesting. It didn't really answer any of Jackie's question about the keyblade, but hey, you only knew what you knew. She then listened on and she was saddened when she heard about Anadi's world getting eaten up by heartless, something she only had heard old stories about. However that was quickly tossed to the side as she described her dark powers as something she just sort of knew how to do and was just getting the hang of it. Whatever it ended up being, Jackie still thought it was pretty cool.
  
  When it came to questions about herself, and Blanc, Jackie had cleared her throat before recounting how she came to be here. "Well you see, I am an adventurer of sorts, just sort of going from place to place looking for dungeons to crawl through, ancient treasures to find." She then presented the sheathed katana, Arondite. "This sword I got here was one such treasure thing I found awhile back. Anyway, the two of us had met when I was hurtling through the sky alongside some unconscious guy and Lucien over there ," when pointing to him he gave a two finger wave, "when we were coming here for the first time. We were probably gonna splat on the ground but Blanc just happened to be sitting outside and caught us with his gravity powers. So, I guess we've known each other for about, I dunno, an hour or so?" With that, Jackie proceeded to explain the whole hero thing to Anadi.
  
  "You see Anadi, we're getting this hero so he can fight against the goddess of the universe or some title similar to that. After all, she's apparently a corrupt and power hungry individual, or something to that affect." Jackie wasn't entirely too sure what the problem with the Goddess was. Really, she wasn't even 100% sure that they had a goddess who was supervising them prior to getting here...though that might have been part of the problem to begin with.
  
• 
  
  ​
  Having felled the dark construct of the goddess, Ein had nodded when Zavion had commended their good work. Despite her initial distrust of the three of them who seemed to be radiating with darkness, she couldn't deny that this outcome had been the product of working alongside them. There was also the keyblade wielder and the magic sword wielder who had assisted in the victory whose efforts were not unnoticed. As they had arrived back at the central platform of the castle's top, two team members had said something about how now was a good time to go and check up on the others. "Remember, our original goal was to search for the hero, not kill time getting to the top of the castle," Ein had said in protest. They had all seemed to forget that the top of the castle goal was originally just a means of acquiring a vantage point in which they could more efficiently search the city.
  
  "About that whole hero thing," Rinox had stood up from his comfortable position he had taken during the fight and continued, "I do believe you lot were searching for a cave, right? Well, as you can see," he motioned to the large cityscape before them, "you'll find that this is not the kind of place one would find a cave." A smile appeared on his face as he said, "not to mention I've visited this world frequently and found nothing of the sorts in any of my times here. So, then, I do believe it would be best to get on back now." With a flick of the wrist, a dark corridor had opened before the group. He bowed, with one hand gesturing to the portal. "Now then, after you all~" With that, Ein, with an annoyed look on her face being directed towards the man, begrudgingly walked through the dark corridor and back to the library in the castle.
  
• 
  
  
  Phantom wasn't exactly sure how to take what Sapphire had said. She wished that he stuck around and helped the stingray fight them, but at the same time didn't want to hurt them. But all the stingray was doing was shooting lasers at the people's feet. So was he supposed to just shoot bullets at their feet? Phantom was starting to think that Sapphire didn't really understand how power flaunting and intimidation tactics worked, but hey. She was the grand puba of his work so he wasn't exactly in a position to disagree with her methods. Though Avi had managed to make it back to the court so that was good news. Didn't need to have partner deaths on his track record, especially considering this was the only time he had ever really worked with someone who wasn't Ghost.
  
  Speaking of, the boss man himself had appeared to give his report on his own mission. Apparently the guy was going on some sort of covert espionage thing and acting as a member of the group to gather intel on them. Huh, Phantom had figured he would have just skipped to the faster option of killing all of them. However, it was then that Ghost gave him a mission. To tail a Bartholomew Blackstone. Someone who had apparently come from Halloween Town. Home of the scary and land of the gateway to other holiday themed worlds. If it was someone unsettling that Ghost requested help dealing with then this guy had to be some sort of trouble. With a slight salute and a "roger that boss," he slung his rifle over his shoulder, gave a wave to every occupant of the room, and walked off into the shadows, transporting himself across the worlds to this Blackstone's homeworld, a place where he was going to see what the locals could tell him about.
  

 

It seemed they were victorious in their efforts to defeat that...thing, whatever it was. Ohm brandished his sword, twirled it so he held it back hand style and skillfully sheathed it. He turned and walked back to his allies, his serious expression was quite cheerful, it wasn't too tough of a battle but victory was always sweet. The blonde in armor proposed that they keep looking for this hero and he nodded, agreeing. They still had a mission to complete. Their musings, however were interrupted by the man who lounged to the side while they had fought. He said that the hero could not be found here, and Ohm knew that better than anyone here. The man opened a dark portal and Ohm froze up, feeling that familiar chill down his spine, he did not like that feeling and this kind of magic was something that he was not particularly fond of. Ein entered the portal of her own accord so Ohm would do the same, giving a passing glare at the man he clearly did not trust. He entered the portal and came out into the library back at the castle. It looked like this trip was fruitless after all. "Haa..."He heaved out a heavy hearted sigh, looking around. It seemed like his sister was still not back quite yet, and honestly that worried him. If anything happened to Anadi, He swore that her allies and enemies alike would pay dearly for putting his sister in danger. He ground his teeth together, everything about him screamed anxious, he was so worried.​

 

• TWTNW
• Conflict in the castle
• Hunter

• 
  
  Juliet stood tall as the stingray dissolved into darkness, defeated by the combined efforts of everyone. She said nothing as people remarked on the victory and whether or not they should continue. "We should get out of here while we can. He's right, it doesn't look like the hero's here. Sapphire has the power of a goddess, I doubt that this creature was the most she could prepare, and I don't want to see what else she could have in store for us" Juliet said. She glanced quickly at Freya and Zavion. How did they feel doing this to their mother? Juliet herself could cope with fighting against Sapphire if it worked out in the end, but on some level they surely had to feel sorrow for doing such a thing to a creation of the woman that gave birth to them. Shrugging the thought off, the woman walked through the dark corridor that had been created, leaving the world and her doubts behind.
  
• 
  
  Gexln stepped forward after the responses. "You think you have numbers? You guys clearly don't know who you're dealing with. My name is Gexln Senka, I am a Nobody with the element of darkness. I've been walking through life for over 300 years, and in that time I've killed some of the strongest warriors you could possibly imagine, I have wielded the legendary X-blade, I have slain the beast known only as Chaos, and have managed to violate plenty of laws of the goddess herself without her so much as lifting a finger to stop me on her own world. Not only are you dealing with me, but I fight with a creature created from the goddess, sent to dispatch you all. A creature of ruin and destruction, created with the sole purpose of putting a stop to your rebellion" Gexln said, attempting to talk himself up. The more they were demoralised, the easier they would be to defeat. Given that he knew two of the people he was fighting, he knew that if he was to win, he would need every advantage he could get.
  
  "So, you're facing a god-slayer, and a representation of the goddess. You can send every one of you at me, you can send the rest of the rebellion assuming there are any more that would join such a worthless cause, but I'm not going to go down. I have a promise to keep, so you'll just have to die if you won't disband it yourself" the Wanderer of the dark stated, a grim tone of voice being used as the words left his mouth. Words would accomplish nothing, so speaking no more of them, Gexln dashed forwards. The one speaking of the numbers had too much confidence for Gexln's liking; that would have to be changed. With astounding speed, the Nobody was in front of him, dark firaga in his right hand being pushed towards his foe, whilst Darkness' Sorrow was being swung in his left, attempting to cut the man open through the stomach.
  
  The wolf, now deciding to go on the assault, lunged forward at Dane and Caleb, spinning around and attempting to use its large weight to slam into the two and cripple them.
• 
  
  Hunter chuckled at Lucien's response to Gwen. "Man, if desperation were a smell I ain't so sure people could breathe in here. You need to get some action Ginger, maybe you should go back to Bloodlust and hook up with the necrophiliac, he'd be a great partner for ya. He could make minions clean, he could make minions cater to your every whim, and he seemed dumb as **** so you could trick him into doin' things for ya. All it takes is for you to die, that wouldn't be too hard for a woman like you. Moment you step out of the kitchen everythin' goes to hell anyway" Hunter said far too casually, leaning against a wall as he awaited a response.